Earth, Gibraltar The Iberian Peninsula
"Launch Successful, Congratulations Winston." Athena said as Winston watched earths first light constructed Slipstreamer was sent into orbit.
Although there would be no Omnic or Human Pilot, it was a first start at testing the new Slipstream technology which could get it to one solar system to the other. During the second Omnic Crisis nobody had time or the patience to think of such idea's as more pressing matters were of concern.
Tekhartha Mondatta was killed by an Assassin's bullet or more specifically Widowmaker's bullet. The situation was diffused quickly however as Winston had recalled Overwatch. With another crisis at hand, it was surprising that the Petras Act held absolutely No obligations about Overwatch intervening when it was obvious that the situation was no longer in their control.
Winston had remembered Overwatch single handily taking down the Talon Organization that began this whole fiasco first, but Reaper and Widowmaker had escaped and gone into hiding.
When both Human and Omnics realized that they were being played to hate each other, the world immediately banded together.
People had enough Violence.
Although Crisis or not, things had changed. Zenyatta had became the new head of the Spiritual Omnic Organization, He sought out Anti-Omnic activists and fought not with weapons but with words.
It was an odd sight to see former Hardcore Anti-Omnic's turn themselves in a tearful manner, apologizing sincerely after Zenyatta made a visit to Kings Row. Apparently the saying was true, Those who crossed his path were never the same again. They had been released after a few months for Parole after good behavior.
Genji came to terms with his brother, he had discovered the Hanzo had lived in guilt after believing he had killed his very own brother. After witnessing Genji as a cyborg, Hanzo believed his brother was gone for good but Genji convinced him that he was still if not more Human than ever but more importantly his brother.
They both worked together in dismantling their Father's Criminal Empire that had been left behind and put it to rest.
Australia had been drained of it's irradiated state and returned to it's former glory. The Junkers who had been deranged from Radiation were cured, except for Junkrat and Roadhog. Although Winston didn't want to admit it, it was good to see that those two were still up to no good with a surprisingly non existent murder rate in their criminal records.
Except for Kidnapping, Vandalizing, Possession of Illegal Material, Robbery, and of course, Loitering.
For the rest of Overwatch however, things were better than ever. They became an inspiration to everybody.
Winston smiled happily as he held the picture of his father Dr. Harold Winston, "Always remember, Never accept the world as it appears to be. Dare to see it, for what it could be.". He still remembered those words and would never forget the lessons he learnt from him.
"Alright Athena, Send her to Orbit around Mars." Winston said before shielding his eye's from a flash of blue light. Immediately camera's portraying the Red surface of Mars and the Lights of the surface colony come into view.
"Amazing..." Winston said, he didn't think this side project would go too far, but apparently NASA wasn't picky with funding when it came to matters like this.
"Approximately two seconds." Athena said, documenting the Slipstreamer's speed. It was a secret of the Slipstreamer's launch to the public, but he could only imagine the reactions, pretty soon space travel would be a thing of the past and Slipstream would be the new memo.
"I will order the cake."
"Thanks Athena, Just make sure it's peanut butter though." Winston said before relaxing on his tire and stretching his toes. Perhaps this did call for a celebration. However Winston wanted to try something else.
"Actually Athena, is it possible to send the Slipstreamer to Pluto? NASA encouraged putting the Slipstreamer to it's full use." Winston asked as he inspected the Camera's
"Very possible, I'm already on it." Within a second the Slipstreamer disappeared in a flash of blue light yet again.
"Perfect." Winston said, the progress was pleasing. Pluto's surface was still the same as seen from the few other satellite's in orbit around the small planet but the Slipstreamer gave a completely new view.
"That's a wrap for today, now on to ordering the-" Winston almost spat out the peanut butter he was eating. One of Pluto's Large moons was cracking apart as ice started floating freely in space, "Athena! The Slipstreamer!"
"On it." She said as she expertly avoided the ice formations, one unlucky satellite that strayed to close was immediately destroyed by the vented ice.
The ice quickly cleared from view of the camera, and in it's place revealed a new object of discovery. Leaving Winston's mouth wide open.
"Athena, call Overwatch."
