"Not a sight you'll ever forget in a hurry, right?" Jade said, looking out from the window at the end of the bridge.
"How are we this close to the sun, Tuk?" Maddie asked, squinting as her eyes adjusted.
"The sun? No, I was talking about the ships" She said, practically drooling.
"Passive Shielding - Human vessels of the larger ships class were built in such a way that an electromagnetic shield would exist around the hull, even when deflector shielding was offline. The smaller ship has been modified to the same effect." Tuk's voice echoed, as Sterling returned to the room.
"Tuk, tell them what you told me." Jade chirped, salivating.
"About the point defence guns?"
She nodded, "yeah, listen to this."
"They really aren't that special, the technology is brilliantly simple, you have already amassed much of the knowledge needed to build them. The Point Defence Guns on our ships were coiled repeater cannons. They utilise, what you would call, a ferromagnetic projectile, which is accelerated using a magnetic charge pushed through miles of coiling wrapped around the barrels. They have a fire-rate, when overcharged, of over a million rounds a minute and could-"
"Wait, that's a Gauss rifle, those are coil guns?"
"MAC cannons." Jade turned, beaming, "as point defence."
Maddie grinned, "No way," she said, coming to stand beside Jade.
"Tuk, I'm not sure if you understand, so I'll make it clear." George said, a hint of excitement in his voice, "The Mag accelerator cannons we use, are the only non-nuclear weapons we have that can punch through covenant shields. You're telling me that those ships are equipped with miniaturized versions of that technology?"
"Yes, I am."
The Ides of March moved alongside the smaller vessel. As Tukmen'tukhan aligned them for boarding, he ran a Bioscan and announced they would need to wait for the results of the scan before he would let them aboard. Maddie raised a brow, wondering what kind of life could survive on a one-hundred-thousand-year-old derelict ship but when it came back negative, the A.I confirmed the ships were deserted on a cellular level and asked to be taken aboard.
Maddie decided to take Naomi and Jade aboard, and she met them at one of the airlocks on the lower level. They entered and felt decompression rush about their suits, the skin tight bodice-like exposure suits did their work, stopping the vacuum from popping their eyeballs and all the other God-awful things that happen to a human body in space. The door I'd open and Maddie took a deep, laboured breath, following Naomi as she pushed off and floated towards the ship. Tuk directed her to a console on the outside of the ship and slipped the cartridge containing Tukmen'tukhan into the port.
The door hissed and began to open.
"Hey, Tuk, how come our chip worked?"
"These ships were designed to be reclaimed by humans. They contain everything one might need to advance a civilisation to the uppermost tiers of development. Naturally, we assumed that a technologically inferior species would need assistance gaining access to it, so we created an a.i. that can understand alien design languages and forge connections in the ship that make it compatible."
"You weren't messing around" She whistled.
"Our people were facing obliteration. The Ur-Didact reduced us from their equals to barely sentient. Faced with that, there is nothing you wouldn't do to mete out some kind of revenge." He spoke with a sentimentality that seeped with sadness and nostalgia.
"So, this is all about revenge for you?" She asked as Naomi led them towards the section of the ship that Tuk marked out as the bridge.
"Not back then. I was a different man then, Lord of Spies or not, by the end of that war all I wanted out of defeat was continuity. Revenge came from being sealed inside a chip for one hundred thousand years."
"Sounds like heaven to me, all this tech is beyond cool" Jade noted, glancing around.
"It was one-hundred-thousand-years, Jade."
"I know what I said. Can we hurry? I want to get life support online so I can feel all of this in my hands. This is perfectly preserved ancient history we're standing in."
Maddie nodded, understanding exactly how she felt as they entered the bridge. A part of her felt breathless, another felt almost disappointed. Everything seemed so familiar. So much of it was intuitive, like jumping fifty years into the future as seeing how your home had changed. The buttons were made for fingers like hers, the ergonomics of the Captain's chair clearly fit a human body, albeit the body of a SPARTAN. Indeed, the place did seem bigger, as though every human was once the size of a SPARTAN. Maddie watched Naomi take it all in as she drew Tuk from her head.
"Here goes nothing" She said, plugging it into the central console and the ship booted up with a sputter.
"No dice?" Jade asked.
They waited and after a tense pause, Tukmen'tukhan appeared as he had before, in his splendid ancient armour and atmosphere and gravity returned to the ship.
"Okay, what's running?" Maddie said, looking up at him.
"Life support, basic systems, communications systems are online. Weapons and thrusters are offline. Slip navigation is offline. Data learning Centre and Research Lab is offline."
