AN:

Lord Demolitions: Jul M`dama will be a leader of covie rebel cell later. About Regret... he always appeared as a true believer, Truth and Mercy didnt tell him about connection between humans and forerunners, at least in *this* universe that is why he betrayed them. Faith will be a ROA high councilor, as for Remorse, i dont have a place for him yet, ideas for it are welcome.

This chapter will have more talking than shooting, it will explain why council has so many ships later(a lot more than in ME) and since i cant skip that, well here you go.


Chapter 2: Homecoming

November 11 2628, Military calendar, Jordes Boliamos system, UNSC Prowler `Hope Seeker` 2342 hr, Bridge.

Captain Tratev was sitting in his chair, just another day of survey in order to find new planets to colonize, when he joined UNSC he wanted to fight the unjust, defend planets, he wanted to do something meanigful, but here he was, on another survey mission, in another unknown system, surley there were rebels and pirates he could help fight wi...

"Captain!" shouted his Comm officer.

"What is it Daniels?" asked Tratev.

"Sir.. im picking up UNSC distress call..." replied LT

"What do you mean UNSC, what is their distress transponder?"

Every ship had a special transponder, when activated it would send SOS signal along with status of ship, sensor data, and crew status.

"Sir... they dont have it or its destroyed."

Captain looked at him with disbelief in his eyes.

"Destroyed? They are placed next to main reactors, if its destroyed then there is no way reactor is fine."

"And yet sir, im not picking it up." said surprised Comm operator.

" UNSC encrypted signal, at least 60 year old because there is no distress transponders in the middle of nowhere?" asked again Tratev with disbelief in his voice.

Everyone was looking at each other, captain was right. at least 60 years? So far away from any UNSC-Covenant battle? With no reported ships missing in this area?

"Tactical, do you have anything on screen?"asked Captain

"Y-yes sir, im picking up some strange readings near that habitable moon." replied LT

"Comm, do you have audio?"

"Correct sir, there is much static, ill try to clear it up as best as i can, playing it now"

"May... ma.. ay ... M...day thi... CF...8 Spiri.. Fire requ... immediate evac, surviv...board...ority code: Victor...0117...day M...y Mayday...CFV-88: Spirit of... req..."

"What do we know about Spirit of Fire?" asked Tratev

"From what i remember, Phoeinx-class support ship, first MIA than lost with all hands, but no one ever confirmed its destruction" replied his comm operator

"LT... do you have a fix on their position?"

"Y-yes sir!"

Captain turned his head to Nav operator.

"Slipspace jump 30000km away from them" ordered Tratev "thats Phoenix-class`s range of combat sensors" 'if this really is Spirit of Fire..' "ship should recognize us and if they are in cryo, im sure they set systems for combat wake-up if they encounter UNSC ship.. or any ship."

UNSC AI SNA 1281-4 `Serina` was Spirit's Soul like cpt. Cutter said once, after few months of operating skeleton crew, Cutter ordered everyone to cryo, Serina to shut down in order to prevent rampancy, system were set to activate again if they detected any ship on their battle scanners...

Spirit of Fire`s bridge was empty, no power, only stars visible through window, then suddenly everything slowly came to life, first gravity turned back on, then screens turned on, light first turned to red, then to white. Inventor of shut-down system (although dead for decades) would be proud if he could see how fast ship came back on-line after over 90 years of being dormant...

Captain cutter was a soldier to his bones, his fight on Harvest, Arcadia and that strange Forerunner planet proved it, now he was waking up, although he was used to combat wake-ups that didnt make them any more plesant. He came out of his cryo pod and went straight to bridge, his crew following him.

When he crossed it`s doors, Serina was already waiting

"Serina, situation update please." said Cutter

"Im detecting one vessel sir."

"What kind of vessel? Is it UNSC?" asked Cutter with hope in voice.

" I dont know yet, Its not sending correctly UNSC signal but it is similar,it is also a little longer than prowler."

Cutter looked on sensor screen and ordered.

" Ship-to-ship, UNSC priority one channel, send hostile challenge and ID, then push it on speakers."

