Star Trek Halo AU: The Argent Destiny…
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AN: This is a short crossover one which would become something much larger in the future for now it's just something just of interest. Halo Alternate Universe which I created meets the universe of Star Trek, how these two react to each other will be very different.
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CH1: Where the Tides rise…
Date: UCAF Standard: 22/3/2551
Location: Daedalus Line: Sector 223-434-134/ Articus Cluster/ Arcius Sigma
UCAF Officer Log: 1432
It is to my relief that the battle of Arcius has been won, both within the depths of space and on the surface of the besieged world, it was a close call since the Covenant had nearly wiped the colony out with their Type-91 energy projector cannon. The shields of the capital city 'Tharicus' managed to hold out long enough for us to make a pass around orbit and bring the full might of all our MACs to bear upon the lone super cruiser.
But still the sight below still irks me and all those who serve under my command, the damage to the colony of Arcius has been hefty, over 3 million dead and countless others still missing from the outer edges of the colony's main settlements. It will not be an easy recovery for the colony of Arcius, but it will still recover in time.
Since the start of the massive Argent Assault led by Supreme Commander Icarus, the Covenant in this sector of space has become unpredictable; a vast majority of the Covenant forces in this region follow by any leadership unless they are loyal to individual officers. But overall there is no chance of being attacked outright by a large determined force aside from splinter fleets, such as the one which hit Arcius.
The Covenant are expected to lose further cohesion as the UCAF dedicate further resources into fighting them, nearly 1/3rd of the entire UCAF Naval Forces in this region alone have been deployed into the push against the Covenant. 2 million ships all dedicated to the fight against the remaining Covenant loyalists.
Of course even on the best estimates made by the UCAFs Office of Military Intelligence, the war would undoubtedly continue for years to come, but it was looking a lot brighter than before, the Covenant's leadership was dead and a good portion of its remaining forces no longer believed in their cause or were hostile against it.
It put the UCAF in a very favourable position to continue its forward momentum in taking the lost colonies and annihilating as much of the Covenant as possible. Of course the process would be arduously long and painstaking in terms of resources, but it would be done either way, there really wasn't that much of an option in terms of dealing with the Covenant, they'd find purchase on any worlds left unmonitored and cause further problems if they didn't tidy up properly.
For now I should return back to my command, there is the matter of a simple clean-up operation on the 3rd moon of Arcius, mainly just a few holdouts of Covenant loyalists causing trouble for the UCAF militia and Marine Corps. It should pose too great a problem to handle.
/END LOG/
The sudden beeping from the intercom broke the Commodore from his journal as he finished. "Yes." He replied as he activated his wrist com on his Nova tool interface. "Commodore Vance you are required on the bridge, we have an update on the situation on Arcius's moon, and it's looking 'interesting'." The Acquired Intelligence, AI, Tirane said aptly in her usual inquisitive tone.
He understood and replied coolly. "I'll be up there in a minute."
He closed the com and then got dressed; he had his dark officer pants still on along with the micro-fibre weave skin suit top, he pulled his uniform shirt on and covered it over in the thick blast and fireproof shirt and added jacket. The symbol of the UCAF a proud black hawk with the sword of Elysium gripped in its talons pointed downwards was embellished with a clear red and gold background.
He placed his cap on his head and added his signature rank badges and medals on his breast pocket before checking his look in his room's crystal steel mirror. He always thought the mirror was a bit of vanity, he never really liked the idea of bringing it because it was simply too indulgent, and a bit of a pain to move from ship to ship.
But still he took it with him thanks to his mother's insistence on carrying on his family's heritage, his great ancestor first had it made during the First Colonial War, intending to carry it to whatever theatre of war he went to. He almost lost it once, but regained it thanks to a crazy mercenary he hired to join him in a precision raid.
It's been through a lot, considering it has been around for centuries, its gold frame worn away and most of the steel alloy structure of the inside had seen better days. But it was still useable, to say the least. Vance looked at himself in the mirror; at first he was a little surprised, still dreary from his last battle not a day ago.
