Chapter 4

Return of the Swarm part 4


Planet Reach

Epsilon Eridani system

January 5th Wednesday

A TV screen turned on showing a pair of news reporters with the words Reach, News, Network, abbreviated behind them.

"Good morning everyone." the female reporter greated . "Cathy Moores and Richard Samson here bringing you a special and alarming report today concerning something we all knew was coming."

"Quit right Cathy. We've received word from the UNSCDF and from a few eyewitness accounts that."Richard took a deep breath for dramatic effect. "On January second 12:45 PM Gamma station was attacked By Zerg forces."

"Humanity knew that this day was coming ever since the empress of the Zerg said after two hundred years the swarm would return," Cathy said reminding people of the events during the closing of the last war with the Zerg.

"True Cathy. Now the question is how is the Government and UNSC going to handle this?. To answer that question we have none other then Aliasse Irving the Observer of Reach here with us today.

The screen paned out showing Aliasse sitting in a chair beside Cathy and Richard's desk.

"Im happy to be here today miss Cathy mister Richard," greeted Aliasse.

"No its us whose honored to have someone so esteemed here with us." Richard said. " Anyone who's read a history book has heard of you and your part in the first Zerg war two hundred years ago."

"That's right your the only one alive today whose actually seen and fought against Zerg," said Cathy.

The information concerning Aliasse and her immortality has been common knowledge for a long time as the shock of her very existence has come and gone for a few hundred years now.

Aliasse blushed with a sighing at her own troublesome renown.

"Miss Aliasse tell us how do think the Zerg will attack next. I doubt the Zerg swarm would just attack one station and retreat?" Richard asked.

"Your right."Aliasse answered." The Zerg wouldn't attack once and leave that attack was meant to probe and test the defensive capabilities of Reach."

"So we can expect another attack soon?" Cathy asked.

"Yes and a much larger one. A few days ago I was in a conference with president Hargress and the heads of the UNSC, UNSCDF and ONI discussing the matter and we believe the Zerg forces will attempt to land ground forces in major city's or in rural areas with less defenses," explained Aliasse.

"I see and have the Government and military come up with a strategy to counter the Zerg attack?" Cathy asked.

"Yes. Recently promoted Fleet Admiral Louis Teodor has made a plan to counter the Zerg attack however i'm not ably to share any of that with you as there may be Zerg spies on Reach watching this broadcast or the Zerg could be waiting out there somewhere in the outer starsystem listening to the transmission.

Both news reporter's got shocked expression on their faces as they shared a glance with each other.

Do you mean to tell us that Zerg could be on Reach already?!" Cathy asked with a concerned expression.

"Yes I wouldn't put it past them considering their FTL warp jumping abilities," Aliasse explained.

"If they have that ability then why don't they just use this warp jumping ability to deploy their forces right on top of Reaches capital?" asked Richard.

"Remember that the zerg are attacking to force humanity to evolve so they would have a opponent to struggle against and evolve to match. Evolution is one of the Zergs main objectives. Their just using humanity as a tool for that purpose so I don't think that they would launch a all out attack to take the planet however I do think they would take anything they can get if given the chance," Aliasse explained.

"I see." Richard said. "Miss Aliasse how big of a attack force do you think the zerg will attack with next?"

"That's hard to say given the lack of information. No one has seen the zerg in two hundreds years so we know almost nothing about how they have evolved and changed in that time however given that the new type of zerg."

The back screen changed to show a body of a Wyvern in the hanger of Gamma station surrounded by UNCS scientist's personnel examining it.

"That attacked Gamma station is based on the Mutalisk it's safe to say that they have focused on adapting to space combat."

Both Cathy and Richard took a moment to examine the frozen picture.

"I thought that the zerg needed us to evolve so how can the zerg change in the two hundred years that they have been away," Richard asked.

Aliasse saw where the question was going.

"That's because there's a special type of zerg capable of altering the other zerg like a geneticist who can alter the zerg on a genetic level. Date taken from experiments, combat and the tactics of their enemies is used by these... 'evolution masters' to alter the other zerg to improve their combat abilities or in the case of this zerg on screen create new stronger types of Zerg from old types. This new zerg which attacked Gamma station is no doubt based off a Mutalisk but improved for space combat.

"Thank you miss Aliasse for that explanation and your time here." Richard said."Now let's move on to-"


New Alexandria City

Public Apartment complex

The news casters continued to talk on screen as Allan his twin brother James and Dannie sat at the kitchen table in their apartment listening.

"Dannie do you think the Zerg will attack here?" Allan asked with a concred expression.

"Maybe. But the military and Miss Aliasse seem to have everything under control," Dannie replied continuing to watch the tv.

"Hay Dannie you think miss Aliasse will fight the zerg?" James asked as he took another bit of his food.

"I don't know," Dannie replied shuddering on the inside from the memory of the few times Aliasse had him and the others fight her in training match's which always ended with all six of them getting a few broken bones or at least some cuts and bruises.

"Hay Dannie when will we start that testing your dad told us about?" James asked.

"Yeah we want to get back home as fast as possible," Allan added.

Dannie took one final spoon full of his food and got up taking his empty plate to the sink a little fed up with the two boys pestering him. "I don't know he said he wanted to give us a few days to settle into the new apartment,"

Just then the front door bell ringed and the face of Dannie's father displayed on the door.

"Hello I hope im not intruding," Markus asked.

"Door open!," Dannie ordered, the front door on command unlocked and opened. "No your not intruding dad but why are you here I would have thought you would have sent one of your men over to pick us up?,"

Dannie had a genuine expression of shook at the fact his workaholic dad was here in person.

"Well it's not like the company will fall apart if im gone a little bit. Besides your are my work now and my son. Miss Aliasse also told me that people like you could be the future of the human race so..."

"And your drooling over the opportunity to research our powers," Dannie said in a tone of disregard for his fathers company.

"Hardly."Markus rebuked. "People with you abilities are simply too rare to do anything other then to perform research into the nature of your Psionics."

Dannie gave a sigh as the twins watched the father son argument. "Yeah well that may change miss Aliasse said that many more people could awaken to their abilities in the near future."

