Disclaimer: Same as ever. Don't own any of the TV shows/movies/video games featured in this story.
To Gatemaster: After careful deliberation (lots of that), I've decided to keep using my OC aliens rather than change the storyline so that they are the Vasari. While I do agree that their back story is somewhat similar to the Vasari, I feel that the Empire would be too advanced for the Magnus to have any hope of being able to fend them off, even following with the Colonials tactic of just jumping away whenever the Cylons show up and only fighting when absolutely necessary.
After all, the Vasari Empire uses Phasic Missiles (very similar to Ancient Drones) plasma wave and beam weapons, and while I agree that they look vaguely lizard-like, they don't have the more insectoid parts of anatomy I described (chitinous natural armour, for example), and as far as I know, they don't have variations in their species, like the shorter, more vicious close-in combatant I had in the last part of that chapter. I'll be adding more info on their empire in the next chapter.
As for the integration of 'Sins' ships and the Trade Coalition, that was mostly coincidental, I didn't even realise I was doing it until you told me and I checked the manual for 'Sins', although the Trade Coalition was deliberate, as I wanted a non-military alliance of trading organisations somewhere in the story, but again I didn't notice how similar it is to the Trader Emergency Coalition until I checked the manual.
To He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Lame: Just for you, I decided to make things a little interesting in this chapter and add in some of those Forerunner defences I mentioned. I hope they are powerful enough - and insane enough - to match with your expectations of such an advanced species.
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8th Age Of Reclamation
Fleet Of Ascendant Justice, Covenant Holy City High Charity
Orbit Of The Holy Ring, Halo
"Oracle," Truth spoke with reverence, basking in the green glow of the messenger of his Lords. "Please, I must know how to commence with the Great Journey, how to activate the Holy Ring and send all who are worthy along the Path."
"Great Journey? I have never heard it referred to as that before," the Oracle answered, bobbing up and down in the Monitors equivalent of a shrug. "In any case, the Installation need not be activated, as there is no containment failure. The Flood remains secure in their holding facilities."
Truth blinked his large eyes several time rapidly, surprised.
Does the Oracle not know of the Journey?
"The Installations sensors do not detect the presence of Reclaimers within your fleet, so even if I could permit activation, it would not be possible," the Oracle continued on, moving to one of the large view screens and looking out at the 800 ship strong Fleet Of Ascendant Justice. That wasn't all either. There were two more fleets of equal size in the system, the Fleet of Silent Inquisition and the Unyielding Hierophant, an enormous battle station that nearly match High Charity in size, and its own defence fleet. It was, even for the Monitor, an impressive sight.
"But Oracle, we, the San'Shyuum, Holy Prophets and conduit between the Gods and the masses of the Covenant, are the Reclaimers," Truth spoke forcefully, not believing that he was actually having to give a religious and historical lecture to the being whose creators were the basis of the Covenant religion. Truth himself looked out at the fleet, one of the five-and-a-half kilometre long, hook-headed super carriers drifting past just a few hundred kilometres distant, sunlight reflecting off of its silver-purple hull. It was, even now, an impressive sight for Truth; only dreadnoughts, Fleet Nodes and High Charity itself were larger than the super carriers.
"Odd that you would think yourselves the descendants of my creators," the Oracle said. "Perhaps you have not seen enough of their artefacts to see the truth of matters? No. Impossible. This city-ship and the fleet that surrounds us is a poor simile of the creations of my forebears."
"What heresy do you speak, Oracle?," Truth asked, aghast as he turned away from the spectacle of the Covenant fleet. This was not how he had imagined this conversation going. It had been more along the lines of Truth asking the Oracle how to begin the Great Journey, the Oracle telling Truth everything it knew, Truth becoming the hero of all the Covenant at the moment he commenced the Journey.
"Heresy? I see no religious implications in the activation of the Installations," the Oracles green glow dimmed in the equivalent of a frown. "I see that you have no questions of relevance. I must return to the Installation in order to continue my duties."
"No!," Truth shouted, his voice hoarse. He couldn't let the Oracle leave, he had to have its knowledge! "Oracle, we are the Reclaimers! Help us reach the Path, to begin our Journey and take our rightful place at the Gods side."
"The Reclaimers are not here. I cannot permit activation of the Installation without either a severe breach in containment or with the express permission and proper activation codes supplied by a Reclaimer," the Oracle spoke again, an edge to its voice that suggested that it was beginning to become frustrated with Truth.