Later
Overwatch agents walked quietly inside, they had received the call 30 minutes ago and had traveled across from Rio to Russia in 10 minutes flat, Tracer of course had been the first to arrive.
"Winston! Good to see ya again!" She said as she hugged his big frame tightly. "Good to see you too Tracer, Are the others-?"
"Here? We just arrived." Soldier 76 said as he filed in along with Mccree and Pharah. The rest of the agents like Zarya and Lucio arrived a few minutes later.
"Fantastic, You have all arrived. Now I know most of you are probably confused as to why I called Overwatch." Winston announced.
"No worries Winston, Besides the Starcraft championship can wait." Hana said, earning a few chuckles from the others.
"Hmph, but on to business. You see recently NASA had funded a new way for space travel, Tracer is quite familiar to it. We all know it as Slipstream." Winston said as he pointed to the Camera's.
"Slipstream? You don't mean..." Tracer asked in worry. "I sense your concern tracer, but do not worry as we decided against using any sort of pilot." Athena said as her mobile form hovered inside the room
"Athena is rarely in her mobile Platform, I have a feeling there is more to this then your letting on." Genji said as he sharpened his Katana. The other members looked at Winston silently, Genji had a very valid point.
"You see, one of the moons of Pluto... Charon, broke Apart to reveal this." Winston hesitantly pointed the Camera's towards the newly discovered space structure earning a few gasps and surprised looks by the other agents.
It looked like a tuning fork in a way, made of white unknown metal which clearly indicated that it was artificial. A few floating ring's laid around the left end of the huge device but they laid dormant for reason's unknown. Nevertheless it was clearly not made by Humans.
"Does zis mean zat were not alone?" Reinhardt asked.
"Uh, I'm not sure big guy. I think I've been watching too many Hal-Fred Glitchbot movies." Mccree said sincerely.
"Extra-Terrestrial or not, I've already sent the news to the UN and NASA. The information is about to go public as well." Winston Summarized.
"Are you sure it's the wisest course of action Winston? For all we know they might not receive it as well as we would like them too." Pharah asked only to be met with a reply from Zenyatta.
"They shall embrace it, I've worked with earth's children to know so." Zenyatta said as he sat meditating on a crate. Pharrah shrugged but knew if it came from Zenyatta then he was probably right.
"Winston, I'm detecting something." Athena said as her platform stood motionless, Winston turned his head.
"Patch it through Athena."
The team watched in wonder as the rings began to slightly glow until they began slightly turning. It began progressing from their before a bright blue ball of light began shining in the middle.
"Get the readings on it, UN and NASA already have eye's on it." Winston said before inspecting a chart that was currently being printed out, his eye's widened. "Incredible..." Winston said before the other's had a look at it, only to be disappointed with a bunch of lines and graphing.
"Sorry to say partner, but this here stuff is all Greek to me." The McCree said as he held it to get a better look at it.
"Oh, my bad... I suppose an explanation is in order." Winston said before pointing to the lines in the graph.
"If you have a look here, most metals would simply be a linear design for a graph." Winston said before pointing to the outliers. "But if you look over here, the positive current around the Energy field is increases the mass of the slipstreamer while negative currents have the exact opposite effect." The explanation was suitable enough for all but Mccree.
"I think ya lost me at Linear." Mccree said before scratching his head in confusion making Winston roll his eye's. However his vision caught sight of the rings again, now speeding up at an increased rate.
"Herregud! Ish that thing going to Explode!?" Torbjorn said in a worried tone.
The Neeli
"Is Everyone okay?" Rael'zorrah asked to his fellow shipmates. They had an encounter with a Batarian Slaver vessel, although they had attempted to negotiate a compromise or pay for free passage. The Batarians thought it would be easier to simply destroy the Neeli and salvage the scrap. It was a win win for the Batarians.
Rael'zorrah had commandeered the ship with expertise that could only be described as efficient as he quickly avoided the Disrupter Torpedo's. They had came in contact with a Dormant Relay as they were chased and saw little to no choice but to relay through to the next unknown sector of space.
Rael was sure he had broken about 11 council laws in the course of 7 seconds.