"Yes but still I think it will continue to be a rear ability few are born with. Also its time to start the first group of tests. It took longer then expected to prepare the test chamber."

"Fine lets go. Allan. James. Put your plates in the dishwasher, and get your coats on let's go."

The drive from the apartment complex to Horizon HQ was through half the city and the twins kept looking out the SUVs windows at the falling snow covering the massive sky-scrappers and city gardens with some of the lakes freezing over. Winter was a little longer on Reach then Earth so it would probably last another two months.


Horizon company Reach branch HQ

Horizon tower

Testing floor 25

Dannie and the twins were given a few dozen subdermal medical sensors across their bodies along with a injection of medical scanning nanobots before being taken to a large clean white chamber that looked like it took up one whole floor of the building, they could only imagine what was tested in here before they arrived.

~Hello Dannie, Allan, James my name's Alice. Me and some of my partners will be overseeing your test. We'll begin with something simple,~ Alice said over the intercom.

Dannie felt the urge to just read the minds of the people watching him from the hidden room and learn what the test was but he thought better and it wouldn't be as interesting if he knew what was coming. Suddenly the floor split open and a maze like pattern of walls spread across the chamber separating the three boys.

"James!"

"Allan!"

The twins shouted to each other at the sudden seperation.

~Don't be nervous it's just a maze." Alice reassured. "The end goal of this test is to get to the end of the maze in 30 minutes without being caught by the guards. You'll get more points for the more of you who reach the end goal.~

"And let me guess the more points we get the more money we get paid," Dannie yealled.

~Yes that is correct.~

"Well lets get going! im good with mazes," James said remembering he was good at finding his way back to camp whenever he and Allan explored the forest on mount Menachite.

"Hold on you two don't go running off yet. Let me see something first," Dannie projected to the twins. He then expanded his perception of the area sensing the minds of the humans around him but other then the people in the control room a floor above them he didn't feel anything in the maze.

"Hmph clever." Dannie thought. "Hey lady the guards in the maze are robots aren't they," he yelled.

Yes and they function on their own so you can't read their minds. Or ours were only monitoring your vitals so reading our minds wouldn't get you a view of the maze and besides its randomly generated,~ Alice explained.

So no cheating Dannie,~ Markus voice said over the intercom.

"Great my dads watching to!" Dannie thought as he got back to the task at hand.

Dannie switched to another of his powers sensory field, some thing Aliasse thought him. Dannies sense of touch expanded to the whole room feeling its curves, walls, floor and the humanoid robots waiting throughout its maze of walls. It wasn't the best as he was still developing the psionic sense abilities.

"James move forward and turn left then continue straight and stop," Dannie instructed.

"Ok" he said.

James followed the instructions stopping at a T intersection.

"Now Allan move ahead and to the right," Dannie projected.

Dannie continued to lead the two brothers through the maze while he moved with them off and on staying in one place to focus. Eventually they entered the areas patrolled by the guard-bots walking the halls of the maze in a repeating pattern but the pattern changed every five minutes making Dannies job even harder but after a few close calls as when James was spotted and chased by one of the robots but thanks to Dannie leading him a he manged to escape by jumping over a gap in the ground the robot couldn't get across. After that the speed of the bots increased, making Dannie struggle to coordinate the twins. But eventually the three of them got to the end and exited the maze even though they had a dozen of the bots chasing them by the end.

"Shut the door! shut the door!" Allan yelled as Dannie just grabbed the door slamming it shut in the face of the robots.

There was a buzzer sound and the maze lowered back into the floor with the robots all just standing around in the vast open room with the boys.

~Good work that's the end of this test let's move one to the next shall we.~

The boys sighed in part joy to be done with the test and part frustration at the next test thrown at them.

The room changed again this time into a obstacle course and the robots lined up in-front of the boys.

~The next test is to make the robots run the obstacle course three times in the next ten minutes,~ Alice said.

"James. Allan. This is your specialty but try not to explode the robots," Dannie said.

"All right im first," Allan said as he touched one of the robots carefully infusing it with psionic energy so it doesn't go boom. Allan felt the robot like it was another part of his body his level of control over object's he infused had greatly increased thanks to his time in Aliasse's training camp.

The robots body jerked as it was puppetered and then marched along the obstacle course climbing over walls under blocks and across elevated walkways moving slowly and with deliberate moments. Allan watched the whole time imagining that it was him moving. It only took seven minutes to run the whole course.

~Good. On to the next test,~ Alice said in a cherry tone as the room changed again twelve towers rose up all over the room with a double layered wall erected around the boys.

~This one is simple just blow up the towers,~ Alice said.

"Ok my turn," James said enthusiastically.

He ran around the room placing his hand on the base of the towers for a few moments one after the other as he ran around the room eventually looping back to Dannie and Allan waiting at the far side. James then gave a smile as he held his hand up and snapped his fingers. Simultaneously all the towers exploded scattering dabries all over the room.

In the observation room Markus and the other scientist reading through the date were all glad they made the walls double thickness.

"Glad we only made them out of graphene," said Markus as Alice shook her head up and down in silent agreement.

Behind them stood a lone woman with dark blue hair her eyes a deep green with tiny a psionic glow of purple mixed in.

"Well it seems Aliasse is a good teacher," commented Ellen.

Ellen despite being away for two hundred years has maintained a controlling hold on horizon company and through them she's keeped a eye on humanity and their progress.

"Markus it's quit the surprise for your own son to be born with psionic abilities," Ellen stated with curiosity.

The CEO turned around taking a few steps to his unofficle boss with a look of concern on his face. "Uh yes it's quite the surprise."

Ellen tilted her head at him. "Oh don't worry I don't have any plans for your son or any of the others kids. I'm just a observer here like I told Aliasse. What happens next is up to the UNSC forces and the two brood queens leading the Zerg forces. Although I can say that they will only target one city and not build a hive cluster. I gave them strict order's" Ellen projected keeping her words silent from the scientists in the room.

Markus gave a relieved sigh at those words. Still the fact he had a zerg worm in his brain like all other Horizon company CEOs before him was still a little annoying. The parasite was a new type that could be transferred from one person to another and for the last 188 years it had been in the heads of many previous CEOs keeping a direct line to Ellen who liked keeping an eye on the Horizon company and it activities.

