Sup, this is just the prologue to the actual story, yes it doesn't not fully follow the Halo Universe or Mass effect Universe, bear with me, its a fanfic. Yes this is part one but the reason I'm doing this is because I don't want to just announce some sort of technology and not explain how they developed it...at least not whit out putting it in a way you would actually enjoy to read it. Yes this uses elements from other syfy games but not too much.
I DON'T OWN ANYTHING! well I do own somethings, but I don't own the game franchises.
Admiral Hood was currently rubbing his wrinkled forehead as he blocked out the world around him. It has been seven years since the return of the Arbiter from the installation 00 or better known as the "Ark." Five days after the Arbiter's somewhat but safe return, a memorial was held. It was a simple one really, all they did was take a piece of the "Forward Onto Dawn" that made it back, printed a few words on it, and put it on a hill overlooking the gateway to the destroyed "Ark" along with a couple of pictures of the lost ones and a few flowers. A week after that, a building was erected with the Memorial inside in order to preserve it.
Reconstruction began, the economy was getting better at a very slow rate, glassed worlds were already being selected for future re-terra-formation projects, and peace seemed to be within ones grasp. But atlas, there was still a few complications, some even regarding the remnants of the once alien coalition known as the "Covenant." For the first two years, the Jiralhanae or "Brutes" as they were called during the war, employed guerilla tactics on both the Human ships and Sangheili ships, the Sangheili were better known as "Elites" during the war. In the second year, the Covenant's final hour, a battle took place and is known as "Heart of the Great Promise." A joint operation between both the U.N.S.C. and Sangheilian Army took place in the new heart of the Covenant Empire. The operation sounded simple enough, go in fast and hard and with one swift move remove whatever leadership the Covenant had.
Obviously, it was more complicated. Several adjustments and alterations had to be made while the operation was in progress. The covenant forces had great defenses, but they still managed to push through. But they didn't do it alone. As it turned out, there was a rebellion within the Covenant. With help, they got to the leadership within three days. But instead of killing the leader, which turned out to be another "Prophet," a San 'Shyuum known as the "Prophet of Ascension," they made the leader admit on all channels and frequencies that the great journey, that their ascension, was a lie.
Morality broke down, all the fighting had stopped within a few days, and the enemy surrendered. After that, all species had returned to their home worlds. Sure some remnants still remain, but it was only a mere fraction of the Covenant's original power with no support from a nation. Some of the other remnants actually banded into mercenaries and pirates. But it was mostly peaceful for the next five years. After one year of silence, communications and trade began.
The Yanme'es were, surprisingly, the first to contact Humans for potential trade and assistance. The Yanme'e are a race of sentient insect-like life forms that work in a form of Monarchy as well as a matrilineality type of governing. Like bees and ants, the Yanme'e have queen that gives birth to them and they serve the queen and tend to her every needs. The queen is, put bluntly, large, so large she can barely move, yet the queen is the ruling power on their world. But there is not just one queen but many and all the queens serve the high queen, their mother/grandmother whose words are law. The "Drones", for lack of better words, are inferior compared to the queen, but unlike drones of our bees, they have a mind and free will of their own, meaning they choose to serve the queen of their own free will. Of course this was all known during war from reconnaissance and intelligence gathering mission done by O.N.I., an abbreviation for the Office of Naval Intelligence.
When Human ambassadors traveled to the Yanme'e home world with U.N.S.C. military escorts to discuss possible trade and assistance, they were shocked to find that the Yanme'e ambassador was not one of the High Queen's minor queen but a "Princess." It turns out that for half a year, queens have been trying to create or "birth" a new bug, something above a drone but below a queen. Their solution: a queen with the purpose of not giving birth but of fighting and diplomacy and can still give birth if needed to replace a queen. The princess are basically the Yanme'e version of a Spartan (an augmented human super soldier), speed three times the norm of an Unggoy, senses of a Kig-Yar, strength that could match a Jiralhanae, cunning like a Sangheili, and the will of a Human. After the Yanme'e, the San 'Shyuum were the second to contact the humans.
The San 'Shyuum, once the religious leaders of the "Covenant," contacted humans for possible assistance in colonizing a world they found. After the war, the San 'Shyuum were reduced to a nomadic race confined to their ships since they had long lost their home world and their replacement home, a ginormous spaceship named "High Charity." At first there were many arguments as to why they should refuse assistance, the main reason being that they were the ones who ordered the genocide of the human race. But after a tempting offer to trade Forerunner technology as well as any information they were able to save from High Charity before they were forced to abandon it, well they still refused but it caught their ears. It was access to a rare mineral they use and how to mine and refine it that finally won them over. This mineral, apparently, is the thing that enables the covenant to create artificial gravity, a piece of equipment known as a "Grave Lift", and the Jiralhanae's favorite weapon the "Gravity Hammer" as well as their hover vehicles. And they also knew how to program the stations they created to construct more covenant ships for the Sangheili.
The Sangheili were the third to contact humans though they did so as a mediator for both the Unggoys, known as "Grunts" during the war, and the Lekgolo, more commonly known as "Hunters" during the war in their joined form that is known as "Mgalekgolo." The Unggoys are a small race of bipedal verberates that were once unified under the Covenant after their world was damaged by a self caused ecological disaster. The Lekgolo were once attacked by the Covenant for eating Forerunner artifacts, they are capable of eating just about anything including nonlethal waste. They have unique ability to combine into one sole body, apparently their body can act the same way synapses do.
The Unggoys already have help and support from the Sangheilis because they farm their worlds and do the dirty jobs; the Lekgolo are pretty much OK by themselves seeing as how they can control ship and can therefore collect wreckage from destroyed ships and ship it to their worlds and consume them. But both races are in a dilemma. The Unggoys were introduce to a narcotic gas by the Covenant and they enjoyed it, they overindulged themselves into the gas to the point where their race literally can't live without them. The Lekgolo are still pretty much a basic race, meaning their level of technology is around Tire 7. Due to their forced service into the covenant, the prophets made it law not to share any information regarding how technology works to their kind out of fear that they may revolt against them. So they only know how to operate the technology, but not how it works in order to reproduce it or how to collect the sources needed to repair the ships already in their possession.
