Halo: MechWarrior v2

by IX404

With the end of the Clan Offensive in 3054, the Star League begins it's goal of invading the Kerensky Cluster. Unbeknownst to SLDF Admiral Chernenko, or Clansman Alex Conners, they, and Naval Fleet Delta, will soon end up in a universe where Humanity is fighting for it's survival against a genocidal alien alliance, and a horrific, diabolical foe.

1. Of Hyperspace & Misjumps

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Halo: MechWarrior v2.0. When I was writing, and finishing up Halo: Termination, I wanted to go back to my original crossover, my very first one, and remaster it so that it would not only make more sense from a story telling point of view, but also include story arcs that I wanted to explore as well. Given how well my Halo - Terminator crossover did, I decided to do a remaster that was closer to that one, but with some major differences. I was also able to finally find someone that could fact check my writing when it comes to the 'MechWarrior/BattleTech side of things.

Thus, I present to you, Halo: MechWarrior v2.0. This is a full remaster and rewrite from the ground up, with a different storyline, somewhat different OC's and a much improved flow and pace. I will be leaving the older version up on my profile so that other readers can see how far I've come with my writing skills, and I will finish it up once I have the motivation to do so. Either way, thank you for all the support, and I hope to see you in future chapters. As always, leave a review and enjoy!

PS: This fanfiction was inspired by HaloTech. If you haven't viewed it already, I suggest that you give it a look. It's got some interesting plot devices in it.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Halo or MechWarrior/BattleTech franchises. They are the respective properties and trademarks of Microsoft Game Studios, 343 Industries, Bungie, FASA Corporation, FASA Interactive, Catalyst Game Labs and Piranha Games Inc. Any material original to the franchises belongs to their respective developers, producers and publishers. Any material not original to the franchises is of my own invention. I do not own any music listed in each chapter. Any music listed belongs to it's original composers and/or artists.

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Pyre Light - A New Dawn (Full Album Remix)

Federated Commonwealth

Toland

July 22nd, 3054

Onboard the Mjolnir's Twin, Star Commander Alex Conners was pacing as he, the crew of his Union IVDropShip, the crew of the CWW Wolf Pack, and the entire WarShip fleet gathered at Toland, waited for the signal to begin the invasion of the Kerensky Cluster. Walking around the briefing room of the DropShip, he turned his gaze towards the holographic projector that was in the center of the room to distract his mind from the waiting. The planet that was being shown was roughly the size of Terra, with the equator only being slightly smaller in diameter than that of Humanity's homeworld.

Most of the planet seemed to be temperate, with large mountain ranges that crisscrossed it's supercontinent like scars on a meat animal's body. Only a small body of water was present, mostly in a large ocean that occupied one side of the planet. Rumors also had it that the planet was quite warm, though he wasn't certain if that was true, given that he had never been there before in his entire life. It was also the first target of the Invasion of the Kerensky Cluster, known as Operation: HAMMERFALL to the numerous military forces of the Star League Defense Force, the main defensive body of the Inner Sphere as a whole..

Finally, he thought, his fists clenching as he looked at the planet. We can finally have our rightful revenge. For four years, the Crusader Clans have attempted to invade the Inner Sphere; for four years, the Star League and the Warden Clans have held them back. Now, it is our turn to strike back, he thought as he looked at the planet Atreus, which was a holding for Clan Smoke Jaguar.

The last thing the Crusader Clans will hear is the voice of Clan Wolf and the Warden Clans sending them to their doom. They call us traitors, we call ourselves the 'True Clan'. We are Clan Wolf, the wardens of the Inner Sphere and the watchmen in the dark. He clenched his fists subconsciously again. as he thought this.

"Hey, you alright," a voice asked. Looking up, he spotted one of his men talking to him. That was Franklin Garrett, one of the 'MechWarriors on the team with him. Franklin was a native of the Federated Commonwealth, the largest and most powerful Great House in the Inner Sphere. Both of his brown eyes were filled with concern, presumably at his subconscious gesture. "You OK sir," Franklin asked again. "Your fists keep clenching again and again."