He expected to find the look of the young man who joined the UCAF Navy 11 years ago, the auburn haired teen with vigour and excitement in his emerald eyes, ready to get going on with the war and fight for the human race against the genocidal alien homogeny known as the Covenant. He was expecting to see the unmarred skin of light tan with a few freckles.
But now that he looked into it 11 years later, he was greeted by the look of a very different person, his eyes had gone darker, his specific species of human's skin turned pale and scarred, and a long scar ran down his left cheek, the burns of plasma still present on his neck when he was shot by a Skirmisher specialist on Theron.
His memories of the past still remained to haunt him regardless of where he went, and so did the ghosts of his past, one such ghost was quite real. He blinked to find 'her' staring at him through the mirror. "My, my how handsome you've turned out." Nyx cooed as she pulled his face to her in the mirror.
"Quit it Nyx, you know better than that." He replied gruffly as he pulled his head from her holographic grasp.
"Oh you, you never change James, all these years and I still haven't given up." She replied with a smile.
"And I never will." James replied adamantly.
James recalled when he first met her, the Goddess of Death, Nyx the Reaper, she was one of the Matron AIs of war, she wasn't released until the war started and then she's been picking the best humans she believed to be truly masters in the art of war. Or at least those who would prove to be brilliant tacticians or fierce soldiers unbeatable in battle, to her it didn't matter.
She loved to tease him when she could, she was of course beautiful, being tall slender with a curvy body, she possessed long raven hair which blew in an invisible wind. She had an inhuman difference though, her eyes were black with silver irises in their place to tell the difference that she wasn't human, and also the fact that she floated wherever she went.
One interesting little fact was that Matron AIs were tasked to record each battle of each individual and their life long accomplishments. And also it was to ensure they could tell stories of the individual in accuracy, up till they died of course, this was one of the larger functions, to report back when their selected favourite dies.
This fairly grim trait is what defines the Matrons as bad omens to soldiers and to officers, being selected by one is likely a very bad thing, either you'll soon meet your end, or you'll fight through a thousand unimaginably tremendous battles and then die, or usually you live and keep them entertained and pleased with your work.
James's situation was of the latter most reasons, he had survived dozens of battles and hundreds of engagements with the covenant, and he survived or pulled through each one, with usually light or moderate losses. The tactics he used however were significantly more audacious and bold than that of his peers, which defines him more of a man who takes the fight against his enemy seriously and more gruellingly.
As he did a quick clean of his face, with some moisturiser and clearing-gel, he proceeded out of his room, Nyx was quick to follow behind him, ensuring no one would dare to step in his path. He found Nyx's presence not so much annoying as it was more distracting and oddly comforting; he had grown fond of the AI pestering him when he made a statement about her.
Nyx thankfully never stayed with him too long, she knew when to go away since his duties required him to think clearly and straight and not need to be blocked by her antics. As he headed through the deck of his ship he was greeted by dozens of personnel walking about, some bowing their heads curtly or saluting.
Many showed no signs of fear or dismay at the appearance of Nyx, only the new blood members of the crew and troops would usually show the more obvious sings of unease in the presence of Nyx, the exception are Helldivers, they never show fear at all. As Vance passed to the next deck by stairs he was greeted by his Chief Engineer.
The bald deep earthen skinned engineer greeted him happily. "Sir I've got a full report from all the repair teams and an update on our weapon systems."
Vance nodded, pleased with the news. "Good, let's hear it Kenneth." He stated while they walked to the elevators.
"The outer hull plating on the damaged sections have been repaired, also we have replaced all of the ablative hull plating from the forward section and aft, the damaged plates have been recycled and we are now coordinating efforts in getting one of the structural ribs back into place, it seems to have taken light stress damage from out last fight." Kenneth paused before he changed his data slate's contents to the next page.
