Location: The Grey System
Time: 2300 Hours
Pov: Third
"Its been so long..." A tall and young looking man summarized on the bridge of the UNSC Eternal Darkness, "too long..."
"Sir, are you alright?" a digitized voice asked him.
Looking to his left he saw the Eternal Darkness's AI, dubbed, 'Radio' standing next to him, the ship's AI was clad in a yellow 21st Century Hazmat suit and helmet, and when he spoke he sounded muffled, as if he were actually wearing an actual mask. The AI's voice indicated him as a male and sounded smooth, like a mountain river. Sighing, the young man asked, "What?"
"I asked if you were alright," Radio asked once more, 'walking' over to his Captain, Radio stood about a foot so he wasn't very tall as he stood on the railing next to The Captain, "Is everything all right James?"
The young man now known as James looked out into space from the bridge of his ship, the vast empty void of space was calming, yet frightening, "I'm just wondering why."
Radio crossed his arms and tilted his helmet, "Why what?"
"Why am I the captain of this ship?" James asked, turning to face the AI. His features were troubled, his once bright green eyes looked tired and his brown hair was unkempt, evidenced by the few strands the hung in front of his eyes. His uniform was wrinkled in places and his breathing was slightly labored, "Am I not a little bit young to be taking on this responsibility? One of those damned Spartans should be doing this, not me. I'm barely out of my twenties for Christ's sake."
The AI sighed, "You're stressed, I know but you have no choice, you made a promise to your father... remember? How do you think he would feel if he saw his son gave up when his people needed him most, now of all times."
James looked away, finding more interest in the stars instead as he crossed his arms. It had been a couple of months since his father was killed by Covenant forces, a couple of months since he'd become captain of the UNSC Eternal Darkness, and it was hell. Something was going wrong every five minutes it seemed, and keeping track of the day was just as troublesome.
His father, George Conner was the original Captain of the Eternal Darkness until his death, and he left his crew and ship in the hands of his son, James Conner.
"I think he would slap me across the head and tell me to suck it up, like he always does." James Chided, smirking slightly. His dad would always hit him in the head if he ever felt down, telling him to suck it up or get over it.
The AI chuckled, "He was a jerk but at least he was a kind jerk."
"Most of the time anyways," James added.
The two then shared a small laugh, feeling a bit better then earlier.
But it was short lived as an alarm started to blare, "Sir! we have an incoming distress beacon!"
"Is it UNSC?" James questioned, hopping over the railing and jogging over to the comms officer and glaring at the screen, "well!?"
"No, its an unknown signal sir. Its not too far from here." The Comms officer replied, scanning the screen and making sure he read it right, "coming from the Void System."
"Set a course for it!" James ordered, going back to his post, "It could be someone in need of help, or maybe..." he stopped short, it could be anyone for all he knew. Could be some antagonistic forces, or maybe someone stranded. Maybe it's someone from Helios!
"Maximum power, going into hyper space." the officer voiced.
Before James knew it they entered hyper space, albeit there was turbulence but they entered safely.
Location: The Void System
Time: 2304 hours
Pov: Third
"Damn it!" a Tall brunette woman thought as her ship, the Normandy took on damage from shield failure, "Get us out of here!"
"I can't! Our engines are fried!" A man wearing a baseball cap yelled from the controls, he was busy trying to get the ship away from the enemy fire but it was hopeless, "we're dead in the water Sheppard!"
"Damn." the woman known as Sheppard muttered, then the ship took on yet another hit but that was just a graze but it was enough to cause the Normandy to shake, causing many who were standing to fall onto the floor.
"Sheppard!" someone called from the left side of her, she looked and spotted her friend Tali, an alien known as the Quarian, "we've begun sending out a distress signal!"
"Mayday mayday this is the SSV Normandy and we're under fire from unknown hostiles, we need assistance ASAP." The Helmsman yelled through the airwaves, he hoped someone friendly would hear. "We've lost power to our engines and we're sitting ducks!"
Sheppard nodded and looked to the CIC Hologram of the ship in front of her, "Who are these people?" she asked.