"Oh," Alex remarked. "I-I am fine. I just have some bad memories." As he said this, images of his service repelling the Clan Offensive popped up in his mind. Having been at the front lines of the war against the Clans, he knew first hand the brutality that they were capable of, as well as their nonsensical use of Trials and other methods of 'honorable combat.' "I fought during the Clan Offensive," he explained. "I saw some very nasty shit that the Clans did, especially to my freeborn friends."

"I take it they killed some people."

"Yeah, they did. I spent those four years not only completing my objectives, but making them suffer for every innocent life they murdered, all in the name of their so-called 'honor.' It has gotten easier dealing with the memories over time, but…" he trialed off a moment later.

"It's OK," Franklin said reassuringly. "We'll teach those canister born assholes a lesson they won't forget anytime soon, just like the Star League did with the Combine when House Davion was at it's lowest point." Those words brought a smile to Alex's face. Having worked alongside the man since his Trial of Position and Bloodname in Clan Wolf, the two had become close friends. During the Battle of Beta VII, they had both held off a Jade Falcon offensive almost single handedly, with the Star League quickly coming to the rescue.

Nodding in agreement, he watched as Franklin smiled as well, before turning to where the others were at. As the leader of a mercenary company, Alex had a myriad number of 'MechWarriors onboard his DropShip. Most were forgettable, but he had four, including Franklin, that were the diamonds in the rough. There was Dekard Gardner Wolf, a Terran native that got inducted into Clan Wolf when he unwittingly completed a Trial of Position, much to his surprise when he found out; as a result, he became one of the few freeborn Warriors in the Clan, though he had won respect during the Clan Offensive.

Osman von Strauss was the newest member of the mercenary company; a native of the Free Worlds League, he was originally from the Lyran Commonwealth, but his parents migrated there when he was still inside his mother's womb, leading him to be a natural born citizen of the Free Worlds League. He was somewhat rough around the edges, but he had a talent for piloting BattleMechs that was usually only seen in Clan 'MechWarriors.

Finally, there was Xi Yang Long, a native of the Capellan Confederation. She was a quiet and cool woman of Asian descent, but when she was in battle, she was probably the crazies and most cunning 'MechWarrior Alex had the honor of having in his mercenary company. As he waited around, he began to wonder when the invasion would begin, if it was going to begin today, that is.

Apparently, Dekard thought the same thing, as he asked in his South Texas drawl, "When's the show going to start? I didn't come here just to sit on my doggone ass and get fat." While he did make use of contractions, which were considered 'unclanlike' Alex had decided that was the least of the man's offenses; in fact, it added personality to him.

"I've been wondering the same thing here," Osman added. "If I'm supposed to get better at my job, then this is not the way to do it."Under his breath, he simply said, "Typishe militärische SLDF-Verfahren."

"Maybe they're trying to get everyone together so that it's all coordinated," Franklin suggested. "Coordinated military strikes are more effective than random, uncoordinated strikes."

"That's a good explanation," Dekard admitted, brushing his black hair with a hand. "Maybe we just have to wait longer."

Alex nodded. Sometimes delays did happen, especially when friendly units weren't in the same place at the same time. He is probably right, he thought to himself.

He was about to add in his own piece when he saw a particularly bright flash. Looking up, he looked at the view that was currently on the ceiling of the DropShip. Before the invention of advanced nanotechnology, DropShips and WarShips had to make use of view ports made out of Ferro-Carbide Glass, which allowed for outside viewing, while maintaining the structural integrity of the hull at the cost of presenting an unarmored portion of the ship.

Once nanotechnology came around, WarShips and DropShips replaced the Ferro-Carbide Glass view ports with micro-cameras mounted on the armor and hull of the vessel, while using holographic projectors to display an image of the outside on the interior of the Bridge. Not only did this eliminate any unarmored view ports, it also allowed the Captain to see the front, sides, top, bottom and rear of the ship he or she was on by simply changing the video feeds to the other cameras. In addition, tactical information could be displayed on the projection, further adding to the technology's usefulness. As a result, Alex was not seeing the actual flash, but rather the holographic projection of said flash.

