/ Halo:
Prologue
Aboard the brand new UNSC Prometheus everything seemed pretty normal, an odd thing for this ship as it was one of perhaps 10 in the entire UNSC which had a crew of a mixture of humans and ex-Covenant. Never the less things seemed to be going well, originally there had been several problems; there had been a few incidents of violence, but those were passing. Walking down the hallway of his massive ship Captain K'shyam; that had been another problem, He a Covenant Elite had become a UNSC ship captain; did have to think that it was unusually quiet. This had taken much testing, he had surpassed all the other candidates easily; he had been the only one chosen to test for the command of this ship from those few who had joined the humans. Few was merely a relative term, several thousand had joined the humans, but there were many billions in the covenant. He was very pleased with his new ship, maybe compared to some Covenant ships it was a little small, but it was the largest one he had ever had the honor to command. But still too quiet, maybe it was because in all his time of being on any ship that ship had almost always been moving or engaged in battle, yes that was probably the problem this ship was not moving at all. They had just finished a series of engine tests to make sure they could safely transition to slipspace and back, and now they were sitting still, another test, this one to make sure that they were completely stealthy when needed " Sir there is a message for you on the bridge." Said a cool and emotionless voice, the ships temporary AI. They still hadn't gotten their permanent AI, nor their star map, no doubt because of the number of non-humans on board "Thank you Dawn." Replied Captain K'shyam, Dawn over a new world, the seemingly ceaseless need of humans to name everything was never really understood by K'shyam, but why should he care, after all this AI would only be on board for another week. Captain K'shyam hurried slightly down the corridor towards the central lift shaft; the central lift shaft was a group of elevators that travelled laterally throughout the ship from the bridge to engineering. He called the lift and waited for a moment, there was a slight hiss as the barely used doors slid back into their shiny blue-purple frames. There was a person in the elevator, Lieutenant Commander William Hall, ships second in command "Hey there Cap" Said Hall in his deep drawl "Good morning Lieutenant." Replied K'shyam "Goin' to th' bridge?" Hall asked friendlily "Yes Dawn got a message and asked that I come up to receive it, and you?" K'shyam said coolly "Eh just goin' up, 'bout time for me to start my shift." Hall replied "Aren't you running slightly late Lieutenant?" K'shyam asked "Ah it's fine, we're running silent and only doing shakedowns right now." Hall said meekly "As long as you do your job when needed, this will have to do for now." Remarked K'shyam, Hall grinned at this. K'shyam seemed to get along well enough with Hall; Hall was one of the few people on this ship which had openly accepted the ex-Covenant crew members. The lift accelerated in what could only be described as upwards, as it was over K'shyam's head. He could feel the minor fluctuations of gravity as they passed through areas of the ship which had less, more, and sometimes no gravity. The lift decelerated smoothly as it came to the bridge, K'shyam and Hall stepped out. The bridge personnel were consistent of two human officers one at the helm, and one at comms; there was a single Sanheili Elite at the tactical station, who looked quite uncomfortable in his surroundings, all the officers on the bridge rose "Captain on bridge!" Shouted Lieutenant Junior Grade Mike Richie snapping a crisp salute "At ease." K'shyam said calmly, he was growing used to his bridge officers, Lieutenant Richie and his strict adherence to military protocol, and the young brown-haired Lieutenant Junior Grade Clarissa Gottfried at the helm "Status report." K'shyam said "All systems are green Captain!" Richie replied still in salute "I said at ease Lieutenant, you may sit." K'shyam made a slight hand gesture for him to move back to his seat "Thank you Sir!" Richie replied relaxing slightly, but not sitting. K'shyam moved across the bridge, similar in size to a covenant frigate's bridge and designed similarly it felt spacious and very tidy. He sat down in the Captain's chair positioned just slightly behind the center of the room and elevated slightly "Dawn I believe I am ready to receive the message now." K'shyam said "Opening now Captain." The AI's cool voice replied; the holotank which was in the middle of the room but shoved up against the far wall light up.
/UNSC communiqué
/Rear Admiral Holland to
/Captain UNSC PROMETEUS K'shyam
/Encryption code: Juggernaut
/Congratulations on the first test of your slipspace engine Captain, also as far as I know you are a black hole we can't see a thing, return to Kvasir for AI install and weapon pick-up, you boys are getting loaded up a little earlier than expected sorry.
/End communiqué
"Huh goin' out a little early, well we are still at war and I guess they need everything they have."Hall said nonchalantly "Hmm, make ready for slipspace jump Lieutenant." K'shyam said "Aye Captain, making ready for slipspace jump." Replied Gottfried, K'shyam hit a button on his command console and called engineering, the chief engineer's face popped on-screen "We're about to go to slipspace." K'shyam said to the huragok. K'shyam didn't quite trust this ships slipspace drive yet, partially due to the fact that it was human and even though the few huragok that had converted had programmed the covenants slipspace jump calculations and such into the computers he still wasn't sure the engine would hold up "Yes Captain." The huragok signed with its tentacles. The ship began to hum around them slightly as the engines were re-ignited to point them out-system to jump back to the top secret ship factory on one of Kvasir's moons. The stars were beautiful out in deep space, K'shyam always loved the sight of stars, so much was unknown, he wanted to explore those things learn from them, but that would have to wait "Engage Lieutenant." K'shyam sighed "Aye, engaging slipspace jump to Kvasir Captain." Gottfried said with obvious contained energy, this was her first time at the helm of a ship, much less one so large by human standards. The steady thrum of the engines disappeared as they jumped into slipspace; Leaving only the stars behind, those lone points of light in the inky depths of space.