Border of the UNSC territory and State of Talam
Eudemon
September 22, 2558
The heads up display of the F-41 Exoatmospheric Multirole Strike Fighter lit up with the red indicators of hostile targets. About a mile in front and three thousand feet lower, an enormous T-56 lich had been communicating with a newly fortified SASE base close to the border. Slowly behind it, an identical aircraft trailed as a backup. Sangheili armies stationed there were placed on the highest alert and by comm traffic of what little eavesdropping the UNSC was able to obtain, were about to launch their assault on Mastema to eliminate the commanders of the human side. That way, the war would be quick and the elites would dictate the ceasefire. The occupants of the lich had no idea and would have probably choked on their own teeth if they knew an advanced broadsword was trailing them back into their home airspace.
The UNSC Air Force's 724th air superiority squadron stationed in Mastema had continued high altitude passes to help ensure the sangheili of how dangerous the humans would be if they instigated a war. Airborne for nearly three hours, the two bright silver aircraft seemed to be on a normal training flight after its takeoff from Devil's Park Air Force base, but then turned sharply southward, near the border of the UNSC and Talam states.
"Frost zero one two and Frost zero one four bearing seven five." The pilot sat in the cockpit wearing the bright red visor of the aviator harness. "She's right on time."
"I got her." Frost zero one four quipped. Frost zero one two toggled his throttles, putting a little more power to the twin auxiliary jet engines. The base with the highest amount of hostile elites may be already making advances to human side. Through orbital surveillance, they had a general location of the compound, but its actual area was very close to civilian buildings. Since they couldn't initiate an evacuation on territory that wasn't theirs, the only way to stem the threat was to perform a precision airstrike.
Now this lich was leading them right to the base. Their conventional guided bombs would then damage or destroy multiple phantoms, lichs and banshees as possible. With no response from the SASE, the UNSC opted for a first strike only if there was total confirmation of the elite's aggressive movements. Te airstrike wouldn't completely stop their growing power, but at the same time, they would be missing a lot of air assets compared to the UNSC side.
"Base sighted." The pilots had been shown an image back at the briefing before the flight and were already running a match to a large spired building that the lich was headed towards.
Frost zero one four came back online, "Target acquired, performing final armament now." Both he and his wingman began cycling the computer through the sophisticated sequence of disabling safeties of their bombs.
"Let's make this quick." Frost zero one two remarked. As he sped up, an urgent call came through over their helmet sets.
"Frost zero one two and Frost zero one four, this is Command." The unexpected call was originating from Devil's Park AFB, unbeknownst to them, "You are ordered to abort mission. Stand down and RTB. Repeat, mission abort. Acknowledge over."
Although puzzled, both broadswords put in a few more commands, disarming their payload. Frost zero one four performed their reply. "This is Frost zero one four, Frost zero one two and I are standing down and RTB."
Both fighters had their undercarriages locked and they ascended over the Talam state and the nearby city of New Thansan. They peeled off, heading for the border before setting a course back to Devil's Park AFB.
"As if they couldn't do it any sooner." Frost zero one four told his wingman a few moments later.
"You're telling me." Frost zero one two replied with relief, gazing at the sprawling city beneath him. The large border area of a trench was just on the horizon and the Mastema skyline of what few skyscrapers began to appear. "Glad this mission's scrubbed. I just hope nobody else finds out how close we came."
Imbel Alpha
"Commander, we have a problem. The shutdown didn't cause all of the nanobots to deactivate."
"Drew, I'm limping back to the prowler and can barely hear you over the engine." Trip was actually standing inside the hangar bay with his sensors right next to her primary powerplant. "You say that not all microbots are not responding to the signal? Why?"
"Danny's theory is that they've been set to reproduce so quickly that they have a less powerful signal getting to them. In a sense, it's like an evolved independent unit. What about Sovl and the Vahkai?"
"Dead and fragmented."
The Rocket's Red Glare rumbled to life as she retrieved all the personnel. Morand was helping some of the sailors escort a group of Vahkai captured during the raid to a detention block. Beech was in the infirmary, tended to by the ship's medic. Vaal and Rak had busied themselves elsewhere.
"Don't worry commander," He grinned on the other end, "I have a solution, but it's going to take a long time to repair fully."
Minutes later, the prowler had emerged from the atmosphere, now with mostly deactivated microbots, had a large gap to where it could break free. As it transitioned into space, they saw the UNSC blockade, the size of fingertips moving off from a fleet of Covenant ships.
Adrenaline flooded Trip's limbs, "Drew, are those hostile?"
"Nope." Came the reply, "Those are Akuo's ships. Both them and the UNSC are going to handle the microbots."
SDV Corvette Swift Brotherhood
"Status?" Akuo Talam looked over at the weapons officer.
"Our guns are online." The young sangheili responded, "The antimatter bomb will be loaded shortly."
"Are the human ships ready as well?"