The Unggoys aren't exactly desperate, the unggoys have a tendency to somewhat think a head, so before the Covenant's factories that produced the gas were destroyed, the Unggoys manged to stockpile a large amount of gas, enough that's worth a planet. So right now their race are living on reserves that would probably last them for about year and half, human time, if their lucky. Sure they can build factories capable of reproducing the gas, but without the recipe it would be pointless, they had already checked all the other races, minus the San 'Shyuum, and none of them have the recipe. It would take maybe three years before any of the races could even say that they found a substitute to the gas. And the Unggoys would rather die than to ask the San 'Shyuum, or at least use it as a last resort.
So the Unggoy's hope is that Humans can reproduce the gas or make a substitute before their reserves runout if not create some sort of cure to free them off the gas forever. So in return, the Unggoys will provide some weapons to research and man power to farm their crops and animals. Of course humans accepted, but they asked the San 'Shyuum for the recipe in exchange for additional support, and they accepted. But humans are still looking for ways to refine the gas to the point where they can gradually decrease the effects of the gas on the Unggoys.
The Lekgolo's request was pretty basic, knowledge in exchange for whatever they wanted. Humans can have a ship in their possession to reverse-engineer or even Lekgolo to study and dissect so long as they pass on the information to the lekgolo. The lekgolos are pretty fast learners. In fact, when Lekgolos combine together to form a Mgalekgolo, the collective memory is shared, and when they divide into individuals they still retain the memory, but only for a short amount of time. Their skill of taking in and sharing information is great, but unfortunately one of their weakness is that they have to keep on sharing or passing the information because the information will eventually degrade and erode away. That is also something they wanted from humans, not that they don't mind the constant sharing, it actually strengthen their bond with each other, but they needed an easier way to share and place to store their memories; so they want humans to increase their memory span and/or create some sort of repository where they can insert their knowledge and simply download on demand.
Though it seemed like a fair trade, it still wasn't enough to convince the humans to invest their efforts and resources into helping them. But the Lekgolo are willing to go to any lengths for their needs and therefore added another thing to the "Whatever you want" list. There really isn't a clear limit as to how large a Mgalekgolo can be, the largest ones recorded are the Scarab Tanks the Covenant employed, these giant monstrosities were almost completely made of and piloted by the Mgalekgolo while the weapons were powered by Covenant generators. The Lekgolo reaction speed by itself is ordinary compared to a human, but Mgalekgolo's reaction can put even the most advanced AI to shame. So the Lekgolo agreed to use their unique abilities to become living factories and create whatever humans desired and perform other functions like becoming soldiers or city streetlight network, anything they wanted. The Humans, though hesitant, agreed.
The Kig-Yar, known as "Jackals" and "Skirmishers" during the war were hired as mercenaries, are a race of space faring avian/reptiles that contacted the Humans during the negotiations with the Lekgolo. The Kig-Yar were the Covenants marksmen and sniper as well as skirmishers, but a few clans actually lived close with humans. At first when the Kig-Yar entered into human controlled space, all UNSC and Sangheili frigates around the colony planet, where talks were being done, were ready to fire and destroy all of their ships. And just when they were about to fire a human female voice opened up on all channels telling them not to fire. It turned out that it was the rebel faction of Kig-Yar and a few clans that lived with humans that entered space. They told of civil war, that ONI was already aware of, between the Jiralhanae and their scattered clans were in the same position. Each Kig-Yar clan wanted power and would slaughtering their kind to get it, they even started supplying a Jiralhanae faction with bodies of their dead foe to feed them in exchange for weapons.
The clans were divided into many factions, and honestly, there were too many to even count. Some factions were even only a single clan of ten people, ten. The factions that came to Human controlled space were all the factions that helped the UNSC and Sangheili during the Covenant's final battle and ones that didn't mind living with humans. They received full refugee status and were given an uninhabited planet that was selected for future development...meaning people who were planning on colonizing it were pissed that all that time was wasted.
Kig-Yar still have a few grudges against, all races, Unggoys and Humans in particular, but they really hate San 'Shyuum. The refugees though, which consisted of 112 factions, don't really hate all races that much, but they still have some animosity. But hey, what can you do after you flipped their whole world upside down? They also warned of another set of refugees coming, but it's not more Kig-Yar, it was Humans and Jiralhanae.
After the full fall of the Covenant, the Jiralhanae was reduced to a bunch of tribes and clans that began allying with each other in order to gain power. It was a three way war, three factions all wanting power for three different goals. The first faction, the Jibajawa confederation wanted nothing more than survival of the fittest, to impose harsh conditions and brutal training to create the greatest bloodthirsty motherfucker, in human terms, to take over the galaxy under the rule of the Jibajawa clan. A big goal that seems too far out of reach for any race, but the Jibajawa is the largest faction that's three times the size of the other factions combined, so it might be possible, might be. And they are the most brutal faction of them all.
The second faction is Jiralhanae United, the original rebel faction that helped bring down the Covenant. Their goal is the survival of the Jiralhanae, plain and simple. After an individual was captured by ONI operatives and escaped after killing said operatives, his eyes were opened and he knew what must be done. If the Jiralhanae were to survive, to surpass their meager existence of a war-like race and become as powerful as the Forerunners they once worshiped, they had to evolve. They had to adapt their mentality of a blood thirsty beast, they had to shed their old ways and look towards the path of knowledge. In short, he began using his head; he knew humans were strong because they were smart and created tactics that allowed them to survive as well as create new technologies. Sangheilis created weapons even more powerful than his own, the San 'Shyuum had power because they were smart. So he needed thinkers among his race and their race needed allies in their galaxy to become something close the Forerunners, to enjoy the "Peace" that humans talked so fondly of. When he got back to his fellow kind, he shed his old name and took on a name he learned from the ONI operatives, Che.
The third faction was, well, an odd one considering how the Jiralhanae are like. Instead of galactic domination or intellectual evolution and peace, they sought personal gain: Alcohol, food, sexual pleasure, valuable minerals, nothing new. But they were all thinkers in the sense of criminals. They hijacked vessels and traded the goods to an opposing faction and then steal those faction's goods and sold the goods to the other faction. They even go as far as to mine and booby-trap an entire battle field where the two opposing factions fight and then scavenge. They even hijacked Sangheili ships and sold it to the highest bidder, much to the annoyance of the two factions and the Sangheili. Despite all this, the weird thing is, despite both factions fight for dominance, the Lucian Alliance are the ones who fuel the flames of war, almost as if they want the war to last for a long time. In normal terms of thinking, this wouldn't make much sense, but if you think about it in the terms of profit, they'll make a real killing.