That flash was the natural result of K-F Drive based Hyperspace travel. Whenever a K-F Drive activated, it would generate a Hyperspace field that would allow it's occupants to travel through hyperspace. This was done by creating a wormhole into the 11 dimensional region of space-time, before the field would propel the ship through the wormhole and to the other side. While this would appear to be instantaneous to the crew of a WarShip, there was a transit time that varied with the 'Ship's mass, with most WarShips and JumpShips having a travel time between 5-20 seconds while YardShips, which were effectively mobile Shipyards, took roughly 40 seconds to reach a given destination due to their mass.

Advanced 'Ships, which were commonplace in the Inner Sphere, also made use of the Alcubierre Module; this was either a module installed into the K-F Drive, or a standalone Drive, that allowed a 'Ship to achieve FTL flight inside of a star system by warping space-time around the ship, allowing the ship to move faster than light, without actually moving. This was because the ship itself wasn't moving; rather, the fabric of space-time itself was moving, along with the frame of reference. It was a clever way to cut down travel time from a Jump Point to a plant from a few days, to mere minutes. It was a scientific discovery that had been rediscovered after analysis of information archives from the late 20th to early 21st centuries.

When the flash faded, he found himself staring at a massive WarShip that had appeared in the system. It was massive, roughly 10.4 kilometers in length, 3.8km abeam and 4.2km in height, making it the largest WarShip in the entire star system. It had a similar, but not identical, hull profile to the McKenna IV-class of WarShips, as it didn't taper off nearly as much towards the bow, and was much more heavily armed and armored. The lettering on part of the hull read 'SLS Vigilance.' That immediately told him that this was a Vigilance-class WarShip, which was the largest class of WarShip in the entire Inner Sphere. That meant one thing: this was the flagship of an SLDF Commanding Admiral, or a member of the Federated Commonwealth nobility.

Moments later, the fleetwide PA crackled, with a man clearing his throat before speaking. "This is Archon-Prince Victor Steiner-Davion, my apologies for my tardiness. I was busy dealing with a group of Pirates that were interfering in fleet operations. All WarShips, report in immediately." One by one, all of the WarShips, including the one Alex's DropShip was docked to, reported in. Once they were all reported in, he said, "Good. I have informed the First Lord and the Commanding Admiral of the Naval Command that we are ready. They have received similar readiness reports from two other WarShip fleets in position near the Deep Periphery. We are a go for Operation: HAMMERFALL. Admiral Chernenko, is your fleet ready?"

Admiral Mikhailovich Chernenko, otherwise known as Chernenko, was one of the more experienced officers in the Star League. Originally a Lieutenant in the Naval Command, he had climbed the ranks not only through his tactical and strategic brilliance, but also by earning the respect of his men, and his peers in the four years of the Clan Offensive. About a year ago, he had been promoted from the rank of Vice Admiral to Admiral, and given command of his own flagship, the SLS Dallas.

In addition to his own flagship, he was given command of SLDF Naval Fleet Delta, which consisted of 250 WarShips fresh from the New Syrtis, Martian, Tharkad and New Avalon Shipyards. His strategic and tactical brilliance had won him many victories against the Invading Clans, which had grown by then from just four to all of the Clans, with the Warden Clans being forced to unwillingly participate in the Clan Offensive. Having met the man, Alex knew that he was a decisive, bold and extremely skilled leader, one that had rightfully earned both the respect, and fear, of his men.

Moments later, his Russian accented voice said, "Affirmative, Archon-Prince."

"Good," Victor replied. "Commence Jump preparations. We will jump once all WarShips have reported in.

