Ongoing thanks to Zimu Yang for beta-reading
Taking into account certain revelations that came from Halo: Reach, I've had to ret-con some back story,
which kind of pads this chapter a little in the middle

Red In Tooth And Claw
Chapter 51: Warpath

The fleet managed to settle down once the Sons of Ares agreed to release their hostages in exchange for being allowed to remain on the Kiya. Admiral Grant only agreed to the deal under the condition that the transports launch key was removed and that it was flanked on both sides by the frigate Caledfwlch and the destroyer Heart Of Oak, their 50-mm point-defence cannons ready to disable the ship at the first sign of trouble. Not everyone was happy with the compromise, but it was agreed that anything avoiding further bloodshed was for the better.

"Sir, CAP reports a slip-space emergence 40,000km off the port bow, 25-degrees above the ecliptic." the Hugh Dowding'sofficer of the watch reported as a stream of new data apparel on the main computer display, "IFF reads as the heavy cruiser Siege Perilous. They have challenged, and both pass-word and counter-challenge have been authenticated."

"What the hell is she doing all the way out here?" Commodore Kerensky raised an eyebrow as he looked up from the report he'd been reading, "The Siege Perilous is assigned to the Mars Defence Fleet if memory serves."

"Sir, we're picking up a wide-beam transmission. They claim to have Vice-Admiral Wolfe aboard, and that he needs to see Admiral Grant ASAP" the younger officer looked around, a surprised look on her face, "Sir, the orders comes from Fleet-Admiral Chandra himself."

"Admiral Grant's over on the Pegasus for the re-commissioning ceremony." Kerensky put the report down, "Make sure she's informed of our new arrival. Then ask a few indirect questions and see if you can find out why HighCom saw fit to send another Admiral all the way out here on a single heavy cruiser."


Seventeen jumps in six hours had taken their toll on the crew of the crew of the Bad Moon Rising, and the reluctant decision had been made to at least try and get some sleep before continuing. Shaw volunteered to take first watch while the others headed back into the cramped aft cabin. With little to do except keep an eye out for anyone who might stumble upon them in the vast gulf between stars, she went over what little information Dr Halsey had been able to drag out of the Hub's computers. There seemed to be some vague references to a location where the original Cylon's had gone to after signing the armistice, but there were no actual coordinates and the description of the location was somewhat on the vague side.

Shaw was just about to pop the tab one another self-heating cup of coffee when she heard the sound of the hatch being carefully opened and closed, followed by soft footsteps across the deck. Looking around she saw Dr Halsey, her ever-present lab-coat pulled tight around her body. For the first time, the scientist truly looked her age; the stress and strain of the past few days had taken their toll on her, taking away the spark that normally lit up her inquisitive eyes.

"I couldn't sleep." She explained as she set herself down in the co-pilots seat and folded her legs underneath her body, "Too much going on up here." She tapped the side of her head with a faint smile, "Not for the first time either."

"We've all got a lot to think about." Shaw nodded in agreement, offering the coffee to the scientist, "I doubt I'll find it that easy to sleep when it's my turn."

They sat in silence for what felt like an eternity, before Halsey suddenly started to speak again.

"I had a daughter once before; her father was a UNSC officer who'd been my assistant and to a certain extent my babysitter when I first started my work on the SPARTAN-II project." Her voice was barely above a whisper, almost lost against the background noise of the air circulator, "We met up again at a conference a few years later and, well, neither of us expected it to be any more than a way of unwinding and indulging some mutual attraction. But I guess I was a little more absent minded back then, because I'd evidently let my contraceptive implant expire and I ended up with my Miranda."

"Do the others know?" Shaw asked, shocked that the normally composed and secretive scientist had chosen to open up to here in this way, at this time.

"Franklin knows, we were working together back then. I don't know if John or the other Spartans remember me being pregnant, I never brought her into the training area." There was a moment of near perfect silence, as if the entire universe was holding its breath, "As for Cortana? That I can't say; so many of the memories that were passed over to here were jumbled up that it's possible she doesn't know. I had a lot of enemies in ONI back then, so when I sent Miranda to live with her father, she took his name, and I covered her tracks as well as I could so no one could ever try and use her against me. I doubt that even her official file mentions me."

"Did you have much contact with her?"

"Not as much as I would have liked; she was raised wherever Jacob was stationed, and she felt somewhat abandoned by me. I wrote her letters, but most came back unopened." there was another pause, and Halsey's eyes seemed to lose their focus, almost as if she was looking at something in the middle distance, "She looked a lot like Cortana." He eyes closed, and a single tear ran down her cheek, "She was only 27 when she died and I never got a chance to tell her how proud I was of her."

"How do you know that she's..." Shaw was hesitant to ask.

"John and Cortana's after-action reports from The Ark; they included a video taken from the black-box of a Pelican she piloted into battle." Halsey sounded even more distant, as if she was somewhere else, "I... I saw her die, shot in the back by a coward who didn't have the guts to face her."

"Why didn't you mention her before?" Shaw was more than a little lost and rather confused, "You once told me that you'd never had any children."

"Sometimes it's easier to perpetuate the lie then admit the truth." The scientist admitted, "And I guess part of me felt that if I maintained the myth that she wasn't my daughter, then it would mean that I hadn't really lost her, because I'd never had a daughter."

