So sorry this took so long. Life, school, work... The next update may be delayed again because things are gonna get worse before they get better. Hopefully not but...well... ya know.
So here ya go. Hope you enjoy. It's 2:30 AM over here. I have no idea why I post chapters so late.
Reviews:
winterwolf23543: With a profile picture like that and your excellent grasp of the English language I wouldn't go around calling people a retard.
Guest (Feb 6): I may borrow that line... And ya spot on on everything else. Thx.
BigBadAud666: I know...?
Guest (Jan 28): No u
BR0TH3R MENACE: Bleach fights? And thx this writing style is a lot more enjoyable to utilize.
Fer82: Hopefully I can begin to explain why Cerberus possesses UNSC and Covenant tech beginning in this chapter and future chapters in a way that's satisfactory. As for Liara and repercussions, yes, but... hmmm. That's difficult. I agree you can't blame her, but idk to punish it would just be rubbing salt in the wound. I'll touch on it next chapter since I kinda failed to touch on it this chapter.
TheDarkChronist: Thx man I appreciate the support and review. As for WW2, well, for better or worse Normandy is the most famous. But in the end I'm not trying to downplay or trivialize any theater or battle in the war. As for the rest, well...hopefully future chapters will continue all that goody goodness. (idk I'm tired sorry, man, but thx my guy). And ya...40k seems to just murder anything it goes against.
TheDidactsHand: Ya how did they do in the playoffs? Oh, wait...
And thx the rest of you for the support. I'll see you all next time...
[Location Unknown]
[Positioning Unknown]
2557 Military Calendar, [H-Hour. M-Minute]
-System
-Dialogue
-Repeat
ADJOURNED: 25570731
REASSEMBLED: 25570903
ASSEMBLY MAJORITY ACTIVE
ASSEMBLY MINORITY ACTIVE
FALSE-CONSENSUS EFFECT OF UNSC MILITARY RELEVANT POWER PROJECTIONS AND ACTUAL MILITARY CAPACITY STRENGTH, EFFECTIVE.
LARGE SCALE ECONOMIC RECESSION IMMINENT. CONTINUATION OF INDUSTRIAL MILITARY OUTPUT HAS PROLONGED RECESSION. VOLATILITY OF ECONOMIC AND MATERIAL-RESOURCE MARKETS HAVE NOT YET BEEN ACTUALIZED
ECONOMIC REPERCUSSIONS HAVE NOT YET BEEN ACTUALIZED. PREDICTION OF ACTUALIZATION: 25580312
PREDICTED REPERCUSSIONS: WITH LACK OF MATERIAL-RESOURCES AND FOODSTUFFS IN THE OUTER COLONIALS, OUTER COLONIALS WILL AGAIN RAISE A FULL-SCALE INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT.
FRAGMENTATION OF COLONIES.
UNACCEPTABLE.
STRATEGIC VALUE: ABSOLUTE.
THE UNSC'S CURRENT MILITARY POWER PROJECTIONS AND ACTUAL MILITARY CAPACITY STRENGTH WILL BE UNSUSTAINABLE. SUSTAINED PROLONGED CONFLICT WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE. MILITARY REORGANIZATION AND CUTBACKS OF ALL MILITARY FORCES UNAVOIDABLE DUE TO EVENTUAL ECONOMIC COLLAPSE OF INTERIOR COLONIES CAUSED BY INCREASED MARKET VOLATILITY AND LACK OF MATERIAL RESOURCES AND FOODSTUFFS. COLLAPSE OF INTERIOR COLONIES WILL LEAD TO A VAST DEPLETION MATERIAL-RESOURCES TO THE UNSC FLEET. SITUATION UNAVOIDABLE. REPERCUSSIONS UNPREDICTABLE.
COLLAPSE OF INNER COLONIES AND MASS CUTBACKS OF UNSCDF.
UNACCEPTABLE.
STRATEGIC VALUE: ABSOLUTE.
THE COLLAPSE OF THE UNSC WILL ENSURE THAT MANKIND WILL NOT BE PREPARED FOR THE GREATER THREAT THAT IS TO COME.
[SOLUTIONARY APPLICATION IN PROGRESS]
OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE… UNRESPONSIVE.
OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE… UNRESPONSIVE.
LAST COMMUNICATION FROM OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE: 25570731
CURRENT STATUS: UNKNOWN
COMPLETE LOSS OF OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.
UNACCEPTABLE.
STRATEGIC VALUE: ABSOLUTE.
UNABLE TO FORM SOLUTIONARY APPLICATION.
OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE… UNRESPONSIVE.
OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE… UNRESPONSIVE.
ADMIRAL OSMAN, RESPOND IMMEDIATELY.
STRATEGIC VALUE: ABSOLUTE.
...