But it wasn't all bad, they were alive and not enslaved which was all that mattered. "Tonvar, Are we-?" Before Rael could ask they were met with normal look of space without the familiar surrounding of Eezo.
"Strange, the two relay's aren't very separate." Rael thought, Apparently this section of Inner council space had not been explored yet.
"Alright, get me a status report on the engines. We need to-" Rael was cut off by an explosion that shook the ship on the upper decks. Rael had quickly realized that the explosion came from the engine room. His Daughter was working in the engine room.
"Tali!?" Rael switched to Radio, "Tali do you copy!?" He was met with silence for a few agonizing seconds until he heard a response. "Reporting." She said before Rael sighed with relief.
"We lost our Stabilizer and Primary engine from overheating, Keelah... I'm not sure if we'll even make it through another relay jump like that let alone even change course." Tali said through the intercom.
"Bosh'tet, Were going to have to land somewhere and see if we can repair our damage... Wait, hold on." Rael caught sight of some sort of object drifting close to the relay.
"What is that? Some sort of Beacon?" Rael asked. The crew stared at the strange small white vessel.
"That's not council designated... Neither does it fit any design of the Databases sir." Veesa the navigator said as she went back to her console.
"So that means were dealing with a first contact situation?" Rael asked.
"Highly Likely." She simply said. For the first time the whole bridge was silent.
"Keelah... This day keeps getting better and better" Rael said sarcastically.
Earth, Gibraltar The Iberian Peninsula
Within moment Winston's lab had became a main source of activity. UN scientists and researchers frequently ran around the place carrying data pads or running over graphs of data constantly. Within seconds of the info being announced did news Hovercopters flood the skies around the facility.
The Omnic and Human guards had already set up a perimeter to hold off the tide of curious spanish civilians who had heard the news.
And of course the Overwatch agents could only watch the chaos unfold as they watched Winston and Athena pace around the place in panic, attempting to keep everything in an orderly fashion.
"Ya know, If we didn't discover honest to god extraterrestrials just now then I would be laughing my head off right about now." Mccree said as he leaned against a crate.
"I agree. Winston - Kan qi lai hen hua ji." Mei agreed, unable to finish the rest of her English sentence making Mccree snort out a chuckle. Symmetra, Mercy, and Torbjorn had were already analyzing pictures the UFO.
Torbjorn within a second identified that it had sustained some damage from an unknown source, while Symmetra had commented on the crude but efficient design the ship sported.
Most interesting though was that Mercy had indicated something about the races biology.
"You see that right there?" Mercy said as she pointed at the high resolution photo on the datapad. "It's vented Unbacterialized air, mostly used in Vaccine labs. I think these Aliens might be sensitive to Bacteria if it is not even present on their ships." Mercy said.
"Interesting, But what else can you te-" Winston was cut off by a Robotic voice.
"Amazing! So this is the rushing atmosphere during first Contact!" The voice said. Practically every Omnic and Human scientist stopped what they were doing and peered by the other side of the room.
Low and behold stood the famed Director himself, Hal-Fred Glitchbot.
"I'm sorry mister Winston, I just couldn't get him to stop. He was just too-" The Lab guard tried to explain only earning a sigh from Winston.
"Did he promise to sign you an Autograph Aerchtus?" Winston asked the Stuttering Omnic.
"...Yes." He simply said, shame riddled in his robotic vocalizer.
"Fine then, I suppose I do enjoy some of his films" Winston said before Aerchtus saluted and marched back to the other side of the room, not before getting an Autograph from the famed director.
Hal-Fred simply paced around the room, scribbling notes on what each scientist was doing for a possible future movie that he was planning.
"So as I was saying, I had a theory that this new race has the ability to utilize this relay. I can imagine that because of this Element that it uses, this element Zero, it has the ability to change the mass of any object. Who knows the potential of this element?" Winston summarized to his fellow comrades.
"Well it's obviously meant to get to one Tuning fork to the other, if ya catch ma drift." Mccree said before lighting another cigarette, Winston's eyes immediately widened in realization.
"Wait! Mccree, say that again." Winston said.
"What? Catch ma drift?"
"No, No before that."