It turnsout that the Jibajawa Confederation was winning and Jiralhanae United was at the end of their ropes and recently the Lucian Alliance stopped selling to them. So they did only thing they could do, they abandoned their planet in their home system which surprisingly have two planets in the goldilocks zone. But even though they left, for some reason, the Jibjawa sent at least half of their army to the other world, the main base of operations of Jiralhanae United and then next thing they know, the planet is no longer there. A week later when the humans who volunteered help the rebel Jiralhanae faction were finishing relocating them, ONI fessed up, much to the surprise of, well, everyone, one of their "Private" cargo ship carrying a NOVA bomb was "Stolen" by group of Jiralhanae. With at least of half the Jibajawa forces destroyed along with the best ships and weapons, the balance of power was leveled. Best guess, the L. A. saw that the J.U. was losing and that if they lost, the Jibajawa would more than likely start a war with the other races; so being in the middle of an intergalactic war would be a risky business. So they came up with plan and executed it, that itself is a scary thought; for a Jiralhanae faction to not only come up with a very complex plan but to also possibly be able to steal something from ONI...well, it's damn impressive! Realistically, ONI probably pointed out how much more dangerous another galactic war would be and gave them a NOVA bomb and then reported it stolen.
So now the J.U. has set up another planet for a base of operations, right next to border of their old system and are currently regathering their strength for what might be their next onslaught on the Jibjawa Confederation. According to ONI, the Jibajawa are now down to one-third of their forces due to a short one-sided civil war which the Jibajawa won and are now forcibly "repopulating." So for right now, both sides are sabotaging each other by any means necessary. These possible means are: Hijacking cargo ships (destination didn't matter), attacking with a small squad, sending useless ships on collision course to the planet and hope it does something, ECT. This went on for about another year before both sides decided to call a cease fire.
For the next three years, every species were living their happy lives in peace...or what counted for it. Everyone went about their own business, the Yanme'e, Sangheili, and San 'Shyuum began trading their produce to human for their produce, Unggoys began trading raw materials to the Lekgolo for escorts for their Kig-Yar transport vessels from covenant or Insurrectionist. It turns out that the Kig-Yar are expert navigators and ship-men, their actually faster than normal human cargo ships and it's not because of a ship advantage, their so good that even some human corporations hired them. The Jiralhanae are still settling in on their new planet and they began working on a project, one which has ONI frustrated because all they've been able to gather is that it involves a rare mineral sample acquired from their home-world. Rumor has it that the Lucian Alliance had expanded from making deals with the Jiralhanae and began making deals with other species.
Two weeks ago, on a human controlled world with Sangheili presence and UNSC and Sangheilian ships and soldier protecting it, the Insurrectionist restarted their bombings. And this time when the insurrectionist returned, they returned with vengeance and violence; 1034 humans and 343 Sangheili lives were taken that day. In the Sangheili capital, a rebel faction that opposes the current government and their decision to ally themselves with humans, blew a few buildings and ran away calling themselves Storm Troopers along with some Unggoys, Yanme'e, and Lekgolo and are gaining strength and massing at an unknown location. Somehow, the Jibajawa decided to make a move by leaving their world. Sure, they left guards to protect the planet, but the main military force is hiding somewhere else.
All of these problems have everyone concerned. So right now, on an Orbital Defense platform orbiting the glassed planet, Reach, was a meeting in session with all the races concerning recent events. There are both a representative and military general for every race in the meeting room attempting to come to some form of a solution. And running for two hours now, none has been made.
"I'm telling you we need to send scouts everywhere!" Said the Jiralhanae representative and military leader, Che, and his assistant, some name Hood can't pronounce.
"And I'm telling you" Admiral Hood began as he continued to rub his forehead "We can't do that. The resources and man power required isn't within our current budget and even if it was, I still wouldn't authorize it." Che growled in response to Hood's response.
"I second that" said the Sangheili representative, the Arbiter, Thel Vadam, and his Imperial Admiral, Rtas Vadum. "To spread our forces to search for the Jibajawa Confederation and the 'Storm Troopers' would not be the best course of action."
"Best course of action! It is the only the course to take if we want to find them!"
"With all due respect, Che" Intruded the Yanme'e representative, a princess named Na'fash IV. And she spoke in calm fashion but her voice displayed both power and superiority. "If you take time to look at things from both the Admiral and the Arbiter's point of view, you'd realize two things. One, sending a large fleet in every possible hiding spot or suspicious space would spread forces too thin and we might send perfect warriors to their deaths. Two, sending well fortified fleets to recon small areas at a time would be both costly and time consuming. Also, if the enemy has their own recon ships, they could easily lead us into an ambush or in the wrong direction."
"A heroic risk!"
"A pointless one" Said the female Kig-Yar representative Chu'R Bli "As ambassador Na'fash stated, both actions present a problem."
"So what we just leave them be until they attack?"
"Yes!" she replied bluntly.
"We do as the Admiral suggested and just add extra protection to our planets and wait for them to strike" responded the San 'Shyuum representative and current leader, Prophet of Reconciliation.
"He's right" responded the Human representative Parker Dixon "We rethink our defense and respond to each other's cry of help. Sometimes you just have to play the waiting game. But I'm not just suggesting we do this, I suggest we mark this up as possible solution" Everyone looked at each other before they came to nod of agreement, then they all looked at Che. He grumbled before he caved in.
"Par-don. My. Inter-ven-tion" said the computer synthesized voice of the Lekgolo representative. The voice was an old voice synthesizer that is actually the same kind Stephen Hawkings used to use. The Lekgolo have learned a lot from the humans and as a result, created a robotic body to house them, but humans supplied the voice synthesizer. The robot itself looked like a grayish-purple iron man, only huskier. "But. I. Be-lieve. That. Un-ggoy. Re-pre-sen-ta-tive. Tac-tac. Has. Some. Thing. To. Say."
Tactac was the Unggoy representative for his people, his aid is the chief of Unggoy military operations, Jarjar. Tactac was actually part of the Unggoy family responsible for stashing the narcotic gas his race is now bound to. At the moment though he seemed a little nervous, which was odd, he was also the one who made the deal with the Humans and he was anything but your typical scared Unggoy. "Um...yes. Admiral Hood, I don't know if you are at liberty to say anything about the UNSC's Intelligence division" he means ONI. "But, can you tell me if they have done anything to cripple the Jibajawa before the vanished, like: destroying weapon caches?"