The Hologram depicted a ship, but this ship was huge, it was bigger than the Normandy by at least a few kilometers and was, oddly shaped. The ship had a peculiar design, an Isosceles Triangle with a rising tower section that looked like a command area of the ship, and the armor was a dull grey with dozens of weapon ports including six very large cannon mounts.
The overall shape of it was meant to be intimidating, but to Sheppard it was merely a shape.
On the other side was another ship, this one was smaller however. Colored a Red White and from what little they were able to gather from them before their ship was knocked out, they were a Pelta Class frigate hospital ship carrying two hundred patients and crew. The Havoc, from what the captain told them.
And at this rate they were going to be scrap if they didn't get out in time, as well as the Havoc ship.
"Sheppard! we have an incoming ship!" The Helmsmen alerted, reading an incoming signal from his radar system.
"Is it ours, Joker?" Sheppard questioned, she hoped it was backup.
"Unknown origin, the signal doesn't match any we have on record." The Helmsman now known as Joker replied, "they're approaching from the stern, receiving a transmission now." Joker hit a few buttons and began broadcasting the transmission throughout the ship.
"This is Captain James Conner of the UNSC Eternal Darkness reading a distress signal, if you can hear this please respond!" a voice called out from the PA system.
"Joker, get on the horn and tell em we need help." Shepard ordered, nearly falling over as the ship took on another hit, thoughts of who the UNSC plagued her mind.
"On it, ma'am." Joker hit the broadcast button and replied to the transmission, "we read you loud and clear Eternal Darkness, we're under fire from an unknown hostile and we could use the help." he told them, he waited and waited until they responded.
"We see you, and the ship firi-*bzzt*." that was all Joker heard before static interfered with the rest.
"Damn it! they knocked out our transmitter!" Joker bellowed in anger, now they were screwed.
Location: UNSC Eternal Darkness
"What happened?!" James questioned as he watched the fight between the three ships, energy based weapons were used and judging from the fight, the massive gray one on the far right side was winning.
"Transmission lost sir," the Comms officer told him, "looks like they were knocked out."
"What are your orders, sir?" Radio asked.
James bit his lip, "Hail the gray starship, let's see if we can't discuss a cease fire."
The Comms officer nodded and hailed them on all frequencies, after waiting a good bit they received an answer, "This is Admiral Tarkan of the Dauntless, who contacted us?"
"This is Captain James Conner of the UNSC Eternal Darkness and we would like to discuss a cease fire," James told them, a bead of sweat ran down his head and his body was tense. These ships were unfamiliar to him, he's never seen these types before and wondered just who they were.
"Why? So these rebel scum can escape?" the man dressed in a dark charcoal grey suit laughed, "you must be joking."
"Rebels?" James thought, there were rebels in the Void system? "No I am not joking Sir, both ships have been crippled and they pose no threat! Let's discuss this."
"You 'Captain' are interfering with Imperial business, and if you do not leave this vicinity we will consider you a threat and destroy you."
"Douche bag." Radio silently remarked, earning a small smirk from James.
"You have ten seconds to leave this system, or we will fire upon your vessel." The Imperial told James, his tone threatening and dark.
James had enough of this, "Look, we don't want a fight, let's ju-" He was cut short, as he heard the command.
"Time's up, fire on that vessel!"
James cursed his luck, the first batch of humans he meets and they're about to blast him to kingdom come, "All hands prepare for battle! Get into attack position and bring the shields up to full strength! Arm both the Mac and the Archer missiles, fire when ready." he ordered, bracing himself.
Soon a volley of large missiles headed for the Dauntless, a brilliant volley of Archer missiles were fired from the Eternal Darkness's missile bay and headed for the enemy ship. Hundreds of thirty foot long dark gray explosive warheads three feet thick, all of them primed and locked onto the Dauntless.
The Dauntless would have counter measured if the Captain weren't so perplexed by the Eternal Darkness's weaponry, "Ballistic Weaponry?" he voiced aloud, "so primal. Shields up, and arm the starboard guns to retaliate!" He got several nods, and one snicker as they prepared. Tarkan didn't think they would do any real damage against the ship, but better safe than sorry he's learned.