"Ok, as for weapons, our main MACs are all repaired, forward Ultra MAC has not sustained damage, and our missile pods have been replaced, I got Turner fixing the last of the rail batteries and interceptor guns. The particle cannons are prepped and ready for another round, and so have the drones, Jake's busy getting ready for the next fight." He finished.
James threw him a glance before replying. "Very well, what's the status of the rest of our fleet?" He asked the Chief Engineer.
Kenneth flipped through his data-slate interface which linked straight into his Nova tool, he searched and compiled the total data in a few moments, it was usually a good thing to have men like Kenneth, Cyrillions were bio-machine humans of course being so gave them a greater advantage in terms of many things.
"Sir I've gone through the reports and I have determined that all ships are up to our condition, 45 ships all prepared and ready for action." Kenneth replied with a grin.
"Good, get back to your station Kenneth we're soon to go into another battle probably very soon." James stated as he entered into the elevator, he hit the switch for the bridge.
"So can you tell me what plans you have for dealing with the Covenant on the Arcius moon?" Nyx inquired.
"Nothing yet Nyx, we still have to know exactly what we're going up against, Tirane only said that I was needed on the bridge." He replied as they reached the level.
As the doors opened to the command deck he walked straight through the grey metal hall to the CIC, upon entering, he was greeted by the salutes of the security team at the door, he walked by the main tactical display table where the tacticians and operators worked, they had done all they could to learn about what move the Covenant would make, and counter.
James reached the main bridge where he was then met by his next in command. "Captain Anders, what's this about the Acrius's third moon?" He asked the young officer.
Anders replied plainly. "We don't know, all we know is that a massive energy build up occurred on the moon's surface just about 30 minutes ago, and it's been steadily building up, our scanners can't penetrate the surface thanks to the planet's thick ferrocite layer, the energy stored in the ferrocite is causing the sensors to scramble when we try." Anders brought up a holographic representation within the main bride's holo-display; it was a full sized image of the region indicated by red markers.
He highlighted a region and continued. "And we aren't having too much luck with our other sensors either, aside from seismographs. From what the vibrations are telling us, either they're trying to drill into the surface of the planet, or they're trying to move the whole continent into orbit." He said as the vibrations came into scale, they came up as at least 8 on the Richter scale.
"How long has this been going on for?" James inquired aptly.
"At least within the last hour, that was just as the energy spike became noticeable." Anders replied with a small shrug.
"Commodore, I'm getting something interesting here." Tirane stated as she materialised, her crisp white hair flowing around her as she floated to the display and changed it to a diagram of what she found.
"There are high Chekov radiation counts coming from the surface, it's getting larger as the energy increases, it's fairly small right now, but that's only because the ferrocite is absorbing most of the radiation, but from what I and the others can tell, it's supposed to be much higher. At least 100,000 times what we're reading right now." Tirane stated with a slight look of concern.
"What the hell is the Covenant doing?" Anders perplexed as he looked over the readings. It was then Nyx appeared and stated. "How about the possibility that they are trying to escape?"
"Yeah, that would make sense if only it was a whole damn fleet, but from what we're reading the energy is coming from just one location barely 10km in diameter, if they were trying to escape, why do it in the crust of a planet?" Anders asked Nyx with a questioning look in his eyes.
"How do I know, the Covenant are letting off a wash of radiation enough to cause a slip-space tear, so what else could they be doing?" Nyx rolled her eyes.
It was then it suddenly hit Vance, he looked at the display and began to formulate what the chances were of a slip-space rift opening there. He immediately asked Tirane. "Tirane, what are the odds of a slip-space rift being opened while inside of a planet?"
"There is a 80% chance of successful activation, however the rift would need to be in an open space like a very large cavern, unless you have a slip-space drive rigged to some very large subspace array, and have a substantially enormous level of energy, then nothing could be done." She stated as she checked over the theories of slip-space.