"Anyway i've seen enough i'm leaving. I have a... meeting to get to," Ellen said as she left the room.

"Oh is your guest leaving sir?" Alice asked.

Markus stood straighter turning around trying to acted calm. "Yes i'm afraid she has some business to attend to. How's the date looking?."

"Well it will still take some time for us to make sense of it all but it seems curtain parts of their brain are activated when they use their powers. Their bodies also seem to react at these times as well."

"I see do you thing you can make any headway with the date."

"Yes but like I said it will take time. We can end the tests right now if you wise they seem a little exhausted."

"We'll let them decide."

The woman turned around and hit the intercom.

"Dannie, James, Allan if you feel tiered we can take a brake," asked Alice.

~No were good,~Dannie's voice replied from the speaker.


Menachite Mountain

The orbital taxi descended through the sky landing at the Amberson titanium mines parking lot its two passengers paying and leaving as the pilot waited for them to return after their business in concluded.

Ellen and Aliasse made their way to the mines main office and had a quick talk to the foremen and with a quick exchange of money he gladly allowed the two women to enter the mine with two guides. After three separate and long elevator rides down into the depth's of the mine they finally reached the lowest level. Then the four of them rode a small mine transport vehicle to a isolated corner of the tunnel network excavated through out the mountain stopping at a dead-end of an incomplete tunnel.

"Well this is it. End of the road ladys," one of the men escorting them said.

"Thank you for the ride gentile men but you can go now but be back here in two hours to pick us up again will you," Aliasse said in a alluring voice as she handed both men a few solid gold coins each."And do please and keep this a secret please."

"Uh yeah anything you want miss. We'll be back in about two hour then and we'll keep our mouths shut right Samual," the one man said as his partner ogled the gold coin in his hand.

"Huh oh right yeah."

The two men pocketed the coins and left in the vehicle leaving Ellen and Aliasse by the wall of dirt and stone.

"What?" Aliasse asked as she noticed Ellen staring at her.

"Oh It's just that you seem more mature and grown up. Tell me are you still a virgin," Ellen asked with a devious look on her face.

"Ug what!" Aliasse replied embarrassed at the question.

"Don't tell me you 'are' still a virgin!?"

"Ugh no i'm not. I've dated a few guys."

"Then who was it that popped your cherry?" Ellen asked again as Aliasse,s face turned a flustered shade of red.

"That's none of your business. And what about you did you *uck a Hydralisk," Aliasse said crossing her arms with a red embarrassed look on her face as Ellen burst into laughing.

"Ha ha ha ahh your to easy Aliasse it's just a joke lighten up will ya."

Aliasse was not amused and her expression turned to one of annoyence

"Anyway... let's get to business finding that psionic source under the mountain," Ellen said as she touched a button on the black and gold collar around her neck. Suddenly like a great wight crashing down on her Aliasse felt the full pressure of Ellen's psionic presence like a heavy rain pouring down on her.

"Eh... Well... I see that your just as powerful as before."

Ellen grinned as she lifted her hands up above her head charging up a massive sphere of energy the size of a small building then condensing it into a smaller orb and moving it in front of herself. Ellen then shot an intense twisting blue silver beam that cut its way through the rock wall. Everything shook for the full minute while the beam sustained itself before weakening, thinning and then stopping revealing a giant hole bored into the stone wall and continuing deep into the darkness beyond.

"Well after you," Ellen said as Aliasse took out a flashlight illuminating the darkness.

Both of them walked through the hole perfectly cut through the stone leaving a almost completely smooth surface. Aliasse marveled at the level of control Ellen had over her aura shooting it out like that while controlling its output to prevent a cave in.

After 10 minutes of walking the two Valkyrur,s reached the approximate center of the mountain and were nearly right on top of the source of the psionic energy.

"Your turn," Ellen said as she stepped back.

Aliasse handed Ellen the light and repeated the beam attack that Ellen had used but aimed straight down. Aliasse realized her energy output was a little to low as her progress cutting through the dirt and rocks was slower than Ellen's, show she increased the output of her beam increasing the pace of the progress until she felt the beam punch through something at the end.

Dropping through the deep hole both Valkyrur,s enveloped themselves in a aura sphere as they fell eventually landing without even as much as a scuff on their boots.

The tunnel they landed in was artificial with stone walls covered in odd glyph,s and other odd symbols. Aliasse ran her hand along the wall as they walked through the tunnel the symbols twisted into a spiral mosaic and vanising into ever-smaller spiral curls. The symbols were part of the rock, composed of glittering mica inclusions in the granite matrix. The symbols consisted of squares, triangles, bars and dots that looked like some kind of alien language maybe forerunner-Xel'naga?.

Ellen and Aliasse followed the psionic energy signature through a cave network, forming roller skates with their Aura to quickly make their way through the cave network otherwise they would have been walking for days.

Eventually they reached another stone wall or maybe a door covered in a spiral pattern of the same symbols. They started glowed as if in response to the two Valkyrur,s presence and a glowing white triangle appeared in the center of the wall.

As if drawn to it Ellen took a step forward and touched it and radial warm glowing white lines raced from it to the other symbols in a spiral of soft light and the wall before them split and parted into a tall hallway beyond that sloped down deeper into the heart of the mountain.

The floor was decorated with asymmetric blue tile's that looked like waves lapping upon a shore. Large symbols glowing softly of golden color were inlayed into the walls.

Ellen and Aliasse continued down the hallway going ever deeper as the environment changed into a series of holographic landscapes, a starry sky covered the ceiling with cratered moons. Along the walls bamboo like grass sprouted up the curved walls. The holographic environment cycled to a white blank moonscape contrasting the jet black sky then changing to a to a blasted volcanic landscape of fire and lava spewing mountains and even the wavering of the air from the nonexistent heat was perfectly copied by the holographics as the golden symbols remained along with each landscape leading them to their destination.