"The Reclaimers are the descendants of the Gods!," Truth shrieked, drawing his lips back in a snarl of rage. "I am a Reclaimer! I will lead us all to salvation! It is my right to claim the mantle as Child of the Gods! You will tell me what I need to know, machine, or I will have you torn apart and dissected until I have all the knowledge you keep!"
The Oracle swivelled around to face the view screens again, watching as a pair of elongated manta-ray style battle cruisers moved past the closest of the two gas giants the Installation orbited. Truths own eyes followed the gaze of the Oracle, looking down at the green-tinged atmosphere of the enormous world. He looked on in wonder at the enormous electrical storm that raged violently in the worlds upper atmosphere.
The storm stretched on for thousands of kilometres, huge arcs of lightning playing across the entirety of the storm front, whipping about in some monstrous parody of long blades of grass caught in a strong wind. Truth felt some of his anger ebb away.
"Very well, I will tell you what you wish to know, if only so that you'll allow me to return to my duties," the Oracle finally spoke. "You wish to activate the installations? It will not happen without Reclaimers present. You are not a Reclaimer, this is what they look like."
With the end of that sentence, a holographic image of an alien creature sprung to life between the Oracle and Truth. The being was shorter than a Sangheili, but taller than a Kig'Yar, with a short crop of hair atop a roundish head, large, inquisitive eyes, each with a smaller crop of hair above them.
Aside from that, the creature appeared mostly hairless, though it was wearing some kind of cloth that was form-fitting and looked comfortable. It was bipedal, and was wearing leg- and foot-coverings. It looked like a Jiralhanae might have looked if it had been shaved, but with features that were not nearly as unattractive. No prominent teeth, short ears to either side of the head, an odd snout and relatively short neck.
"What is it?," Truth asked, still examining the image closely.
"A Reclaimer," the Oracle answered, shutting down the projection. "The evolved face of my creators. Data collected by the Installation's long-range scanning systems indicates that there is a system inhabited by the Reclaimers approximately thirty-eight-point-three parsecs from this installation, toward the Galactic Centre. They call themselves 'humans'. Bring me a 'human' with the proper authorisation codes, and the Installation can be activated."
Impossible, Truth raged inside of his mind. This is all wrong! It is my right to propel all who are worthy along the Path! These creatures are clearly usurpers. For their heresy, they will pay!
"Guards!," Truth shouted. Immediately, the great doors to his chambers parted to reveal a dozen armed Sangheili warriors, bearing their ceremonial staffs, energy swords or plasma rifles. "Seize the Oracle! It has been tainted by heresy!"
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Sixteen-Oh-Nine Beneficent Collaborator was in a tight spot. It was far enough away from the Installation that it did not have access to the teleportation grid, therefore it could not simply teleport back to the Library and leave these creatures to their own devices.
It had basic defences - a high powered plasma beam weapon and a small but very resilient shield generator - but it knew that it would be no match for the many alien warriors that now swarmed into the room, for they themselves carried plasma-based weapons and each of them had their own personal shields.
That left Beneficent Collaborator with just one recourse: it had to activate the Installations external defences to create a large enough distraction to allow for it to return to its duties. With a burst of power to its inertia-less anti-gravity propulsion systems, Beneficent Collaborator rose high above the heads of the aliens, out of their reach, then turned toward an anti-gravity lift in the far corner of the room; its means of escape.
As it dodged the sporadic bursts of blue plasma fire sent its way and headed for the gravity lift that would lead it away from its assailants - at least for a short while -, Beneficent Collaborator reached out with the tendrils of its vastly powerful computer mind, activating systems that had not been used since the end of the Flood Wars nearly one hundred thousand years ago.
Curiously, its mind did not reach for the Installation itself. Rather, it delved into the depths of the twin gas giants, sending high-powered transmissions deep into the gravity wells of the two planets, so deep that anything not of Forerunner make would surely have been crushed by the incredible pressure. The Monitor was not activating Halos own impressive counter-measures - the majority of the intruders fleet was too far away from the ring for the majority of its armaments to reach. Instead it was activating the autonomous attack drones left behind by its makers when they had been forced to activate the Installations.
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The ships - two in each gas giant - slowly came to life after a hundred millennia of disuse. Ancient systems came to life and the nano-armour regenerated itself at an incredible rate, self-replicating nanites swarming throughout the entirety of the ships and restoring them to their former glory.
