Disclaimer: Both Halo and Star Wars franchises do not belong to me. The Halo series belongs to Bungie, or 343 Industries which Bungie created to take care of the Halo franchise. Star Wars belongs to Lucasarts in turn. Any other Franchise I will add to this story will also not be made by me, and I will acknowledge them in turn.
Advanced Note: Due to the fact that this chapter reached 10,000 words, I decided to divide them into two chapters. Naturally, I chose the one that would make the best cliffhanger. Enjoy. The next chapter will be posted within the day or so.
Updated Note: I have now changed the original MAC yields from their Halopedia selves, to their Halo Encyclopedia selves. I apologize for the inconvenience.
Updated Updated Note: Ignore the last one. Everything back to normal.
"Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum videtur"
"Anything said in Latin sounds profound"
New Babel was, for all intents and purposes, one of the more lucky colonies the UNSC still had. During the Great War, the Beta Centauri system was never found by the Covenant, so it was continued it's existance unhindered, exporting goods and very nice vintage wine to the rest of the surviving human colonies. The Pacification War also went by without the Jirilhanae fighting them, due to the near zero amount of tactical benefit to be had and the fact that it was too isolated to act as a demonstration of Jirilhanae supremacy. Which, some have said, insured the war went on longer than it should have. Every ship captain that found their supply of fine vintage red wine cut off would have fought with the determination of demons to make the Jirilhanae pay for their transgression. Double for the Admirals.
In any case, New Babel was selected by the Humint Institute of Psychology to embark upon their most ambitious experiment yet. It would be one of 7 planets to become a mixed species colony, both an example to both the UNSC and the Federation that the past could be successfully buried, and an experiment to see how large populations of mixed species interact.
The reasoning for New Babel was easy enough. It was isolated, and had never met and Alien Fleet that attempted to glass it from either the Great War, or the Pacification War. As such, the only knowledge the inhabitants had of the Covenant was the numbers of dead, and the occasional picture or video that went pass the ONI censors. Even then however, Humint agreed that the human mind simply could not grasp 23 billion people dead. It was too large for a human being to comprehend. Sure, some people might say that was horrible with tears in their eyes but, precious few would feel enough that they would have too severe a reaction against any species introduced.
Even if that wasn't true, the fact still remained that it was one of the few planets never to have even seen a Covenant battleship in the sky. It was the most objective test they were liable to get. Even with a good portion of the new generation being raised to have hated the Covenant. Still, if they were introduced, it was liable that they would simply split into two groups and barely communicate with each other, one because of pre established prejudices, and one because they were shunned by humanity, and knew they deserved it. Which was not something Humint wanted.
So, at the beginning of the experiment on 2578, Humint decided to act on it. As sociologists had proven centuries ago, the thing required for two groups to cooperate was a common foe. So they deliberately insured New Babel's location was leaked to the Extremist Factions of the Insurrection, insured the colony was at least somewhat defended, and watched what happened.
It worked like a charm.
Humans raised to loathe the sanghelli turned their backs on them in trust to help protect their world. sanghelli, having been insulted and scorned by the humans, assisted them in the rebuilding of the infrastructure damaged in the assault. unggoy, mocked both secretly and openly by human children, helped those children when they were injured or entertained them. Kig-Yar, long loathing both humans and sanghelli, helped locate survivors in the wreckage with their eyesight and fought along side their former foes. On and on, the examples continued which, though the Humint researchers would never say too each other, did give them some amount of pride and joy.
So they properly defended the colony after the first few attacks, and every subsequent assault was destroyed by a combination of precise plasma fire, and MAC rounds. The peace from the Insurrectionist attack were still there, and so the experiment continued.
Admittedly, that tactic could not apply to the other six hidden worlds, but ONI found a way around that.
So the Defense Fleet stayed over New Babel and protected it from all attacks, until one morning on December 17 they left the planet to it's own defenses, and the newly arrived mobile Production Yard that visited as well.
The result, as ONI's current administrator would say, was all too predictable.