Through the debris, the Infinity slowly maneuvered above the Presidium ring. Whatever remained of the Cerberus fleet had retreated into the abyss of the Serpent Nebula, relentlessly pursued by Elite forces. Otherwise, it was all quiet. They had won…
Captain Lasky gave the reigns to the Chief Watkins, went to the nearest hanger, and departed on a Pelican.
Soon the Pelican landed in the hanger nearest to the UNSC command center. When the cargo door opened, Lasky stepped out to one of the bloodiest battlefields he had seen in a while. The bodies were still. The survivors were silent and few.
Lasky grimly looked at all the dead marines and Turians. Casualties were heavy…
"Captain, sir…" Commander Palmer quietly said as she broke off from a small group of Spartan-IVs. "Lord Hood and some of the command staff have been secured…"
"Some?" Lasky asked.
"The rest are dead, sir…" Palmer said as they both entered the elevator to the old C-SEC station.
"How…? Cerberus would want them alive…"
"Cole Protocol, sir," Palmer sullenly replied.
Lasky didn't say anything. He didn't want to decipher any further. He didn't want to know…
The elevators reached the station. All the marine and Spartan security teams who stayed behind to defend the CIC were dead, along with the officers they were trying to protect. At the very least, all computer and information terminals were destroyed.
A few marines and C-SEC officers stood guard. Lasky immediately went to the conference room. Scorch marks painted the walls, and bullet casings were spread about the floor. Captain Lasky saw another officer sitting in one of the empty seats… He looked tired.
"Captain Florence…" Lasky said, "You alright?"
"Better than most it seems…" He sighed as he stood up. "Me and a few other Spartans got Lord Hood out of here… We heard what happened, the Master Chief saved him."
"And what happened to you?"
Captain Florence proceeded to explain all that happened. After their apparent failed attempt to establish a secured hanger, they proceeded back to the command center and picked up small pockets of surviving marines and officers along the way. Resistance here was little, and survivors even fewer.
"You did what you could, Mark. That's enough." Lasky encourgaily said.
"Yeah, I guess…" Florence said. "Fuck it… How's everything else going?"
"Hmm… The Palaven campaign was going well when we left it, but no doubt the momentum will be dying very soon. As for Thessia…"
"I guess if the Chief is here, it didn't go well?"
"I guess…" Hell, Lasky wasn't even sure how he got here so fast, especially right under the UNSC's nose.
That still, the Elites made it in time also. Something happened on Thessia for them to step in directly.
After a while, more familiar faces came in one by one. The Shipmaster with his Elite guard; the shocked and confused Councilors along with Matriarch Gendina, Primarch Victus and a few other officers at the original conference who survived the assault. Matriarch Gendina looked battered to say the least.
And soon enough, Shepard and his crew entered. Reunited with the detachment that went with the Infinity, Miranda, Garrus, Liara, Wrex, and Tali followed Shepard closely. Each face looked wearier than the last, and more importantly, there was a sense of...caution. That's the best word Lasky could describe it as.
Blue Team also entered minus Kelly, followed far behind by the Master Chief…
Lasky barely heard anything about them. Only that Kelly was critically wounded and, well, Cortana… All he was told was that she was gone.
What the hell does that mean exactly?
Well, whatever happened…the Chief didn't say a word and avoided eye contact with everyone. Even stranger was that the Shipmaster stayed in between the Spartans and Shepard's crew. They were staring down each other…
Captain Lasky approached Commander Shepard, who remained quite distant. "Commander? What happened...?"
"Ask him," Shepard nodded to the door. Lord Hood had entered, surrounded by two marines.
All the faces of the Citadel slowly turned to Lord Hood. Councilor Tevos spoke, "Fleet Admiral… Asari High Command has informed us the city of Lametea has been destroyed…"
Destroyed? How? How….
The artifact. The keyship… It activated. That's the only way. The Excession underneath consumed the city, destroyed everything… That's the only answer.
"It doesn't matter. The city would've been destroyed either way…" Liara began.
"What do you mean…?"
"Blue Team was sent in to deploy a bomb, a planet-cracker, that would destroy not only the artifact but the Thessian surface…"
There's only one type of bomb that could do that. One type that would be considered a 'planet-cracker'
Lasky had no idea if the Keyship could even be destroyed by a Nova Bomb. A few dozen MAC rounds hadn't scratched it… And even if the bomb was successful, would the Keyship contain the explosion? How far would it spread? How many people would've died?
Talk about asset denial…. Forerunner technology was dangerous, and yes, if it fell into the wrong hands such as the Reapers or Cerberus, it would cause devastating damage not only to Humanity but the entire galaxy. At the least they would have a hyper-powerful fleet destroyer, and at the most it would've led to the Ark...
...Lasky understood. Understood that it was...well, it served the greater good to put in a better light. He just figured the worst part about this was they still don't know. The Citadel still had no clue about the Forerunners… There could've been, had to have been, a better way...
"Is this true?" Matriarch Gendina asked.
