Wow some of y'all almost predicted it. Not true Mandalorians, but definitely Mandalorians.
LadyKDQ: You'll see
Tony Miguel: Sorry to say yes this is gonna take over for the Perfect Storm. There's lots of personal reasons why I cannot write that story anymore. It was a product of its time, and I'm not in the same place I was when i wrote that.
Granet: I don't intend to write a stomp fic. Yes the Allies have a number of dreadnoughts in the works, but the SW galaxy has quite the arsenal as well...
Sithspit452109: You'll see. And yes, Halo Wars 2 units are near and dear to me, and will be featured heavily.
Chapter 2
Menace No More
May 4th, 2561∣1700 hours Local Time∣Frontier System∣Deep Space∣UNSC Pearl Harbor
"Sir, I think we have something," the voice of an ensign woke Commander Edward Nichols from his stupor.
Turning towards the young man's data readout on the bridge of the Fury Class destroyer, Nichols asked, "What do you have?"
"Satellite EWS-456132-J is detecting a magnetic anomaly," the ensign reported.
"Have you cross referenced to ensure there isn't a malfunction?" Nichols asked.
"Just did, Sir," the ensign answered, "The equipment's fine."
"Could it be Insurrectionists?" Nichols asked in a tense voice.
"Negative, Sir," the ensign replied, sounding puzzled, "The anomaly isn't a Slipspace arrival. It doesn't match anything on the known spectrum..."
"Hmm," Nichols puzzled, drumming his fingers on the holotable, "Baron?"
The hologram of a bright red, World War I era triplane appeared on the holotable and an accented voice asked, "What do you have for me, Sir?"
"Analyze the readout Ensign Frederick received from Satellite EWS-456132-J," Nichols ordered, "Cross reference against all known signatures in the database. See if you can find something my ensign missed."
The triplane glided around the table, a sign Nichols had learned meant the AI was deep in thought. After a moment, Baron reported, "Ensign Frederick was correct, the anomaly is of a previously unrecorded variety. Drafting a report to FLEETCOM. Advise that we investigate."
"Very well," Nichols said, "Set course for the anomaly, and let FLEETCOM know what we're up to. Time to travel?"
"Five hours on sublight engines," the navigation officer reported.
"Set course," Nichols ordered, "Take us to yellow alert when we're an hour away."
"Sir," the navigation officer called out suddenly, "There is another ship in much closer proximity to the anomaly, scans indicate it's a friendly."
"She's a friendly," Baron confirmed, "CCS Class battlecruiser Blood of Night attached to the Fleet of Tranquil Solitude, operated by the Swords of Sanghelios. Recommend making contact and briefing them on the anomaly. They're much closer to the anomaly than we are, and if it is a time sensitive anomaly, then they have a better chance of reaching it in time than we do. Furthermore, if it is an enemy, then their battlecruiser will fare far better than our destroyer."
"Elites," Nichols growled. He was one of the many humans who still harbored resentment towards the big reptiles following the Human-Covenant War. He recognized the benefits of having them as allies but still resented working with them, but Baron made a strong case in favor of contacting them... "Hail the battlecruiser."
"On it, Sir," Baron replied, as the destroyer got underway.
Moments later, the face of a large and in Nichol's opinion, extraordinarily ugly creature, appeared on the holoscreen. The ugly reptile hissed, "Greetings, Commander, to what do I owe the honor?"
"An Early Warning Satellite was triggered," Nichols reported, wanting to end the conversation as quickly as he could, "It's closer to you than us. Satellite EWS-456132-J. The anomaly is as of yet unrecorded. My AI suggested I relay the news to you in case the anomaly was time sensitive."
"A wise choice," the alien growled, "We'll be getting underway as soon as we can."
"We'll arrive in five hours," Nichols reported, spitting out his last few words, "Good luck, Shipmaster."
"And to you, Commander," the Elite replied before cutting the line.
As the destroyer rumbled beneath him, Commander Nichols remained deep in thought, contemplating what was to come. While there was a high probability that the satellite was detecting an as of yet undiscovered anomaly, there was another possibility as well.
A possibility that none of the bridge crew wanted to even imagine, for fear of breathing life into it. So Nichols and the bridge crew remained quiet, diligently attending their tasks and trying not to think about the other possibility.
Because last time humanity made first contact, more than twenty three billion people died.
46 BBY∣2000 hours Local Time∣Deep Space∣Outer Rim near Hutt Space∣Radiant VII
Blast me to oblivion if this goes on any longer.
Though patience was one of his strongest attributes as a Jedi, Qui Gon Jinn had to admit, if only to himself, that his patience was beginning to wear thin.
It was never going to be an easy mission, as nothing involving the Mandalorians was ever easy, but it was not supposed to go this bad.