20,000 kilometers out of the planet's orbit was the New Babel Production Yards. The Yards, with a length of 10 kilometers and a width of 3.74km, was a monument to UNSC and Federation technology, capable of pumping out 6 Echelon III Destroyers every 15 days. In stationary orbit around the yards were three Orbital Defense Platforms, armed with Super MAC guns that could fire off 3000 ton hyper dense slugs at a little less than half the speed of light. Orbiting around them were the New Babel Defensive Fleet, handpicked by it's current Commander for the task. That was 20 minutes ago
Now the yards were surrounded by the remains of the UNSC Defensive Force assigned to New Babel. 10 ships concentrated their forces around the Yards, taking advantage of their opponents unwillingness to fire upon them by gathering around the communications and control center. Around them, watching for any sort of deviance from their position, was the Insurrectionist Force, whose commander was suffering a mild breakdown.
December 18, 2584
In orbit around the New Babel Production Yards
If not for the fact that her men's morale were to suffer, she reflected, she would be very much panicking now. Her own Fleet was scattered around the Yards, and all she needed to do to save her Fleet was to open fire on the Yards and enter slipstream space. Unfortunately her boarding parties were still in the Defense Platforms and the Yards, she would not abandon them.
There was a chance he was lying of course, that he was just saying that so that I could panic and let my guard done, then he would capitalize it in some way. On the other hand, she couldn't risk the possibility that he was telling the truth, or that he was speaking the truth when he said that the Fleet was coming but lied about when exactly they would arrive. She had to create a battle plan.
"You know, I really do admire the stoicism you seem to currently display madam. Your eyes are such a beautiful shade of green while you look at your Tactical Display like that. Most men would fall in love with that, I'm sure."
Lesley suppressed her surprise at the incredibly strange message to her eyebrows narrowing, which was a monumental challenge all in all. My eyes? How would he know...
Wait. He had been calling her madam for the better part of their conversation right? How did he...
"Well, judging from the adorable face your making while your confused. I suppose I should do that more often, with your projected life span though, that may be somewhat of a challenge."
"...You're watching me then are you?" Lesley said, perplexed at how the bastard had managed to hack into her ship's, at the very least, security system.
"Well, I wouldn't call it watching per se, it has all those Big Brother and Stalker connotations. That is the word right? Connotation? Yes I that's it. Anyway, I prefer the term 'Brute forcing my way into your ship's security system so that I could take a look at the tactical genius that broke more than half my Fleet.' That seems much more accurate, don't you think madam? Coincidentally, I can't find a picture that looks like you anywhere in the UNSC's database, did you erase your files with the UNSC before joining the Insurrection? or are you just a natural beauty in the rough, a natural spatial tactician, the Ender of your generation! or did the past Ender simply teach you? We never did confirm Cole's death..."
Lesley had enough of the annoying little bastard, and promptly ordered the security system cut. The result of which was readily, though annoyingly, apparent.
"Well now, that wasn't very fair was it madam? Now I can no longer admi-"
Lesley cut off the transmission before it continued any further, annoyed at her counterpart's attempts to annoy her. She checked herself, realizing the irony, before she continued with her attempts to fight off whatever would come her way.
Main Objective: Last long enough for the insertion team to locate the information required, extract them, then get the hell out of the system. On the other hand, she also had to make sure that the majority of her Fleet live to fight another day. But she needed every advantage she could get...
She looked at the tactical display, and zoomed into the ODP. She reckoned that there would be enough time to get them into a camouflaged position, if not, then that was fine too. The Splinter in the Eye would only be useful if it was not in plain sight. She would take care of that.
The Station's defenses were formidable as well. It was a first generation UNSC-Federation Production Yards, and consequently was armed to the teeth, though there were flaws that could be taken advantaged of if one knew where to look. It's 50mm Point-Defense Autocannons, while somewhat dated, was effective enough to rip apart any fighter without energy shielding. The Energy Projectors would deal with anything that passes through the ODPs, though the Destroyer attack was too quick to bring the guns to bare. Archer Missile Pods, Pulse Lasers, anything on a ship besides a MAC gun and Plasma Torpedos. The only reason the ODST group managed to get in was because she knew where to look.
As it was, they were holding fire. Though they could protect themselves, they wouldn't survive multiple MAC rounds to anywhere on the thing. Mutually assured destruction was guaranteed as long as the defenses where theirs.
Lesley looked at her communications officer and, from the man's nod, began to wait.
She still had time.
The men in grey armor responded to their orders with some hesitation, before their commander ordered it done.