"So, plenty of work to be done but that's to be expected. Do we have enough access to convince Parangosky?" Jade asked, turning to Maddie. She removed her helmet and breathed in a gulp of air, smiling as she shook her hair free.
"What do you think, Tuk? You were a Spy master, have we got enough to have convinced you?"
"Not me, but I'm somewhat different. I have access to schematics of basic systems, like the adaptive locks and passive shielding technology."
Maddie nodded firmly. "That'll do. Jade, start moving your gear in, Naomi I need you to watch over her, Okay? She's brilliant but I don't want her killing us all by accident." Naomi stood straight and nodded.
"Speaking of which." Jade beamed, "what are those?"
He didn't need to do it but Tukmen'tukhan turned to look out of the window.
"Fibril cutters. Our ace in the hole, I believe you might say." He seemed to beam, "They were weapons the Forerunners had no answer to. Our ship to ship directed energy weapons could slice through the mass of a sun if we had the energy to do it. Not a particularly effective application of the technology though."
Maddie chewed on her lip. Something bothered her about all of this, something that didn't make any sense to her. "Tuk, if we really were all that powerful, how did we lose?" She asked, quietly.
He sighed. "There was a… disease. We encountered something that almost obliterated our empire. It's hard to explain, there were never many details that we managed to iron out but I will explain, just know that the parasite caused not just our death, but likely the deaths of the Forerunners as well."
"You don't know?"
He shook his head, "my consciousness was digitised at the end of our war, but whatever happened after that I can only speculate on. After I was sealed away, I had little contact with the state of the world beyond. Regardless, though our empire was powerful, it was also young, much younger than the Forerunners. Our efforts to stop the Flood, the parasite that is, put us squarely in the sights of the Ur-Didact. We couldn't survive a two-front war, not one like that."
"I don't understand, the Iso-Didact didn't seem to hate me, he led me to you after all."
"The Iso-Didact was different. He was a copy, of sorts, but one that the Librarian nurtured. Again, it's rather complicated, but the two names are two very different people. The Librarian was perhaps the greatest of the forerunners, and she busied herself with the nurture and survival of species."
"So, she saved us?"
"Hard to say. My sources never really confirmed it either way but she was always different. She seemed to actually care about the Mantle. I never understood why she loved him."
"Loved who?"
"The Ur-Didact"
Maddie shrugged, she didn't exactly know what that meant or why the Ur-Didact was so different from his wife. It was strange given that she had always seen the Forerunners as the Covenant's Gods but Maddie felt comforted by the fact that the Forerunners married, it made them seem more real. They were now something surmountable; she hoped that information never needed to be useful. If the need arose, it would only mean another war and a war far worse in scope and damage than even this one. Then she wondered about the virus that had wiped them all out and it seemed funny that she would never have thought an interstellar virus was capable of wiping out two empires. Yet, that was the story of human history. Guns and steel might have evolved into Plasma, titanium composites with ray-shielding, but germs were always constant.
"This is so exciting!" Jade said, wistfully, spinning in her chair.
"It is, indeed. I look forward to bringing our species into a new era."
"We should be careful about it, though," Maddie noted, "we know that the Covenant don't actually create anything of their own, they just deconstruct and rebuild Forerunner tech. If we follow the same path, we would lose our edge in engineering. We should adopt a more subtle approach, slipping concepts to talented people, bits and pieces to be reverse engineered."
"A wise choice." Tuk noted, grinning.
Maddie felt chills run along her spine. He was so human.
Jade nodded enthusiastically, "It's strange to think of long-term consequences, the way this war is going makes 2570 feel as far away as 2770"
Maddie smiled and touched her arm gently, "This is where things get better, I promise. The first thing to do is name them."
Jade snorted, "where would we even start? Tuk, what were they known as in your time?"
"Well, that battle cruiser was named after a God of the underworld and the rough translation of this Frigate's name would be 'God-killer'. We were feeling a bit macabre at the time they were finally commissioned."
"Understandable." Jade shrugged, "dead cool, though."
Tukmen'tukhan seemed to approve of that and his avatar smirked as it pondered to itself. Naturally, Maddie's brain made the connection to ancient history. She had been looking at Naomi as she stood at the window, gazing dreamily at the stars when she assumed that she hadn't been watching. It was a strange sight to see. Especially clad in the iconic armour of the S-IIs, the armour was named Mjolnir, after Thor's hammer and that was the spark that connected Maddie to the names.
"Call the Battlecruiser the Hel and call this Frigate the Fenrir."
"That's perfect!" Jade said, jumping with excitement. Naomi must have realised Maddie had been staring because she turned awkwardly and looked away when her faceplate met Maddie's.
