A/N; Sooo… yeah right chapter 2 already huh, so I noticed a few people asking 'Why hasn't the Cole protocol been done on the wreck? Well I am going to tell you now; the Cole protocol wasn't written until after the fall of the outer colonies, the Lowrentz, the wreck, was destroyed/disabled in 2526 during the second battle for Harvest, simple see.
Also here is a very important part-Spelling and grammar; While yes I'm not the best writer on the site and nor will I ever be but I do know how to spell and use proper grammar so I was quite peeved off when someone (you know who you are) suggested I should educate myself on how to spell correctly and used proper grammar. Also I did go a little bit overkill on the commas in the last chapter, I apologize. Now the most important part I am from the UK and therefore use the 'English' version of English, so if someone calls me out on how I spell Colour or something with a 's' where you think it should be a 'z' you will be ignored, however I am not using this as an excuse and chances are I have made some mistakes and will do again.
Okay rant over onto more fun stuff; I don't own any thing blah blah blah blah- you know the deal here, thanks to Just a Crazy-Man for looking over the work, and to Andrithir for having a look over chapter 1 to look for mistakes and what not.
That's it for now enjoy, but there will be an A/N afterwards to clear up a few things.
Medical bay-Goddess Sunrise-FTL en route to the Citidel-2153 Citadel Standard
Asri had been enjoying some peace and quiet away from the hustle and bustle of the bridge before she been called down to the medical bay where the alien body now lay, it had been stripped and defrosted, allowing Asri to see the alien first hand.
The alien was similar, very similar, to an Asari, the same facial features and body structure, by the goddess the only real differences between the alien and an Asari was the colour of its skin, the strange coloured fur on top of its head and the strange appendage between its legs, if she were to guess than she would have said that it looked almost like male Asari, if one such thing existed of course. The corpse also had larger and a more dense muscle structure further indicating that it was a male of its species.
Thedala Visin, the chief medical officer and resident Exobiology expert and graduate from one of the most prestigious educational centres on Thessia, looked at her and smiled slightly,
"Judging by the look on your face I'm guessing you've already seen the main reason I called you down here, along with some other interesting things I've found," Thedala started off, "Now the real interesting stuff is on the inside, well actually it would be interesting if it were any different from our own," Asri stopped dead in her stride,
"Well, they're not 100% the same of course, they did after all evolve on a different planet, so things like bone and muscle density was slightly higher than an average Asari's, small thing as well like their immune system along with its temperature regulation system, and a lack of eezo in body suggests that it wasn't a biotic, although I did find something interesting in the back of its skull," Asri recovered, if only slightly from the shock,
"Oh?" she managed to get out,
"I think it might have been some sort of neural implant, based on the fact that it was linked with its brain, but I'm no technician it could just be something to help the dumber ones keep up for all I know," Thedala finished, Asri was silent, the odds of a race that was so similar to her own, it was impossible, wasn't it?
"Right, have all the findings compiled into a report and send it to me, once all the reports are in I'll file it to the Council," Asri told her,
"Wait, the Council? I thought the Matriarchs decided against bringing in the rest of council after what happened with the Turians," Thedala questioned,
"Yes, well it seems they now know and that is the reason we're heading back, apparently they don't want us exploring without some form of protection," Asri responded before leaving the biologist alone with a dead body of a race that was uncannily familiar, just as the door shut behind her Asri heard Thedala say something,
"I bet the ladies just loved you huh, or is that considered small for species?" Asri supressed her laughter, just, before continuing on, maybe the teams translating the file they had recovered has had some luck.
Devastator-Bridge-Uncharted system-eighth lunar cycle 2153 Citadel Standard
The Devastator was one of the most powerful Cruisers ever created by his people, while it wouldn't fare well against the more advanced Council ships it was still a formidable ship, especially against unarmoured and unarmed freighters and civilian ships although it was a bit unfair to compare it against those types of ships.
Charn would never admit it out loud he wasn't one for mass murder, slaving he could handle but killing thousands or millions of people even if they were below the mighty Batarian Hegemony, that was why as he stood there, in the middle of the bridge offering a silent prayer for the millions that would have died on yet another dead planet they had stumbled upon.
Ever since he and a lot of other forces were pushed out of known space by the Turians roughly sixty years ago they had stumbled upon at least thirty worlds exactly like the one they were orbiting, it was truly a horrible sight even for a Batarian. They did however come across one garden world, it was obviously a colony of some sort but the defences had been minimal ground side and none in orbit, the rouge Batarian elements leader, Edan Had'dah, had ordered them to enslave the entire planet and they did just that, it took nearly two months but they did it.