The communications officer listened more carefully to his helmet's communicator before giving a nod, "Shipmaster, they are arming a nuke now and locked over the southern polar region."
"Weapons, prepare the pulse lasers to fire upon the largest patch of infestation. Fire when the intensity has reached a fifty five percent."
Moments later, the weapons officer placed his hand on the panel, a low bass rumble resonated through the ship as her turrets turned on the largest patch of microbots. A lance of bright purple blasts erupted from the barrels. Travelling slowly, they splashed over the thickest layer, incinerating them in countless numbers.
The UNSC flagship to his left had her silos open and a green flash emitted from inside. A large tubular object rose into the air, her bottom igniting as the nuke's safeties were removed. The warhead accelerated to the planet's bottom, where the detonation would hopefully start a chain reaction to trap any airborne nanos.
"The techs report that the antimatter bomb is ready. Transferring the remote control of the phantom to your pad."
The bodyguard materialized at his side with the handheld purple pad. Akuo removed it, toggling the controls from the phantom's mounted cameras. His familiarity with such engineering allowed him to keep the smooth flight. The bomb's spiky appearance used antimatter only as a small part of the fuel. Among the largest and most lethal of the Covenant arsenal. Being the equivalent of a UNSC tactical nuke, it had much more energy released during its payload, however if they didn't want to permanently imbalance Imbel Alpha, then a nuke would be the better option. The antimatter bomb would annihilate the majority of microbots in the atmosphere, spreading energy output by pressure inside to briefly cover the planet and erase the airborne weapon. The nuke would detonate, causing a short nuclear winter and freezing the remainder. The Covenant version had so many fail-safes in place because of the bomb's volatile nature.
Strapped to the bay of the dropship, Akuo guided the bomb to the moving clouds of microbots. High in the atmosphere, the silvery liquid latched on to the craft's sides, already eating their way through the thick armor. He had lost the controls to the engines within ten seconds of being inside.
"Detonating." His finger tapped a red button on the side, sending a signal to the bomb to release its payload a moment later.
Down on the planet, a brilliant white explosion blossomed, enveloping the clouds and vaporizing them. The layers kept the blast inside the planet and although the spread would be slow, the nuke would freeze and destroy any remnants of what the Covenant charge would miss.
Onboard the bridge of the Swift Brotherhood, the crew let out a loud cheer. Unbeknownst to them, the crew on the other vessels were just as thrilled.
Back aboard the Rocket's Red Glare, Aegis found ambassador Beech and Morand preparing their reports for a quick scheduled conference between himself, the UNSC leaders of Eudemon with Akuo Talam and the other SASE kaidons.
"How's the summit coming ambassador?"
Beech smiled, now dressed in a crisp navy blue jacket with khakis. His face had a scar running along his jawline, but he seemed to be just as new when he had been before the ordeal kicked in.
"Kaidon Talam was very generous at both the UNSC's and my attempt to halt the war. We have a ceasefire on and hopefully we can get a resolution to all of this."
"Good to hear. Talam has also illegalized anything related to the Vahkai to further prevent a totalitarian type of regime from taking over."
Beech smiled, "You know it reminds me of the twentieth and twenty first century where such things erupted in a war instantly when we used to live on Earth. Now we span colonies, enduring conflict against the most brutal enemies ever fought. Today, we are now thriving peacefully alongside beings that wouldn't have been a thought thirty years ago. Truly a proud day for both humans and elites who live here."
"A day you should be damn proud of ambassador." Aegis smiled, "My team and I will help the peacekeepers keep the place secure."
"What about the microbots?" Rachel asked.
"Turns out that those were ancient human weapon for multipurpose. It was deemed to be unstable and both military and politicians long ago had it stored away in Imbel Alpha in hard light containers, one of the few materials that resisted the microbots devouring programming. How they got out is beyond my idea."
The ship's medic tended to his arm when he boarded. Armor was removed and a tightly wound white cloth was applied with biofoam and cleansing medigel. He would fully recover within days thanks to his augmentations. A normal human would take nearly one and a half weeks.
"How is your arm?" Rachel asked.
"Looks a hell of a lot worse than it feels." He lifted it up, "It should be good within a few."
"So now that you've done your entire job has asked, what are you planning now?"
Beech saw a bit of a connection and quietly dismissed himself, taking all of his delegation tools with him.
"I'd have to check with my crew and get my payment for this one." He grinned as something sore cropped up in his arm. "Why you ask."
"Well you still owe me that date."
Aegis had totally forgotten about that one and probably the one that Morand had at the top of her mind during her time with him. Had this been at the beginning of their meetings, he would have flat out said no. Now, part of him was actually looking forward to it. A relaxing dinner with a beautiful blonde didn't seem to bad.
"Your boss tells me you like Brazilian."
My operation begins in less than an hour. So I'll put the epilogue up too. Enjoy.
Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone, you give my writing purpose.