Sophisticated sensor suites and unflappable shielding systems came online one after the other as the attack drones received their orders from the Monitor of the Installation they had been told to protect by their original master so long ago. Each ship had an intelligence all of its own, very similar to an exceptionally loyal dog, willing to do whatever was asked of it by its loving master, even if it meant dying in order to please or ensure the continued survival of that master.
The drones had been designed to be incorruptible by the Flood, requiring no crew whatsoever, making them extremely difficult to completely destroy in combat, they were the perfect weapon against Flood-infested ships. Each one was just over four hundred metres long, but that was subject to change because of the unique nature of the vessels. They were constructed almost entirely out of nano-machines, which allowed them to change their hull configuration and size to match their situation.
Right now, each one had compacted down to a small starburst - an attack configuration which allowed the vessels to fire in every direction at once - but if the alien fleet they had detected proved too much for such a formation, there were dozens more to choose from. Weapons and shields now active, they had all they needed to defend the Installation and the Monitor - to their deaths if need be.
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The first sign that the Monitor had done anything other than flee its pursuers came when the Covenant Dreadnought Truth Seeker, seven kilometres long and bristling with weapons, suddenly disappeared in a horrendously bright flash of blue fire. Emerging from the atmosphere of the green gas giant - the one with the enormous electrical storm still playing across its stratosphere - like demons from the mists and fires of Hell, two ships shaped like sixteen pointed five dimensional stars roared, inconceivable weapons sending titanic energies across the void to tear down more ships.
A super carrier fired a stream of plasma and a half dozen plasma torpedoes out at one of the ships, to absolutely no effect. Not even a glimmer of active shields. The super-hot plasma just splashed harmlessly against an invisible barrier and dissipated into space around the comparatively tiny ship. The carrier was hit numerous times for its troubles, the attack drones firing thousands of micro-singularities -black holes on a microscopic scale - that sucked away the shields of the super carrier and greedily engulfed more than thirty percent of the ships total mass before collapsing in upon themselves.
More Covenant ships joined the fight, concentrating enough firepower to turn worlds into molten globs of glass on the two ships. Perhaps two hundred vessels - from frigates all the way up to dreadnoughts - took part in the attack, finally getting a positive reaction from the shields of the ships. Flaring to life brilliantly, bright green fields of energy repelled the red and blue plasma fired at them with no apparent strain.
Distracted by the two ships from the green gas giant, the Covenant completely missed the two from the smaller, red-tinged gas giant, and were therefore taken completely unawares when a dozen ships disappeared in balls of flame or were sucked into micro-singularities. Plasma -the real thing, harvested from stars, unlike the 'synthetic' plasma used by the Covenant - was hurled with impunity from the attack drones, easily and efficiently overwhelming shields and melting through the thickly armoured hides of the intruder ships.
Incredibly powerful proton slicer beams fired from the Green Pair, cutting deep into the Covenant fleet, overwhelming the defences of a half-dozen ships each before their firing cycles ceased. Becoming desperate now, the Covenant commanders poured more and more ships into the fight, hoping to overwhelm their attackers with numbers, seeing as they were clearly outmatched technologically.
A pair of battle cruisers, firing their pulse lasers and plasma torpedoes with insane fervour, where suddenly wrenched apart by a slipspace rupture opening deep inside of each of the ships - courtesy of the Red Pair and their weaponised slipspace generators. The result of thousands of years of research, slipspace weapons were considered assets of considerable tactical worth for their ability to completely bypass shields and tear ships apart from the inside out. It was also a weapon that no other race - extinct or otherwise - had ever mastered.
The four attack drones swept through the combined Covenant fleets, leaving thousands of times their tonnage in destroyed or disabled ships in their wake. They made swift progress, shields repelling many terawatts of energy fire from the surrounding ships.
One of the two from the green gas giant splintered off from its compatriot, heading towards the ring world, weapons firing in all directions. Space lit up around the small drone as its slicer beams cored through a dreadnought and three cruisers, the blue tinged explosions leaving a wash of plasma in their wake, consuming dozens of Seraph fighter craft as they moved in on bombing runs on the solitary drone.
Pulse laser beams and plasma torpedoes chased the little ship, nipping at its heels and hitting with enough frequency that is shields were now fully visible, slowly getting brighter. One of the assault carriers nearer to the Halo swung its mass around, plasma collecting in a magnetic containment field in front of its turrets; plasma torpedoes warming up. It never got the chance to fire, however, because at that moment, Halos built-in defences opened fire.