"But if that's true, why are you telling me? And why now?"

"Because we've burned every bridge we've got, and are planning on jumping head first into the abyss. I'm not going to pretend that I believe in some 'higher power'; I was raised to trust in what can be proved through observation and rational thought, but part of me feels that if I'm going to die, then I should do so with a clean conscience." Halsey stood and started to make her way back to the aft cabin, "I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention this conversation to the others."

"What conversation?" Shaw asked, deadpan, "Try and get some sleep, Catherine; we've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow."


"I should thank you; I've never been one for formal ceremonies." Admiral Grant pulled off her dress uniform jacket and handed it to her chief steward, who vanished though a well hidden door, "Add to that, thing have been rather hectic the last couple of days: first I discover that there's a copy of the Activation Index floating around in the head of a former AI who's been captured by the biggest bunch of religious maniacs this side of the old Covenant. Then while I'm trying to deal with a hostage crisis started by our lost brethren, I face a mutiny led by one of the smartest women who ever lived and a living legend." She held up a hand, a somewhat maniacal grin on her face, "And, just when I thought that my day couldn't get any better, I'm told that one of my staff officers has vanished, along with a short-ranged shuttle." She pulled a business card out of her pocket and tossed it to her gust, "I have my Marines checking her cabin, and all they find is this."

"Captain Antonia Baxter, Office of Naval Intelligence." Vice-Admiral Bradley Wolfe examined the card, "Section Three."

"Exactly. The Office of god-damn Naval Intelligence." Grant muttered a string of oaths under her breath, "The right hand doesn't know the left hand exists, neither knows the right foot exists and all three don't know the left foot exists... which in turn is playing all three of them for fools in some crazy scheme, while not sure if it has five or six toes, let alone what those toes are doing."

"Looks like they must have sent another Prowler along to keep an eye on you." Wolfe suggested, "Not that I'm totally surprised; there's probably one riding shot-gun on my mission."

"Yes, your 'mission'." Grant's eyes narrowed, "Why did HighCom sent you all the way out here? They could only have just gotten our message that we'd made contact with the Colonials. And even then, they would have had to have sent you through the Voi Portal."

"Here." the Vice-Admiral pulled a data-chip from his pocked and plugged it into the terminal built into the conference table that ran the length of the room. There was a momentary pause then the information appeared on the display screen on the bulkhead. "This should just about cover it."

"Mother of god..." Grant looked round from the seemingly endless list of ships, "This has got to be one of the biggest fleets that's been assembled since the end of the last war. Just what is Chandra planning?"

"We're taking the Cyrannus system back from the Cylons and salvaging anything they didn't outright destroy." Wolfe smiled as he took his hat off and tossed it onto the long, polished oak surface of the conference table and watched as it slid along, only stopping when it hit the pitcher of water half way down, "If there are any surviving humans there, we'll do our best to help them."

"But it would take months to get all the way back to Cyrannus, even with the latest generation of slip-space drives." Grant shook her head, "A supply line that long? No, that's no way to fight a war."

"I don't know all the details, but it seems that the Forerunner complex under Voi has started waking up." Wolfe lowered himself into one of the empty seats, "They found another destination it can send ships too. A world you may well have heard of, Kobol."


Cortana winced in pain as an Eight pulled the straps holding her in place as tight as it would go. A lever was pulled, and the contraption she was tied to rotated vertically.

"You know, strung up like this," She nodded her head to indicate the way her arms were held out perpendicular to her body, "a girl could be forgiven for having delusions of grandeur."

"Delusions maybe, but I doubt they'll be very grand." Caprica had changed into a rather scarlet dress that did it's best to hide her curves, with black pipping and belt, "I've been told that this device is excruciatingly painful, but as you insist on doing this the hard way, I see no reason to go easy on you."

"Compared to your monologues, I'm sure it's a walk in the park." Cortana did her best to sound confident, "I've been tortured and interrogated by things bigger and nastier than you; you're not even a blip on my DRADIS screen."

"That's right, be brave." Caprica stepped closer until they were almost touching and ran a gentle hand down the side of her prisoner's face, "Because back then you were nothing more than a mind, without form. But now you are oh so much more."

Alternating waves of pleasure and pain shot through Cortana's body, making her thrush about against her restraints as every nerve ending in her body felt like it was being hyper-stimulated at once. The sensation reached the point where she should have blacked out, but the sweet releases of unconsciousness was denied her as her eyes rolled back in her head and she lost all control over her limbs. It continued for what felt like an eternity then stopped just as abruptly as it had started.

"Much like that of a human, your body is little more than a highly complex biological machine." Caprica explained, an amused smile on her face as she wiped away the sweat from the other woman's forehead, "But unlike theirs, yours can be controlled and manipulated by those who know how. I can control everything you see, hear and feel; from your point of view, reality is clay in my hands, do be moulded as I see fit. You were smart enough to put in blocks so I can't try and force the Activation Index out of you without risking it being lost altogether. But trust me; when I'm through with you, you'll be begging to give it to me. And believe me, I will make you beg before we're through."

To Be Continued...