The Orbital Defense Platform, being one of the few truly formidable weapons during the Great War, received considerable amounts of attention when Forerunner based technology were first being applied to UNSC technology. One of these upgrades was the Modular Dispersal Technology which, in layman's terms, enabled the station to eject any and all segments of the Platform. Insurrectionist personnel were given 2.5 minutes to find an escape pod or return to their shuttles before this occurred brace for dispersal. By this time, the Splinter in the Eye was largely under Insurrectionist control, with less than 10% of the structure being occupied with UNSC forces. So the segments ejected, leaving all but the barest essentials necessary to the function of an ODP. The majority of the Insurrectionist boarders managed to either reach the main control room, or left by various means.
Insurrectionist ships opened fire on portions still observed to be under UNSC control, and the ODP moved in around it. Those same ships also fired upon the Splinter, enough to make it look as though it had survived the most horrific fight of the entire battle of New Babel. These ships then took the shuttles and the escape pods, then left to wherever their Commander told them to go.
So it was that the last remaining ODP was successfully hidden in the wreckage. A glance at the Platform would leave you with nothing but the impression of a badly damaged husk. Thermal imaging would be useless, due to so many still hot wreckages floating around them, both of the other ODPs and the segments as well.
Due to the fact that, should a single UNSC ship leave the protection offered by the Yards, they would be destroyed, no UNSC ship was in any sort of position to see the deception occurring. At the same time, any human or alien currently within the Yards were not paying attention in the least to the Insurrectionists outside the Yards, they had much larger problems to deal with.
Finding the Yards' central defensive control room wasn't the hard part. Hell, directions were present on every electronic device they could find. Taking it, on the other hand, was another problem all together.
For one thing, it was apparently defended by Sanghelli Majors, nasty bastards. Human ballistics technology hadn't advanced nearly as far as their ship tech, since the Pacification War focused more on ship-to-ship combat and orbital bombardments and was, for the Jirilhanae at the very least, far enough away from their worlds that it wasn't required. Though energy shielding found it's way to the Helljumpers, and there were some experimental guns based on the MAC design soon. Not that it would help them anyway.
One of his men was taken down, an energy sword gutting him from the back. He cursed and fired a shotgun burst at the Stealth Sanghelli's head, it caused the little fuck to spiral away from him, his energy shield recharging as it did.
The Federation, little fucks, apparently, had upgraded their ground pounders' tech.
He pulled out his M6 and shot at the bastard while he was down and felt himself stagger as an energy bolt, from a plasma rifle he thought, burnt through his shields. He turned towards the alien that did it, a Minor Sanghelli, and fired his shotgun at it. He smiled as the energy shield couldn't hold the stresses of the kinetic weaponry and failed. He aimed his gun at the alien and caused the bastard's face to pop open.
Looking around, he saw the rest of his squad were all right, though 2 didn't make it. He ordered the rest to return back to the boss and get the data. They hesitated for a moment before he staggered to the control room, activating a hacking device on his left as he did while clutching his sides with the right.
He hated the Sanghelli, hated them for all that they did and all they had done. Most ODSTs hated them too, and most left the UNSC as soon as the Federation was formed. Hell, he had only met one ODST fought on New Mombassa along with some other guys. Probably dead now, some UNSC guys left without a fuss, but most went out of there with a bang. Some taking entire ships with them. He shook his head, it wasn't time to think about that now.
The device would allow the good Admiral control of the station's defenses. It would likely be detected, though they wouldn't be able to suppress it, and an entire shitload of Sanghelli would likely swarm him. She wouldn't have control of the station for long. But she didn't need it for long. Only for 1 minute, maybe even 30 seconds.
He could buy that. Yes he very well could.
He looked around, grabbing all the plasma grenades that he could and synching them with his suit's medical systems. He put them around the room, making sure everything was in it's line of sight. After that, he put everything in motion, putting the hacking device onto the mainframe.
Only a matter of time now.
"Ma'am We're getting a signal from the Insertion Group. We have control."
"Good. Burn their ships to the ether, and tell our own ships to move in right after."
The succeeding battle had more in common with a slaughter than anything remotely associated with a battle.
The ships around the installation were all within supporting lines of fire of nearly every defensive weapon onboard the thing. The Energy Projectors ripped Frigates into pieces while Archer Missiles blew up the portions that didn't explode on their own. The UNSC force's own missiles were handily countered by the Pulse Lasers and Autocannons. Archer missiles pods were riddled with bullets meters out of their firing tubes. A Marathon Cruiser attempted to leave the firing zone and was perforated with extreme prejudice by the Insurrectionist ships that laid in wait. The last Marathon cruiser faced the combined weight of all the station's defenses and was smashed.