Anti-matter missiles - each about the size of a human thumb and with explosive yields in the kiloton range - flew up from the dark metallic outer surface of the ring in their thousands. Originally designed for anti-fighter use, he Forerunners had discovered that because of their small size and impressive yield, small anti-matter missiles could be produced far more quickly and easily than their much larger cousins, and in sufficient numbers could overwhelm the defences of even the most resilient of ships.
By Forerunner standards, the assault carrier was not very resilient. Its shields rippled as they absorbed the kinetic energy of countless impacts, then popped like a bubble as the proton-field containing the anti-matter collapsed and the anti-matter reacted with the matter of the missile casings themselves with typical results. The explosion - although it was many smaller explosions all occurring at once - was blinding, even hundreds of thousands of kilometres away on High Charity.
The drone blew through what little remained of the carrier at considerable speed, then stopped completely. No deceleration. It just stopped, so suddenly that the few fighters that had managed to keep up with it slammed hard into the drones shields. Ignoring the continuous strikes it was taking, the drone changed its configuration to one geared more toward defence. Nano-machines in their countless trillions replicated themselves, and the drones size inflated from just over one hundred metres in length to nearly ten times that.
Internal sections were ultra-compacted, leaving only enough space for the few components - power generators and sensor suits, etc - that weren't constructed from nanites, dramatically increasing the thickness and density of the drones armoured hide. The end result was a rectangular shape, with weapons arrays all pointed outward, away from the ring.
The other three drones continued on their earlier course, heading for High Charity to rescue their master.
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Fleet Master Fulsamee cursed as he fell to the deck, his proud flagship rumbling around him as the Shadow Of Intent's shields barely remained operational after a glancing blow from one of the three Forerunner attack drones heading for High Charity.
"All ships, concentrate fire on the foremost enemy ship!," Fulsamee shouted as he climbed back to his feet, his lower mandibles twitching in pain as he clutched at his ribs. Clearly he had caused some kind of injury during his fall. The small number of bridge crew with him rushed from console to console; the majority of the crew had been on shore leave on the Holy Ring at the time the attack started, leaving the Shadow with only a skeleton crew.
Fulsamee watched the three rapidly approaching drones intently; in seconds, they would be right on top of the Holy City. He knew not of their objective, but had to assume it had something to do with the Oracle.
"Order the Firelight and her escorts to block their passage, tell the Ship Masters to ram the enemy vessels if they must," Fulsamee growled, clenching his huge fists at his sides.
"At once, Fleet Master," one of his underlings replied, then began speaking with the battle cruiser in questions Master. "Firelight, you are ordered to halt the enemy ships' forward progress by any means necessary. Ram them if you must."
"Understood, Shadow," the Ship Master replied, and immediately the battle cruiser, four destroyers and six frigates splintered off from the Shadow's escort and closed in on the attack drones. Apparently noticing the new threat, the foremost drone fired a volley of micro-singularities into one of the destroyers, the ship compacting down to less than an eight of its previous size and being sucked into oblivion by the black holes.
Three of the frigates took the brunt of a proton beam attack, all three ships exploding in plasmatic fires, the blue super-hot flames licking hungrily at the battle cruisers shields as it blew through the debris field. Finally, the battle cruiser and its remaining escorts opened fire, beams of plasma erupting from the forward projectors of the Firelight and two dozen torpedoes launched from the escort impacted on the only engaging drones shields, causing them to flicker slightly.
One of the destroyers was torn asunder from the inside as a slipspace rupture tore opened inside its bridge section, slaying the bridge crew and resulting in the utter destruction of the ship itself. Once again, the battle cruiser tore the through debris field left by the smaller ship, now moving far faster than was usually considered safe for its engines.
"For the Journey!," the Ship Masters voice blared across all battle net frequencies, just a moment before the battle cruiser rammed its 180 million metric ton bulk into the far smaller Forerunner drone it had been charging. Two opposing energy shields met, each one struggling to repel the titanic kinetic energy such a collision produced. Forerunner shield systems, older than any technology used by still living races and incredibly advanced and powerful, repelled the majority of the attack.
The Firelight's shields gave out under the strain, the hull of the 1800 metre long ship ploughing into the far more formidable Forerunner designed barrier. Nearly half of the ship was crumpled and destroyed in small explosions before the drones shields finally gave out, leaving the remainder of the Covenant ship with a clear run at the hull of the little drone.