The corridor emptied into a massive domed room easily a few kilometers in diameter and covered in a blue sky complet with a shining sun and white puffy clouds that unnaturally shifted into pyramids, squares, spheres, and bars and cubs. They stood on the top floor of a dozen tiered levels that encircled the room with no railing. The floor was blue with billions of tiny tiles shifting and changing as though it was alive, Ellen was reminded of the way Creep tended to shift and move in the same way only colored a dark purple gray. Aliasse leaned over the edge seeing that it was a straight one hundred meter drop to the next lower level.

Ellen crouched activating her Null G power and jumped sending her selfe flying through the air into the chamber as thought gravity didn't apply to her. With a thud she landed softly on the lowest of the tiered levels. Aliasse harrumphed a little envious of Ellen,s ease of movement. Ellen stared at the faint flickering light and source of the psionic signature at the center of the chamber as though it was pulling her. As She continued to stare at the center of the room the ground shook nearly knocking Ellen down a pair of giant feet landed a distance from her. The giant blue form of Aliasse avatar form kneeled down putting a hand to its chest as Aliasse her self exited it and the giant hand of her aura lowered her to the floor and shifted to a incorporeal state and was reabsorbed by its master.

"Whats that?" Aliasse asked noticing a smile on Ellen's face.

"Something very interesting," Ellen said as she walked off followed by Aliasse.

They walked for what seemed minutes yet it didn't seem as though they were getting any closer to the center of the room but instead it seemed like they were getting farther away. Ellen stopped and looked behind her spotting Aliasse a dozen meters away to her right.

"Aliasse over here," Ellen called.

Aliasse looking a little confused quickly made her way back over to Ellen.

"Whats up with this room? I feel like I have vertigo, is it the psionic energy from the center of chamber?" Aliasse asked scratching her head.

"Lets hold hands for now so we don't get separated again."

Aliasse shrugged with a sigh but did as Ellen suggested Aliasse wanted out of here as fast as possible she felt like she was standing on the ceiling upside down but not.

Ellen closed her eyes focusing her senses and picked a direction, she and Aliasse turned around apparently back the way they had come. A few minutes later they arrived at the pedestal in the center of the room, atop it was a white fist sized crystal slowly spinning in mid air as its facets shifted and changed.

"Pretty... what is it?," Aliasse asked crossing her arms a little fed up with this field trip but at the same time now interested in the crystal floating before them and the structure that housed it.

"Aliasse I," Ellen said reaching out to grasp the crystal but stopping and pulling her arm to her chest. "I think this crystal is meant to be found at a later date by another group of people."

Aliasse glared at Ellen now knowing something was off. "Ellen what's up with you?"

Ellen sighed turning back to Aliasse. "Well... do you know about Parallel and alternate dimensions " she asked.

Aliasse raised a eyebrow "Yes?"

"Well... I think our universe is a... combination of different realities that are based on video games."

...

...

...

"What?!" Aliasse replied with a confused expression on her face.

Ellen explained as much of her theory as possible which is based on the fact that the planet Reach was originally from the Xbox game Halo and the existence of this room and the crystal is from a Halo novel First strike, and then there's the Zerg and Protoss from Starcraft.

Aliasse stood their just taking in Ellen's crazy explanations and theories on how it was all possible.

"Ok let me get this right. You think some... god like... interdimensional being created our reality by copying or joining realites from fictions together like some frankenstein universe?" Aliasse said trying to keep a straight face.

"Yes... it would explain how the Zerg and Protoss exist despite also having a game with them in it a."

"Or maybe latent human psionic potential in the twenty first century allowed them to predict the existence of aliens and they put them in games and other media," Aliasse said with a big huffing sigh. "Actually now that I think about it that seems even less believably."

"You just don't want the Xenomorphs from aliens to be real," Ellen said with amused look on her face.

"Yes." Aliasse confessed as Ellen placed her hand on Aliasse's shoulder.

"Don't worry if they do exist out there i'll have my swarm eat them."

"Thanks. Now what are we going to do about this crystal," Aliasse said as she and Ellen turned their eyes back to it.

"Like I said there's another group of people that will find it sometime later. I already have a good idea of who," Ellen explained as she planned for the future.

After that Ellen and Aliasse left the chamber closing the door they opened along the way and collapsing the tunnels they made erasing all evidence that they were there.


Aldiss city

Bradson high school

Kaelea sighed as she entered her high school building in the early morning. She had fun learning how to control her powers with miss Aliasse still she had her and the others do their school work so they didn't fall to far behind.

Kaelea entered her class room quickly noticing all the other students giving her a glance. She felt something like a celebrity after that incident that began this whole affair for her.

Afterword Aliasse had given them all a talking to although Kaelea hadn't a clue what they were told but everyone who saw her use her powers for the first time now always kept their distance and would gave her a look when ever they saw her.

"Hey Kaelea."

"Morning Tristen," she replied to said friend she had smacked months before.

Their relationship had been strained after that incident more about why Kaelea couldn't say anything about her having supernatural powers then anything.

Class started a few minutes later and the normal routine of school continued as it had since Kaelea came back from her time at the camp on Menachite mountain. Math, Algebra, History, Club activities, Gym and Exercises followed until Lunch in the dining hall. It was at this point Tristen decided to talk about what had happened.

"Hey Kaelea do you got a minute?" Tristen asked as he sat down next to Kaelea in a lonely corner of the mess hall.

"Uh high... Sorry... about your nose."

"Hey that was a long time ago you don't have to keep apologising," replied Tristen as he bit into his food.

"Yeah... anyway why haven't you asked about where I've been for the past few months, I know your curious," Kaelea said taking a bit out of a apple.

"Yeah i'm curious but that Darcsen chick and some scary guys in suits came to my house and told me to quote un quote forget everything I saw."

"Heh miss Aliasse,s scarier than those guys in suits," Kaelea mumbled under her breath as she chewed and swallowed.

"Huh, you say something?"

"Oh nothing. Anyway about you question I-"

Kaelea was interrupted by another student as she shouted to her friends to come look at the news on her NX Ipad 41000.

"Huh I can't believe this its so huge, everyone come look at this."

"Dame its as big as a few city blocks."

"No its even bigger then that, wait whats that coming out from its sides!"

"Those Mutalisk."

"No. My big brother works on Gamma station and he said it's a new type of Zerg based on the Mutalisk he said it's wicked fast.