A portion of Lesley's mind, the part that still thought exactly like Lecter, said that it was way too easy. That he wouldn't leave his assets exposed unless he stood something to gain from it. She acknowledged that it was a possibility.
But looking at her screen, she found that it didn't really matter.
Approximately 50 Million Kilometers away a collection of slipspace transitions occurred.
They were not one force but two, previously independent Armadas, the UNSC Twenty Third Fleet, and the Federation Fleet of Tactical Consideration. Both had been escorting the mobile base Raven Rock from it's location in Federation space, to somewhere along the edge of the UNSC border, contrary to what the current Defensive Commander of the New Babel Defensive Force had said. The distress call had occurred when Raven Rock had completely entered UNSC space, and initiated contact with a UNSC border Fleet.
Due to the fact that New Babel counted as a Federation planet, and that their duty to the UNSC was complete, nothing stopped the Fleet of Tactical Consideration from moving to engage their slipspace drives and burn the bastards that dared attacked the Federation of Allied Species. hey would pay for their transgressions with their lives and their blood.
Due to the fact that the UNSC couldn't let a fully armed Federation Fleet loose within their territory, and that it had another Fleet to protect it know, Raven Rock ordered the Twenty Third to go after the Fleet and make sure they wouldn't get into trouble. Also, the Insurrectionists were moving, they couldn't let the Federation get all the credit from burning their begotten skins could they?
The UNSC Twenty Third Fleet was one of the newer Fleets, newly amalgamated from a dozen different sources and, concerning the Fleet as a whole, not yet tested in battle. Even then however, it's only fault was that they weren't used to cooperating with each other. Individually, each warship had gone through battle after battle, scarred but still able, and all the more impressive because of it. It consisted of 20 Destroyers, 15 Frigates, 12 Marathon-class Cruisers, 10 Halcyon-class Cruisers, The UNSC Supercarrier The Emissary of a Vacuous Matron with 2 more Supercarriers as escort, and one Prowler largely unknown to the rest of the Fleet to serve as it's ONI liaison, ringing up a grand total of 61 Warships. Leading the Fleet from the deck of The Emissary, as most in the Navy wished to call it , was the eccentric Vice Admiral Marcus Coleman.
The Fleet of Tactical Consideration was different however. It was mostly made up of veterans from both the Great War, and the Pacification War, with some of it's members even fighting the Flood at one point, much to the respect and, slight, jealousy from the rest of their fellows at having fought the Parasite and lived to tell the tale. They had been fighting together for so long that, without the proper guidance and cooperation within a Fleet, their individual combat effectiveness would drop horrendously low should they be separated from each other. It consisted of 15 Frigates, 10 CCS-class Battlecruisers, 10 Destroyers, 12 Cruisers, and, much to the pride of the sanghelli that serve on it, the Federation Supercarrier An Exquisite End, bringing the tally to 48 Warships. Similar to it's UNSC counterpart, An Exquisite End was the flagship of Supreme Commander of the Federation Fleets in the Far Reaches, Dell Vestemee. Also called Dellie by the Vice Admiral.
The Supreme Commander had convened on Raven Rock for several reasons, one of which was to meet up with a very interesting person onboard the Base. Among other things, he somewhat doubted his decision to bring Ghech to head the IAD. He was too cold, too against the Sanghelli ways. Too much of a revolutionary, and too much of an idealist as well. The right word would be, what was the human term, utilitarian. Yes, a utilitarian. Of course, he wouldn't besmirch Ghech's honor by saying he was a threat to the Federation, merely it did not seem wise for Ghech to be in control of the Federation's Information and Analysis Division. So he, whenever possible, came to represent the IAD, and work with them whenever possible.
One of those was the possibility of the UNSC and Federation fleets to practice joint operations training in the near future. While human and sanghelli fleets have fought with alongside each other in the past, their individual doctrines were so different that it required a concentrated effort and significant study into the problem to smooth over any command problems in the future. It was easier now, concerning the Sanghelli's respect for human tactics, but a doctrine of battle dominant for millennia can't be removed within a span of 3 decades.