The mission was a simple but important one. After years of terrorist attacks and guerrilla warfare, the leadership of the infamous Death Watch had agreed to meet with the young Mandalorian Duchess, Satine Kryze, to discuss a potential compromise to bring an end to their destructive conflict.
Death Watch had requested a neutral third party to mediate the talks, but they were less than thrilled to discover that it would be Jedi acting as mediators. As a matter of fact, Qui Gon was fairly sure the Death Watch would have shot him in the back under any other circumstance.
The meeting itself was something of a miracle, and the Jedi Council had wasted no time in assigning Qui Gon and his young Padawan, Obi Wan Kenobi, to take up the task. The leadership of each party met in space and were ferried to Radiant VII while their transports were escorted away and the ship made a Hyperspace jump to an undisclosed location. The idea had been assurances for each party that it could not be a trap set by the other.
Of course, that did not make the talks any easier, as Duchess Satine was proving that she did indeed live up to all of her fame as an effective and cunning negotiator despite her youth, and Pre Vizla was living up to his infamy as a royal pain to deal with.
The talks had been rough to begin with, and had only deteriorated further, forcing Qui Gon to step in multiple times. Pre Vizla made it clear many times that he did not believe the Jedi were indeed a neutral party in the matter, and Obi Wan's unmissable interest in the Duchess was not helping matters. He'd have to speak to his Padawan about that after the mission.
But then things had really started to come apart. Somehow pirates had located the shuttle in deep space and attempted to jump the seemingly easy prey. The shuttle pilot was forced to make a blind jump on a damaged Hyperdrive. The results of that could have been disastrous. Fortunately, the Force was on their side, and the only consequence they suffered was being lost in deep space with a broken Hyperdrive. Whether it was a blessing or a curse was yet to be seen.
Of course, any hope of a tangible peace deal was essentially out the window, and Qui Gon's new job was to make sure no killed anyone else, and make sure the already fragile situation on Mandalore did not deteriorate any further when the leaders were returned.
"Maybe, if we had just met somewhere more realistic, we wouldn't be in this mess!" Vizla complained loudly.
"Maybe, if we had met where I had originally suggested, we wouldn't be in this mess!" Satine shot back, matching the extremist's tone perfectly, "But no we had to meet somewhere obscure and out of the way because someone was overly paranoid."
"Don't you start on me!" Vizla shouted, his eyes wide and anger easily detectable through the Force, "I know what you'd try to do if I went to Sundari! You and you're cowardly and dishonorable scum would have me arrested or shot on the spot!"
"We would never," Satine snapped, "We'd try you for your crimes, then arrest you!"
"ENOUGH!" Qui Gon shouted, silencing the room before Vizla could reply. After a moment, Qui Gon continued much more calmly, "I am here to act as a mediator and nothing more, and I assure you, I will continue to do so. I can, however, also assure you that this sort of interaction is anything but productive. We are in the situation we are in. That is the reality. Now bickering won't get us anywhere, so let's cool our nerves and take it easy. Both of you."
While Qui Gon could sense that Vizla and Satine were both staring daggers at him, he chose not to respond, as each of them held their tongues and the room remained tensely silent.
"Master Jedi," the intercom suddenly activated, "Come to the cockpit, we have a situation."
"Very well," Qui Gon turned back to the group, "I must address this, my Padawan is in charge in my absence. I'll inform you of what the issue is as soon as I return. I need not remind you that any blood spilled in my absence will result in a trial in Republic courts."
With that, the young Jedi Master made his way out of the conference room and up a short way to the cockpit, where the pilot and copilot were each seated, staring intensely at their controls. Qui Gon could sense much of their anxiety through the Force, though he could not determine its cause.
"What is it, pilot?" Qui Gon inquired.
"We're not alone," the pilot replied in a tense, low voice.
Sure enough, as Qui Gon gazed through the view port, he could see a massive shape looming out of the darkness. As it came slowly lumbering into view, Qui Gon noticed several things. First of all, it was massive, easily bigger than most ships in the galaxy. It was a deep purple in color and had a sort of organic elegance to it, like a denizen from the deep on Naboo. Qui Gon searched his mind but could not come up with any ships that looked anything remotely like the newcomer, and none of them even slightly approached the size of the hulking vessel.
So Qui Gon closed his eyes and reached out with his feelings, looking to Force to give him answers to his newest conundrum. But after a moment of concentration, Qui Gon felt his blood run cold. Everything about the ship felt wrong.
Because, the ship itself felt no different from the space around it. Had he been blind, he would never have been able to sense its existence. The lack of anything in the Force from the vessel pierced through Qui Gon's senses, causing a great deal of concern to waft through the Jedi Master.
The whole ship felt wrong, and out of place. Like it distinctly did not belong in the natural order of things.