"And there are tons of them."

The gathered students all murmured amongst themselves as they watched the screen.

"Whats going on?!" asked a teacher as he got up from his seat at a nearby table.

"It's the Zerg their on the news, their approaching Reach."

"Oh shit that's not good," Tristen said as he started biting his thumb nails in a nervous habit.

Kaelea got her phone out and called Kevin. Before they all left the camp they had all exchanged their phone numbers.

~Hello?,~ Kevin greated.

"Its me have you heard the news about the Zerg?," Kaelea asked.

"Huh Kaelea?. No im in the middle of class."

"Well their coming in force this time by what the news is saying. I'll call Dannie and the twins up so just keep yourself safe you hear."

~Yeah you too... by.~

"By." -click


Reach Capital, Esztergom

Office of the president

Cynthia Hargress looked at the image of the Zerg Leviathan on her window screen as it and a swarm of Wyverns approached Reach. They were still 15 light minutes from Reach but they have been traveling towards the planet for some time since their light reflection had reached the planet.

The live image of Fleet Admiral Louis Teodor appeared beside the still image.

"Well the news broke sooner than expected. It seems the massive Zerg approaching us doesn't mind being spotted," Cynthia said.

"Ma'am we'll deal with it before it gets to Reach," said Fleet Admiral Louis Teodor.

"I hope so but given its size I don't think that will be easy."

"I don't expect it to be, we are dealing with the Zerg," Teodor said as his image blinked off.


Reach high orbit

Combind Epsilon Eridani system fleet

Epoch class heavy carrier, Guardians shield

The image of the president winked off as Theodor sat back in his command chair.

"Sir we've completed the fleet wide systems check all ships are ready for combat," said Major Hal sitting at the navigators seat.

"Good tell Captain Laurencia to move his half of the fleet out."

"Roger," the major replied sending the message.

On the bridge of the Flagship of the first fleet The Valkyrur,s spear a new Valkof class battlecruiser sat Captain Camron in his new ship captains uniform, he felt a little uncomfortable on a ship but as the saying goes the best defense is a good offense.

The ship had just arrived from the sol system through the warpgate a day ago and was given to him by fleet Admiral Teodor to serve as the tip of the spear for the defense of reach.

The ship had a hammer head shaped front head, a blocky shaped shaped main body with two wings and a armored neck that connected the head and body.

Front Bow. 8 twin linked medium type 200mm rail guns turrets. 4 twin linked laser cannon turrets.

Starboard and Port Wings. Twin linked wing tip mounted Mac cannons. Wings top and bottom 6x50 shot Archer missile pods.

Main hull. 2 sets of 4 twin linked laser turrets and 4 sets of 2 twin linked rail guns.

Underside of Neck and main hull. 4 secondary hangers and 2 main hangers.

The Valkyrur,s spear is also equipped a special main gun mounted in the center of ships hull extending from the rear of the main hull to the tip of the bow. The massive refined Ragnite/Khaydarin crystal cannon was based on the same class off weapon used by the Marmota class ship during the first Zerg war.

"Sir we've been ordered by the fleet admiral to move out," reported Major Andy Rin.

"Ok lets move out then the faster we intercept that zerg the better," he ordered.

The fusion engines of the Valkyrur,s spear flared to life as it and its fleet of two dozen Stalwart class frigates, Halberd class destroyers and Mako class corvette's moved with purpose and a target through the blackness of space. The attack fleet accelerated as the crews of the fleet readyed themselves and their ships for the coming battle counting ammo, checking main life support and subsystems, sensors and weapons systems.

Fleet admiral Teodor watched from his command chair as half the fleet left Reach, making a silent prayer for their success.

In the Valkyrur,s spears fighter deck located in the ships neck the deck crews worked reading the longswords, Broadsword's and Saber bombers loading them up with ammo, missiles and making systems checks. In the ships cafeteria Red squadron talked amongst themselves and the other pilots as they remained on standby for any call for launch that could come at any moment. In the bridge Captain Laurencia keeped his eyes on the image of his target continuously updated by a long range comm and surveillance satellite that normally provides a link with the outer colonies in the Epsilon Eridani system.

"Sir we've received another update from the probe," Said bridge officer Major Andy.

"Good bring it up," captian Camron said.

There was a beep and the video changed again showing the massive Zerg beast and its swarm of Wyverns but now as a dot surrounded by a swarm of smaller ones that slowly got bigger and bigger until they passed the probe. The camera on the probe rotated following the Zerg as it passed by and became smaller and smaller. The image froze and a crewmen whistled as the readout of the creature came on screen.

It measured 5.7 mile long and was now less than ten light minutes from Reach.

"Calypso can you analyse the structure of the creature and find a weak point?" Captain Camron asked the fragment of the AI.

It had always been something of a hotly debated topic in the UNSC navy to put super intelligent AIs onboard a warship but in the current situation the advantages outweighed the risks and after Fleet admiral Teodor and President Cynthia talked it over they allowed a fragment of Calypso to be transplanted onto the Valkyrur,s spear.

"From my analysis it looks like it is heavily armored and armed although I can only speculate as to its armements however from what I can tell and based on date on Zerg Behemoths it looks like its a super heavy transport carrier," the AI answered.

"So it could have a army of zerg inside it ready to land on Reach than," Captain Laurencia stated.

"Yes however given the fact it's by itself it could also have heavy space combat and orbital bombardment weapons. Although this is unlikely it is a possibility and for all we know there could be a fleet of them and Behemoths waiting somewhere to jump right on top of us as soon as we engage this one."

"Bait for an ambush."Cameron thought. "Still we need to keep this one from getting to Reach. Tell me about the main gun do you think it will work on that thing."

"The Valkof cannon has a long charge time of a 5.2 minutes but given its test firing date it would at least put a crack or two in that Zergs thick shell. And would be able to hit well out of the Zergs range," Calypso explained.

Captain Camron felt his chin thinking formulating a plan given his resources, he then flipped a screen attached to his chairs arm rest around in front of him and drew up a new formation for his fleet. "Major Rin tell the fleet to maneuver into this formation," the captain said sending the image of his formation to the Major.