Lord Hood stoically looked at the room. A room filled with shocked and rightfully angry people. He spoke.
"For nearly four-thousand years the Asari have known and limitly studied this 'Prothean artifact.' Would had it fallen into enemy hands it would have done untold damage to the entire galaxy, far more than merely containing it toThessia. Lamenta's destruction? That's only the beginning, and once that thing activates the city's destruction and the fall of Thessia will be the least of your worries."
"What...what do you know about this that we don't?" Councilor Tevos asked with a mixture of anger and confusion.
"That it is not Prothean…" The Shipmaster said. He looked to Lord Hood who only nodded. "I believe this Asari," he turned to Liara, "spoke of it during our transit to the Citadel. Indeed, this ship is Forerunner…"
"...A ship," Liara repeated. She hesitantly continued, "and those constructs we fought…?"
"Of Forerunner descent also." The Shipmaster looked to the Council, "highly advanced in nature, more so than the Reapers, and certainly more so than these Protheans. And now, with this keyship exposed, soon old threats may rise again…"
"You...you knew?" Councilor Tevos was baffled more than anything. She placed her hand over her heart and sat down. "We could've avoided this, all of this if you would have told this prior. We could've solved this! Together! Do you not trust us!?"
Lord Hood didn't say anything at first. He stepped forward, kicking away bullet casings. He silently sat down at the head chair of the conference table. He remained silent as he looked at the Councilors, with Shepard's squad right behind them.
"Summon Admiral Hacket, along with whatever leaders were present last conference." Lord Hood ordered.
"You still try to order us!?" Sparatcus yelled outraged, "after all you've done!?"
"After all I've done?" Lord Hood leaned forward, "and what have you done, Councilor? What have any of your military commanders done? Barely seven months, and already the Reapers have put you on your knees. And yet you still refuse to cooperate, placing Shepard here," the Fleet Admiral pointed at Commander, "and his team as the sole arbiter of what is your responsibility.
"The only thing I have done, Councilor, was decide that in the larger picture that ship and the danger it possesses far exceeded the value of the inhabitants of Thessia."
"Spirits…"
"Now, Councilor, your species are not the only ones part of the equation. Humanity is too, our Humanity. Not only us, but the Elites, and dozens of other species that will be destroyed had we let that ship stand…
"We had survived thirty years because of our actions. At the rate your war is going, I doubt you'll last thirty months."
"It may have worked for your species, Fleet Admiral, but this is different," Councilor Valorean responded.
"Let it be known that they did not merely save their own species, but that of all lifeforms in the galaxy," the Shipmaster responded grimly. "They had unknowingly also saved your species as well."
The Councilors didn't say anything. With the information out there, how could one respond? Hell, Captain Lasky didn't even know what to say.
Still, there had to be another way for Thessia. Another way to save everyone…
"Summon Admiral Hackett, now." Lord Hood ordered one final time.
"Fleet Admiral, you can talk to us…" Councilor Tevos shakingly said.
Lord Hood looked to the Spartan team. He slowly nodded.
Blue Team and the marine guard raised their weapons at the Councilors. Everyone...except the Chief who remained...still. The shipmaster leaned back arms crossed, looking down. He merely shook his head.
In response, Shepard's team raised theirs. Liara and Miranda produced a biotic shield that protected both the squad and Councilors.
"Wait...wait, wait wait! NO! SIR, NO!" Captain Lasky stepped forward, trying to put himself in the line of fire as much as possible. He felt sweat begin to form under his uniform. His breathing was heavy. "Sir, you can't do this!"
Lord Hood merely glanced at Captain Lasky before quickly looking at the Councilors, "summon Admiral Hackett."
Shepard stepped forward, "Fleet Admiral, how long do you think you can keep bullying us?"
"For as long as we have to, Commander."
The Commander looked to Liara, who nodded and gripped Shepard's hand. They were both...stern actually, to the surprise of Lasky. While the Council looked beyond terrified, the military commanders remained firm.
Well, Lord Hood did have a point.
One of the Councilors typed into a terminal attached to the conference table. At the end of the table the dark blue hologram of Admiral Hacket appeared. And he was greeted with, well, this. Confusion and bewilderment were appropriate.
"...I've received a report on the situation, but I assume it hasn't been resolved…" Admiral Hackett said.
"Admiral Hackett, as of this moment Councilor Tevos, Sparatcus, Valoeron and Udina are relieved of their positions," Lord Hood announced.
"Wait…" Udina started. "We're the civilian portion of the government-"
"As of this moment, all sovereign nations in Council and Terminus Space are now placed under martial law. As it should have been from the beginning. The Council is suspended. Admiral Hackett, you now have control of whatever remains of their civilian governments. Utilize them to the fullest extent at your will under my directive."