Hood inhaled sharply and said "No, I'm not exactly at liberty to say as to what ONI's exact operations are, but I can ensure everyone in this room that ONI has done everything they can."
"I-I see...Arbiter, are you at liberty to say?"
Thel nodded "I am, and yes. We have done things like destroying weapons caches."
"But they somehow keep getting more and more" Rtas said.
"Pro-ba-bly. From. The. Lu-cian. Al-li-ance" said the Lekgolo representative.
"O...OK. If I may push my luck a little further, may I ask one more question?" Asked Tactac. The Arbiter nodded. "Um, on your latest mission, did any of your warriors noticed their weapons, like, were they new models or old ones."
"Yes" said Rtas answered for the Arbiter "Their weapons were outdated for years."
"Oh boy, this is bad" everyone heard the Unggoy mumble.
Parker spared a brief look to Hood before he directed his attention to the Unggoy representative "Alright ambassador Tactac, quit beating around the bush and tell us what all this is about!"
Tactac jumped a bit before he replied "Oh…um...I believe I...know" he was very hesitant to answer "Where the weapons are coming from." He then seemed to shrink back as he witness the entire room's eyes on him.
"Well?" Inquire the Yanme'e representative.
"The weapons came from us. You see, narcotic gas wasn't the only thing my people stored. Since the very beginning of my kind's service in the old Covenant, we began to store weapons in areas that were relatively close to Unggoy space. Of course it was only extra weapons that were produced by factories, ones that were damaged but could easily be salvaged and fixed, we even collected weapons from the dead. Not the most ethic way, but it was there and-"
"SHUT UP!" yelled Che and, quite frankly, it made everyone jump. "Tell us, exactly how much weapons have you stored?"
"...about a hundred weapons caches...with each cache containing 50 to 80 weapons of all kinds."
"Well that's not so-" began the Kig-yar representative before the Unggoy interrupted.
"-Per planet..." Everyone looked at each other before they refocused on the Unggoy.
"...Exactly how ma-?"
"-Six planets. And three of them have been picked clean without our knowledge."
"So" began Admiral Hood "What you're telling me is that the Unggoy stashed a lot of weapons and they lost about half of their stash."
"Um...yeah that's about right."
"...Any reason as to why you left the weapons hidden instead of collecting them after you collected the narcotic gas" asked Na'fash.
"Actually we were collecting them a few weeks ago when we found out; we still are with Lekgolo protection. Early on we were busy trying to settle our people down. You see, we were governed by the old Prophets of the Covenant. So it took time to find a viable way to distribute the gas among my people as well as to structure our government!" It was true, if they just distributed the gas in a regular way, it would all be depleted within five months. So instead they sold the gas in different dosages and mixtures until more of the gas could be produce. When it finally was possible to manufacture the gas in large refined quantities, the manufacturers decided to still sell the gas, only cheaper. Hey, they had to, metaphorically, put bread on the table. "It was only until recently when we finally got some solutions for our problems and recent events that we finally got workers to retrieve the weapons."
"Let me guess" began Kig-Yar aid "You were going to use those weapons to arm your people and or use as a bargaining chip." It sounded like a question but everyone knew how the Kig-Yar aren't exactly buddy-buddy with the Unggoy. So in all likelihood, it was more of a statement.
"Why of course. My people may have served in the Covenant Military, but compared to the humans, the Sangheili, Yanme'e, Lekgolo, Jiralhanae, and even the Kig-Yar; my people are not as strong as any of your warriors. Sure, we do well in groups, but what can group of us do against a group of hardened killers?"
"Look, ambassador Tactac, we're not questioning your motive. A...'man' in your position would probably do the same thing" Tactac gave a grateful nod. "But, we still have a problem. Whoever stole the weapons your people stashed still has quite a stock pile. And I'm sure that the Jibajawa Confederation isn't the only group buying the weapons."
"The. Storm. Troo-pers" stated the Lekgolo representative. "Have. Your. Peo-ple. Fou-nd. Any. E-vi-dense. That. Could. Lead. To. The. Cul-prits?"
"None I'm afraid. But there is one thing about all this that concerns me. You see, finding one of our weapons caches, that just being lucky, finding less than ten, that's skill. But picking three planets clean? That's impossible! And I'm not underestimating any of your Intelligence divisions, believe me, I know how good they are. But you would have to be someone with extensive knowledge of my kind's history to know how we hid the caches in the first place! Not to mention getting them. We uh, we rigged every cache with explosive or some other destructive mean. And if it really is the Lucian Alliance that has the weapons, then it makes me wonder if it really is just a Jiralhanae organization."
Now this got everyone thinking. If some of the Unggoys really were part of the Lucian Alliance, then what other race is a part of it?
"Alright ladies and gentlemen," began Parker as everyone focused on him "We have been at this for a few hours now. I'd say a little recess is in order. We'll take break and reconvene in one hour, if that's alright with all of you." And it was. Everyone began leaving the conference room they were in. Something Parker never really focused on. Usually his keen blue eyes would take in his surroundings, but he was too tense to even know that the table they've been using was made of mahogany. He sighed as he ran his hands through his aged blonde hair.
"Not that I didn't want a break" said Hood to Parker "But we're usually here for a lot longer than a few hours before we take a break."
"Admiral Hood, you could see it, couldn't you?" Responded Parker "They were tense, none of them were clearly used to this. I swear that if we stayed here for one more hour I think someone might have been killed." Hood just nodded. "Well come on, the good thing about recess is that you can commute." The conference room was in the center of the Orbital Defense Platform. So when he left out of the room and into the hallway, it was just metal walls and no windows. After a few minutes of walking, he finally made it to a room with windows. While windows are considered as form of structural weakness in space during an attack, but hey, if it gets shot, window or not, it wouldn't really matter would it? He spotted the Prophet of Reconciliation staring out the window and into the void of space. He saw that Hood went to go talk to the Arbiter and decided that while he was busy with the Sangheili, he might as well talk with the San 'Shyuum.
As he got close to the Prophet, said person spoke "Such a vast mystery. Isn't?" He then turned his head to meet Parker's eyes. "Full of both fortune and misfortune." Parker couldn't help but nod.