"Very appropriate," Tuk noted, agreeing emphatically with Jade, who seemed almost childlike in her wonder. Her expression saddened for a moment when her eyes met Maddie's. "You move on quickly, by the way." she said, softly.
Maddie frowned, "Yeah, uh, about that-"
She held up a hand, "I stand by my decision. You're like a storm, Maddie, you're chaotic and passionate and that's dangerous when I'm so similar. He's a good man, and I hope that you go the distance." She said, looking at her with a jolt of something Maddie couldn't quite place.
"Me too."
"Friends?" she asked, sheepishly.
"Definitely." Maddie said, not skipping a beat. She was done freezing people out. Sure, they had history, but Maddie was too stubborn to stop that from having a friend. When Jade said nothing in response, saved for a relieved sigh, Maddie spoke, addressing everyone. "Okay, I'm going to head back to the Ides and move the ship away from this place, we'll wake up the crew and call the rest of the 7th fleet in from wherever they ended up, I need you guys to hold the fort and get something working if you can, a demonstration might go a long way."
}{=}{
Back aboard the UNSC Ides of March, Maddie stood on the bridge with a fully awakened crew. She looked out towards the distant sun of Ballast and thought of her small team, Naomi and Jade, and the ancient human construct as they worked on reinvigorating the human race. It was a strange feeling. True hope. It was a real and tangible sense of continuity that dominated her mind, it gripped her like a tempest made of serotonin. Maddie felt good. That was in spite of the ragged remains of the Seventh Fleet that patrolled around the Ides as well as the new ship that was due to appear in the system at any moment.
For its part, the local forces had remained at a wary distance from the assembled UNSC fleet, Drake had tasked Katya with tracking their movements from the Enigma but their flotilla of three old colony ships was barely worth the trouble. The King of Ballast had postured a little, delivering a smarmy letter to the Ides about an hour after they had left the Fenrir's protective shielding. Maddie made a note to ask Tukmen'tukhan how the ships had managed to stay out of sight but a part of her thought that was a silly question.
What kind of an idiot would look into the sun?
She supposed that eventually the colonists would have stumbled onto it but judging from the King's letter, complete with a digital wax seal, Maddie figured that the people of Ballast were too busy playing pretend to look up at the sky. Still, if there was cloaking technology there, it would be useful tech to start dissecting.
Later, as she nursed a warm cup of cocoa, listening to George as he drew up plans for a sustained defence of this system with Admiral Reitker, a hole was torn in slipspace and a human ship emerged. It was a prowler of sorts, a stealth cruiser the size of the Ides and looked like nothing else she'd ever seen in the fleet. It was a surprisingly ostentatious entrance for Admiral Parangosky. Maddie raised a brow and uncrossed her legs, sitting forward as it came into view on the screens. Some of the crewmen muttered worriedly to each other and Maddie noted the excitement in their voices as she rose to her feet and notified Drake that their boss had arrived. She wandered through the ship, no longer afraid of the colours she wore or the looks some of the crewmen gave her. Maddie wouldn't be isolated anymore, and she refused to define herself by anything other than her deeds. Maddie was now determined to make her contribution to the advancement and longevity of their species unquestionable. Parangosky would have to realise that she'd underestimated her, and hopefully take Eliza back to Earth with her.
As she made her way to the docking port, she thought of the sister she'd begun to avoid. Maggie was back, yet there was a distance between them. She wasn't even supposed to know about her but they had found their way back together despite it all. Maddie didn't doubt that Parangosky was planning on offering her up as some sort of leverage; now that wasn't possible. Maddie knew she was alive, and she knew she was too important an asset to throw away. It didn't change much though; Maddie and Maggie had barely spoken since she'd disembarked from the Pelican. It wasn't for a lack of trying, either, Maggie simply didn't want to say something out of turn before Maddie spoke with Parangosky.
Maddie sighed as she leaned next to the docking port, where Drake stood, swiping through a data pad. He'd been debriefed on the project, which Maddie had taken to naming 'Arc Dream', and had spent days combing through the data compiled by Jade, Tuk, and Naomi.
"So," Maddie said, rocking on the balls of her feet, "reckon she'll take it?"
Drake glanced up at her and sighed, "I don't know, lass. Probably. You pissed her off like nothing I'd ever seen with that business with Walsingham. Parangosky isn't one to forgo an asset because she doesn't like them. If that were the case then Catherine Halsey would have been scratched off years ago."
"She does what's necessary." Maddie noted, bitterly.
"Aye. She's the best person for the job, too, so don't take it personally."
"It's hard not to when you've been through what I have, Drake."
"Sorry about that."
"It's not your fault" she replied, smiling as best as she could manage, "I've never needed help getting into trouble."
