Well guys, I apologize for the delay. School, work, girlfriend, friends, birthday, ect. Here is the second chapter, I hope you enjoy.
Act Two
//(Contact))%
UNSC Frigate Forward Unto Dawn, Starboard Corridor - Sheppard, not for the first time in the past little while, considered bringing out the lemon he kept in his vest to shut Rodney up. The little scientist was highly allergic to citrus fruit, and when threatened with one, instantly quieted down and became noticeably less aggravating. The excited McKay was chattering on excitedly, talking in annoying scientific jargon. Sheppard pretended he was listening, adding the occasional nod and "uh-huh" of agreement, while really focusing on the portable ancient data pad that he always carried with him, that functioned as pseudo battle-radar, indicating their position, mapping the area, as well as identifying friend or foe.
Oblivious to the team leaders nervous mood, the paunchy Canadian beamed excitedly and rushed into a room unexpectedly, startling the Colonel. Not bothering to hide the annoyance from his face, the Former Special Forces soldier glared at McKay when he caught up to him. John had thought he had noticed some movement that had not originated from himself, McKay, Ronan, or Tayla, but it was too quick and fleeting to really notice. It seemed to appear on the display for a split second, then it was gone. And it seemed to be moving closer. However, when the movement did appear, it moved impossibly fast. Faster than any human could move, nor wraith for that matter. His feeling of apprehension growing with every passing moment, he tried to move the exploration along. Rodney however, was not about to be rushed, and was bent over what seemed to be a computer terminal of some sort, and he was splicing cables in an attempt to connect to the system.
McKay was feeling excited as he finished the final splices to the system he was connecting to. When he opened up the panel, he was surprised to find it very similar to the systems used on the Daedalus Class Battlecruisers. It seemed to be a composite system comprised of very advanced crystals coupled with extremely advanced microchips. From what it looked like from a simple visual examination, he estimated that the computer systems used by the Forward Unto Dawn were incredibly advanced. In fact, the disproportionate level of technology shown in the computer systems and the actual power readings that he had measured from the sensors on the Daedalus was disturbing to say the least. Granted, the multiple fusion drives he had assumed the ship carried did put out a significant amount of power, probably more than the Daedalus did without using a ZPM. The question he had was where exactly did all of that raw power go to? From what had seen from the data streaming to his tablet from the orbiting Daedalus, there were no recognizable energy shields, nor any detectable energy weapon ports. From what he had gleaned from the data provided by the 304 flying around this hulk, the only recognizable weapons were an insane amount of point defense weapons. The only thing that was not so easily recognizable was a gigantic exposed power conduit on the bottom of the ship. It looked like it powered something huge, and he guessed that was what supplied the power for their capital class weapons. From what he had seen, the conduit could easily handle all of the power if not more than what the generators could produce, which in itself was disturbing, going by the fact that no weapon systems currently on the Daedalus could even handle a fraction of that power, let alone utilize it in such a fashion.
Then there came the question of defense. The armor on this vessel was centuries ahead of the Naquadah/Trinium composite that lined the hull of the BC-304's, and there was lots of it. However, the sensor readings provided no evidence of shielding systems of any kind, which was also disturbing. In addition, they found no evidence of a hyperspace drive.
Making a few more minor splices, the smug Canadian opened his custom hacking program he used for alien systems and began to access the Dawn's database, and quickly downloaded all of the files on the damaged system. Quickly making use of his homemade decryption software, his jaw dropped at what was being displayed on the screen of his tablet. It was what looked like a point of view movie of a marine with a Sergeant's insignia on his sleeve. As the two expedition members watched the footage, they looked visibly shaken when the view of the Sergeant gazed upon the assault of the Control Room on the new halo. Seeing the battle through the soldiers eyes, they watched in horrified fascination as he hefted a huge weapon onto his shoulders, sighted in, and shot a blood red laser into a terrifying creature seemingly straight out of a zombie movie. When the scope zoomed out, the awestruck pair saw something that made the scene even more disturbing. It was a fleeting image of a gigantic green blur, rushing into a giant installation with a hoofed creature wielding what looked like a blade of cracking energy watching his back. The pair were covered in gore, and the area that they had been previously in was littered with piles of mutilated bodies of the creatures killed by the Sergeant in question.
If at all possible, Sheppard was even more shaken by the short video, and without betraying his nerves, he looked to McKay and demanded; "What the hell was that?!"
McKay, his hands visibly shaking, looked stunned, and took a moment to reply. "I dunno John, I'm attempting to figure that out." In rapid fire succession, his fingers flew over the touch screen of the tablet computer, "that was part of a recording of the last fifteen minutes of this soldiers life. It seems a live stream was being broadcast from his neural implant straight to the database of this ship. The ship's files have him listed as KIA, as well as the rest of the crew, for the exception of these three entries."
John's curiosity piqued despite his nerves, he leaned in and looked at what was being displayed on the open window of the tablet. One was what seemed like a title, one was a first name with no rank, and one was what was seemed to be a coded designation. Out of every enlisted man and woman in the ship's database, which was rather long for a frigate, the only names that were not next to a big red KIA status were Arbiter, Cortana, and Sierra-117. Seeing that list made the battle hardened warrior's blood run cold.