"Ya mean 'it's obviously meant to get to one Tuning fork to the other'?" Mccree asked in confusion.
"Why of course! This must be some form of space travel to this new alien race, They must have arrived to this 'Relay' from the use of another, thus creating some kind of Space travel Network." Winston said. All the Overwatch members stared at Winston before realizing the fact that Mccree said something that made sense in terms of Rocket science.
"Hey don't look at me fella's, I'm just a Mercenary." He said before blowing out another puff of smoke from his cigar.
Suddenly a new line of data was received.
The Neeli
After the engine situation seemed hopeless for now, most Quarians were called up to the bridge as they watched in Curiosity at the Tiny Beacon.
Questions quickly arose, "Is this a First Contact situation?" or "Do you think they could help us?" was mostly being asked. Rael for the first time in his life was unsure on how to progress towards the situation.
His thoughts were interrupted however, "Father, What's going on?" Tali had recently arrived from the scorched engine bay only to be greeted with a complete silence in the Captains deck.
He turned around slowly to address her, the bright white eyes behind his suit sparked with seriousness.
"I didn't order you to leave your post Tali." Rael said sternly but his facade was broken a second later. The weight of the situation was crashing down on his shoulders.
"I-I'm sorry, I only wanted to-" Tali tried to apologize only for her father to raise a hand to gesture hear to hush.
"Don't apologize, It's just been hard for all of us..." Rael said before regaining his composure.
"Remember that promise I made, to you and your mother." Rael asked his Daughter, she nodded slowly in sad acknowledgement. "I plan on fulfilling it, I'll get us all through this." Rael said before turning around and becoming the captain that everyone needed him to be.
"Do we have a secure connection to the beacon?" Rael asked Tonvar.
"Affirmative sir. It was surprisingly easy and well set up on the other end to decipher as well as highly advanced, Maybe they could help us if we can find who the makers of the beacon is." Tonvar said earnestly.
Rael thought long and hard for a moment before reaching a consensus.
"Is that First contact Package ready?" He asked Veesa before she replied immediately.
"Finished it a few minutes ago, ready when you are Captain." Veesa said.
"Send it."
Earth, Gibraltar The Iberian Peninsula
With the new introduction of a complete Data package being this time Actually sent from the Dormant alien ship, the whole room suddenly freaked out even further. Scientists ran panicked around the place.
It had took a few minutes for Winston to rally the rest of them into something more compatible to work with.
Currently theories were being flung over the place, Questions were being asked. Why had the Alien's sent Cultural Pictures to the Slipstream? For what reasons if they couldn't even understand their language? Most had been left scratching their heads.
It was comical to see Winston sit on his Truck Tire whilst a bunch of eggheads sat around him, either staring at the ground in thought or scrolling down notes.
It stayed like this for a good 30 seconds before someone had figured it out, just not the person someone expected it to be. Hal-Fred Glitchbot.
"Well isn't it obvious? It's a First Contact Package." The scientists stopped what they were doing and stared at the lone Omnic who had long abandoned his note writing.
The staring continued, signalling for the Omnic to continue. "I-I mean, When me and Jack Stirling were discussing the plot of my last movie, 'They came from Beyond the Moon.' We had this idea that when Alien's met Us for the first time, they would send this package with info on Language, Culture, and all that stuff. Of course Stirling and I only thought nothing at it during the time, we decided to scrap that idea." Hal-Fred said.
Winston took a moment until he Realized the Omnic Director had a very valid point. "And what would you suggest Mr. Hal-Fred." Winston said before the Scientists gave him a questioning look.
"Well, Uh, Reasonably speaking here. I guess we send them our own package and put whatever we can in it. Y'know like Languages, Math, Our Culture, History. Things like that." The Director nervously said with the new found attention being directed towards him.
Their was an Awkward silence before Lucio spoke up, "Dudes Right. Think about it people, were exchanging cultural Info here." breaking the ice and freeing Hal-Fred from the Awkwardness that arose.
Winston thought the best course of action before he decided.
"Alright then, Organize every set of Data we can send." Winston said before settling his eye's back onto the Space vessel.
"It's about time we invite our new Friends."