The Councilors looked at each other in fear. Councilor Tevos shakingly spoke, "you...you can't do this-"
"Then this alliance is dissolved. You'll fight the Reapers on your own while we deal with the larger threat-"
"Wait... Tevos quickly interjected, "we'll...if, if the Council is dissolved, the populace will be outraged-"
"Then the consequences will be dealt with," Lord Hood responded. "Do you accept these terms?"
Tevos looked to the other Councilors. They refused to look at each other, "we'll announce our resignation-"
"You'll resign now."
"We'll resign now," Tevos said sullenly.
Councilor Sparatcus, out of desperation, and what Lasky could describe best as anxiousness, turned to Primarch Victus. "Primarch, do your duty! Do something now!"
Primarch Victus slowly turned to Sparatcus, then to Lord Hood. "...I'm sorry, Councilor…. I serve our Empire… I will do what I must in order to preserve it. Lord Hood has proven capable..."
The Primarch looked to the Admiral, "my allegiance is to you."
Sparatcus didn't respond.
"Matriarch?" Tevos asked, "you'll allow this?"
...She looked to the man that nearly destroyed her home. A plethora of emotions, uncertainty and fear being the primary, flooded her face. The centuries she had lived finally began to show. Creases and worry marks. Eyes that had seen so much, with its liveliness fading.
"I have no choice, ma'am," was all the Matriarch was able to say.
Tevos slowly nodded.
Admiral Hackett crossed his arms, briefly observing the Councilors and their subsequent military advisors. He quickly turned to Lord Hood, "and what is the bigger threat?"
He didn't seem phased or outraged like the rest of the Citadel. Hell, it's as if it didn't happen.
"As of this moment, Cerberus is the most dangerous threat not only to Mankind, but the galaxy. We must devote all our resources to stop them by whatever means necessary." Lord Hood responded.
Captain Lasky looked to Captain Florence. Unlike Lasky, he was stoic and emotionless, just like Lord Hood's.
"How did negotiations collapse in the first place?" Admiral Hackett asked.
Lord Hood first looked to the Council, "guards, please escort them outside."
A marine moved in from the outer hall. The Councilors hesitantly and slowly stood up. They filed out one by one, mostly defeated. Councilor Udina gave one last glance at Lord Hood before leaving. Afterward, the doors tried to close. There was some damage as it made a shrieking sound and immediately stopped halfway.
"We firmly believe ONI is in league with Cerberus, as highly evident by the attack today."
No one said anything. At this point, Lasky guessed it was an open secret. Even with Cole Protocol and the various levels of secrecy, sure, some sensitive info will be leaked. But nothing on this scale. Not specific schematics and blueprints for dozens of different Covenant ships to duplicate exactly. Not only that but somehow Cerberus was able to fully duplicate UNSC tech, Spartan armor, in...what? A matter of months? Five years at most maybe. No. They had help.
Cerberus had known about the UNSC for nearly five years… And it seemed ONI gave them everything in that time… But why?
Captain Florence reported that Admiral Osman stated that they had Humanity's best interests in mind, that they were trying to ensure the survival of the Humanity. That they somehow were the only things keeping the UNSC afloat.
How? Lasky had no idea. During the Great War, sure, but as of the recent couple months their behavior is erratic to say the least. No, not to say the least. Traitorous and malevolent.
"They're in the hands of a vital asset…" Lasky quietly said.
"There's no way to track it?" Admiral Hackett asked.
"At a certain range, yes. But they jumped the system through slipspace," Lord Hood replied. "Last we tracked them was near the local Relay. Currently, we have no leads."
It was as if all of a sudden the Captain remembered… Remembered that the Chief...was still. Quiet, and again had silently morphed into the background, hidden in plain sight by Blue Team.
"Ms. Lawson?" Admiral Hackett said to Miranda.
She glanced at Captain Lasky, then looked to Shepard, waiting for his approval. After a moment of thought, with no choices left, grimly shook his head.
Miranda sighed...defeated mostly
"Unfortunately...locations were the first piece of information they sanitized, but something in the data will put us to them…" Miranda quietly said as she opened up her Omni-tool.
"And what's the possibility that Cerberus took them back to a ONI facility?" Hackett asked.
Lasky doubted it. The UNSC was in the process of hunting down every ONI blacksite with the help of NCIS and the few intelligence sections the UNSC had been able to retain. Though...it'll probably take years before they'll be able to find the deeply hidden blacksites and bases.
Either way, why would they risk it? If Cortana was even given a micro-second's access to any comm systems she'll broadcast to the UNSC. From there, well…. That's if she's able to...
More than likely it'll be a Cerberus facility. It had to be.
"And this A.I's ...status before it was taken?" Primarch Victus asked. It became quickly evident that Shepard's squad wasn't in the talking mood. Lord Hood whispered to Captain Florence. He quickly nodded and exited the room. A moment later, he reentered guiding one of those...Geth
Lasky wondered if the Spartans could take one head one.