The larger ship seem to swallow the drone with its bulk, and for a moment it appeared as though the drone was trapped within the confines of the battle cruiser, until the powerful plasma generators that supplied power to the ships weapons, shields, engines and just about everything else lost containment, sending a rolling explosion of plasma rushing out through space.
As the bright light faded, and even as the rest of the three fleets continued fighting off the remaining two drones, the crew of the Shadow Of Intent watched wide-eyed, holding their breath, waiting to see if the drone could possibly have survived such an explosion without its shields. Deep within the debris field and still-dispersing plasma cloud, something moved.
"Impossible," Fulsamee heard one of his underlings gasp. Fulsamee was shocked himself, his mandibles spread wide in surprise as the drone emerged from the remains of the Firelight, still functional but clearly damaged. As the drone moved, its engines giving sporadic bursts of power and its shields offline, deep but rapidly healing wounds in its hull, Fulsamee realised that this might be their only chance.
"All ships! Concentrate your fire on the wounded drone! Destroy it now, while it is wounded!," Fulsamee shrieked, his stomach tightening as the high resolution image of the drone zoomed in on its side, and he watched as a gaping trench in its side quickly closed over, uncountable nano-machines doing their efficient work.
The Shadows own "sniper cannon", a powerful, long ranged particle beam weapon, fired into the drones hide, undoing some of the nano-machines work. Plasma torpedoes closed in one the drone slowly, inevitably, their magnetically guided payloads adjusting course to compensate for the drones slow movement.
They were never to impact however, because at that moment a swirling slipspace rupture opened in front of the drone, and the little ship immediately accelerating into it, disappearing on a course to destination unknown.
Fulsamee growled in frustration, slamming his fist down hard on one of the consoles in front of him. "All ships, commence suicide runs on the enemy!"
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1609 Beneficent Collaborator swung itself around, firing its plasma beam weapon in a wide arc, burning down a trio of the small, odd methane-breathing creatures that had tried to corner it, then powered away with its tiny but very powerful engines at full burn.
It passed any number of doors, cutting through various corridors and taking any gravity lifts it came across, throwing the much more formidable creatures that hunted it off its trail as best it could.
The drones were making swift progress, with one in a defensive position above the Installation and two more rapidly approaching the city-ship the Monitor was aboard. Once they were close enough, the Monitor could use their systems as a relay to boost the teleportation grids signal, allowing it to return to the relative safety of the Installation. One more had suffered moderate wounds, the simple-minded intelligence in enough 'pain' that it had jumped to a point just outside of the system in order to lick its wounds.
"Look, there!," the Monitor heard the high-pitched voice to its left, and knew that it was one of the small methane-breathers. Turning, the Monitor charged the power capacitors on its beam cannon and prepared to fire, only to be distracted by a series of red plasma bolts splashing against its shields. Noting the larger threat, the Monitor raised off the floor another two metres, spun around and fired the scintillating red-orange beam.
The enormous, hairy creature that had fired on the Monitor shrieked, and the stench of burning hair an flesh invaded the Monitors olfactory receptors. The beastly creature, through some unknown survival mechanism, survived the slightly under strength beam, dropped its weapon and shouted gibberish, charging maniacally at the Monitor.
The Monitor raised itself further, so that it was now near the ceiling of the corridor, and fired again into the side of the passing creature, scouring the flesh from its ribcage and sending it tumbling to the floor, dead or dying. The Monitor turned its attention on the small methane-breather, only to have the little alien scream in terror and begin running in the opposite direction, its clumsy, comical gait causing it to crash into a locked door, knocking itself unconscious.
"Odd," Beneficent Collaborator murmured to itself, then continued on its way. It passed through another door into a circular two-storey room, with dirt and small plants and boulders covering the lower floor and a gravity lift in the very centre of the room, inset in a semi-circular inner room that ran from floor to ceiling, with a number of walkways branching off into other walkways surrounding the chamber at about mid-height. There was one other thing worth noting about the room as well.
Hairy simians lined the ground floor, and all along the upper walkways were the considerably less offensive reptilian creatures, like the one that had guided him to the 'Prophet'. Guarding the now-inactive grav-lift were four enormous beings clad entirely in some kind of armour, with massive metallic shields attached to their left arms brought down across their bodies in a defensive stance and a large cannon mounted on their right arms, all aimed at the Monitor.