For example, give to groups of ships, 5 Marathon Cruisers, and 5 CCS-Battlecruisers. Tell them to take a planet's orbital defenses platform's offline to prepare for an invasion of the planet's surface, and you'll get two answers.
The Marathon Cruisers wouldn't go anywhere near the ODP's line of sight. They'd just take advantage of their Cruiser's new found slipspace capabilities, appear right behind those ODPs, and overwhelm their shields with concentrated fire. The ODPs wouldn't dare to aim guns capable of firing 51.6 gigatons of force onto a populated planet. Sure there would be point defenses and any possible ships around defending it, but at least the ODPs themselves could hardly do anything about it. They would do this effectively, and as quickly as possible. To defeat the enemy completely and utterly. Honorable combat started declining around the time guns where invented and just went downhill from there.
The CCS-Battlecruisers would also use their slipspace drives to go behind the ODP's, also turning them impotent. But it would likely be followed up by boarding parties to either the ODPs themselves, or towards the ground power sources if it applied. Their focus on honor and combat while keeping them effective in battle was something that UNSC strategies couldn't completely grasp. Of course, there were exceptions. Sanghelli who fought with cunning and with no care for honor, and Jirilhanae who brute forced their way into an engagement with no thought to tactics. Generally, the Federation War Machine fought intelligently enough, but had too much of a focus on personal honor that sometimes handicapped them.
So, in light of that, and that the UNSC and The Federation were preparing their military forces should another Empire like the Covenant appear and judge them for destruction, two fleets consisting of hundreds of ships coordinating amongst each other quickly and effectively was a good thing wasn't it?
Vestemee couldn't agree more, as could Coleman.
So, on December 18, 2584, 107 Warships of both the Federation of Allied Species and the United Nations Space Command responded to a distress call from another social experiment.
Onboard The Emissary of a Vacuous Matron, was Vice Admiral Marcus Coleman. His participation of battles from the latest segment of the Great War and the entirety of the Pacification War had caused him to be one of the most talented spatial tactician in the entire UNSC. His current rank of Vice Admiral was earned when he successfully destroyed the Kig-Yar:Jirilhanae Fleet responsible for the destruction of Borealis and freed the traumatized prisoners onboard their ships. After being promoted to Vice Admiral, he became the Supreme Commander of the UNSC Forces in the Jirilhanae Front alongside with his Sanghelli counterpart. The architect of both the Te Liberation and the burning of Y'deio, he confounded those who would label him as a Hero or a Monster.
He was also known to be quite fond of New Babel wine, and the face of rage on the normally genial man was enough to scare his crew, even without the yelling.
"Those bastards! Those scum-sucking, saliva powered, smegma loving sons of bitches! How dare they take my wine away from me! You think that this outrage will be condoned! That the Admirals, Captains and the Fleets of the United Nations Space Command will allow you to leave this day with your balls and anal virginity intact! NO! We! WILL! NOT! We will administer an ass kicking so painful, that your great-great-great-great-grandchildren will still be shouting 'Ow, my ASS!' for the rest of their pathetic little lives!"
That was 10 minutes ago. The shouting, thanks to the extensive efforts of several of his bridge crew, eventually subsided to dark mutterings of 'Magnetically Accelerated Unggoy Crap' before his holographic display chimed and he lost all semblance of rage and adopted a more calm persona, which split into a grin the moment he saw who was on the screen.
"Dellie! Good to see you. Now, what do you suggest we do to those who dare strike against the vineyar- colonies of the UNSC and the Federation." He rephrased his sentence smoothly, with the skill of an old dissembler.
Dell Vestemee let the smallest hint of a smile at the human. Despite his heavy bipolarity, which Dell still wasn't sure was deliberate or not, Marcus was a good man. He had saved his life more times than he could count, and he had saved his almost as many times as well. "Indeed Marcus Coleman. As you might have seen, the situation is grave."
"A Moment." Marcus muttered as he typed some things into his command console. Within several seconds a 3D holographic display of the battlefield appeared, all data being fed to it from the numerous allied ships, both UNSC and Federation, through cameras and radar. Very reliable, though restricted only to those at and above Admiral class for the UNSC and Fleet Master except for special exemptions which, Marcus thought smugly, he was one.