Once the missiles hit the side of the ship, it rocked the Dauntless and caused several people to fall, Tarkan gripped onto the chair he was in and grimaced as he heard the report, "Shield strength down to... fifty-nine percent!" one of the ship workers exclaimed.
"Damn it all, they have more punch then I first thought." The Captain thought as he stood back up, "fire back with the laser cannons!"
The quartermaster nodded and ordered his men to arm the cannons, he grinned once the massive weapons locked on and fired. Massive bursts of green flew from the Dauntless, headed straight for the UNSC ship, but before they could make a dent on the ship's hull all of the ships sensors and sirens blared, something was coming.
A massive hyper-space window opened up near the battlefield of the four ships, this one was the biggest opening the four had ever seen. It was big enough to swallow up all of the ships and then some. The field around the opening was a blackish purple that swirled like an ocean of darkness, "what the hell is that?"
"Looks like a hyper space window," On the small Pelta class frigate stood a tall male, he was a smuggler named Han Solo and the captain of the Millennium Falcon, "but... it's huge!"
"No ship is that size!" one of the rebel soldiers yelled, "it's... it's not possible."
"We just ran into several ships and factions we've never seen before," a young adult male named Luke Skywalker voiced, "I'd say it's possible very possible."
The ships began to shake now, the intense power from the window was enough to cause several power outages within the vessels. the engineers tried their best to bring it all back online but to no avail.
Soon something came through the window... and it was massive.
The front of the massive monster of a ship poked through, showing a jet black color so black it blended in with the space itself. It was bulbous and a bit curved at the nose, and its body was sleek, the more that came through the bigger it seemed to become. Eventually it exited the hyperspace window, and the entirety of the ship was in view.
It was outrageously massive, preposterous even. It was bigger than even Darth Vader's Capital ship, ten times bigger even. It was bigger than most that four ships had ever seen, the fire stopped as they all were speechless, words could not comprehend this possible new threat. There were no visible window ports on the ship's hull, but on the top, from what some could see was what looked like a command center by the looks of the purplish lights. Two large parts of the ship curved outward to the front in the shape of wings, and there were roundish parts jutting out in places.
What… or who is this?
"God," James gasped, his eyes couldn't get any wider.
"My word," Radio commented, "that… is one large vessel."
"What do we do?!" one of the officers questioned, his eyes wide with fear as he awaited his captain's orders.
James looked out into the vast deep space, but the ship took up most of it. He had no idea if their weapons would even work against it, and he can't see them escaping either or even winning. Could the MAC do any damage against it? "Jesus I don't know what to do!"
He wasn't alone however, the other ships were having the exact same problems, run or fight? Would their weapons work, could they contact them?
Everyone didn't have time to think up anything else as the space around their ships started warping, almost like an hyper space window was opening, but it was opening all around them.
"Sir!" one of the personal on the Havoc ship yelled, gaining the attention of the Jedi and Smuggler, "there's another window opening but…"
"But what?" Han questioned, his eyes stuck on the massive ship.
"But it's happening all around us," another officer answered, checking her computers, "something's happening an-" she was cut off as the ship's power went out and started shaking violently.
People standing up had begun falling down as the ship was tossed around like toys in a bathtub, the other ships were the same, all except the behemoth ship. Before anyone could decipher what was happening, they all warped through space.
Location: Earth, Mojave Desert.
In the Mojave Desert, a lone traveler walked with her Brahmin. Wearing rags for clothing and carrying a rusted pipe for protection, her Brahmin was carrying large bags filled with various tech she scrounged from a building some miles back.
She was a Prospector, scavenging for still working tech, chems, weapons and the works. Anything that could be sold at a high price, luckily she found some still working computers and shotguns.
A distant boom brought both his attention and the Brahmin's to the sky, looking up she saw a large light in the sky, "what the heck?"
Suddenly it exploded into five lights, each one shooting across the sky and getting bigger as they disappeared across the horizon.
One however was getting closer to the Mojave.