"What's this all about? Why would the Covenant bother to use a slip-space drive in the crust of a planet?" Anders asked with a slight amount of confusion.
"Because, when have Covenant ever surrendered? They're not trying to escape, they're trying to open up an unstable slip-space rift, large enough to destroy us and themselves in one go." Vance stated as he thought out the process of such an enormous undertaking.
"That's pretty insane." Anders stated as he thought it over.
"I'd admit it, but it makes sense, why not martyr themselves into history rather than face defeat?" Tirane stated while she began to make the necessary calls to the rest of their fleet.
"Damn Covenant never cease to disappoint me, they're so typical. Just kill themselves in a fashion they think is best, even as bitter as this." Nyx stated while the fleet began to break from low orbit.
"Sir I'm getting a surge of radiation, it's going off the charts, damn I think it's too late, the Covenant's slip-space drive must be going beyond maximum capacity, it's going to overload well before we escape to a safe distance." Tirane stated as she continued to monitor the build-up of energy.
"What's the reach of a total slip-space cascade?" He asked.
"Nothing good, at the moment I can determine that it's going to cover everything in 1,000,000km within its maximum range, but we won't get out for at least another 2 minutes, the rupture would catch up to us before we could escape." She replied as she calculated.
"What about jumping to slip-space ourselves then?" Anders asked as he took his command seat and strapped himself in.
"Probably wouldn't work, we didn't pre-set any coordinates and doing so would take too much time, even a short jump won't make work in this situation." Tirane stated in a focused tone.
"Well then I'm open for options." Nyx stated.
The other officers on the bridge looked at each other before they received a communications from engineering. "This is Kenneth, I've been linked with the network, I've heard what the situation is, and I got the others in engineering with a fairly simple idea.
Vance looked over to Anders who shrugged, Vance let him speak. "Go ahead Kenneth."
"We need to charge our slip-space drive, once then we can ensure the blast from the slip-space drive would force us also into slip-space, we'll be protected by our shields and also subspace fields, and they'll let us pass into slip-space hopefully intact." Kenneth stated as he began to charge the ship's slip-space drive in anticipation for the eventual shockwave.
Vance didn't see much of an option and Tirane looked over it. "It is a better option than anything we can come up with sir, and the drive is about to detonate in approximately 30 seconds."
"Do it, and pass the message on to the rest of the fleet to begin charging slip-space drives for the shockwave, all crewmen are to brace themselves and all troops are to be holding onto something tight, this is likely going to be an uncomfortable ride." Vance stated as he checked on the inertial dampeners across the ship.
Kenneth managed to get the slip-space atonement done and sent it across the fleet just 15 seconds left to spare; Tirane began to ensure all of the bulkheads were partly closed for the incoming impact. As the time came, they reached about 750,000km and just when the rupture occurred. It was a slight ripple which seemed to encompass the space around them, and then it changed, shifted and vibrated.
"Here it comes." Tirane announced.
Vance hoped that Kenneth wasn't wrong about this, as the rupture's event horizon caught up with the fleet, they were encompassed by a bright light which seemed to momentarily blind them. It was then they felt the ship begin to shudder and shake, it was like the world was being tossed around them.
And then there was a feeling of weightlessness, and finally nothing…
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Location: Alpha Quadrant- Bajor- High Orbit: Deep Space Nine
Stardate: 48767.3
It's been over a week since the escapade with the double of Commander Riker, Thomas Riker and the attempted hijacking of the USS Defiant, thanks to Major Kira Nerys stopping the plot before it could compromise the safety of the Federation. Though it was over, it did result in Deep Space 9 having to assign further security to the Defiant till things calmed down.
However it seemed things weren't going to stay as calm as people hoped. It was soon to pick up once more and escalate a lot further…
In the command centre of the former Cardassian station, there was a dull drone of activity as morning progressed, lately people seemed put off by the whole Dominion war and the most recent events, of course the latter already been dealt with, there was a still tension that remained. And that tension was about to break.