"Aye sir," Major Rin replied as he relayed the information throughout the fleet and sent a report of the event back to Reach to keep them informed on the first fleets movements and tactics.

The first fleet ships shifted their positions around into three concentric vertical circles with a few kilometers of space between each ship, the Mako Corvettes were in the outermost circle with the Stalwart class frigates in the middle circle and the Halberd Destroyers in the inner circle surrounding the Valkyrur,s spear in the middle but the rings of ships were not overlapping but staggered with the Valkyrur,s spear in the rearmost position the ring of Halberds in front of it and the ring of Stalwarts in the forward most position with the ring of Mako's between the Halberds and Stalwarts.

The formation made the best use of all the ships as the Halberd destroyers were best at sending lots of fire at long range and had good point defense. The Stalwart Frigates were armed with more missiles and were bigger but slower firing their Mac cannons and the Makos while lacking any large Mac cannons were superior point defense ships against fighters anything around that size range.

The rings of ships and their positioning allowed all of the ships to be able to bring all of their weapons to bare defensively against any zerg flyers or offensively against the large creature.

After twenty minutes all the ships were in position and ready Camron just hoped that his plan would work.


Zerg Leviathan

Nerve center

Navash and Niadra watched as the fleet of human ships approached them in their concentric ring formation.

"I wonder why they formed into that grouping?" asked Niadra.

"Perhaps to increase the effectiveness of their defensive and offensive weapons," said Navash. "We should send a attack wave to test them but we should not engage directly. The Leviathan will warp to the Planet Reach once the humans are distracted."

"Very well sister," Niadra replied sending a signal to the Leviathan to release the few Behemoths from their hangers in side the massive beast.

"Leviathan must survive or relivente date will be lost," spoke a Evolution master entering the Nerve center.

"Yes I,m aware. I,m not suicidal," Navash replied remembering that a few dozen of them were on board to observe the battles.


Valkyrur,s spear bridge

After a few minutes of waiting four large contacts appeared on the long ranged scans.

"Four zerg contacts at extreme range. Scan indicates... Behemoth class" yelled bridge officer Marlen Ashten.

"Where did they come from. Calypso?,"Captain camron asked the AI.

"Captain they may have been inside the larger zerg creature and launched after they detected us."

"Major Andy tell the fleet to deploy their longswords and Broadswords and have the Sabers loaded up with antiship torpedos," ordered captain Camron. "And have the fleet open fire on those Behemoths when they get into effective weapons range!"

The orders went out to the first fleet sending pilots across all the ships scrambling to their fighters, Red squadron along with their fellow pilots launched from the different ships along with the unmanned Wombat drones fighters all of them forming into dozens of flying V formations accelerating ahead of the fleet but a few miles away so as not to be in their line of fire.

"This is Calypso to all pilots we got four Zerg Behemoths incoming. The fleet will hit them from long range then the Sabers have their try. All longswords and Broadswords are to protect them as they make their attack run."

"Roger Valkyrurs spear," said Flyboy."All righ everyone you heard the lady nothing touches those Sabers got it."

~Yes sir,~ Bull replied.

~Roger,~ Shadow replied.

~Got it,~ Hashbrown replied.

The formations of Longswords , Broadswords, Wombats and Sabers flew to the right before leveling out getting out of the way of their own fleets attack.

Throughout the first fleet Archer missiles by the hundreds launched curving forwards as the Mac cannons charged up and fired the tips of the ships flared a bright blue silver for a fraction of a second like lightning in space silently sending dozens of car sized Tungsten shell's screaming through the empty void at 30,000 meters per second.

As they detected the incoming attack the four Behemoths instinctively deployed a defense screen of the new Zerg defensive breed named Starfish. The new zerg breed flew out of the Behemoths by the hundreds their saucer shaped main body tilting this way and that as their five tendrils undulated propelling them a few dozen kilometers in front of the Behemoths forming into three overlapping groups.

Their bodies flattened out exuding creep into a large shield plate that hardened into armor and was then reinforced by psionic energy transmitted to them from the Behemoths giving them psionic armor. Mere moments later the first Mac shells struck vaporising dozens of Starfish in the first and second layers but the third layer held as the surviving Starfish in the first and second layers closed their formations covering the gaps that were opened up.

Minutes later the Archer missiles struck the first layer of Starfish but only a few got through to the second layer. Then the Behemoths counterattacked with a swarm of Scourges each Behemoth launched dozens of the living missiles toward the human forces.


Red squadron

Two minutes later

"Lot of new contacts on the sensor's. Confirmed profiles of Scourges" Bull warned.

"Crap!."Flyboy cursed." Everyone pull your asses together and take out those things before they get to the Sabers."

All of the Longswords and Broadswords changed into attack formation as the Wombat drones accelerated to engage the Scourges first. The Wombat drones formed into a three layered V formation as they launched their missiles at the incoming Scourges popping the living missiles by the dozens until the two forces met. The swarm of Scourges tore through the drone fighters like wet paper as they continued their relentless attack but both sides of disposable units took damage.

The human pilots opened fire on the Scourges with everything they had as they evaded better than the drones. The two forces weaved through each other like two swarms of angry bees each having members of their group collide with the other but none caring or stopping to turn around as they each passed through to their own destinations.

~Hay Hashbrown you still with us,~ Called Bull.

"Yeah." Heavy breathing. "Somehow... got clipped by one of those things and took out one of my RCS thruster on my left wing."

~Hashbrown keep to the rear and defend the Sabers with Shadow and the others,~ ordered Flyboy.

"Sigh. "Roger," Hashbrown replied as he and Shadow decelerated to take up guarding of the Sabers with the others squadrons filling that roll.

"Bullet whats the damage?," Bull transmitted to the leader of the broadsword attack force.

"Well its not great we lost four of our Longswords and five Broadswords, luckley we didn't lose any of the Sabers," replied Lieutenant Commander Henry matterson call sign Bullet.

"We should be fine with the forces we got." Flyboy said with a sigh as he said a silent prayer for the loss of some good pilots.

Red squadron and the rest of their forces continued their attack run on the Behemoth's quickly closing the distance and flanking the Behemoths from the sides.