"This is it," Alex informed his men. "We are about to jump to the Kerensky Cluster. Pay attention, as I will go over this only once." Once his men were paying attention, he pulled up the briefing and said, "As per our contract with the SLDF, our primary target is the planet of Atreus, located in the southern portion of the Kerensky Cluster. SLIC (Star League Intelligence Command) Agents have managed to find a weakness in the Clan WarShip patrols. At 1130 hours, there will be a gap in the defense fleet orbiting Atreus for roughly 15 minutes. Once we arrive at the star system, the SLDF WarShips, including our own, will engage the enemy fleet.

"Our mission is to land on the planet and destroy the Anti-Orbital Defense Cannons located on the planet. If we do not eliminate those, they will tear apart any DropShips that attempt a landing in the designated LZ. We will be exploiting a blind spot in the defenses in order to land safely. Star Alpha and Beta will engage any and all Smoke Jaguar BattleMechs in the area, while Star Charlie will neutralize the AOD emplacements. Once all AOD emplacements are down, we will regroup with the main task force and reduce the industrial output of the city to zero. Any questions?"

"How many enemy 'Mechs are we expecting around the AOD emplacements," Dekard asked. "If I know Clan Smoke Jaguar, they ain't gonna skimp out on defending those areas."

"Expect at least two Trinaries of Smoke Jaguar BattleMechs," Alex replied. "Most of those will probably be Heavy and/or Assault class BattleMechs, so expect a lot of heavy firepower being thrown in your direction. If you remain cool and utilize whatever advantages you have at your disposal, you should be able to take them out."

"What about supplies and repairs," Osman asked. "If we're going up against Heavy and Assault class 'Mechs, we're going to be taking some heavy fire."

"The SLDF has been kind enough to loan us some of their Mobile Repair Bays for our BattleMechs. Those will rearm and repair our BattleMechs should they require rearming or battle damage repairs."

"Will we have AeroSpace Fighter support," Xi Yang Lao asked.

"Yes," Alex replied. "A wing of SLDF Morgenstern fighters and a wing of DCMS Sabre fighters will be on standby to provide fire support in the event we need it. Any further questions?" When none presented themselves, he said, "Then man your stations and your BattleMechs. We are going to be fighting Clansmen on their home ground. They will defend it, or die trying. So long as you keep your wits about you, and your weapons hot, then we will emerge victorious from this conflict." With that, the 'MechWarriors in the room dispersed, heading to their respective Jump stations in preparation for the synchronous jump to Atreus.

Onboard the Vigilance, Victor could feel the tension in the air as the WarShips began preparing for the en mass K-F Jump to the planet of Atreus. All around him, the Bridge personnel were silent as they finished preparations for the jump to Atreus. This invasion has been four years in the making, he thought to himself. Most of the difficulty was wearing down the Clan's WarShip fleets via attrition. Now that they have been worn down, this is the time to strike. As he looked around, he said, "Odysseus, inform me when all WarShips are ready to begin the FTL jump to the Kerensky Cluster."

"Affirmative," Odysseus, the Vigilance's AI nodded. Artificial Intelligence, or AI, was a recent invention in the Star League, with the first AI's being invented in the year 2860 as a means of expediting the recovery of LosTech. After this was completed, they were moved into high ranking scientific positions, and some had become Defense Intelligences. Due to their architecture, AI's were not capable of feeling emotions, but were machines of pure logic and reason; however, they had far greater processing power than a normal computer, thanks to the use of advanced quantum computers. "40% of the fleet has reported as being ready. The remaining 60% will be ready within three minutes."

With that, Victor settled in for a brief wait as the WarShips charged up their K-F Drives. He took a moment to look down at a small necklace that he was wearing. The necklace was small, with the pendant on the end able to fit into the palm of his hand with room to spare. On it was the symbol of the Federated Commonwealth: a red sunburst on a yellow background, with a cobalt blue fist in the foreground.