The species wasn't all that special, their children were weak, they winged and made noise all the time, the males were good manual labour though and their females? Well they were just as good as Asari for the purposes he used them for anyway, unfortunately Edan had sent him with four other Cruisers to scout out a bit further than previous attempts to hopefully find more of the colonies belonging to that pitiful race, it would be awhile before he'll get to make use of one of his slaves again.
"Order all ships to clear the gravity well and get ready for another jump," Charn ordered and his underlings got straight to work, after all if they failed to do their job they were usually punished with a bullet to the brain,
"I'm picking up some strange readings from the edge of the system Sir, orders?" Charn weighed his options he could either; ignore it and get this assignment over and done with faster or he could investigate and find that it was probably a massive waste of time, it was an easy choice.
"Ignore it and get us into FTL, the sooner we're done the sooner we can go back," he ordered,
"Our FTL path takes us within three thousand kilometres of the anomaly," the sensor operator replied,
"So? It won't affect us while we're FTL will it?" Charn replied through gritted teeth, his hand twitching by his side arm, one he …procured from the enslaved planet,
"Not unless it emits a strong enough gravitational flux," the operator relented,
"Well then, get us out of here, NOW!" Charn yelled the last bit having lost his temper,
The crew immediately set out to finish their assigned tasks and not piss him off any further,
"Jumping into FTL in three seconds… two…one… now," the NAV officer called out as Charn sat in his command chair and relaxed it would be a few hours before they reached the next system… a sudden jolt sent Charn flying out of his seat,
"What the hell? I thought I said…" Charn began but he was cut off by the one of his operators, who yelled out in alarm,
"Three contacts, under four thousand kilometres distant, they have a profile of Cruisers," Charn like every other Batarian pirate/slaver had a habit of being hot headed and panicky when faced with an unprecedented situation and this was no exception,
"Fire on the leading ship!" he ordered as he got back onto his feet, just in time to see several mass accelerator rounds bounce off the armour leaving small but noticeable dents in the armour, more shots however hit their mark and small explosions could be seen and a small but greedy idea popped into his head,
"Wait! Disable it and then destroy the escorts," Charn ordered when one of the smaller light Cruisers, the Gutter, exploded,
"What the hell just happened?" Charn demanded, his temper was already starting to rise,
"The unknown escorts launched missiles; they impacted on the Gutter's barrier, but they still damaged her reactors, I think they might have been shaped warheads," the sensor operator informed him, just then the Devastator shook from kinetic rounds impacting her barriers, another one of his ships winked off the display,
"Blast it, destroy those damn escorts, NOW!" he yelled out in anger, the Devastator's guns quickly shifted their aim to the port side escort and let loose a volley of mass accelerator rounds, he had fully expected the rounds to smash into the ships armour, after all the leading ship didn't have any barriers so why would the escorts? He was poorly mistaken, the rounds dissipated against a brilliant golden barrier, the escort returned fire with both missiles and their own mass accelerators causing another one of his ships to lose its barriers and take some damage to its hull, and thankfully the GARDIAN laser system took out most of the blasted missiles.
The escort under fire from the Devastator finally succumbed to the fire power and its barriers failed, leaving its hull exposed to weapons fire, Charn let a small grin form after he was awarded with the sight of the escort turning into a scattering of burning debris, 'One down, one to go,' he thought to himself, the Harsa's Might had been pummelling its barriers with GARDIAN lasers and mass accelerator rounds and if Charn were to hazard a guess he would have said that it's barriers were more susceptible to the laser fire, although…
"Why the hell are their barriers stopping the laser fire?" Charn yelled in absolute rage, if he were a human his face would have been dark red and contorted, none of his men had the answer he was looking for; no matter he would just take his anger out on the crew of the disabled ship, the final escort finally died in a beautiful fire ball but not before finishing off the Harsa's Might.
Charn assessed the damage quickly before he dealt with that last ship; he had lost three of his ships to two of theirs, granted they were older ships constructed before the exodus but it was still a hollow victory, his own ship had suffered minor damage; a few hull breaches caused by those missiles, he couldn't wait to get his hands on those, he might even make that ship his on after he had captured it and enslaved it's crew.
He looked over the scans of the ship and saw that only one hard point docking station had survived his initial barrage, he cursed his luck; it would be harder to board the ship if they could only board through one hard point station.
"Get us in nice and close, use that docking station there," he said highlighting it for his pilot, "get the boarding teams prepped and ready to get us a new ship,"
"Sir, I'm getting a power build-up from the damaged ship, but I don't know where it's going," the sensor operator informed him and Charn let out a small growl,
"Is it dangerous?" He asked and the operator seemed to stammer slightly before a single bullet smashed through his skull, "Stupid waste of space," Charn muttered before moving out of the bridge, he would lead the charge onto the disabled ship.