The teal uniformed officer at the science station in the command centre looked over the console readouts, it was then there was a sudden beeping from one of the long range subspace sensors. "What the…" She muttered as she looked over the readouts. If these readouts were correct something was happening, very far away, and it wasn't normal.
"O'Brian, did you check the sensor feeds yesterday?" The science officer asked a yellow and black suited man with a robust figure.
O'Brian who had been checking over some conduits pulled away from work and replied. "Yes, I double checked them yesterday, there weren't any problems." He replied with a slight tone of confusion.
"Well from what I'm getting from our long range sensors there's a tremendous build-up of subspace energy emanating about a hundred light years from our position, whatever's causing it is sending enormous amounts of energy through." Her readouts suddenly skyrocketed. "It's spiking, counting a massive surge of Chekov radiation, they're reaching over ten million and they aren't levelling off."
O'Brian looked at her in shock, as did some other members of the crew. It was then the doors to the office of the station commander opened up, the officer in charge was the ever humble Captain Benjamin Sisko. "Dax, what's going on?" He asked as he looked around inquisitively.
"Well that's what I'm trying to figure out, there's an enormous radiation spike roughly a few dozen light years from our position, but from what I can tell it's also the source of a massive amount of subspace concentrations." Dax replied whilst overviewing the continual stream of information.
It was then the Bajoran liaison officer arrived; she appeared somewhat distracted on arrival but turned to focus on what was going on. "Captain, what's the situation?" She asked as she noticed the display screen of the station which was now focused on the anomalous source began to read through the details of the anomaly.
"Haven't got a clue Major, but from what we can tell it's acting completely different from any other source of subspace we've ever witnessed." Sisko replied as Dax continued to try and scan the anomaly.
Kira took her station nearby and O'Brian got to trying to help Dax solve the mysterious subspace burst. As they continued to receive further data from the anomaly it finally seemed that the subspace field finally let loose whatever was coming through. "Sir, it's the subspace source, it's causing a massive gravimetric field." Dax stated as she continued to read the data coming through, she grew concerned as she read something else.
"Sir I think there's a wormhole opening." Dax stated as she looked at the readout.
Sisko exclaimed. "What?"
"I don't know, but it's telling me that a subspace rift or something similar has become quite active, whatever's coming through its pretty large." She stated whilst looking at the details of the subspace data.
Sisko looked at the anomaly in itself trying to figure out the cause of such a thing, whatever was creating it was coming through, and it was causing quite a stir, that was for sure. He decided to check something. "Dax is there any nearby starship within reach of the anomaly?"
Dax checked the logs, but found nothing. "Nothing, there's no Starfleet vessel within our region; we're currently the only ones within reach at the moment." Dax stated as she checked their records.
"It won't be too long before Starfleet asks us to go investigate." Sisko said to himself. He looked over at his present staff and decided to take action. "O'Brian could you and the other members of the crew meet me at the Defiant within the next half hour." He interrupted before O'Brian objected. "I know that the Defiant isn't really capable of dealing with anything serious, but this does still merit a closer examination."
O'Brian got his moment and said. "I was actually going to ask, do we need anything specific for this?"
"Dax, could you assist O'Brian in retrieving the necessary equipment for our trip?" He asked her.
Dax got off the console and let another science officer take over. "Yes sir." She replied and headed off with O'Brian down to the lower levels.
"Ok, Kira you have the station, if Starfleet contacts you, tell them I'm on my way to investigate this anomaly with a few of my senior staff and the Defiant, we won't be gone for long." Sisko said to the Bajoran officer.
"Understood." She replied and watched Sisko and his team depart for the Defiant.
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Later…
The Defiant finally got loose from DS9's clutch and into open space, their arrival to the anomaly wouldn't take too long, their excursion wasn't intended to take much longer anyway. All that they were going to do was try and scan the anomaly or at least get a better visual on what was currently unfolding at the anomaly itself.