"Please, Oracle, surrender so that me way cleanse you of the Heretics Taint," on of the reptilians spoke in a low growl, stretching its two-fingered, two-thumbed hand out toward the Monitor. Beneficent Collaborator examined the room closely, and knew it would not be able to make it far before overwhelming firepower and sheer weight of numbers were able to overpower it. Behind it came the echoing clanks of armoured feet moving across metallic surfaces, and the Monitor knew it would not be able to head back that way.
A tingling sensation at the back of the Monitors mind alerted it to another possibility; the drones were within range for teleportation to be possible.
"My apologies, but my services are required elsewhere," and with that, 1609 Beneficent Collaborator disappeared in a flash of golden light, leaving dozens of frustrated Covenant troops pointing their weapons at thin air.
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2187
HICOM, Epsilon Eridani System, High Orbit of planet Bastion
Orbital Command Facility Imperial
"So, Mister Selmak, why don't you tell us exactly what you have to offer us?," Paul Grove said as he set down a glass of water on the large briefing table.
"I don't understand. I thought you said we would be able to make an alliance?," Selmak spoke, a little confused and dubious now as to the intentions of his host. He shared a glance with one of the two Jaffa that were sitting next to him.
"Precisely. An alliance can't be an alliance if there is nothing to be gained for both sides. You said you're fleets are small and you have very few dedicated warships, therefore you most likely expect us to supply you with warships and defensive technologies," Grove answered. "Seeing as you cannot provide military assistance, what can you do for us to make handing over ships and weapons profitable for us?"
Selmak blinked slowly, now knowing what the human was talking about and trying to think of ways the Jaffa and the Tok'ra could prove themselves to be useful allies for the humans and the Tau.
"We have knowledge of the chappa'ai," he finally answered triumphantly.
"The stargate?," Grove asked, to which Selmak nodded an affirmative. The stargate had been discussed in previous interrogations by military members.
"And your ships are formidable, but we can teach you how to manipulate trinium and naquadah to create much stronger and lighter hulls. We have many concealed agents within the Goa'uld Union, some in key positions," Selmak was on a roll now. "We know of Goa'uld fleet and troop movements, the positions of enemy strongholds and shipyards."
Grove was quiet as Selmak finished listing off the things the Tok'ra could do for the Allies. He leaned over and spoke with the Tau, a polite creature named Elder R'Kah, conversing with the alien for several seconds. Selmak recalled why the Tau was an 'Elder'. When humans and Tau first met, they exchanged medical details, physiology and psychology and whatnot, and the humans discovered that one in every hundred thousand Tau had what was eventually known as the Elder Gene.
Average Tau life spans usually lasted about 150 years, closer to 250 years now with the variety of medical technologies discovered since then, but Elders were able to live for up to four centuries due to an odd, and as yet unexplainable, genetic anomaly. An Elder born in the last year could be expected to live for up to seven centuries assuming it was not killed in combat or contracted a disease that nano-meds could not overcome.
Naturally, Elders were respected for their age and wisdom, with most Elders becoming leaders in either civil or military affairs.
Finally, Grove turned his attention back to Selmak. "Mister Selmak, the Elder and I agree; you have enough to offer us to make this alliance profitable for both of us. Once the final arrangements have been made and the treaties signed, we will be able to begin technology exchanges and your fleets will be bolstered with dedicated battle groups."
Selmak was stunned. He had not expected things to go so smoothly. Grove stood, a wide smile crossing his features, and held his right hand out in front of his body, a gesture Selmak had become used to since his arrival at the station. Selmak raised his right hand and grasped Groves firmly, shaking twice quickly.
"Mister Selmak, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship," Grove smirked.
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2187
1.2 Parsecs From Eden System
Camden Sector Fleet, Command Dreadnought Relentless
They had been delayed far longer than Rear Admiral Artemis Porcini would have liked, but given the extent of their reinforcements, he could deal with it. They had received two battleship-lead battle groups, another dreadnought-lead battle group, two carrier-lead battle groups and a SOCOM stealth cruiser flotilla, making for a grand total of seven hundred and thirty seven allied ships.
Which still left them outnumbered nearly two-to-one, considering the considerable reinforcements the enemy had received over the past week. The SOCOM ships were still a mystery to Porcini; he had been ordered to halt his preparations and wait for the five cruisers to arrive.