" Attention unknown vessel! This is UNSC CFV-88 Spirit of Fire. Indentify yourself or we will open fire." said Serina

Everyone listened, for few seconds there was only static, then they heard Human voice.

"This is ROA/UNSC Hope Seeker to the ship claming to be the Spirit of Fire please respond."

Cutter was stunned, `ROA/UNSC`? What the hell?`how long were we out?` thought captain.

"Serina, how longe were we out of contact with UNSC?" asked Nav LT.

"A little under 100 years Jucker." replied AI calmly

Everyone was shocked. 100? that meant most of their friends and loved ones were gone...

"Serina, give me direct contact." ordered Captain.

AI noded in response.

"This is Spirit of Fire`s actual, authenticate identity with UNSC recognition codes immidietly" ordered Cutter.

"Sir, im receiving recognition codes... their authentic..." said Serina in disbelief

"Spirit of Fire this is Seeker`s actual, Captain Tratev. Cutter is that you?.." asked strong male voice.

"Yes captain. What a pleasure to hear your voice..." said Cutter in disbelief."but i must ask. What is ROA? What did UNSC merge with?"

"This will be... difficult to explain and even harder to belief. I think this should wait untill we are in ROA space. What is status on yourjl slipcspace drive?" Asked Tratev.

"Gone" said Cutter simply.

"Its ok. We will create a slip space portal so we can transport you to UNSC space."informed Tratev.

"Slip space portal? Wont it tear us apart?" asked worried Serina.

"We made some upgrades in last few decades, mostly thx to Hyperion." replied Trarev.

"Serina, they really are humans, from UNSC. they mean no harm to us." Cutter looked at her avatar and ordered "turn us around, be ready to enter that portal when they say its safe."he truned to comm teminal again. " can you upload all records of what happened in the last 90 years to serina? We would like some answers"

" Dont worry, you will you get them all, along with huge promotion from Fleet Admiral Hood" said Tratev smiling.

" Hood is alive?" asked AI again. " how is he alive?"

"We have made some great stuff while you were gone, dont worry, you will get your answers soon, now begin jump. portal is stable." informed Tratev

When Spirit of Fire and Hope Seeker entered splip space, portal collapsed, they were unaware of presence of another ship which recorded everything...


Seprent Nebula, Widow System. Citadel. Council`s Meeting room.

Mordin Solus was nearing his 10th year in STG, almost at age of 31 he was one of the best agents.

All that didnt matter when it came to council, right now they were arguing about what steps they should take against this "new" race.

"Im telling you Tevos, we should capture this ship and reverse-engineer that technology if we want to stand a chance when that race shows up!" almost yelled Spartarus.

"And if that isnt a derelict ship? if there are still survivors? if we send a fleet in and they take it as attack on them - and it will be an attack- we dont know what are they capable of! for all we know they can take out a dreadnaut in one shot and just jump away! " replied angry Asari

"WE control Relays, so we can simply hunt them down across few systems, they cant leave it so..."started turian councilor but was interrupted by Mordin.

"Councilor, we did not detect any element zero on their ship, that means they may have another form of FTL without using mass relays." informed salarian.

"No eezo? 2.5 km long? No kinetic barriers and doesnt need to use relays? Is this a joke agent Solus?" asked suprised Valern

"Not at all councilor, our readings are accurate, we triple checked them."replied Mordin calmly.

"That only proves my point! We need to expand our fleet and we need more planets and supplies."yelled Spartarus again.

"We colonized almost 80% of known space. How we are going to do that?" asked Tevos.

"We need to open new relays and..." started turian but was cut off by very angry asari.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" shouted his fellow councilor " If we open them there is no telling what we might let IN."

"And what is better? sit here for next couple of decades, waiting for that new race to come here? What if they are like rachni? Did you see weapons on their hull?" asked Spartarus.

"Coucilors?" said Mordin.

"You are so ignorant, you would rather attack them without thinking, if this is not a derelict ship, they may retaliate!" commented Tevos.

"Yea, and you prefer to sit on your ass and..." started Turian councilor but was yet again interrupted by salarian.

"COUNCILORS!' shouted STG agent

"WHAT?" yelled angry turian at Mordin.