"Space is vast place. There's no telling what's out there. Could be a new friend or a new enemy, it might even be the greatest scientific breakthrough in our current history or the greatest threat ever discovered." The prophet just nodded as he continued to stare out into space. "Can I ask you something?" The prophet nodded. "Why call yourself a Prophet? I mean no disrespect but-" The prophet brought a hand up.
"I understand. The reason is quite simple...I was the leader of the rebellion that went against the remanents of the Covenants, along with Che."
"You were? How come you never said anything like this during the negotia-"
"-Because there was no need to. I fought for my people's future, not your kind's future or the others, there for; I had no right to bring that up."
"I see."
The Prophet gave a brief nod "After the fall of the Covenant, I became the leader of my people. And then I called myself a prophet because it's the truth. What am I if not another prophet selling hope to the masses?"
"I guess that makes sense, but that can't be all to it, right?"
The prophet nodded once more "Change. A lot has changed for my people in the last few decades compared to centuries of our rule in the Covenant. To quickly change everything entirely would be a grave mistake."
Parker sighed "Change can be a hard thing to handle" he admitted. "But I have to ask. What changed your view about the Covenant?"
The prophet seemed like he wanted to snicker "My research. Believe it or not, my people are fascinated by other things besides the Forerunners. I myself have spent a life time studying plants."
"Plants?" Parker asked with smile as he suppressed laughter from breaking out.
"Yes. I was mostly fascinated by the Kig-Yar's Ladricon. It's a rare flower that only grows in areas with traces of the rare mineral we use. I believe you call it, Element Zero. I don't know what the exact relations are, but the plant glows in the presence of that mineral."
"Huh, glowing plants, I think I read a report on it, fascinating stuff. The mitochondria in the flower are somehow mutated. It's because of that the flower absorbs the radiation Element Zero leaves behind. This in terms causes a chemical reaction within the plant through some unknown process which causes the chloroform in the plant to glow."
"More or less" replied the prophet. "As I was saying, the Ladricon fascinated me to such an extant that I began searching for them despite the war, and one led me to a ruin that I could only guess was Forerunner in origin. With the support of the old prophets of the Covenant, I was sent with a team to study it. As I predicted, it was a forerunner temple. But unlike the rest of the temples, this one was barren of any form of technology. All that was left were pictures carved into the walls. It was vague, but it was enough to allow for some form of interpretation. From my understanding, it displayed humans as some sort of inheritors of the Forerunners. When I showed my findings to the Prophets, they threaten me with a life of imprisonment for spouting such nonsense. That's when I knew something was wrong. I had to dig into our history, as far as I could, just to find any reference to your kind. And all I found was a reference to a tablet that had been destroyed 3 years after my kind met the Sangheili. It was at that moment that I realized that the Prophets weren't delusional or fools, but rather, victims of our past greed. My kind was trapped in a web of illusion forged by our ancestors. And rebelling was the only way I could think of that could lead my people to freedom from our past thirst for power."
"That must have been tough choice" Parker said. "It's one thing to say that what your doing is for your people, it's another to turn on them."
The prophet nodded. "If I may make an inquiry, is it not the same with these... 'Insurrectionist'?"
"It is" Parker admitted before he sighed. "There is no right or wrong in our conflict. We both have just goals. But we do have different views and means to achieve that goal. The people who fight truly believe in their cause, and I admire them for it. But their leader; I'm afraid he only wants power."
"So he does. And so do many souls" said the Prophet, to which Parker nodded. They both stood there and watched the stars before they were forced to return to the meeting room.
[Unknown Space Near a Neutral Interracial Trading Asteroid.]
"Damn it Swann, I want power!" A man said through his radio as he walked the halls of an old UNSC Stalwart class frigate named the "Deus Ex Machina" with a flashlight. Right now the power generator on the ship was off because some of the parts were already beyond the point of being called a "somewhat-usable" part. Sure, back-up generators are online, but their only powering the important systems, like life support, gravity generator, back up lights in the hydroponics lab...ECT.
"Look Cowboy," came a voice at the other end of the radio, "Unless you know some other way to hook this puppy up without causing the generator to overload and blow up, I'm all ears. Besides, this thing is practically a piece of junk! We were lucky enough to find a few items at the market to even make this piece usable again."
"Just get ma' damn ship movin', over" he said with sigh.
"No worry, a few more minutes, and she'll be up and adams, over."
He blew another sigh "It was a few more minutes an hour ago and the hour before that" he muttered. He then stroked his circle beard while he debated on where to go. He could go to the ship's makeshift Cantina and get a drink, or he could go to the makeshift lab and make sure the ship isn't put in mortal danger...again. And so far the drink was sounding very tempting. Then he heard footsteps accompanied by a few whines.
"I told you to memorize it!" Came a high pitched voice.
"I did, but its dark in here, I mean seriously, no back up lights. What kind of person has space ship and no back up lights" came another voice.
He already knew who it was. He turned the corner and said "I ask myself the same question" as he pointed his flashlight at two of his Unggoy crew carrying a big case.
"Oh, Shipmaster Raynor!"
"We meant no offence by what we said. It's just so dark in here" explained the first Unggoy voice who happened to be the one carrying the case from the back.
"No need, I've been meaning to have these emergency lights replaced. But you two know how it is with money, right?"
"Why yes, of course Shipmaster!"
"Kiss ass" said the Unggoy in the front.
"So where you boys heading?"
"The generator room, Swann asked for this stuff."
"Oh, down this hall" he said as he pointed into the dark corridor he came from "And then turn left. Somehow that elevator still works."
"Thanks shipmaster Raynor" said the Unggoys in unison as they left. Yep that was him. Commander Jim Raynor of the Deus Ex Machina, ex-Marshal, ex-Insurrectionist, and one of the most wanted man in their little corner of the galaxy. He has brown eyes, jet black hair, and a circular beard.
"A drink it is" he said as he began walking down the hallway that leads to the makeshift cantina.
"This is Matt Horner calling Commander Raynor" suddenly came from his radio.
"It's me" he spoke into the radio "Go ahead Matt."
"Uh, how close are you to Stetmann's lab?"
Jim sighed as he stopped dead in his tracks "Is it really that urgent?"
"Well...I'd feel a lot better knowing that you're at least doing something about keeping the ship from being destroyed."