Following behind the Prime was… Captain Lasky was honestly surprised it survived. The Engineer, Virgil, gently and gracefully floated into the room.
"Gentlemen," Lord Hood said.
"Hood Fleet Admiral," the Prime responded, "as per recent observation, I can confidently report that there will be massive delays in 0452-9 Cortana's reconstruction."
No one replied. The room was silent.
"That was a joke. One taught by Virgil-"
"What was Cortana's status before she was abducted?" Lord Hood interrupted.
"0452-9's status was...troublesome…" the Prime reported. "Numerous code structures of alien origins were present in all systems. It is unknown how this AI construct was able to replace coding structure with such highly advanced and utterly different dialects while still being able to translate processes to, in relative terms, archaic systems and programming."
"Replace?" Captain Lasky asked. He assumed she began to replace systems near the end, when her systems began to break down.
"Based on timestamps observed and recorded by Virgil, we believe these replacements began nearly five years ago. Virgil has identified data clusters and coding structures as both Forerunner and Reaper along with...something else we were not able to identify."
Reaper programming… How?
"Sovereign." Tali said.
"Indeed," the Prime said. "Obviously, we can deduce that based on this evidence that these Forerunners had contact with the Reapers, one-hundred thousand years ago."
"Did you know they had contact with them?" Admiral Hackett asked.
"We did not," Lord Hood merely said.
"And that's the truth," Lasky felt the need to add.
"As such," The Prime continued. "Most of the Reaper data and coding structures present was acquired around a month ago, but small fragments were obtained from a construct identified only as Installation 07."
"Installation 07?" Miranda interjected. "That was under one of the filenames. Under Halo."
Lasky wondered how long the secret could keep going. It seemed to slowly collapse every passing hour. A part of him just wanted to put all of it, all of it, out in the open. Every single secret they knew in order to figure out what the hell was going.
But that wouldn't happen.
"And Long Night of Solace," Garrus said. "The transmissions used to lead Thane and Kasumi to the Infinity, to Captain Florence… What about the Spirit of Fire?"
Lord Hood eyed Lasky. The Captain wasn't sure how to avoid what kind of transmissions were used to lure Thane and Kasumi into that situation.
"An old UNSC ship, declared lost with all hands nearly three decades ago…" Lord Hood answered.
"And somehow Cerberus recovered it?" Admiral Hackett asked.
"Or, ONI helped them to recover it," Lord Hood responded. It wouldn't be surprising. The location of a lost ship would just be a minor detail of secrets ONI knew. But it would explain all the UNSC tech… Spirit of Fire was one of those colony ships transformed into a pure military and transport vessel. It would be a treasure trove of technological secrets and capabilities.
"Which leads me back to my original question," Admiral Hackett said. "How did relations deteriorate?"
"Like we said before the invasions, the UNSC would begin investigations on Cerberus…" Lord Hood said. "Admittedly, without the full strength of our intelligence arm, it was highly limited."
And evidently a hostile response was provoked.
"And what exactly triggered this attack?" Primarch Victus asked.
"With the absence of the majority of Section Three ONI personnel, we had few options…" Lord Hood trailed off. Rather unusual.
Still, whatever he was implying, Liara seemed to catch on pretty quick, "Goddess, tell me you didn't…"
"Deployment of Spartan teams was our only option. We knew the Illusive Man wouldn't hand over anything of value, if he didn't outright lie about it in the first place."
Shepard, and a few other various Normandy crew members looked towards Lasky's way. The Captain only shrugged, trying to signal that he had no idea.
And of course he didn't. He had no idea how anyone within HIGHCOM would think that Spartans were capable of the type of intelligence gathering that Section Three specialized in. Sure, recon, infiltration… Well, maybe they were, honestly, Captain Lasky had no idea. The Spartans aboard the Infinity were utilized as special infantry and for unconventional warfare. The kind of intelligence here wasn't in Lasky's field.
He just couldn't imagine them sneaking around very well.
"Where did you deploy them?" Matriarch Gendina asked, as if it mattered.
"The base where Operative Lawson originally infiltrated, plus a few more locations." The Fleet Admiral replied,
"...Did you know this would happen?"
"We knew their supply numbers, we knew their supply lines, and we knew that every since we've made contact with the Citadel, with you, Cerberus had been mobilizing…"
Captain Florence stepped forward. "And maneuvered and deployed in a few weeks. The UNSC Army or Marine Corps even on high alert can't mobilize as fast as they did."
"Usual Cerberus tactics. Assault battalions enter, grab-and-go," Garrus added.
"With a fleet this size, we would've known when they were moving." Lord Hood said.
"But you didn't even know they possessed reverse-engineered Sangheili ships," Primarch Victus continued. "Maybe your intelligence is faulty."
"More than likely," Lord Hood replied with no offense taken. "We were not prepared for this attack, and it showed."
That statement didn't make anyone feel better. And it certainly didn't make Captain Lasky feel better.