~Contact we got Wyverns,~ someone callout.

~All squadrons clear the way for the Sabers,~ ordered Bullet.

All the surviving Longsword and Broadswords Fighters accelerated towards the incoming threats launching missiles and firing their guns. The melee space battle was and intense one as the UNSC and Zerg forces engaged flying in all direction as every individual picked their own targets and attacked.

Broadsword fighters launched their swarmer micro-missiles as the Longswords ripped through the zerg with their ventral mounted rail guns. Wyverns fired their micro-glaives and shot their spines, each side maneuvering to get a advantedge over the other but the pitched fight between the fighters was a good distraction for the Sabers and their escorts.

"I hope they get out of that alive," Hashbrown mused as him the the Sabers and their other Longsword escorts all banked hard right at the Behemoths now only twenty kilometers away. The Sabers took point ahead of their Longsword guards and took a moment to target the Behemoths with their targeting systems and with silent motions each Saber let loose four AS/Yaeger anti-ship missiles.

All 32 missiles flew through the gap between them and their targets quickly reaching their maximum velocity and striking the four behemoths in a hypervelocity barrage of Neosteel and plasma explosion that vaporized small patches of the Behemoths psi-armor carapace but otherwise doing little damage.

"Shit Their tough bastards" yelled the Saber flights leader Marcus Anders callsign Hound. "Ok time to use the Shivas Make sure to remove the safety's before you launch."

With the orders given the co-pilots of the Sabers quickly typed in the safety disengaging code to arm the type1 Shiva-class fusion Missiles that hung underneath each Saber bomber.

The missiles launched and the Sabers with their Longsword guards turned around flying back towards their home fleet to avoid the small star bursts that were to erupt.

The Missiles flew true and impacted the Behemoths creating for but a few seconds a quartet of small suns that burned through the black of night.


Valkyrur,s spear bridge

Captain Laurencia watched intently as the unfolding battle continued along with the battle of his own as the Scourges Kamikazed themselves into his fleet as their point defense shot dozens of them down before they even got within a hundred kilometers. It took a few hours but Calypso was able to write a new targeting program for all the ships point defense targeting systems increasing their hit rate against the swift Zerg.

However the Zerg were ever adapting and changed their flying patterns adapted their evasive maneuvers to avoid even the humans defensive fire even if only by a few meters. A few ships were hit by the Scourges damaging a few main and subsystems but nothing a few hours in drydock couldn't fix however the real damage was the venting of air and a few crew members that caused moral to drop it was nearly impossible to find a human corpse in the void of space let alone in the middle of a battle.

"Calypso what's the statues of the attack force?" Captain Laurencia asked with a concerned expression as he watched the date screens showing the battle.

"Their returning from their attack run. But by the time they arrive we will be in knife fight range of the Behemoths," The AI answered.

The Captain sat up strater in his chair giving a telling sigh as he knew that they'll be at a disadvantage if they let the Behemoths get in that close along with the Wyverns and Scourges.

"We'll have the fleet make one more full attack on them and then when were closer we'll split the fleet up into three faster attack groups. One with the Valkyrur's spear and another two flanking to our sides keeping the other Behemoths off us as we charge the Valkof."

"Roger sir," said Major Rin as he relayed the orders to the other ship captains.

"Using the Main weapon?. It's still just a prototype" Calypso said.

"I know but since the our conventional weapons seem to have failed to land a killing blow on those things it's time to use the one psionic weapon we got."

The Valkof was unconventional considering it was made of highly purified Ragnite and built into a spiral lance shape that ran the langth of of the ship. It was a larger scale version of the weapon used in the first Zerg war only enhanced with a focusing system at the tip that allowed the psionic attack to be far more concentrated and amplified giving the attack more than a few light seconds of range.

"It will take five point two minutes to fully charge and fire and we have four targets."

"I've thought of that fact however I think keeping the Zerg forces focused on us will be smarter," the Captain explained.

"I know I'm not military minded or trained in Tactics so I'll trust that you know what your doing Captain," The AI said as she ran through hundreds of thousands of possible outcome's.

"Sir the Fleet is changing into their assigned formations," Andy reported.

"Captain the Behemoths have fired. Their attacks are slower than our Mac rounds but not my much," reported Marlen.

"All ships evasive maneuvers!" Camron yealled,

The UNSC ships fired their RCS thrusters just in the nick of time as the psi-charged spines streaked through the fleet most missing or gust glancing the human ships but two were not so fast or lucky as the spine's ripped through their layered Titanium-A and Neo-steel battle plate like it was tissue paper causing major damage on multiply decks and crippling one ship.

Both ships safety systems kicked in and bulkheads slammed down cutting off damaged sections of the ships from other parts saving many crew but also condemning many others to death in the air less vacuum that slowly sucked out all the air. If some crew members were lucky they would reach some of the emergency shelters scattered about the ships for such a emergency.

"Sir the Argus and the Valiant have been hit."Marlen reported. "Their reporting explosive decompressions on multiple decks and the Argus has lost power to her engines shes drifting."

Captain Laurencia cursed under his breath.

"Have the closest ships to them send over rescue teams and have them tugged back to Reach," Captain Laurencia ordered

Tugging is the term used when placing of carbon nanofilament cables onto the damaged ship so they can be pulled to safety. This is done by Pelican dropships and is used to pull damaged ships out of close proximity of other ships, space stations or docks. The first time it was done was about fifty seven years ago when a old cargo ship suffered a failure in its fusion engines resulting in it drifting towards a space station. Two UNSC ships nearby had their Pelican dropships attach nanofilament cables onto the drifting ship and hulled it to safety before it hit anything.

Crews on both the Argus and Valiant tried to save their ships but to no avail it was all they could do to save their fellow crew mates from the vacuum and plasma leaking from power conduits and power subsystems.

Dozens of Pelican rescue craft reached the crippled ships some attaching nanofilament cables and a good few minutes later hundreds of crew from the Argus and Valiant were transferred even as the fleet accelerated towards the incoming Behemoths.

"Fire!" Cameron ordered as his remaining ships now in three groups let lose another barrage of Archer missiles and Mac rounds once again reducing the number of Starfish shields but not all of them.