"Fine, I get! I'm on my way" he said as he turned around and started jogging to the ship's makeshift lab. The Ships original laboratory wasn't very big to begin with and the fact that they had no scientist or someone with scientific expertise, and a lot of wounded soldiers; Jim had decided to join the lab with the ships infirmary. The good news was that there was more space to work with. But when they finally got a scientist, they had no lab. So they had to make due with a makeshift lab. When he got there the power came back on. Jim pulled out his radio and said "About damn time, Swann."
"Don't thank me just yet; we still have to run a full diagnostic on the Translight engine. We don't want another Slip Space accident, do we?"
"Then get to it." Jim just stared at the door before he said "You gonna help, Raya?" He slowly turned his head to look at the Sangheili named Raya Vadumee who was leaning against the wall in a jimmied armor playing around with a kukri in his robotic hand. The "Deus" used to be a humans only ship, but after some of the races left the Covenant, Jim understood their value to the ship. And he also understood the valuable research they brought along with them. So he has humans, Sangheili, Unggoys, Kig-yar, a few Jiralhanae, a pair of Mgalekgolo brothers, and a San 'Shyuum aboard his ship. Sure there are some difficulties due to history, but they somehow managed to at least get along just enough to work together.
"Maybe" was his reply. There are plenty of good armor onboard, but Raya refuses to use them on the excuse that their supply was limited. So instead, he uses the armor of his victims to fix his armor, it left his armor in a weird way that fit him quite nicely. He had Ranger helmet, which Stetmann upgraded with some software used in the spartan armor (don't ask how he got it), he had the Ultra variant's left shoulder pad and a Commando variant's right shoulder pad, and lastly he had the Flight variant chest plate. At first it was myriad of colors before he had Swann paint it grayish-black. Sure, anyone could believe his reasons, but Jim knew that his armor was like trophy to him, both in a way of good kills and a way to express himself. "If it's a good fight."
Jim just nodded before his pressed the button to open the door.
"OK just let me ask you this? Are you senile!" came the voice of one the most troubling person onboard the ship. Jim entered the room to see man in his early twenties arguing with a female San 'Shyuum.
"Senile? How does any of this make me senile!"
"Alright, knock it off you two!" Jim yelled which caught both their attention. They both stopped and looked at him. "Good. Now, Stetmann, Jenta, what the hell are you two fightin' over this time!" Jenta is a female San 'Shyuum who came to him in a hijacked phantom offering her skills as scholar in her field of expertise, which happened to be slip space. And this was before the the fall of Reach. Sure, at first they were skeptical, but if she was telling the truth, than her skill would be invaluable. That's when they found out that not all San 'Shyuum cared about their religion. She explained that her kind aren't exactly, "outside of the Forerunner box" thinkers, and by joining them she is free to explore her interest in life.
"We were having an argument about the possibility of an alternate form of viable FTL travel existing, ship master Raynor" explained Jenta.
"And I for one highly doubt it. I mean, think about it. If the Forerunners, beings more intelligent than us and I mean way intelligent, left no mentions of any other viable form FTL besides Slip Space. What does that say to you?"
"That they forgot to mention it?" Jim suggested to which Raya just shrugged as he started to sharpen his Kukri using the part of the armor the covered his left forearm.
"That there is no other viable form of FTL!"
"Or maybe they have never, as you humans say, thought outside the box" argued Jenta.
"She's right, or maybe the Forerunners did find another means of FTL but thought it was slower compared to Slip Space. I mean you never know. After all, these guys died out billions of years ago."
"What! So now you're taking her side" complained Stetmann.
"No, I'm Switzbergia, completely neutral. But I'm just pointing stuff out. Now both of you, quit bickerin' before you put the ship in mortal danger...again!"
"Oh come on, it was one time. So what if underestimated how fast the plants would grow? But we are now growing produce at a faster rate!"
"Don't forget the time when your little 'upgrade' messed up the 'Deus' CPU and caused us to go into Covenant space" stated Jenta.
"Uh, right, but the targeting computers are now working at a much faster rate, right?"
"What about the plasma explosion accident when you tried to combine plasma grenade with your human grenade, it destroyed a fighter and damaged another, and left three workers incapacitated for months" asked Raya.
"But we now have missiles that are even stronger than the conventional UNSC Archer missiles and we are now able to produce plasma torpedoes, even though its weaker compared to the Sangheili's, but it's cheaper and faster."
"What about the time when one your old contacts told you about a covenant shield generator being sold on the black market and caused as to have a little run in with the spooks from ONI" asked Jim.
"OK, so we lost a lot of good soldiers, but the 'Deus' now has shields that are slightly better than the ones the UNSC are currently fielding, not to mention, better stealth capabilities."
" Alright, but lets not forget the time when your little 'research' expedition sent us to a ruin full of those...things" said Jim as shivered, Raya just shrugged and sheathed his Kukri and went to lean on the wall next to a big glass container filled with some sort of liquid and a sort of redish but mostly gray skin growing.
"Ah! But we got that Necromorph sample" Stetmann pointed at the red skin in the giant glass container. Jim turned to look and walked towards it.
"Now let me stop you right there, I thought we agreed to call them the Zerg-wait... Stetmann, this thing was the size of a pea when we collected it...is-is this thing...alive" he said drawing his gun out.
Stetmann immediately rushed to put himself between the sample and his gun wielding leader. "Ah, yes, it is! Now before you do something stupid, like say shoot it, let me just say-"
"Stupid? As if leavin' that thing alive ain't stupid at all!"
"Well it's not! I mean, think of the good thing that came out of it!"
"What good thing" asked Raya. "The only thing the parasite did was take over bodies and used them against us" he said nonchalantly, "Not that I didn't like the challenge."
"Well there's that syringe your warriors started carrying" Jenta said as she went back to her files.
"Wait" he then pulled out a cylinder that was attached to his belt. "You got this from that" he pointed at the sample.
"Um, yeah, you see, despite the fact that the specimen is dead; some of its cells however, can remain alive for a long period of time. Given the right condition, like being in a tank with a protein solution or surrounded by blood, the cell can reproduce and cannibalize itself. I also found that these cells,heal their host's body before they mutate it for their own needs and purposes. After that, both Jenta and I came up with a way to apply this for medical purposes. What we did was, we took a cell and waited for it to die before we placed it in a syringe with a few chemicals that triggered the cell's ability to heal its Host. That's part of the reason why we insisted on doing checkups after every use of the syringe."