Sisko sat in his Captain's chair carefully observing their approach to the anomaly, how this strange occurrence was even possible was considerably complex, to a point where even Dax seemed puzzled by, and probably most educated members of the Starfleet Scientific Research department would also be confounded by the anomalous source of subspace.
"Dax how much further are we from the source of the anomaly?" Sisko asked.
"Not much further, though I think we're going to have to stop about one million kilometres out from the source, whatever's causing this whole mess is likely going to scramble our sensor readings if we get too close to the anomaly." Dax stated as the Defiant continued to scan the anomaly.
"Hey out of curiosity, do you think someone's trying to come through that 'wormhole' that's been created?" O'Brian asked.
"That's a distinct possibility; I mean whatever's occurring is pretty serious regardless. These readings from what I can tell defy normal physics, and well they seem to be partially in tune with subspace theory and engineering. I can't imagine who would have this level of power to make such enormous subspace fields and create an artificial wormhole." Dax stated as they finally got close enough.
"Ok we're dropping out of warp, just outside the range of the gravimetric field's intensity, this should allow us to make some recordings and get going in the event that the gravimetric fields threaten the overwhelm the ship." O'Brian stated while he looked over the integrity of the ship.
It was then Dax finally got something, something very big.
"Gravimetric spike, but it's not expanding, it's intensifying. I think our visitors have arrived." Dax stated as she continued to run the scans.
In a brilliant flash of light, the crew watched at maximum magnification of the event horizon of the subspace anomaly begin to finally take shape. It was blinding at first, but it suddenly receded and then there was a whole mess of things occurring, as the subspace rift opened up as greatly as it could, and soon it covered a good portion of their screen.
"What's going on?" Sisko asked Dax.
"No idea, it looks like there's something coming through, it's taken a proper form and it's big, really big…" Dax suddenly stopped uttering as the gravimetric fields stabilised and the rift's event horizon let something through.
She observed intently on figuring out what was going on aside from a mass of subspace energy being focused into one area, not to mention the source of the energy was quite staggering. It was only when it came through that the members of the USS Defiant came face to face with what they thought was some sort of building at first.
But as the object took shape, they suddenly realised that whatever was coming out of the anomaly it was a ship. It was a massive oblong shaped vessel bulky in every way shape and form, but also streamlined to making every shape seamless in its overall design. It wasn't the only thing that came out of it though, there were other ships following alongside the massive vessel.
Dozens of ships of all sizes much larger than that of the Defiant were pouring out of the subspace anomaly. The crew were surprised at what they were seeing; it wasn't your average day to be watching massive vessels popping out from subspace. Dax began to run an analysis of the ships that had just appeared.
"Sir, I'm trying to scan the ships, but I'm getting nothing."
Sisko turned his attention back to Dax and inquired. "Is it the heavy concentrations of subspace and radiation that's scrambling the sensors?"
"No I don't think that's it, from what I can tell, we're at a safe distance to preform scans on the anomaly and the ships. But from what I'm getting, the subspace rift is now closing, but the ships, I can't scan them." Dax explained. "I think they've got some sort of protective barrier designed to stop anyone from scanning their ship."
Sisko then looked over to O'Brian who was still a little awed by the whole arrival of the mysterious vessels; he broke the awe from the Chief Engineer. "O'Brian can you get anything on your end?"
O'Brian complied, but he turned back with a slightly disappointed shrug. "Nothing sir, there's barely anything to register from this 'fleet'. No warp signature or anything that can be really considered one."
Dax did make one small analysis. "Sir I did manage to get a count on total vessels currently in range, and from what it can tell there are 42 ships here, all of which are a lot bigger than us." She said plainly.
"What about the biggest ship in this fleet?" Sisko asked.
Dax ran a visual comparison. "The largest vessel in this fleet is at least 32 kilometres in length, over 4 kilometres in height, breadth is around 6 and it seems to have a number of additional sections and protrusions across its hulls which would add plenty more length. But that's the gist of the main ship." She analysed.