Part of the pendant was cracked, courtesy of an assassin's bullet; the pendant was made out of the same materials used to make Advanced Ferro-Fibrous armor, and it had been strong enough to deflect the round. When the assassin was captured, it was found that he was a member of Clan Smoke Jaguar's Watch, the intelligence branch of the Clan itself. This only shows that the Crusader Clans have to go, or otherwise all of the Inner Sphere will suffer.

His thoughts were interrupted when Odysseus said, "Sir, all WarShips have reported in. We are ready to begin the jump to Atreus."

"What about the other fleets?"

"Naval Fleets Gamma and Epsilon have reported in. They are ready to commence the invasion. Gamma Fleet will move to merge with Naval Fleet Delta to provide protection for the Vigilance."

"Good. Initiate K-F Jump." With that, Odysseus began spooling up the K-F Drive. If you asked anyone what the greatest invention in the history of Humanity was, they would invariably say the Kearny-Fuchida, or K-F Drive, and with good reason. Invented in the early 2100's, the K-F Drive was responsible for shattering the chains holding Humanity inside of the Terra System, allowing for interstellar colonization and commerce. While it was short ranged and took a long time to recharge, the K-F Drive was so useful that, in the early days of the Inner Sphere and Star League, it didn't see much improvement. After the Amaris Coup and Succession War, the Star League began researching upgrades for the K-F Drive, primarily towards decreasing the recharge time and increasing it's accuracy.

That is why today is a historic day for another reason, Victor thought as he looked at the readouts on his command chair. Until today, no one had explored the possibility of upgrading it's efficiency as well. We will still have to chain jump to our destination, due to the drive's method of operation, but now, thanks to drastic improvements in the efficiency of the drive, we won't have to wait every five minutes for the drive to recharge. Now we can make multiple jumps on the same charge, which also means our range has been increased as well. There was a risk, though, as the new Type 200 series of K-F Drives had just exited the prototype phase a week ago, but he was more than willing to brave a new technology in order to defeat a new foe.

Deep within the bowels of the WarShip, the T-200 K-F Drive began to activate it's modules, a faint whine audible to anyone that stood close to the drive itself. Energy began to flow through it's components as the drive went to work enabling the FTL flight that had allowed Humanity to break the bonds holding it to the Sol system. At the same time, on the subatomic scale, subatomic wormholes that led into Hyperspace began to form, with each wormhole melding with another and another while growing larger and larger. At the same time, the K-F Drive began to emit a Hyperspace Field that surrounded the ship, and all docked DropShips inside of the Vigilance.

All of this took place in the matter of a few seconds, with the ship beginning to glow with a bright blue-white light, as the Hyperspace Field formed. All around the massive WarShip, the rest of the fleet's WarShips began to glow the same bright blue-white color, before the Vigilance suddenly disappeared, with space-time warping briefly before returning to normal. After that, it was a rippling cascade effect, with more and more WarShips jumping into and through the realm of Hyperspace in order to reach their destination: the Clan controlled planet of Atreus.

Onboard the Dallas, Chernenko watched as the other WarShips made the jump into Hyperspace, with the WarShip ahead of him, the SLS Atlas, jumping moments later. It was a sight that had always been alluring to him, having first seen a K-F Jump when he was just a young boy on Terra. Rubbing his salt-and-pepper hair, his blue-gray eyes turned to look at the countdown for their jump, with the seconds ticking down. At the same time, an automated announcement said, "Initiating K-F Jump. K-F Jump in ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one…" As soon as the countdown ended, the ship glowed blue-white before jumping through Hyperspace.

Almost immediately, Chernekno knew that something was wrong, as the moment they jumped, the entire ship shuddered. The movement was so violent that he was hurled out of his command chair and hurled face first towards the floor. Tucking his chin into his chest, he broke his fall with a roll, before quickly getting up again.

"Status," he called out.

"Abnormal K-F Drive fluctuations," Engineering Officer Brian O'Connor shouted. "K-F Jump successfully aborted! Engineering is already at work identifying the problem!"

"I've lost the M-HPG connection to the Vigilance," Communications Officer Ian O'Donnell shouted. "M-HPG is also malfunctioning."