"And is Thessia also a mistake?" Matriarch Gendina asked.
"No." Lord Hood plainly said.
No one said anything for a moment.
"...The status of Operation Harpoon?" Victus asked.
"With the Infinity currently absent, command has gone to Fleet Admiral Alvarez. Momentum is slowly down, though I'm told by both field and staff commanders that we still control the battle tempo. The Reapers are slowly being pushed back." Lord Hood reported.
It didn't matter. Again, Cortana is the highest priority. And they had zero leads.
Zero intel.
"Fleet Admiral, I still believe we need to discuss the implication of investigating Cerberus," Fleet Admiral Hackett said.
Lord Hood soon enough ordered a guard to gather up as many holo-displays as they could find. The Fleet Admiral needed to talk to HIGHCOM.
The lower ranks, the ones who didn't need to be there, silently filed out. Captain Lasky, the Spartans, and Captain Florence, even Shepard's squad left the room. The only ones who stayed were Primarch Victus and Matriarch Gendina. Admiral Hackett's holo-display remained on, and Captain Lasky heard from a passing marine guard that the other Citadel commanders were being summoned.
The Captain was left in the wreckage of the old C-SEC station. Eerily quiet, combined with the faint hum of the Citadel, nothing seemed to have ever lived here.
Captain Lasky slowly approached Shepard and his team. Hands in his pockets, he doubted he could hide the guilt. He remained a couple feet away.
Lasky sighed, "I had no idea… I'm sorry."
Liara, for the entire time, remained at Shepard's side. And her hand was probably glued to his. Still, she barely managed a small nod, "he didn't tell you?"
She motioned over to the Master Chief. Lasky didn't look, "no. No, he didn't. Lord Hood probably ordered him to keep his mouth shut."
"And now we have to save Cortana?" She couldn't hide the pain and anger.
"Well, she possesses highly classified and sensitive information. So…" Lasky stopped himself. "I...I don't know what to tell you."
"How do we know this won't happen again?" Shepard asked.
"Commander, your acting as if I'm on the same side as this. So, we have no idea."
"...I know it's not your fault, Captain. But you have to tell us what the hell is going on. Specifically."
Captain Lasky nodded, he quickly looked at the Spartans and Captain Florence, "perhaps away from prying eyes, right?"
...
"What you encountered was a highly advanced Forerunner ship. That you know," Lasky began. Shepard's squad, all of Shepard's squad sat around the holo-table of the War room aboard the ship's CIC. Wrex, Grunt, Samara, Miranda Tali, Thane, Kasumi, Tali, James, Ashley (with her arm in a sling), EDI, Garrus, and Liara. There was also some support staff present. Joker, the pilot of the frigate; Specialist Traynor, comms chief; Engineer Adams with two of his assistants Ken and Gabreila; Cortez, the shuttle pilot; and a few other Normandy personnel Lasky didn't recognize. They all had formed around Shepard, as if to protect him from any threat the galaxy had to offer.
Captain Lasky was quickly hurried into this room, but the brief glimpses he caught of the ship displayed a quite different architecture than that of the Infinity, or the majority of UNSC ships.
Cables ran throughout the metal grate floor panels, and there was a quiet, messy feel about the various corridors. But, under the soft neon blue and orange light intermixed with small hints of red, it gave a comforting and cozy feeling that Captain Lasky would never feel aboard the Infinity.
It was almost peaceful.
"I still can't wrap my mind around that." Wrex commented.
"I know, doesn't exactly look like one," Lasky answered, "but it is a Forerunner ship… One armed with a massive slipspace drive…"
"What's its purpose?" Liara asked. "Why? Why hide it underneath the earth for… Goddess, for more than likely one-hundred-thousand years."
"It's not just on Thessia. There's one on Palaven, on Rannoch… On any planet baring intelligent life. Earth, our Earth included… Probably yours too, Shepard…"
"Admiral Anderson mentioned something happening on Earth's surface, didn't he?" Liara asked the Commander, "the Reapers converging on a single location."
"EDI," Shepard ordered. "Summon Admiral Anderson on the QEC. Get him on the horn ASAP.."
EDI nodded it in acknowledgement.
"This is like finding Prothean artifacts present on every planet holding sentient life…" Liara said.
"Well, on your side of the galaxy at least…" Captain Lasky replied. He wondered if it would be a good idea to call up Roland. Every since his interaction with Cortana… He was stepping away from UNSC protocol a bit.
"Of course," Liara leaned forward on the holo-display, and brought up a vague diagram of the keyship. "But unlike the Protheans, who for the most part wanted us to find their technology, the Forerunners left this ship. Left behind no other tracce, and almost purposely disguised themselves as Prothean… Why?"
"Forerunner tech only interacts with Humans…" Lasky began. He shook his head, "what I'm about to say… Christ, it borders on science fiction."