The smugness quickly dissipated as he saw the tactical display. 21 ships destroyed? 3, Echelon III Orbital Defense Platforms destroyed? Tactical data indicated that only 5 destroyers were destroyed by their ships. Marcus lapses into silence as he took the information all into account.
He spoke eventually "So, from what we have right now, an unknown number of ships assaulted the NB Production Yards, destroyed all their defenses, lost five ships in the process and have taken control of the NB Yards as well?"
"As you humans would say, 'Yep'." Dell said, his mandibles displaying the equivalent of a full grin.
Marcus exploded. "Excellent! Truly EXCELLENT! I haven't seen such a lopsided tactical situation since, with all modesty, I broke the Jirilhanae presence on Te! Oh god this is exciting. Not that the loss of life we suffered wasn't terrible of course. Tactical use of slipstream drives had to be present there, no way they could bypass the ODPs any other way, willingness to sacrifice 5 destroyers in return is also a distinct factor in this and-"
The tirade was broken off by a communications hail. Marcus looked at it and turned to his partner. "Dellie, it seems our adversaries at the Yards would like to speak with us for a moment."
"By all means my friend, go and take it then."
Marcus nodded and activated the console. A hologram began to form, that of a dour middle aged man, somewhat thin, in a dark blue suit with white stripes and black tie. He was fairly thin and spoke with the tone of a lawyer.
"Greetings I am Planetary Security Intelligence AI Lost in the Void. I have been assigned to the protection of the NB Production Yards site for the last 2.5 years. The Site's defensive armaments are in Insurrectionist control, though that problem will be countered within the next minute. I request your assistance in pacifying Insurrectionist ship elements orbiting the underside of the Site. Tactical data is being sent now."
Marcus glanced at the tactical display and saw it changed as the AI had promised. 15 ships, 10 Frigates, 3 Halcyons and 2 Marathons were hiding behind the 10km long superstructure. He observed the display while formulating his questions for the AI.
"So...How did the enemy take the NB Site Lost?" Marcus said casually.
"The Opponent used 5 Echelon III Destroyers on a suicide run to disable the Orbital Defense Platforms as well as any ships around them. Immediately after their destruction and the destruction of all ODPs, a Fleet of 30 ships appeared and forced the remains of the Defense Forces to retreat within the Site's defenses. They boarded the Site through an undiscovered blind side and took control of the weapons system, which they used to eliminate the remaining ships. It is my suggestion that they want something onboard the ship."
"Interesting." Marcus said, and it was. Except for one thing. "Lost why did you allow that to happen?"
The AI did not reply for a second, a very long time for an AI before it responded. "I do not understand your question Vice Admiral."
"I mean that you are a PSI, which means that such an attack should have been prevented and countered so many times in your head that it would go flawlessly in actual practical application. How many people died in the attacks, including the boarders in your ship."
"37"
Marcus blew out his breath in exasperation "Seriously now! I don't appreciate your sort of humor now, tell me how many people died in those ships!"
"0"
He looked at the AI with a strange expression. "Death due to the boarders currently going through the Site?"
"40. Original number updated."
"So your telling me that those ships had no captains, no officers, no one onboard."
"Affirmative"
"That, beyond the ones currently being killed onboard the Site, no one else was killed."
"Affirmative."
"Who is your commanding officer Lost?"
"You are sir."
"I mean who commanded you to lose this battle."
"Classified"
"I am the Vice Admiral of the UNSC Twenty Third Fleet consisting of 61 ships. Beside me is the Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Tactical Consideration consisting of48 ships and is also the Supreme Commander, hence the name, of all Federation Fleets and answers to no one besides the Imperial Admiral, and the Council of the Federation. We've brought worlds to their knees and burnt hundreds of ships in the name of Humanity, Sanghelli, Mgalekgolo, Unggoy or whatever! We have action figures named after us!Are you telling me your Master is more important than either of us!"
"Affirmative"
"Are you attached to ONI?"
"Negative"
"Is your master attached to ONI?"
"Classified"
Marcus clutched at his hair and screamed loudly "You basically just told me that your Master was attached to ONI! No one else would have the capacity to say 'Fuck You' to a member of the Admiralty or the Supreme Commander of the fucking Federation Fleets! Why wo-"
"Interdiction. My Master has stated that he/she/it would speak to you. But only if you, and the Supreme Commander, were to accept a deal."