"I'll get Engineering onto that too," Brian shouted.

"Is Persephone alright," Chernenko shouted, having seen the AI wink out of existence when the ship violently shuddered.

"Let me check. Running diagnostic." As he said this, Brian pulled up another screen and went to work at a frantic pace. Moments later, they watched as Persephone came up on the holoprojector inside the room. "Persephone, run system diagnostic."

"Affirmative," Persephone replied. There were some screens that showed the diagnostic process that the AI was running, in order to determine if she had been damaged or corrupted in any way. A moment later, she said, "Diagnostic Completed. System Functionality Check: Nominal."

With that out of the way, Chernenko could relax. Without a Star League AI, ships that were as large, if not larger, than the Dallas were incredibly difficult to run. A moment later, he asked, "Hull integrity?"

"Hull integrity reads 100%. Structural integrity is 100%. Weapon Systems fully online," Brian replied.

"Casualties?"

"Three hundred cases of severe TDS and eight hundred cases of moderate to mild TDS. No fatalities reported. Crew will make a full recovery."

He breathed a sigh of relief at that. As the Admiral of the 5.1km long Dallas, part of his job was to ensure the health and safety of his crew, even if it meant making the ultimate sacrifice in order to get his people back alive and well. Looking around, he noticed that the holographic projection inside of the WarShip's Bridge was not present, with only the lights being on. "Can you reestablish the holographic feed," he asked Persephone.

"Yes," the AI replied. "Holographic Video Feed diagnostic commencing. Time to completion: five seconds."

True enough, five seconds later, the video feed from the micro-cameras installed into the hull and armor plating reappeared, with the feeds undergoing a diagnostic before fully coming online. As soon as they came back, Chernenko were presented with the image of what appeared to be a star system; scans indicated that there were roughly six planets in the star system, with three that appeared to be in the star's habitable zone. The second of the habitable planets was orbiting nearby, with one moon being a small gas giant that had a smaller, barely symmetrical, terrestrial moon orbiting nearby. The second habitable planet, according to scans, was 15,273km in diameter, roughly 1.198 times larger than the size of Earth, which had a diameter of 12,741.98km.

This isn't the Atreus system, he thought as he looked at the video feed. Atreus has only one habitable planet: Atreus III, and it doesn't have two moons orbiting it. There was another detail that had his full attention: the Dallas wasn't the only SLDF WarShip in the unknown star system. To his amazement, it appeared as though the entirety of Naval Fleet Delta had ended up here as well, with none of the ships having suffered any sort of damage from what he could tell.

As soon as he saw that, though, he immediately knew what had happened. We suffered a misjump, he thought to himself. Misjumps were a phenomena that occurred when a K-F Jump was made, but something went wrong with it, resulting in the JumpShip or WarShip not traveling through Hyperspace correctly. Most misjumps were nothing to be worried about, with the WarShip or JumpShip in question ending up kilometers, or more rarely astronomical units, away from the intended destination, typically the Zenith or Nadir Jump Point in a star system.

The worst misjumps, however, were literal nightmare fuel, as the worst misjumps could involve any number of things, from Hyperspace Suspended Animation, which had happened to the crew of the SLS Manassas during the SLDF Exodus, to the crew of the 'Ship in question being forcibly melded to the hull and decks of the 'Ship, a fate that was considered worse than death. Other times, a misjump resulted in the WarShip or JumpShip disappearing from the Inner Sphere forever, never to be seen again by any living human being.

It was clear that, in this case, they had suffered one such worst case scenario misjump. The first thing to do was to make sure everyone in the fleet was alright. "Casualties in the fleet," he asked Persephone.

"WarShips are reporting in," Persephone replied. After a few minutes of tense silence, she said, "Sir, all WarShips have made it through with no fatalities. Cases of severe to moderate-mild TDS reported, but no major complications."

That's a relief, Chernenko thought, but there was one thing that was bugging him. "What happened," he asked. "Was the Drive improperly maintained?