It streaked across the nighttime sky until it caused the earth to rumble under the Prospector's feet causing her to fall as it fly right over her, scaring both of them as it flew over the river and crashed in Former Legion Territory.
The Earth shook for a few good minutes, then stopped as suddenly as it started. Getting up she looked over that way, seeing nothing but a faint light she looked to her Brahmin, "well Bill, should we check it out?" The Radiated Cow mooed in response, tossing its heads up and down, "okay then."
The two then set out in that direction, maybe they'd find something interesting.
Location: Russia, Moscow
Russia, this place is the worst of the worse. During the war it was hit a lot worse than any other location on earth, massive nuclear missiles hit every location of the massive country, rendering the above ground uninhabitable. However, due to certain aspects about Russia, there were massive underground missile silos and bunkers and metros built that spanned for hundreds of miles, all the way to Germany.
Thousands of civilians and soldiers made their way underground during the war, millions live below ground and have been since it all began. Of course given the fall of the world leaders, and infighting between people several factions were created and run by the descendents of the old world leaders.
The subways of the old Moscow Metro serve as a home to the survivors and the factions, one of which we're focusing on. On the surface stood a Stalker, hailing from the mythical D6 bunker underground in the metros. He was one of the few who ventured above ground to scavenge for useful gear, equipment and supplies for the Metro, his kind are nothing short of legendary.
He donned a full military get up, wearing a gas mask and helmet, and heavy clothing with a medium sized ballistic vest and various padding on his elbows and knees, and a long trench coat. Next to him sat an AK-47, a rarity in the wastes of Russia surprisingly. Most pre-war weapons and vehicles are hard to find, though that doesn't stop the factions of the entire continent from trying to find and build them.
His name was Vladimir Statovsky, one of the youngest Stalkers alive.
He heard rumors of the Fourth Reich and several other factions had found blueprints of Pre-War tanks and jets and were seeking the resources to construct them. D6, his home had plenty of vehicles and weapons, most were rusted from years of neglect but the majority of Military mechanics and civilians are trying their best to get them in working order.
He wondered… just how long would humans be willing to fight a bloody war? It's been two hundred years, and the factions of the Metro still wage wars between each other. The Rangers only Ally is Polis, and even they are starting to become more of an enemy then most.
Their army is growing and the factions are getting restless, as well as the populace. Ever since rumors of D6's discovery started spreading, stations like Hanza and the Fourth Reich are considering war to take it. The rangers are not going to give it up easily, that's for sure. The Red Line is also at war as well, using their massive forces as cannon fodder and actually taking a better approach at training them.
Vladimir sighed heavily, "just like mother said, as long as there are people willing to fight each other, there will be war."
He stood up, picking up his rifle and looking out at the battered landscape of the surface of Moscow. It was torn asunder, the trees were all but gone, buildings slowly crumbled to nothing, bridges either destroyed or about to crumble, towers toppled, and massive holes in the ground leading to god knows where.
Vehicles were destroyed as well, it wasn't uncommon to see a few vehicles underneath rubble or turned over, or burned out on the highways and bridges. He had just walked through a plane's fuselage not too long ago. The passengers dead and their bodies still latched in the seats.
Vladimir started down the steps he sat on and started back for the outpost, a distant thud in the sky drew his attention up. Looking into the morning sky he saw a distant light, a small almost non-existent light, but then it grew in size until it was easily the size of a jetliner.
"What in god's name?" he wondered aloud as it flew over him, the very size of the fireball was outrageous! It shook the very ground and caused several weak buildings to crumble into nothing, some small Buicks exploded on the highway it passed over before crashing some three miles away, deep in the mutant infested city ruins of Moscow.
Heading down the steps he ran for the outpost, he get his teammates and see what's up.
As he ran the other two fireballs in the sky, were not fireballs, but ships. The starships from the Void System had been brought to earth, and were crashing down on it. Two more ships crashed onto the earth, one in the Capital wastelands just ten miles away from Rivet City, and the other in the wastes of China.
What is in store for these souls on board?
We'll find out…