Dell chose to interrupt then, his curiosity overcoming both his amusement with Marcus, and his growing concern. "A deal? ONI would not want a deal, they would simply demand it of any they deem appropriate. They are, in a way, your commanding officers. They do not need a deal."
"Affirmative. However, the circumstances of the deal require you perform it to the best of your abilities and, as such, we are asking for your cooperation in whatever it is we ask of you. Depending upon your enthusiasm for it, you will be placed accordingly. But we will need you to accept.
Marcus raised his eyebrows "That would be...what, exactly?"
"For both you and your Fleets to assist ONI-IAD forces in Operation:BERMUDA."
The Saxon Studies:The Humint Institute
The Saxon studies was a concentrated effort by the Humint Institute of Psychology to investigate the social and psychological aspects of human-alien interaction. The Humint Institute authorized 45 individual experiments from 2557 to the present day, with 5 open only to UNSC personnel above Security Clearance 0-1, and with 3 being only known to the current head of the United Earth Government, the Supreme Commander of the United Nations Space Command and it's subsidiaries and the head of the Office of Naval Intelligence.
[]Unofficially, the Humint Institute also initiated 9 experiments by the suggestion of ONI. The first experiment, being chronologically the first thing the Humint Institute worked on, consisted of ██ Sanghelli subjects along with ███ Jiralhanae prisoners from a captured CCS-Battlecruiser. Experiments consisted of utilizing Forerunner technology to manipulate neural and cerebral patterns of the subjects. Testing was marginally successful, with 94% of the test subjects expiring due to severe brain tumors and the rest developing psychological problems and were deemed unusable.[T]
By 2575, it had become the most knowledgeable Institute on human-alien interaction in the scientific community, and pioneered many advances in medical sciences. By this time, the Humint Institute was one of the prime advocates of human-alien colony construction, which was being delayed due to the Government's concern of the potential ways such a project could go horribly wrong.
[]By this time, ONI had made considerable strides in perfecting their experiments, with the sole exception of the Hugarok species which continued to neither be affected, or hurt at all by their experiments and the Lekgolo in general, which required a considerable amount of effort to influence. It is of note that business men controlling certain aspects of the civilian infrastructure required by ONI for Operation BERMUDA attempted to interfere with Humint's attempts at initiating the human-alien colonies. They seemed to see Humint as a threat to their own respective businesses and, while not knowing anything about BERMUDA, knew their importance to ONI and attempted to use it to delay the project. Insurrectionist elements caught wind of this and attempted to save said business men. 10 out of 12 are known to have been successfully terminated and replaced, while the rest were successfully administered amnesiacs before rescue from Insurrectionist forces.[]
At 2578, with agreement from the Federation, 7 planets, in both Federation and UNSC space, were selected to proceed in the experiment. All but one, New Babel, were to be hidden and New Babel itself was to have a constant military presence provided for by select contractors and UNSC assistance. All in all, the project had 35 million humans and aliens on every world. The exertion cost the Humint Institute a considerable amount of funds, but they considered it worth it.
[]Remnants of the Extremist factions from the Pacification War attempted numerous times to raid and destroy the New Babel colony, 15 times to be precise. Their attempts are not significant enough to go into an in depth study.[]
As of December 16, 2584 New Babel and her sister planets are the shining jewel of the Humint Institute, and serves as the strongest reminder that both Humanity, Sanghelli, Jirilhanae and any other species could live together in peace and bury the past to where it belongs.
[]With the destruction of New Babel, and the accompanying public outrage, the Humint Institute lost a large amount of government backing at such a blunder. The UNSC was not implicated in the assault, due to the fact that the Fleets assigned to defend the planet had been occupied eliminating a nearby Insurrectionist base, and could only return in time to destroy the fleet that initiated the massacre. The Institute itself began a long spiral of decline, inevitably leading to Humint's dissolution on 2590. During it's fall, several aspects of the Institute was recruited, purchased or otherwise amalgamated by other rivaling Institutes of companies. Most notably Concordia Industries, Lamp Technologies, Research and Engineering Academy, and The Noble Foundation. Which are all contracted to the UNSC for research on military technologies, civilian technologies, and , respectively.[]
'Authors Note:
The large amount of time from the last update was caused by multiple things, school, research, projects, etc. In any case, my update for the next one will be tomorrow, as I said, while the next one will, hopefully, be within the week.
That is all.