Clicking the button on the transmitter for his comm system, Sheppard decided to regroup, beam out and decide on the next course of action in the relative safety of the orbiting 304. "Teyla, Ronan, meet us back in the vehicle bay. I think its time to go, I have a bad feeling about this place."
"Understood. We are on our way." replied Teyla.
Noticing at the fear stricken scientist, John roughly shook him out of his reverie. "Time to go Rodney. I think we have to re-assess the situation away from, well, here."
Rodney, surprisingly mute, just nodded and followed. The man actually looked like he was about to be physically sick. Not that he blamed him. John himself had nearly lost his breakfast when he saw those disgusting creatures on the video.
UNSC Frigate Forward Unto Dawn, Starboard Corridor - "Well, what do you think Chief? They obviously aren't Flood or Covenant, but they obviously aren't UNSC personnel either."
The Chief was silent for a bit. He was following two men, one who seemed to be a scientist named Rodney, the other was obviously a soldier, who seemed to be called Sheppard. John wasn't too concerned with Rodney, but he was a bit wary of Sheppard. Judging by the insignia on his shoulder, he was a colonel, and the man carried himself similarly to the now deceased Johnson, in the way that he kept a look out, and his eyes always seemed to wander towards whichever spot 117 concealed himself in. The two of them seemed to be heading towards the aft vehicle bay.
"I doubt they are Insurrectionists. They didn't seem to be familiar with UNSC technology, and I don't recognize their uniforms or weapons. Though I'm sure we will find out soon enough. Unless you have another plan, I think that they are our only way off this wreck," stated the Spartan.
"Lovely, time to meet and greet. You always were so good at making first impressions."
Smiling to himself, the Spartan didn't even reply, just followed the two humans back to the vehicle bay, keeping a short distance between them for concealment. Although he weighed around a ton in his armor, he was surprisingly stealthy in it.
The pair he had been following had finally reached the vehicle bay, and met up with the two other members of their team. The man named John activated his comm system and said "Daedalus, this is Sheppard, requesting transport back to the ship."
Judging by the looks on the team's faces, the reply they got was less than encouraging. Deciding that more information was needed before he decided how he was going to reveal himself to the group, he thought for a moment.
"Cortana, can you hack into their comm frequencies and hear what they are saying?"
"Already on it Chief. Patching through now."
A crackle of static hissed as the suit's comm system linked with the frequency being used by the squad he was observing, and suddenly another voice was heard that didn't belong to any of the people he was watching came in loud and clear.
"… currently fixing a bug in the beam transport system, you will have to give us about ten minutes until we can extract you and your team. Caldwell out."
"Cortana, can you trace where that signal came from?" asked the Chief.
"Analyzing.. Hrm. that's interesting. It seems that I did detect a ship approaching when I thawed you. The signal is originating from a vessel smaller than the Dawn, and is currently orbiting us. My guess is that the only way out of here, is with that ship."
Silently assessing the group before him, the Chief noticed a flicker of movement on his motion tracker located on his HUD. It seemed to be originating from behind the group. With a lightning fast motion, the augmented warrior drew his pistol and activated the scope in the general direction of the movement. Looking through it, he saw a pair of gaseous infection forms creep out of the warthog he had made his harrowing escape in and rush towards the backs of the unsuspecting group.
Sighting in on the first disgusting blob, the chief fired a single round, causing the Flood form to explode with a sickening wet pop. Less than a second after the firs shot, a second rang out, and the other form followed the first into oblivion.
Hearing the shots ring out, the Atlantis team scrambled for any cover they could find, and frantically searched for the source of the reports.
"Whose there?! Hold your fire!" exclaimed a frightened McKay.
"What was that I said about first impressions?" asked Cortana dryly.
Ignoring the sarcastic AI, the Spartan chose the only option he deemed he had left if he wanted a ride out off the decimated frigate. Emerging from his hiding place in the shadowy corridor, the Chief walked into the vehicle bay, putting his sidearm back onto his magnetic plate with a metallic clink. Walking into the middle of the room, the Chief knelt to examine the remains of the Infection forms he had killed.
Behind the Scorpion the team was hiding, John fished around in his vest for his small mirror he always had. Pulling it out, he eased it around the side of the tank track, and his stomach did a literal somersault when he beheld the scene reflected in the mirror. Blinking to make sure he his eyes were not fooling themselves, he motioned for Rodney to look at what was shown. As the portly man crawled over and looked in the mirror, his jaw literally dropped.
"That's him, isn't it?" John whispered.
"That's who? Come on out from behind that Scorpion so I can see who you are." said the kneeling armored behemoth.
With that cold order, the blood in the veins of the expedition turned to ice. Thinking for a minute, Sheppard slowly began to rise to his feet, when suddenly Ronan grabbed his arm and yanked him down.
With an angry look on his face, Ronan glared at John and hissed "What the hell are you doing?! You don't even know what that thing is!"
