Sterilisation 2

Aboard Covenant holy city High Charity, Year: 2546, 23rd age of Reclamation.

Hierarch's Quarters.

The Prophet of Truth awoke to hear knocking on the door of his chamber. He sat up and slipped on his robes. He slouched over to his anti gravity chair and activated it (Due to the biology of the San 'Shyuum, they always appear to be slouched).

Truth tapped a control and the door slid open, to reveal the Prophet of Mercy. Much older than Truth, Mercy was paler, almost gray to Truth's tanned brown, and had hair running rouge from his chin.

"What?" said Truth irritably. "The Unyielding Faith is on its way to Thunderous Conclusion's last known position. The Saruli System." croaked Mercy. "They report engine coil troubles, but nothing serious." "The Faith? Ah, the Recovery Carrier." mused Truth.

Mercy paused, and then asked: "Do you think the reports of the Parasite near the system are of concern?" "No." Truth replied. "And if there is truth to the stories, then the Faith can handle it." "A single Carrier?" rebutted Mercy. "A Carrier filled with the best Sanghelli we have." countered Truth. "I hope you are right, Truth." sighed Mercy. "I really do..."

Saruli System.

The darkness of space was ripped apart as a swirling slipspace portal warped into being.From it emerged a massive craft, a smooth, colossal titan. The Unyielding Faith was like any other Covenant Super Carrier. A bulbous head was connected to the rest of the ship by a long, thin neck. The middle section was a bulged circle, and it trailed a pointed tail that protected the huge engine exhausts.

On the bridge, Shipmaster Zadun Retonamee strode to the holo-tank. The tank displayed the relatively small solar system called Saruli. With only five orbiting planets around a single young star, none of the planets were inside the habitable zone, and the closest was a desert planet devoid of water called Saruli IV.

"Position?" called Zadun. The NAV officer, Pylar Mazumee turned and called out. "Slipspace jump perfectly on target Sir. We are moving into orbit around Saruli III now." "Good." Responded Zadun. "My complements to you, Pylar." "Shipmaster."

The bright light of Saruli Epsilon emerged from the edge of Saruli III and illuminated the Unyielding Faith, and something else...

"Shipmaster!" called the Ops officer, O'ran Natumee. "Picking up massive debris field on forward sensors!" Zadun turned. He had known O'ran since their childhood, and had never seen the aging Sanghelli so rattled.

"Spectropic analysis shows the debris to be of Covenant origin!" "There was an outpost station here. Could this be what is left of it?" wondered Zadun. "Picking up signal echo from the field, Sir. The ID is from the Outpost station. That was the station." croaked O'ran. "But the station would have had sentry ships!" protested Zadun. "By the gods, what could have obliterated it like that?!"

"Shipmaster? The debris trajectory shows that the point of the explosion was inside the station. It could have self-destructed." "There is no Human threat in this sector of space, what could have caused them to self-destruct like that?" Zadun persisted.

"Maybe mutiny?" remarked one of the other Bridge crew. "There was a large compliment of Kig Yar onboard according to the logs." said O'ran, peering at the Shipmaster. "No. Kig Yar are no threat to Sanghelli." deadpanned Zadun. "Still, Shipmaster, with no evidence either way, it is a possibility..." reminded Pylar. O'ran turned back to his station.

"Shipmaster? Picking up additional debris from two places near the station." "What are the IDs?" "Analysing... IDs are from two Cruisers. The Twilight Compunction and the Heretics be damned. It appears that whatever caused the destruction of the Outpost reached these two ships as well."

"Move the Faith into orbit, but keep clear of the debris. COM? Send a message to High Charity containing my report. We will await orders from the Hierarchs concerning our next move." ordered Zadun. "I will return to my quarters. Notify me when the Hierarch's response arrives."

END