As the Devastator moved into position the only other Batarian ship the Spoils of War moved into position in front of the crippled ship… a big mistake.
0442.32hrs April 4th 2586 Military Calendar- UNSC Light Frigate Gorgon-Scouting the Eridanus System-Bridge Log-Primary, Video, Spacial enhancement=True
Shards of shadow proof plastic flew through the air on the bridge, Commander Jones hung limp in her chair and Lieutenant Commander Davis' body was nowhere to be seen along with Lieutenant Owens, a single emergency light burned and tinged everything blood red, the only stations active were; Nav, Comm and two winking lights on the otherwise static filled Weapons station.
2nd Lieutenant Walters regained conciseness and quickly check himself over, he had at least two cuts in his forehead which were bleeding along with a couple of broken fingers that had snapped back as he tried to stop himself from smashing into his console, he used the first aid kit near his station to splint his fingers, a difficult task while doing it one handed. He checked his console and saw that the MAC had fully charged and that the Archer missile pods were open,
"MAC is fully charged and Archer pods are hot and ready to go sir," He called out, waiting for his orders… they never came, looking around he saw his Commander still strapped to her seat and then the rest of the motionless bridge crew, "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit," he cursed as he unbuckled himself as quickly as possible to check on the crew, hopefully they weren't dead.
He sighed only Commander Jones and 2nd Lieutenant Pangilinan had survived and even then they were both unconscious and showed no sign of waking, he guessed it was pure luck that he had regained consciousness, he moved to the Comm station and quickly said,
"Any fire teams on decks four, five or six report to the bridge," he looked about once more taking the carnage in before quickly adding, "any crewman who can get to the bridge do so immediately,"
He looked back at his console and saw that one of the enemy ships was almost point blank with the Gorgon's MAC gun, he saw the opportunity and took it before firing however he gave warning to the crew,
"All hands Brace, Brace!" he slammed the MAC fire control and the result was instantaneous.
UNSC Light Frigate Gorgon-Captains log-Audio-Transfer control codes enabled per MIL/JAG order TR-19248-P
Commander Jones is incapacitated and Lieutenant Commander Davis is missing, presumed dead, the rest of the bridge crew are either incapacitated or dead. I 2nd Lieutenant Walter, Philip M. UNSC service number-00932-2093-PW do here by assume command of the UNSC Light Frigate Gorgon and take responsibility of the actions detailed hence forth; Emergency bulkheads are in place on the bridge and the additional breaches on decks one through eight and elven through fourteen have been contained, decks sixteen and seventeen have been evacuated and cannot be repaired.
The Shaw-Fujikawa drive is inoperable; the primary and secondary reactors are also inoperable, the firing of the MAC spiked the primary systems and radiation containment systems are in effect. Cole Protocol has been enacted under UNSC priority order 098831A-1. We are dead in space and weapons are offline, the last enemy ship is attempting to board us but I have a plan… but I don't think the Admiralty will like it.
End Captains log-UNSC Gorgon
Batarian Heavy Cruiser-Devastator- Hard point docking bay A-2- 2153 Citadel Standard
Charn waited impatiently for the docking cradle to line up and secure itself to his new ship; he would kill every one of those blasted fuckers in the bridge himself and if there was a female he might make some use of her before killing her, those bastards had destroyed the Spoils of War as it moved in front of the crippled ship, on the plus side it had damaged itself by firing that MASSIVE cannon at point blank distance.
His fingers twitched on his gun, it was almost time, the docking collar was just about to finish connecting to the crumpled armour of the warship, when it did it automatically started to pressurise the boarding tunnel and then the doors slid open revealing the thirty meter walk into the ship.
He had expected gun fire to start peppering his forces the second the doors opened but there was silence, he moved forward slowly his gun at the ready and then he heard it, the sound of a rocket or in this case missile. Right at the edge of the tunnel, a large white tipped missile launched and headed straight for them, there was no time to react as the missile which only just fitted into the docking tube sored straight into Charn's armoured chest and propelled him back into his own ship where it detonated, killing him and every other member of his crew as the explosion ripped the Cruiser in two, the damaged reactors no longer able to be stabilised went critical and detonated as well.
The secondary explosions from the Devastators reactor blasted the Gorgon away and tumbling into space, the Gorgon had been smashed into a forty five degree angle away from the blast; this re-exposed every deck on the starboard side and sheared off its two meter armour plating like wet tissue paper.