"And exactly when were you going to tell me all this?"
"I just told you right now, didn't I?" Then Jim cocked his pistol and took aim for the sample "Whoa! Wait! Wait! WAIT! That syringe was the tip of the iceberg! Imagine what else we could learn from this sample!"
"Alright fine!" he yelled as he turned the safety on and put the gun away. "But the minute I get a good reason, I'm sendin' someone to put an incendiary grenade on that thing along with a plasma one."
"Thank you! Thanks a lot sir! I promise that Jenta, the sample, and I won't let you down, sir. Honest." Jim turned to look at Jenta who was staring at him and nodded.
Jim couldn't help but feel sorry, just when everyone was getting past their differences; it was all going to come to an end soon. "Thanks, it means' a lot guys, it really does. But you do know where we're headin' right? And you do realize what I'm going to do, right?"
Stetmann darted his eyes for a moment before he in hailed deeply. "I know sir, but I have faith in you. That day you found me on that port, I swear I thought I was going to be a goner. But you saved my life," he brought his hands up, "Gave me this storage room to use as a lab, and you actually went out of your way to get me stuff to research. Sir, you've done a lot for me, so much that I don't even think I can ever repay you for, ah sentimental wise. If I ever get a good role as a scientist that pays a lot, I could repay you money wise. But that's not the point! I mean, right now at the very least, I can follow you to the end-sir."
"So can I" said Jenta "You have trusted me, allowed me to continue my research, and valued me a member of your crew. That's far more than what the Covenant as ever given me."
Jim just nodded; he honestly didn't think there was anything that he could do that could express his gratitude. So he just nodded. Then he turned to face Raya "How 'bout you?"
Raya just shrugged "I joined you because I wanted to fight. I never really believed in the 'Great Journey', whatever it was. All I wanted was to fight. I lost my right hand in your world, Reach, and I was no longer able to fight properly. After I saw that a few humans had machines for arms and legs, I wondered if you could give me one, a new hand" to make a point he raised his mechanical right hand. "So when I saw you, about to be executed, I thought, 'why not?' So with my left arm, I took my blade and killed enough of my brothers until you were back on your feet and helping me out. Joined your crew, gave me a new hand, and so I fight. That's more than enough reason for me to trust you."
"Is that really it?"
"No. You're also the shipmaster, if a warrior can't trust the shipmaster, then the ship master must be removed or the warrior. You're not removed; I'm not removed, so I trust you."
"Good to know" Jim said with a smile "I think," he was pretty sure Raya was giving him a Sangheili smirk behind his helmet.
"Commander Jim Raynor, your presence has been requested at the bridge. We are almost ready for a Slip Space jump" came Matt Horners voice through the intercom in the lab.
"I guess that's my cue" Jim said.
"Oh sir, about my current research into combining Sangheili pulse defense turrets with our gauss turrets" Stetmann asked.
"Keep working on it, if you're lucky they'll hire you, at the very least, you can sell your research to the UNSC. Either way, you'll be able to stay out of prison" was Jim's reply before he left the labs and started making his way to the bridge with Raya following behind.
A few minutes later and he was at the bridge. The door slid open to reveal people doing final checks on their system, calculating and checking the Slip Space trajectory, it would be easier with an AI, but Stetman was weeks away from having a functional AI completed, mostly considering that he's using AI fragments which is completely experimental and sure it's a bit of a dangerous shortcut, but it's cheap. I man wearing a brown trench coat with a good enough stitch of a captain's insignia on the right shoulder, turned around to face Jim. He has black short hair and had lightly tanned skin. This was Matthew Horner, he's usually just called Matt.
"We're about ready to leave, sir." Matt Horner is the one responsible for making sure day to day operations go according to plan with any setbacks or collateral damage, plots the course and commands the "Deus." He is also Jim's second in command, and in all honesty, Matt is the Shipmaster who happens to take orders from Jim, at least that's the way Jim has thought about it.
"Good" was all he was able to say. "You know Matt-"
"Sir, let me stop you right there" Matt said "You've already given us three chances to leave. We're with you sir, we all faith in your decision and we're sticking by it."
"So it seems" he took one good look at his crew. At the first glance, he wouldn't even call it a crew. Everyone was dressed in regular clothing and wore some straps and carried pistol holstered to their hips to represent some form of uniform. Another way they did this was by using a single color, technicians and bridge control were dressed in a dark color, engineering and maintenance use orange or some other light color, and combatants use armor. It pretty much looked like a bunch of civvies playing soldier; in fact, half of them were before they joined his crew.
"So no one has left?" He asked, fully knowing what the answer was.
"Not a single soul, sir" replied Matt as he put and hand his soldier. "Like I side, we're all with you till the very end." Jim looked around and found that the entire crew who operated the bridge was focused on him; he just nodded before he walked to the window with both Raya and Matt following behind.
"Matt, you know the course."
Matt just nodded before he said "Alright, Shields!"
"One-hundred percent and holding" responded a woman from one of the stations.
"Weapons?"
"Are not even online" replied a Jiralhanae who was lazing about in his station.
"Thrusters?"
"Hot and ready for burn" replied A man from one of the stations.
"Navigation?"
"Course charted and checked twice sir" replied a Kig-Yar from another station. Normally, an AI would do the calculations, but the "Deus" doesn't have an AI, so sadly they had to do all the jobs an AI did...at least it kept people busy. Luckily, Kig-Yars are trained to do calculations without the help of some advance software or A.I.. Matt nodded and then said "Activate the Slip Space drive!" Within a few seconds, a blue portal opened, the ship moved forward, and it was soon traveling through the wormhole known as Slip Space. Both Jim and Matt stood where they were, staring out into Slip Space, Raya had already left, probably headed for the training room. Then Matt started laughing. Everyone turned to see as to what he was laughing about before he finally said "Sorry I couldn't help myself. It's just that when I think back to all the narrow escapes we pulled, firefights, mining operations gone wrong," he scoffed "Even the ruin filled with those things. And yet, despite all the hardships we were forced to endure, this is how 'Raynors Raiders' comes to an end." After a while, everyone thought about it, some broke out in chuckles while other just gave wry smiles and shook their heads.
"Ya know" Jim began "I never really did like that name. Makes us sound like a bunch of pirates, and worse is that we ain't got rum."
Matt chuckled "It can't be helped, sir" Matt finished with a smile.