Ever since he was a youngling, Qui Gon had been taught about how the Force was the all unifying element that held the universe together. It wound through every particle in existence, and those with enough midichlorians could sense its will and intent. Everything was surrounded in the Force and existed in the Force. It had been a core belief in the Jedi Order for millennia.
But now Qui Gon was presented with something that caused all of that to come crashing down on him. This ship broke all the rules. Because it felt like nothingness. Because, it could not exist. And yet it was right there, looming outside the viewport. Completely devoid in the Force. A shadow in the light. A tear in the very fabric of the universe. Something that simply could not exist.
"Do you know who they are?" the pilot asked in a tense voice, as Qui Gon realized he had been in a stupor for several long moments.
"I do not..." Qui Gon said slowly, "I'm afraid I'm not aware of any vessels such as this...Tell me captain, how close are we to the Unknown Regions?"
"Not close at all," the pilot replied, "The closest major region to us would be Hutt Space. Right now we're pretty close to the galactic edge, only a few uncharted systems and then the galactic edge. Why?"
"Because...well nothing," Qui Gon said, "Do you think they picked up our distress signal?"
"Most likely," the pilot replied, "I only detected them a few minutes ago. They definitely knew we were here and came for us. They could be pirates, though."
"No," Qui Gon said with certainty, "That ship...well pirates have never been known to operate anything even remotely that big, and that design seems too clean and perfected to be a pirate vessel. If I had to guess, that's either a prototype super-yacht or perhaps a military ship."
"Should we hail them?" the pilot asked.
But before Qui Gon could answer, a notification appeared on the display. He noticed the hail was on a rather odd frequency, nevertheless, Qui Gon said, "No need, it seems they are already hailing us. I will return to the others and inform them of the situation. Answer it when I say so and patch it through to the conference room."
May 4th, 2561∣2000 hours Local Time∣Frontier System∣Deep Space∣Blood of Night
"The unknown does not match any known Allied vessel," a Sangheili Ultra reported as Shipmaster Lykan 'Nanamai gazed at the hologram on the holotable.
"Have the construct run another analysis," Lykan ordered, "It could also be a prototype. It seems to be a civilian vessel."
"Indeed," an Ultra replied, "Scans show that the armament and sublight engines are insufficient for effective performance in combat. Probably a human ship lost far from home."
"Then perhaps it would be best to wait for the human warship," Lykan mused, "The human military is far better at dealing with noncombatants than we are."
"They could require assistance," an Officer pointed out, "What are they doing out here?"
Lykan nodded in agreement and made his choice, "Hail them."
"Searching," an Officer reported, "Ah, got them, they're on a strange wavelength. Putting you through now, Shipmaster."
When the symbol appeared on the holoscreen confirmed that he had a link, Lykan switched from his native Sangheili to English and growled, "This is Shipmaster Lykan 'Nanamai of the battlecruiser Blood of Night, attached to the Fleet of Tranquil Solitude of the Swords of Sanghelios, part of the Allied Species of the Orion Arm. Unknown vessel, please state your reasons for being in restricted space and then vacate the area."
There was a moment of static and then a distinctly human voice replied, "This is Jedi Master Qui Gon Jinn aboard Radiant VII, representative of the Jedi Order and Galactic Republic. I am currently on an extremely sensitive diplomatic mission with the leaders of Mandalore and Death Watch. My Hyperdrive is damaged so please forgive me if I am trespassing in your space, Shipmaster."
Lykan was left with far more questions than answers. What was a Jedi? What was the Galactic Republic? What was Mandalore? And this Death Watch? And what was a Hyperdrive? Lykan muted himself and asked the bridge, "Are we using translation technology?"
"No, Shipmaster," an Ultra replied, "Though it is possible that they are. We may have a First Contact scenario before us."
"Indeed," Lykan replied, deep in thought. First contact was a very dangerous thing, and as such the Allies had a distinct protocol for such an event. Especially since it was likely the Andromeda Galaxy had intelligent life, the entire Allied network had been briefed to know how to handle first contact. But Lykan had to make sure it was first contact first.
"Radiant VII," Lykan reopened the link, "Please confirm, are you operating under the flag of the United Earth Government, the United Nations Space Command, or the Allied Species of the Orion Arm?"
"I'm sorry, Shipmaster," the voice replied, "I'm afraid I've never heard of any of these organizations. As I said, I am a member of the Jedi Order, here with members of Mandalore's leadership as well as that of the Death Watch. I am on a mission for the Galactic Republic."
So this is first contact, Lykan mused, muted himself once again and ordered, "Inform the fleet of our discovery and tell the humans to make best speed for our position. They will want to be here for this," reopening comms, Lykan said, "Then my suspicions are confirmed. I have never heard of a Galactic Republic or Jedi Order. This is indeed first contact between our civilizations."