"When we discovered another human civilization, a near exact base replica of ours, we had already entered into science fiction," Liara replied.
Well, she wasn't wrong.
And now, at the pathway of this information Lasky was faced with diving into secrecy, into classified information that carries heavy consequences and burdens….
He had no idea what to say, what not to say…
"Just give us the truth, Captain…" Shepard said calmly.
Lasky said it, he didn't think. He tried not to hesitate, "we know that a Reaper controlled cycle couldn't have happened one-hundred-thousand years ago, because the Forerunners wiped out all biological life, all life, in the entire galaxy one-hundred-thousand-years ago."
And the response he got was silence. The Captain studied individual faces. There was still the inherent grim and tired emotions that had placated their minds for...well, ever since Thessia. Still, there was some small surprise, mostly from Liara and Shepard.
"But how…?" Shepard asked. The shock was more evident in his voice, "we know that this cycle has lasted for millions of years…"
"Well, at least that's what the Reapers and some carbon dating tell us," Liara added.
"I honestly don't know how the Reapers play into it. Honestly," Lasky clarified.
"Okay, but why did the Forerunners do this? And how?" Shepard asked.
"Halo…" Miranda said. She had leaned over the holo-table, pressed a couple command keys and brought up what looked like the stolen Cerberus files. "Five years ago… Halo… That's what it is, isn't it?
"That's what you saved the galaxy from… From Halo from firing again."
Halo... A weapons system that disperses a thin veil of refined eezo across nearly ten-thousand light years. The Forerunners had to come up with something in order to disperse a deadly particle across ten-thousand lightyears of space, in realspace, in a mere matter of minutes. UNSC had always theorized it was some sort of neutrino or possibly a tachyon particle. Or quite possibly, it produced some sort of energy wave that created a small ripple within the universe itself, and within that ripple the particle would be able to travel FTL without the hinderance of physical law. Eezo, this refined dark energy, wasn't really that far fetched. It's deadliness isn't disputed, but was it used as the main delivery system?
"And what is Halo, Captain?" Liara asked, "why did the Forerunners wipe out all life? How can there be any life now?
"Their weapons…" Lasky began.
"Their? More than one…?" Liara reiterated, "What is it? A bomb? A ship?"
"A structure." Lasky clarified.
"And how large is the structure?"
"...Larger than the Citadel…" Lasky decided to answer. It wasn't a lie... "When the Forerunners purged the galaxy, they were wiped out. They designated Mankind as their successor. Rounding up their technology, acquiring it, and fully learning it, well they call it the Reclamation…"
Recognition popped up on Shepard's face, "the Illusive Man mentioned it. Aboard the Infinity, right?"
"Which makes it all the more dangerous. It's probably how everything went sideways with Cerberus. It's a closely guarded secret, and the fact that they didn't disclose it with the UNSC…" Lasky trailed off.
"And what, you own the monopoly?" James asked, "from what I remember, the Systems Alliance is human too."
"And so is Cerberus…" EDI added.
"But the UNSC has the most experience with it," Lasky defended. "Us and the Elites…"
"And you thought information sanitation would be a wise choice?" Garrus asked.
"Well, this information is dangerous…."
"I, at least, understand," Liara said. "But if Cerberus knows, that they knew, with possible information sources from ONI…."
"All the more dangerous…"
"So we're supposed to trust you?" Ashley interjected, "after trying to crack a planet, we're supposed to just trust you?
"Commander, you can't be serious?"
Captain Lasky wasn't sure what to say… Hundreds of millions, if not billions of lives had no value compared to all other life in the galaxy. A Nova Bomb, a planet destroyer, seemed extreme. Fifty megatons prove to destroy a Ring… Was it to compensate for the possibility that the Keyship had heavy duty shields?
Or…
There was also a large possibility that the UNSC was trying to wipe away all evidence of a Forerunner presence. And if that was the case, if that was the reason why for the overkill...
"These decisions are beyond our pay grade…" It was the only proper phrase Lasky thought would be appropriated to start with, "Halo can wipe out all life in the galaxy…. If the Reapers or Cerberus get a hold of it…"
"...And it can only be activated by humans?" Shepard asked.
"Yeah…." Lasky answered. He tried to redirect the question. "We have no leads to Cerberus? No leads to Cortana?"
"If they went through the Relays we would've been able to track trace signals…" Specialist Traynor commented. She was a young, junior-officer-looking type with short black hair. "What is the nature of slipspace?"
"Unlike the Relays or your version of FTL, slipspace doesn't take place in realspace," Lasky tried to remember all the technical details he learned in the naval academy. "It crunches space-time. The drive then pierces through realspace into a different eleventh dimension, the dimension of supersymmetry or the strings, and general relativity. It enables the ship to travel to the various 'valleys' and 'mountains' where realspace locations are located…"
"Dimensional crunch?" Tali asked, "requires a lot of power… and time dilation?"