When he'd questioned those orders, he had been told that the five cruiser contained a special payload, and that regardless of whether or not Porcini's forces were able to retake and hold orbit of Eden Prime, it was absolutely vital that those payloads be delivered to Eden Prime's surface. Now all he needed was for his plans to be finalised and for the various battle groups to arrange themselves into a planetary assault formation and he could be underway.
Soon, you bastards, Porcini thought to himself, glaring at the latest recon photos of the alien fleet that surround Eden Prime, soon, you're going to get all that you deserve.
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2187
3 Parsecs from Knossos System
Deep Recon/Early Warning System Patrol, Darden-Class Destroyer Prometheus
Captain Michael Jankowski Commanding
Knossos was not a particularly important system. At the very edge of Allied territory to the galactic south, it was trinary system, its three suns blasting radiation across the system, and had only one inhabitable world. With a population of just over three hundred, all of them scientists studying the unique effects that three stars had on the nine gas giants, one-hundred-forty-three moons, four terrestrial worlds, on inhabitable world and three asteroid belts that made up the large system.
Because of its unimportance, there was only a very small military contingent in Knossos, two heavy cruiser, four light cruisers, eight destroyers, eight frigates and twelve corvettes, and even then, they were more to protect the extensive mining operations going on in the asteroid belt on the far outer edge of the system than for the benefit of the scientists.
Deep Recon/Early Warning Patrol was a punishment, one that Jankowski had earned through his insubordination regarding the pursuit of pirate raiders. He had been ordered to back off as, they were no real threat to anyone, and he had ignored the order and pursued the two raiders, destroying one ship and badly damaging the other. The crew of the Prometheus thought he was a hero for his actions; Knossos FLEETCOM did not.
So here he was, light-years from anywhere, twiddling his thumbs and waiting for something interesting to happen. He was about to get his wish.
"Captain, I'm getting some unusual sensor readings here, sir," Ensign Arthur Bates said a little timidly. Young and inexperienced, Bates looked up to Jankowski, a poor choice in role models as far as anyone not posted to the Prometheus was concerned.
"What have you got, son?," Jankowski asked, his interest piqued. He examined the readouts closely.
"I'm not sure, sir."
Jankowski knew what it was after a moment, though. The sensor distortions he was seeing were consistent with advanced and fairly powerful stealth systems, similar to those used by SOCOM ships. Finally, he had something to do.
"They're ships. Boone, send a hostile challenged and warm up the weapons," Jankowksi ordered the AI. Not blessed with true sentience, Boone was a specialised AI integrated with the ships systems, and could learn no knew actions or phrases not associated with his work.
"Challenge sent. No response," Boone stated. "Shall I transmit First Contact packages?"
Jankowski thought it over. To his knowledge, Knossos was the furthest south anyone had gone before, aside from long-range probes. It was possible the reason there was no response to his challenge was because this was a new alien race.
"Do so, then send another challenge and give them sixty seconds to reply. If they don't, fire a warning shot with the plasma cannons," Jankowski answered.
"Done, sir. Awaiting response." Time ticked by slowly, and still no response from the unknown contact. "No response, firing warning shot."
Unfortunately, due to the sophisticated high-tech nature of the stealth systems the unknown ship used, Boones twin-pulsed plasma blasts impacted on the ship, rather than a kilometre behind it as planned.
"Energy levels of the unknown contact rising, possibly bringing weapons online. Raising shields to optimal integrity," Boon spoke. "Activating active ECM and ECCM, preparing for possible hostilities."
"If that ship fires on us, I want it taken out with extreme prejudice, understood?," Jankowski told the AI.
"Understood, sir, weapons locked."
It was a standoff now, Jankowski sending co-ordinates and reinforcement requests back to the small fleet in Knossos, the alien ship doing whatever it was alien ships did. Whether this would turn into a shooting match or not, only time would tell.
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A/N: Three guesses as to who occupies the alien ship, and the first two don't count. ECM is Electronic Counter-Measures and ECCM is Electronic Counter-Counter-Measures. ECM is used to confuse enemy sensors into thinking a ship is in a different place to what it actually is, and ECCM is used to cut through enemy ECM.
Review and let me know what you think of the Forerunner attack drones, they're a taste of some of the things the Forerunner had at their disposal while they were still around. And let me know what you think of my OC Monitor, I wanted something a little darker and more willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done than either Guilty Spark, Penitent Tangent or Medicant Bias in terms of Forerunner AIs.
Any guesses as to what the 'special payloads' the SOCOM ships in Porcini's fleet are carrying might be? Until next time, send in your reviews!