"Councilors, we scout ship near that unknown vessel reported that another unknown just appeared, unknown one immidietly powered on, after few min unknown two created a ... portal, which collapsed after both vessels entered it." informed salarian.

"THEY WHAT?" shouted all councilors simultaneously.

"Uknown vessel just appeared out of nowhere, after few minutes of obvious comm traffic between them, unknown two created a portal and both ships entered it, after that, it collapsed." explained Mordin again.

" What can you tell us about that portal agent Solus?" asked Valern.

"They emited radiation similar to wormhole." calmly replied salarian."so it is probably their way of FTL travel."

Council was silent for few seconds, finnaly Tevos broke that silence.

"By the goddes, what are those beings? No element zero, 2.5km ships and now wormholes as FTL travel?" said terrified Tevos.

"We need new new tech, and more ships" said Valern "we need to double our ship production and give more money for R&D. We must send more scout ships to look for new planets"

"On that, i agree" was Spartarus`s answer.


Sol system, Spirit of Fire, Orbit of Earth. November 20 2628, military calendar. 0400 hr

Republic of Orion Arm was a peaceful empire, but they were ready for war.

In high orbit above Earth, 2500 Orbital Defense Platforms were ready to fire at all times, armed in newest PER Super MAC`s and powered by their own Fusion-Plasma hybrid power plants they were able to fire Ferric-Tungusten-Eridium rounds with weight 12000 tons at speed of 45000 km/s, 3 RPM. Only one if them was powerfull enough to take down Ace-class`s shields and there were 2500 of them, each could fire 3 rounds per minute, that alone made Earth and High Charity VERY safe, add 1st Elite fleet made of 50 Infinity-class ships led by Admiral Lasky and ROA`s last bastion is impenetrable.

Rear-Admiral James Cutter was standing in Spirit of Fire`s observation deck, his spartans were sent to Infinity for new armours and training, as well as more implants, rest of his crew went on shore leave so they can see if their home is still there or their families.

Now here he was, listening to comm, still trying to take it in. He still could not belive that covenant races were on their side, he fought with them, his men died in order to stop them, and now they were allies...

He heard sound of doors opening behind him, he turned to his visitor.

"At ease Cutter" said admiral Lasky " you dont have to salute me or call me sir, just call me Tom or Lasky."

" Alright Tom, what do you need?" asked older man.

"How are upgrades going?"

"Very slowly" replied Cutter. "this ship is just too old, they cant find a way to install HL shields nor new PER MAC gun."

"Barrier, not shield. Well you have to wait some time im afraid, this ship is 150 years old." noticed Lasky

" It is, so what can i do for you?"

Lasky stood there for few seconds, then he spoke.

"I have a proposition for you, our Ace-class Super carrier needs a skilled and experienced commander and Admiral for 7th UNSC fleet. Most of our Admirals refused this offer mostly because they served in their fleets for decades, and those who would like to accept, are too green, this ofc. would mean a promotion to full admiral, you would be a commander of 7th Special Fleet made of: 1 Ace-class Super-Carrier, 30 Infinity-class ships, and 300 Strident-class Frigates, all have HL barriers and top-of-the-line PER MACs, Your flag ship would a UNSC Flag ship, 25km of pure destruction" said Lasky proudly.

Cutter looked with disbelief in his eyes, he was just a captain few days ago! Now they wanted to promote him to full admiral?

"Tom, im not sure if im ready, i was just a captain few days ago and before tha..." started old man but Lasky interrupted him.

"You are more than ready, your actions during Great War are all proof we need, you were ready to risk your ship to destroy that forerunner fleet." Tom pointed out "So, what do you say?


AN: Thats it for this chapter, ill add next one this week, it will be longer than this one, everyone is introduced so i can finnaly focus on main story, next stop: 2nd contact war. And yea, sory for bad spelling, but like i said- english is not my first language.

Oh, btw. Thx for follows, favs and reviews, more are welcome ofc. :)

Update notes: It has less grammar and spelling errors now, i corrected them yesterday but i forgot to save it and uploaded it without checking, so yea... now it should be a little better.