"Sir I think it might be prudent we get out of here, we should report back to Starfleet command, I'm sure they'd get a kick out of this." O'Brian said.
"I don't doubt that, but what I do doubt is whether or not our new neighbours are as welcoming as they look." Sisko said as he considered departing.
But as luck would have it, things were to play out on their own. "Sir, I'm reading an enormous amounts of energy, it's coming directly from the fleet of ships. It seems that they're finally turning their attention to us." Dax said in a little bit of alarm.
Sisko saw the ships turning around to face the Defiant, their hulls brightening up, whole sections lit up and shone as brightly as some of the stars, but not only that, there was an abundance of lights being focused on the Defiant. Sisko had a feeling that they had just met another much militarised race, one which seemed to be quite utilitarian.
"Captain we're being hailed." A com officer reported.
Sisko took his seat and prepared himself for this inevitable first contact, what he didn't know what who he was about to meet and the people alongside this person and how they were going to change the galaxy for better or for worse.
"On screen." He nodded to the com officer.
In the blink of an eye, he came face to face with an astute looking man. His hair was a faded colour of auburn, his eyes looked cold and steeled like that of a predatory bird, his face was scarred all over, the more noticeable being the scar on his left cheek. His eyes were dark and cold, but they had the look of determination.
This was a man of considerable strength from what Sisko could tell, he was without a doubt the officer in charge of the fleet, but what got him was that the individual in question was human. Before he began his greeting, the officer spoke in calm and directed tone.
"I am Commodore James Vance of the UCAF 882nd Interceptor Fleet, we have seemingly appeared to be lost, and with you and your vessel in range, I saw it prudent to contact you." Vance stated simply.
Sisko didn't know whether or not this officer was being so direct, he had a feeling that this man would have undoubtedly just brushed him off and took his fleet to wherever they wanted to go. Sisko knew of first contacts with certain isolated humans, but it usually doesn't start with the Federation being less advanced than the humans in question.
"Greetings Commodore, I'm Captain Benjamin Sisko, captain of the Federation Starship USS Defiant, and also commander in charge of a station nearby. We came here investigating an anomaly, and well we found you." Sisko said plainly and simply.
Vance raised an eye and shook his head. "By anomaly I'm assuming you mean our little appearance from subspace?" He asked.
Sisko replied. "Yes."
"Well simply put that was not caused by us, an enemy stuck themselves into a heavily entrenched position and detonated their FTL drive in hopes to wiping us out, but we outsmarted them, or so we hoped. We didn't exactly anticipate this kind of effect." Vance shrugged absently and then continued. "Where exactly might my fleet be right now?" Vance inquired.
"You're in the Milky Way, and you are currently in the Alpha Quadrant fairly close between the Cardassian and Federation border." Sisko replied before asking. "Why exactly do you need to know?" He said in a curious tone.
"Well let's see, first of all I don't even know where to begin, secondly you'd might not believe me if I told you and finally, let's just say, as the commanding officer of this fleet there's no doubt that this is something I've never been prepared for." Vance stated with a passive tone, it was calm but also truthful.
Sisko could sympathise with uncertain scenarios, but it seemed that someone else had detected the arrival of the UCAF fleet and were well on their way here. Dax received the incoming warp signature of approaching vessels. "Sir, there are incoming vessels, their warp signatures are Cardassian, and all are Galor class warships." Dax stated with a tinge of concern.
Sisko let out a slight sigh and muttered. "Just wonderful…" He turned his attention back to Commodore Vance. "I'm sorry to cut this short, however we have a few expected guests on their way here."
Vance understood. "We can take care of ourselves, although we do not know much about this region of space. I do want to know, who are these Cardassians you are referring to?" Vance asked.