"Those shields are annoying. "yelled major Rin.

"Mac cannon's recharged in two minutes. Valkof charged in one minute twenty seconds," reported Marlen as the ship shook from dozens of Scourge impacts. Outside the fleets point defense systems filled space with hundreds of blazing twin-linked laser pulse beams burning through Scourges by the scores as quad-linked phalanx rail guns peppered space with uncountable numbers of simi-guided explosive shells and shrapnel taring through hundreds of Wyverns as they entered the fleets overlapping kill zones.

The minutes ticked by as each of them felt like a hundred years as the life or death battle continued.

"Valkof charged," Marlen yelled as the ship to the Valkyrur,s spear port side exploded from a direct hit to it fusion containment shield and filled the screens on the left side of the bridge with a short lived flare of light and fragmenting ship dabries.

"The Atlas has been sunk," Major Andy reported as the intense battle continued.

"The fleets mac cannons are charged," Calypso said her normally stoic voice now had a hint of urgency.

Captain Laurencia glanced at his control screen double checking the fleets weapons and statues the number of his ships slowly decreasing as well as the lives lost to this battle which is just a prelude to the real battle with that larger zerg beast. All of it urging Cameron to end this battle as soon as possible as the memories of his family flashed through his mind is wife Eeris and daughter Fabricia. With a resolved look he glared at the forward screen showing the rapidly approaching Behemoths each showing a distinct group of scouched craters in their chitin armor.

"All ships aiming pattern sigma! fire," Cameron ordered, Aiming pattern sigma meaning that all the ships are to split into firing groups and focus on two targets at a time.

All of the first fleets ships made minute changes to their trejectroy's aiming their ventral Mac cannons at the two Behemoths on the left even as they closed the distance. All at once the fleet fired a weathering barrage at the two Behemoths, Mac shells slammed into the defending Starfish formations vaporising dozens of them all at once and cutting through all three layers of defense, a few mac shells even striking the Behemoths themselves blasting bloody holes into the living ships cracking their armor and making them spasm in pain from the mac shells boring through them at such speed. A short time later the second barrage of Archer missiles slammed against the remaining defenses of the two targeted Behemoths reducing the Starfish's numbers even more but for every Starfish that fell it took over a dozen Archer missile to destroy it.

"Targets defenses have been broken but no kills," Rin reported.

"Calypso target the one on the far left with the Valkof. I don't want to miss," the Captain ordered in a more confident voice showing that he's gotten more comfortable as a ship's captain.

The AI fragment ran through the many calculations needed to hit a target going at that velocity accounting for the movement, speed, angle, of both ships and all the other factors that would influence the aim and then double checking it and all of that in the span of 421 milliseconds or 0.415ths of a second.

Calypso then sent the opening signal to the Valkof,s barrel the armored covering in the middle of the ships hammerhead shaped bow lifted open revealing the spiral tip of a Ragnite/Khaydarin crystal lance. The spiral tip and the surrounding half sphere cavity around it glowed with and intense blue light that only grew brighter as the final firing checks were completed. Calypso took another two full seconds to triple and quadruple check her calculations before firing.

"All hands brace," the AI warned the ships crew over the intercoms just before she fired the RCS thrusters rising the ship up a few hundred meters and twisting to the left a little dodging yet another barrage of those lethal spines that seemed to be able to cut right through their ships armor, this only made Calypso irked even more as she had to redo all her previous targeting calculations over again.

"Calypso are you ready to fire?!" Cameron yelled as he saw yet another of his ships get hit luckley it was just a glancing strike leaving a small gash on the aft engines.

"Yes!"

"Then fire,!"

Moving at the speed of light a spiral Azure beam connected the Valkyrur,s spear to the Behemoth as the psionic focused energy of the Valkof negating the psi-armor reinforcing effect burning a hole straight through and blasting a out the other end.

The Behemoth spasmed violently before ending it movement and drifted lifelessly along its course as it spun clockwise dew to the angle of the hit. The remaining starfish of that Behemoth and any Wyverns abandoned it for another Behemoth now that their master was dead. The three remaining Behemoths broke away turning at such a hard angle that it would have torn a UNSC ship in half from the stress as they evaded the approaching UNSC ships. Captain Cameron gave a relived sigh as he sat back into his chair as he watched the dead Behemoth drift lifelessly.

"The remaining three Behemoths are retreating," Marlen reported more High-spirited.

"Have the fleet pursue and keep the pressure on them while we hang back and recharge the Valkof," Cameron ordered.

"Sir were getting a urgent call from Fleet Admiral Teodor," Major Marlen reported.

"Put him through."

The forward screen split in two one showing the Fleet admiral.

"Captain Laurencia report," the Fleet Admiral asked with a stern face indicating that something was not right.

"Fleet admiral we've just used the Valkof to kill one of the Behemoths and the other three are running. We are pursuing and-"

The Captain said with glee but was cut off by the hard truth that the fleet admiral had.

"I'm glad the Valkof works but you are to end your pursuit of the Behemoths and return to Reach immediately. The Larger Zerg ship just appeared over the planet on the opposite side from Gamma station and launched what we can only call troop drop pods to the surface right on top of New Alexandria there's already high casualties among the civilians and the UNSCDF ground forces have been deployed but they'll be over wellmed if we don't do something about that Zerg ship hovering over the city."

The fleet admirals words hit Cameron like a tone of bricks as his family lives just a town just a few miles outside of New Alexandria.

"I'll bring the whole fleet and,-"

"No Captain Cameron you are to return with the Valkyrur,s spear only and order your fleet to continue their pursuit of the remaining Behemoths we can't let them rejoin the Larger creature."

Cameron gritted his teeth knowing that their will be heavier casualties without the Valkyrur,s spear to aid them but in the big picture Reach is more important and they can't just leave their rear unguarded the Behemoths will just swing around and hit them. "Ok Admiral I'll be back as fast as possible."

"Good well be waiting for you. Admiral Teodor out."

The Fleet Admirals face blinked off the screen as Cameron gave his orders.

"Calypso charge the Valkof and prepare to fire, I want to take out one more of those Behemoths before we return to Reach."

Chapter End