"True, but I don't think it will kill us, at least not yet. So we might as well go introduce ourselves and see what it wants." replied the Colonel.
"How do you know it wont just simply kill us when we leave cover?!" demanded Teyla.
"Call it a hunch. Besides, if it wanted us dead, it would have killed us when it had the drop on us a few seconds ago. And in addition to that, the Daedalus needs more time to fix our way out of here. So the way I see it, having a conversation to stall for time is better than waiting here for him to come to us."
Sheppard, again attempted to rise to his feet, and was not met with any resistance this time. Rodney and Teyla rose up with him, followed by a thoroughly disgruntled looking Ronan. Gripping their respective weapons, the group nervously approached the mysterious armored soldier. Stopping a few feet away, they finally noticed the remains of the infection Forms next to the Chief.
Finally mastering his nerves, Sheppard found his voice and spoke up.
"I take it that it wasn't us you were shooting at then."
Suddenly rising to his full height, the green giant looked at the group and simply said "no."
Sheppard and his team had come across many different things over their wanderings all over the galaxy, but this giant in armor was by far one of the most intimidating. There was no visible face to see through the visor of the helmet. All you saw was a reflection of yourself on the golden polarized faceplate. McKay especially was intimidated, as he made rough estimates of the weight of such armor. He estimated it to be around 1500 pounds at least, without counting all the weapons the figure had strapped to him. Feeling knots being twisted in his stomach by the results of his assessment based on those observations, his feeling of dread increased. No human should be able to stand up straight in such an armor suit, let alone move around.
"So, who the hell are you?" grunted Ronan, breaking the prickly silence.
"Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan-117" was the short reply.
"What kind of a name is that?!" growled the muscular Satedan.
"Well, what a merry group we have stumbled upon. They just seem so friendly, don't they Chief?" said a female voice from seemingly nowhere.
Startling the Atlantis team by her sudden insertion into the conversation, the Cortana chuckled audibly. m
"Don't be alarmed, I'm actually inside the suit being worn by Mr. Social here. I am UNSC AI CTN 0452-9, but you can call me Cortana." The voice said again.
"Well, now that we are all nice and cozy with each other, do you mind telling us what you were shooting at? Its obvious that this is your ship, or what's left of it anyway, so why don't you tell us exactly what is going on here, and maybe I can arrange a ride for you off of this wreck. Unless you have some way to fix this hulk." said Sheppard.
'Well isn't he astute' thought the Chief.
'What do you think Cortana? Can we trust these people?' thought John-117, projecting it loud enough for Cortana to pick up.
'I cant say for sure. I'm not too sure on the big one, that Ronan, and the Colonel named Sheppard isn't exactly a green horn. But I don't really see what choice we have. I doubt any interstellar taxi will be rolling by anytime soon.'
'Agreed, although I don't exactly like it. Out of the fire it seems..'
'Don't complete that Chief. Just remember to keep your head down..'
'There are two of us in here after all, yeah, I remember..'
"Fine, I can provide a limited explanation, leaving out the parts that are considered classified. But I think that it should wait until we are somewhere a bit safer. I'm not sure how much longer the emergency generators will last," said the Chief.
"If you have a ship, we can talk there. When we are finished explaining ourselves, maybe we can work out a deal that will benefit us both," cut in Cortana. "However, I don't think it wise to stay here much longer, because as the Chief pointed out, we may lose power relatively soon."
"I think we can arrange something," Rodney said, starling everybody by his sudden break from silence. Activating his comm, McKay contacted the Daedalus.
"McKay to Daedalus. What is the status on the beam transporter?"
"It's back online sir. We are ready to beam you aboard at your mark."
"Roger that. Lock onto Sheppard, Teyla, Ronan, as well as the only other life sign aboard and beam them up. I need to finish up analyzing the data I am collecting. It should only take a few minutes."
"Acknowledged. Daedalus beaming in five."
Sheppard gave Rodney a startled look after that order, and opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by the Asgard transport beam. When the light from the transporter was gone, the scientist hurriedly opened his pack, took out some latex gloves and a pair of plastic bags, and rushed to the remains of the dead infection forms. Carefully placing each specimen inside the bag and sealing it tight, he put them in his pack and shuddered at what he was doing. While he realized that these were most likely dangerous samples, the need to study them overwhelmed him, and so he decided to collect them in secret. As he shouldered his pack, he felt a pang of excitement. He knew that the "Spartan" or whatever that killing machine was would not let him touch those monstrosities, and neither would Sheppard. But he thought that he may learn something from them, however dangerous they may be.
"McKay to Daedalus. Beam me up when ready."
"I read you sir. Prep for transport."
To Be Continued..
Lol lol lol. Jerkwad cliffhangers. Gotta love em' eh? Well, I have some interesting lines for this story to go down are uncoiling in my mind right now, I'm just not sure as to which one I want to go with. So, if you guys want, post suggestions. Or comments. Or complaints. All help. All are fun to read.
Anyway, I'm off to bed finally. Its finals week, wish me luck!