"Maybe keep that to yourself when you try and convince the old lady to give you a division in section three, eh?"
Maddie snorted, "we both know that whatever the outcome is, whether it's going to happen has already been decided. Parangosky is nothing if not decisive."
He chuckled, "yeah I suppose you're right."
Just then the airlock hissed, the doors drew apart and Maddie grimaced as the small haggard Admiral stood before her, her expression hard like steel. "Say nothing until I say so. Follow closely and behave."
Maddie smirked at Drake, who shook his head as they followed the Admiral into the ship. She walked slowly, her cane thwacking against the deck as they wandered towards the middle of the ship. It was eerily quiet and devoid of the thralls that usually maintained ONIs other Prowlers. She opened her mouth to comment but thought better of it as they reached a large room at the deepest point of the ship. They came to a wall. The Admiral bent gracefully to the retina scanner and, almost miraculously, parted a solid wall. Maddie blinked, she hadn't even seen a split in the metal plating, she'd assumed it was a wall and yet it was a door. It led to a circular room with a black conference table in the centre, there was a lone figure standing there as the pair entered. No one spoke until the wall slid shut behind them. The figure laughed at Maddie's gawking as she glanced about the room.
"Welcome to Odin's Eye, Lieutenant Harper. The most secure room in the entire galaxy." he said in a twangy accent that sounded just like Jack's.
"This is a Faraday Cage." she noted from the shape and materials used in the room's design.
He nodded, "No signals in or out. This room is where the UNSC has been saved many times over."
"Let's not stand on ceremony, Danforth, we have business to discuss." Parangosky said, sitting delicately in a chair opposite Maddie.
"Of course. Though, I believe that it is relevant that Lieutenant Harper knows the brevity of the situation." he said, taking a seat. "Though, if she is clever enough to deduce that this is a Faraday Cage, I suspect that she is more than aware of the magnitude of her discovery."
"Lieutenant, this is Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations. His only superior is Lord Hood." Parangosky said, nonchalantly.
"Only official one, anyway. Right, Margaret?"
Parangosky smiled, a glint in her ironclad eyes. "Indeed. He is to be our ally in securing you a new division."
Maddie blinked in the silence.
What?!
"You were expecting something different?" Parangosky seemed to cock her head, daring Maddie to step out of line.
"Honestly, yes." she admitted, taking the bait, "my performance has been less than stellar at times."
Danforth Whitcomb smiled, "Modesty is refreshing to see in your agent's, Margaret."
She shot him a glare that carried the weight of a MAC round but the Vice Admiral just shrugged it off, much like a Covenant Carrier. "True. Yet you have proven yourself capable of overcoming more than just your own survival. You faced threats and obstacles of every kind, many of them of my own making, and yet here you are, in sole possession of the future of the human race. The claims you have made, once verified of course, could save us all. I don't throw away useful things. God knows, I've kept that child snatcher around for years."
Maddie found herself nodding in agreement as Parangosky's estimation of Dr. Halsey, which made the glint in the Admiral's eye shimmer with amusement. "I want you to stop manipulating me using my family." she said, firmly, glaring right at those steely eyes of hers.
Whitcomb arched a brow, considering Madeleine's prowess for the first time. He had no doubt heard of her by reputation; Parangosky had likely filled in somethings herself given the apparent respect he seemed to hold to her. Yet Maddie knew that few people made their complaints with the Admiral so plainly and even fewer had the balls to make demands of her. Parangosky smiled at that and smirked.
Surprisingly, Parangosky agreed, "No more games. Something like this is too big to mess around with. I'm ordering you to put your house in order, after the meeting with the Security Committee on Reach, you'll be gone a long time. So, meet with your mother, take your sister, and move on as best you can. I'll let Maggie know that it's okay to reconnect."
"T-thank you" Maddie stammered, taken aback by the seemingly kind gesture.
"Next year is 2552. It'll mark twenty-seven years of continuous war." she spoke with a grim disposition, "for better or for worse, the majority of us Admirals are in agreement: we are entering the last stages of this war, Madeleine. Only Reach remains, after that… Earth. If we lose both, this will cease to be a war and become something far worse. Right now, Arc Dream is our only light in the Darkness. We must make it work."
Maddie considered Margaret's words and tone. She really did believe they were close to the end. "Where do we begin?" She asked, resolutely.
"First we will need to convince the Security Committee of this course of action. The whole thing will punch through our budget the size of a small nebula so that means we'll need to hike taxes, bribe corporations, and somehow maintain the secrecy to build an entire new subdivision of the Office of Naval Intelligence." Whitcomb said, scratching his beard. "We've set a target to greenlight operations beginning in August next year but in the meantime, the seventh fleet will be stationed in this system while you begin preliminary work on Arc Dream." he glanced at Parangosky, "and fend off a Covenant invasion."