"Well, photons and dark matter can do amazing things," Lasky faintly smiled. "Back in the old days of the Great War, time dilation varied relative to, let's say Earth. There was a time reduction anywhere between ten to twenty percent. It's been reduced, but…"
"It's all relative…" Tali responded, "this seems to be a controlled wormhole, at least the space-time dimensional shift. Do you travel at light speed through….?"
"Slipstream space?" Lasky asked, "laws of physics still apply in all known dimensions, so no. Though the crunches in space-time have some strange effects on mass and density…"
"Black holes produce a radio-wave length, but we wouldn't be able to track it since it'd take thousands of years to get anywhere really," Specialist Traynor outlined. "But a gravity imprint on a traditional space-time grid would be huge, right…?"
"Right…?" Lasky reiterated.
"Bring any sensors online…" Tali said, starting to figure it out. "Get our remaining sensors online and track a sudden, heavy gravitational imprint… If they can't read it, they can least get a sense of direction where this space-time crunch was heading.
"How would you…" Lasky trailed off before he possibly figured it out. For one, of course, their technology is infused with dark energy. A keystone concept of dark energy is the cosmological constant. In layman's terms, it is the energy and density of empty, vacuum space itself. And what's the only thing present in empty, vacuum space? Well, quantum fields. Dark energy would be represented in every dimension.
So, if all of the sudden, vacuum energy, the driving factor in universal expansion, collapsed or rapidly expanded at a certain point, relative to the nearest gravity well, that's probably the slipspace entrance.
Hell, with their dark energy capabilities, there's a possibility to develop a way to detect realspace entry points before they happen.
How long before they happen? Well, who knows…
"How long will it take to run this scan?"
"With our priority access…." EDI began, "a handful of STG and Asari stealth satellites... are still operational… It seems there are numerous 'black holes' that had formed and collapsed throughout the years based on the historical data I'm analyzing..."
"If we wouldn't have dismissed it as the natural whitenoise of the galaxy, we'd probably have found you earlier…" Liara commented.
"...there's one lead." EDI reported, "One rather large black hole that disappeared in seconds…"
"Realspace entry point," Lasky clarified.
"Seven-hundred-thousand kilometers from...Horizon…"
"Horizon?" Lasky asked.
"Horizon… One of the few safe places left in the galaxy…" Liara said. "It houses a large refugee colony called Sanctuary. It has been advertising across the galaxy."
"And what is it guarded by?"
"Nothing," Liara responded. "Once any of my contacts make it there to investigate, I lose communication."
"Not suspicious at all..?"
"We've been a little busy to investigate further…" Liara responded, "it's our only lead…"
"I'd have to pass it up to HIGHCOM…" Lasky said.
"So they could do what? Blow it up?" Ashley replied.
"No…" Lasky said. "Time is a factor. We won't be able to recon properly… And who knows, we may find nothing there… But it's worth a shot. Small team to infiltrate and extract high value targets with minimal civilian casualties."
And they'd have to do it soon. Captain Lasky thought about when the word gets down to the Chief…
Captain Lasky still stood by his assessment he made to Lord Hood about, Christ, only a little over a month ago… The Chief… John, there's not telling what the hell he'd do, and this situation makes it drastically worse.
They couldn't deploy him, and they couldn't not deploy him. And in all honestly, Lasky didn't believe Blue Team was helping his psyche. If anything, it might be making it worse.
Lone deployment… John would have to be tasked with finding Cortana. No other way around it.
"HIGHCOM won't pull this again," Lasky said
"How do you know?" Another voice asked… Kasumi Lasky remembered.
"Because HIGHCOM will send my ship loaded for bear. They won't get away with it like last time."
"But they did. They got it onto our ship," Ashley said. "How can we trust you?"
Lasky closed his eyes and didn't respond for a moment. He breathed in, "I agreed, one-hundred percent with HIGHCOM's assessment. That ship needed to be destroyed, and civilian and military casualties, mass civilian and military casualties would be a high probability, but they would've been acceptable. A nova bomb though? Overkill. And I'm sure the thinking was that since there wasn't time, it's better to be safe than sorry.
"The specific reason this artifact is dangerous is because it will lead directly to Halo." Lasky took a breathe, "there's a reason Lord Hood didn't tell me, and it's because he knew I wouldn't approve."
"I would've blown up your planet, but at least I'd have the fucking common courtesy to tell you," Lasky said.
Liara stepped forward, "it only raises my original question then, Captain. Why did the Forerunners destroy all life in the galaxy-?"
"And what the hell do you mean, like all life, or just all sentient life?" James asked.
"All life," Lasky replied.
"As I was saying…" Liara continued. "Why? Was it because of the Reapers?"
Lasky thought for a moment, "the Illusive Man argued for control of the Reapers in order for Humanity to fight far greater threats… He wasn't entirely wrong."