Sisko wasn't sure about informing him about the nature of Cardassians, but he'd rather not let the newcomers unintentionally start a war. "Our neighbours, they signed a treaty with us some time ago after a war, they are at times arrogant and usually confident in themselves. I'd advise you be careful when addressing them."
Vance didn't really change his expression and simply nodded. It wasn't long until the arrival of the Cardassian vessels. Sisko took some time prior to prepare the ship to engage in the event things didn't go so well. 3 Galor class warships appeared each with their blocky winged ship with pointed tails and hammer head prows took position nearby.
Sisko ordered. "Hail them."
In the blink of an eye the screen changed from Vance to the smug and usually deplored face of a certain Cardassian officer that Sisko had encountered on more than one occasion. "Gul Dukat, what brings you here?" Sisko asked with a fake smile and a slightly condescending tone.
Dukat knew that Sisko was screwing with him and immediately got to the point. "Oh please don't bother trying to hide the enormous fleet of vessels sitting right in front of you; it's not like you to evade something like this. Our ships as well as a few long range sensor stations picked up the massive surge of subspace energy and since my ship and a couple of others were nearby on patrol, they redirected us here as quickly as possible."
"Oh, so I can assume that the Cardassian Union has some interest in our new arrivals?" Sisko asked.
"Well you sure do, we noticed the ships seemed to turn to face you, and they haven't fired at you so I can assume that you've spoken with them?" Dukat replied in turn.
Sisko gave a slight shrug. "Possibly, they really don't have much to say aside from the fact that they were inquiring as to where they were and who we are, but aside from that, they haven't exactly asked anything else."
It was then Vance decided to interject, he had enough of this.
"Ok I think that's enough, I don't want to waste another 3 hours sitting here in the middle of nowhere, if you don't mind I'd advise you both leave this area and come back tomorrow. My patience is starting to wear thin and my fleet needs time to reciprocate before we try any further discussion." Vance said plainly and clearly.
Dukat was taken a slightly off by the sudden appearance of Vance, and also the fact that the screens had been suddenly split in half to fit Vance in, Sisko was a bit surprised if not a bit annoyed, he had hoped to stall for more time so Starfleet could get back to him quicker. But seeing as how Vance was getting frustrated, that was probably a bad idea.
"Commodore Vance, coming back tomorrow seems slightly precarious considering your fleet dropped out into reach of Bajoran space, not to mention that you have Dukat who is very likely to report this back to the Cardassian Central Command, they'll likely send a whole armada of ships to the border if they see your arrival as aggressive." Sisko said with calm tone.
Dukat faked offence. "Me sending the Central Command that the arrival of such massive ships as aggressive? I'd never do such a thing, their arrival is a mystery, though I do wish to know, why are there humans in command of these vessel?" Dukat asked.
"That's a much more complicated story." Vance replied.
"So I see. Well this puts me at a slight predicament. As much as I'd like to know right away, I should indeed report this back to the Central Command. Please excuse me." Dukat said before closing the channel.
Dax then informed Sisko. "All Cardassian ships are departing."
Sisko was glad that Dukat wasn't going to start a shouting war over the arrival of Vance's fleet, but this had just added another additional layer of problems. The Union was undoubtedly going to send more ships to the border and the Federation was bound to respond. He took a deep breath before getting back to Vance.
"Well I guess this is going to be another interesting week, Commodore Vance, things are about to get hectic." Sisko said plainly.
"Yes I can see that fairly clearly. As for you Captain Sisko, I think we should meet face to face, besides I'd like to see what exactly you people are like." Vance said with a slight grin.
XXXXX
AN: That is the first encounter next chapter will all be about the first meeting between the two universes and how things develop. I haven't a clue as to what should be done about making things move along more smoothly and also I'm fairly tired. And yeah the UCAF meeting the Federation and various other factions would add some flavour and drama.
And also throwing in some interesting encounters with nearly xenophobic humans of a war torn universe meeting aliens and humans of another, this is going to be a fun exchange of words.