Maddie blinked. "So that's why we're not messing around."
Parangosky nodded, "your new SPARTANs recovered intel relating to Covenant deployments in 2552. Ballast will be under attack by late April."
Maddie didn't say anything as Drake leaned forward, "Our SPARTANs?"
"Yes, you'll receive a number of assets namely the SPARTAN IV's, Sierra-010 Naomi and B312. The Seventh Fleet will be totally restocked and another Ship will be sent to the system to reinforce you. The UNSC Aegis Fate."
"You're sending me Alex?" Maddie said, failing to hide a grin.
"Preston, too. I think you've earned a reunion. Besides, reports from Reitker suggest that adding a Captain to the fleet's roster would provide a clearer line of seniority. He's also very capable, from what I hear." Maddie tried to control herself, it had been almost a year since they had seen each other and now she would get to work alongside him. Preston, she hadn't seen in an even longer time. He'd been on continuous deployment since Skopje, in fact.
"That's still only one ship, Ma'am" Drake interjected.
Danforth spoke up again, "It's not ideal, but you will have to work with the local government. We can't arrive here en masse or the Covenant will know something is up. You need to buy yourself as much time as possible and get those ships moved someplace safe. When Meridian falls, likely in the next month or so, we may be able to redeploy part of the fifth fleet to Ballast."
"I would not count on that, however, the list of targets the SPARTANs recovered was extensive and maintaining our immediate survival will take precedence. That being said, we will make every resource available to you, Lieutenant." Parangosky said, cautiously.
"Wait, you're placing me in charge?"
"Eventually. Drake will remain your superior for now and will show you how to direct large scale operations, but yourself and Lieutenant Volkovskaya are the only candidates I consider up to the task."
Danforth leaned back in his chair, "It'll be a hard sell. Especially without evidence. Hopefully we have enough goodwill built up to justify it. Mind you, if they're desperate enough to consider RED FLAG, they'll be desperate enough to consider this, too."
Maddie knew better than to ask what that meant exactly, but the tired expression on the faces of her superior's made it plain that it wasn't something that they really wanted to do.
"So, you don't want the details?" Maddie asked, wondering why they were taking her on faith.
"I will be speaking with the construct in your report to confirm it all and if by some small chance you are lying, I'll have you executed before the day is out." she said, bluntly, "as for the reason I'm not asking, I don't need to know. You will meet with me periodically to brief me on its general status but as for implementation, deliverable tech, and specific discoveries, it will be best to keep me out of the loop."
Maddie looked at Drake, who nodded with pride in his eyes. Danforth cleared his throat, "So, defend Ballast and relocate the ships, we'll set up Beta-7 Division and get ARC DREAM off the ground. After that, the rest will be up to you."
A thought occurred to Maddie and she sheepishly glanced at the two Admirals sitting before her. "If I am to lead this division, don't you think that I might need a little more authority?"
Danforth boomed with laughter, "here I was thinking you weren't ONI material!"
Parangosky rolled her eyes at him, "Really, Danforth, I picked her myself, remember?" she turned to Maddie with a chilling smile that seemed to consist of a half measure of respect and another of amusement. "There will be promotions for many of your staff. The young Private will be given a commission with the ODSTs aboard the Aegis Fate, Lieutenant Braeburn will be promoted for Captain, should his wounds heal, and Lieutenant Volkovskaya will be promoted to Lieutenant Commander." she ruffled through a pocket and placed a small case on the desk and slid it towards her. Maddie picked it up and felt the latch, clicking it open and gasping a little. "You, my dear, will become a Commander. This late in the war, we have few people on hand to take the roles naturally. If you know of any others that may need fast tracking, speak now."
Maddie thought for a time. Then, it occurred to her, there was an opportunity here, to get an ally. He was shrewd and he played politics wherever he walked, but Captain Denning was a good tactician and a dependable soldier. If he saw Maddie as a path to a cushy job and glory, he might prove an asset. "Captain Denning but make sure he knows how he got the promotion." she said, as Drake arched a brow at her. It was a risk, she knew, but there was a lot to be gained by dancing with the devil you knew. "Commander Sterling, too. I want him on Arc Dream." she said it a bit too quickly and blushed. Parangosky smiled, knowingly, and rose from her chair.
"Very well, then. Denning will be promoted to Major and Sterling will be assigned to ARC DREAM" she said, as everyone else followed suit, "and good luck to us all."
Maddie felt a rush of anticipation.
God knows we need it.