[Orbital Defence Platform Orbiting the Glassed Remains of Reach]
"What do you mean 'It can't be helped'?" yelled Che.
"Exactly that" replied Hood. "We have all agreed on reinforcing our defensive capabilities and send whatever ship and soldier we can spare for joint task force to hunt down pirates, Insurrectionist, the Jibajawa confederation, and the Storm Troopers. You can either contribute or send all your forces looking for them yourself. The choice is yours."
A lot has happened in the last few hours. First, when they reconvened, the first thing they got into was currency, much to Che's displeasure. The Unggoy ambassador came up with a solution that everybody liked, even Che, all currency is going to be taken to the banks and exchanged for their new Orion dollars, or O.D.s for short. And then they got into the situation of future joint colony projects, scientific funding, and then finally, to the relief of Che, plans to deal with the Innies, the Jibas, and the Stormers. And Parker had to say, he was impress with how Hood handled things. "Fine!" yelled Che as he slammed his fist on the table.
"Now what?" question Tactac.
"Well I think we've covered enough ground for today. We can reconvene here tomorrow morning, unless someone want's to make an inquiry about something."
At the moment nobody seemed to have any inquiries, sure Che seemed like asking something but he held his tongue.
"Actually" Began Na'fash "I do have an inquiry to make. "
Now parker was interested. He took a quick gander at Hood to see his expression only to find that he found none. That's when he realized what Na'fash was going to say. Hood had wanted to make an inquiry as to what the Jiralhanae were researching. So it struck him a little odd that Hood didn't ask. But now, Hood sat back and watched as if everything was going according to some sort of plan. Hood must have talked to Na'fash about his curiosity and got her to ask the question. "Hood" Parker thought "Your better at this than I thought."
"My queen's intelligence division reported that your kind was doing some sort of experiment on certain minerals. Care to give us an explanation about your findings?" After the full downfall of the covenant, the only races with a good enough intelligence gathering division, were the humans, Sangheili, Kig-Yar, and Unggoys; everybody else was pretty much just starting to get the hang of it.
Instead of acting surprised or denying something, Che just grinned. "Well, as I'm sure you all know, Jiralhanae United has being conducting research into developing our own form of technology" He said, all the while walking away from the round polished wooden table to a large prechecked briefcase. He then heaved it to the table "And" he opened it "We found it." He then pulled out a palish blue see-though crystal. "This here, is a crystal."
"No shit" Parker thought as he just quietly observed that Jiralhanae...actually now that he took the time to look at him. He really didn't look that different from any other Jiralhanae, albeit he's well groomed, but he's still looks like any other Jiralhanae.
"Now this crystal, it's unique because in certain conditions, it can grow rapidly."
"Exactly how is that a new form of technology" asked Chu'R Bli "It sounds like nothing more than a mere observation."
"Well, Ambassador Parker, do you have a one of those...toplaps?"
"Laptops" corrected Parker as he reached for his briefcase which had a one of the newest models of laptops made from a very strong material and had a crystal memory core in order to house the laptop's personal 'dumb' AI and still have a lot of memory left over. "And yes I do" he said as he pulled out a black colored one. "Now, what do you intend to do with my laptop, if I may ask?"
Che just continued to grin as he pulled out another item from his over sized briefcase "Nothing that would damage your machine. Just that you ran an analysis on this" he pushed what appeared to be flash-drive with an earing-stud sized crystal in the center "Storage device's memory."
Parker looked at Che before he looked around the room to see everyone staring at him. He gave a deep sigh before he turned his laptop on and calmly picked up the device, inserted it in one of his laptop's ports and checked the memory. After a minute or so his eyes widen. "Well this can't be right" he said as he leaned in over to get a better look at his screen.
"What is it" Hood asked as he and the rest of the room, besides Che and his aid, leaned forward.
"If I'm reading this right," he pulled out the flash-drive and heald it up "This flash-drive has twice the storage capacity compared to my laptop, and it has a crystal memory core."
At this point Che couldn't suppress his laughter, which caught everyone attention. "That's right! We even have this!" He pulled out a long green crystal, "This is an energy crystal! And it stores it is capable of storing lots of energy! We even have another kind of crystal that can replace our metals. We even have a crystal that explodes!" He boasted with a big hearty laugh.
"And you have all of this through these crystals?"
Suddenly, sirens started ringing and then a voice came out though the rooms intercom "Warning! Slip-Space rupture detected."
"What's going" Hood asked out loud.
Suddenly a light came from the roof of the room and a hologram of a Roman soldier appeared, complete with shield and lance, red cape, and a bronze armor. "I have detected a slip space rupture. All Ships have already moved into position to intercept." There was a brief pause before the AI said "The ship has been confirmed to be of Human origin-wait! IFF confirmed, it is the stolen vessel,'The Deus Ex Machina.' I am also receiving a transmission being played on all frequency and looping."
"Then let us hear it" said Parker as sat back. "I wonder what they're going to threaten us with."
"Should you really be wondering that?" Tactac asked loud enough for him to hear.
"This is Commander Jim Raynor of the Deus Ex Machina. My crew and I are turning ourselves in."
"Well that's new" Said hood.
"I repeat. We're turning ourselves in. Our weapons are offline and our shields are down. We will cooperate to any request. All that we ask is a fair trial by our respective governments. I'm sending our mission logs and my ship's personal file."
"Well" said Parker "This is completely unexpected." Then Parker thought of something. "Virgil" he said, getting the stations AI's attention "Let me see those mission logs and personal files."
"Yes sir" replied the AI. After three seconds the screen appeared.
"What are you thinking" Hood asked with a raised brow.
"He said respective governments, what did he mean by that." He then flicked the holo-screen and said "And now I see why. This man has an interracial crew" he exclaimed. "Virgil, show this to everybody."
"Yes sir" responded the AI as holographic screens appeared in front of everybody.
"This man has Sangheilis, Jeralheine, Unggoy, Lekgolo, Kig-Yar, even a San Shyuum as part of his crew."
"Impressive" said the Arbiter "To think that such union could exist."
"In a pirate ship no less" said Chur-Bli.
"Virgil" said parker said with a smile on his face "Tell the Deux to stay put and send someone to bring Jim Rayner to us."
"As you command" said the Ai.
"Okay, now what are you thinking" questioned Hood.
Parker was silent for a moment before he said nonchalantly "Another solution."