Exoscience lab-Goddess Sunrise-FTL en route to the Citidel-2153 Citadel Standard
Asri walked into the lab to find it mostly empty, she wasn't all that surprised as most crew members had finished their shifts, however it appeared that Ashona was still working, she was sat at one of the many desks that cluttered the room, she appeared to be writing something down with an actual pen, but this was to be expected as she was trying to decipher an alien language, even with V.I support it was a long and daunting task,
"Might I inquire as to what it is you are doing Ashona?" Asri asked as she neared the younger scientist,
Ashona jumped in surprise and turned to face the Captain, her cheeks flushed from embarrassed at being caught unaware,
"C-captain, I- I was attempting to translate some of the alien language, so far though I haven't had much success, most of it appears to be numbers running on a base ten system like we do but even so I don't recognise any of the math used in the equations, i-it's incredible the way they came up with a math proof even we haven't come across yet," Ashona stammered as she showed Asri the what she had so far and Asri had to agree it was far more complicated than anything she had ever seen before except…
"This bit here," Asri circled a section of the equation, "it looks a bit like an FTL jump coordination equation only far more complex," Ashona blushed again, 'How had she missed that?'
"I-I didn't see that," she murmured,
"Not to worry, we all make mistakes, now why don't you get some rest and tomorrow I want you to try and get the translation software to get to work on that vid file you found ok?" Asri calmed her down before sending her on her way, Ashona hesitated by the door and Asri sighed,
"What is it Ashona?" Asri asked, and Ashona looked away and blushed,
"I-it's just I was wondering wh-why are we actually exploring this section of space," she was so scared she thought she would die, Asri just looked at her for a moment unregistering, before replying,
"Y-you haven't read the brief?" Ashona shook her head, "Well as you know Council space is getting crowded, that along with the lack of garden worlds in know space and the fact that the Krogan destroyed several during the Rebellions and then the Batarians following suit during the purge of 2092. Now the Matriarchs have been trying to convince the Council for centuries to allow an expedition into the Orion arm due to the higher than average amount of stars here and if there are more stars there is higher chance of…" Asri trailed off, hoping that Ashona would get it,
"Garden worlds!" Ashona nearly yelled, Asri nodded,
"Indeed, now go get some rest." Asri finished and pointed to the door which Ashona quickly retreated through off to her own quarters, Asri returned to her quarters soon after and started compiling the report for the Council, the sooner it was out of the way the better.
Office of Naval Intelligence outpost Trevelyan-Forerunner city-April 7th 2586
The Librarian sighed once again, she had been revived by the Sangheili, Jul 'Mdama who then had the audacity to bow before her and beg for the knowledge she held just so he could wipe out Humanity, the poor fool had been misled for so long that he couldn't see the truth even when it was right in front of him.
Then the Humans came to rescue their scientist and by extension her, the Spartans as they were called were indeed very formidable worriers and she wondered just how much the Humans had changed thanks to her 'meddling' and from what she had seen they had changed so much, they had a new form of government, a new military structure and most importantly they had new ideals.
They weren't out to conquer everything in their path instead they sought peace, unfortunately though they were still as violent as ever if not even more so, but what do you expect when you find out everything you thought you knew about your own past was nothing but a fraction of it and then of course there was the 'Covenant', a coalition of races founded on lies and deceit saying that the detonation of the Halo array would take them on a 'Great Journey', it was disheartening to see all she had worked for fall to pieces like that although Humanity came out on top once again.
But what worried her at the present was the current state of affairs in what was left of Human space, their own civilians were starting to rebel, again and the reappearance of an old faction of rebels, the URF, had the Human military at near breaking point, just two Earth days ago one of their scouting teams got ambushed and was nearly destroyed and if it wasn't for the quick thinking of a… what was the Human term?... ahh yes Lieutenant, if it wasn't for the Lieutenant then they would have been boarded.
Bu something else was amiss as well… where were all the other races she had catalogued?
A/N; So, what is everyone's obsession with making the Turians the bad guys? Also I did mention something that sounds like the Relay 314 incident, but do not mistake this as the Systems Alliance, they don't exist, also ONI will not be the cause of Cerberus, I'll leave you to guess who is.
Also if you don't think what happens to the Gorgon is realistic than I suggest you read up on the Callisto incident, it isn't the same but it's pretty close. Now the Wreck mentioned in the first chapter was a UNSC Destroyer, if you read the bit in bold above it you would know that, so a UNSC Destroyer is around 550-600 meters long, that is a Cruiser by Citadel Ship standards. Also what i mean by the Exodus for the Batarians will be sorted next chapter.
I think that's everything so I'll see you after the weekend and a happy "end of the world."