"No," Brian firmly stated. "I made sure the K-F Drive was properly maintained. I even ordered an inspection and filled out the paperwork myself." To prove he had done just that, he pulled up a K-F Drive Maintenance Report that had been done just days before the present moment, with the Report listing any damaged or worn components that had been replaced. According to the Report, the ship's brand new, T-200 Compact K-F Drive was in perfect working order, with a crew of AI controlled inspection drones having scrutinized every single part of the Drive for any problems, with none having been found.

"The report is accurate," Persephone replied. "K-F Drive inspection was conducted on July 19th, 3054. No faults were detected inside of the K-F Drive."

That's one possibility that we can discount now, Chernenko thought. "Since that's the case, then it wasn't a malfunction that resulted in our misjump. Did you detect anything abnormal just before we jumped?"

"Analyzing" There was a moment of silence, then, "Yes. Just before the fleet jumped, I detected a strange, spatial anomaly that formed in front of the WarShip fleet. The Vigilance jumped just before the spatial anomaly formed, but it formed too quickly for our K-F Drives to anticipate, resulting in our fleet jumping before the drives could abort. There is a 99% probability that this resulted in the misjump." Once she said this, it made sense to him what had happened when they jumped. Spatial anomalies, unusual events in the fabric of space-time, were the most difficult things to avoid when it came to using the K-F Drive.

While rare, they almost always caused a misjump, with one such crew disappearing during the 2510's when they performed a jump. If that was the case, then it was possible that finding the spatial anomaly, and using the K-F Drive near it, was probably the only means of returning back to where they ended up at. His train of thought was about to continue when Persephone said, "Captain, I am detecting another WarShip approaching our position. It appears to be moving quite slowly."

"Another WarShip," Chernenko asked. "Is there a heading for it?"

"It is approaching us from the planet nearby, heading 0-9-0."

"Is the K-F Drive operational?"

"Yes, sir," Brian replied. "Engineering has worked out the kinks. The drive is not damaged. We can make the jump towards the ship at any time."

"Good." Turning to look at the Navigation Officer, he said, "Helm, bring us in closer towards the incoming WarShip. We need to get a better idea of what we're up against."

"Aye, Admiral." With that, the ship turned until it was pointed directly at the planet, before the K-F Drive's Alcubierre Module activated. As the fabric of space-time around the ship was warped, the light rays coming towards the ship were warped as well. As a result, instead of the view blue-shifting before turning black, the view outside the ship remained the same, with the planet rapidly approaching their position. Once they were close enough to the sensor contact, the ship slowed down until it came to a stop relative to the unknown WarShip, with their speed matching it's own. As soon as they were close enough, they could see the details of the WarShip that had been approaching them.

To Chernenko, it looked similar to the Riga IV-class of WarShips, as that class had a more hexagonal shape than the earlier Riga III-class. It also tapered off towards the front, like the Riga IV-class, but it was the appearance of the hull that caught his attention. Instead of a matte black color, as was standard with all SLDF WarShips, this WarShip was a charcoal gray in color, with a number of view ports built into the hull. On top of this, he could clearly see the Bridge of the unknown WarShip, as he spotted it just beneath the bow of the 'Ship. That clearly indicated that it was an older design, but the shape, combined with the unusual placement for the Bridge, confused him greatly.

This is not a standard configuration for a WarShip, he thought to himself. Was this made by a Periphery State, or did some mercenaries make a FrankenWarShip of some kind using a combination of old and new parts. As he thought this over, he said, "Persephone, perform a scan of the unknown WarShip. I want to know what we're dealing with."

"Aye, sir," Persephone replied. In a few seconds, a series of multispectrum scanners swept up and down the hull of the unknown WarShip, with penetrating scans working through the hull in order to get an idea of what it was. A moment later, she said, "Admiral, I have detected a number of anomalies with the ship design."

"Do tell."

"Spectral analysis indicates that the hull of the WarShip is not armored with Lamellor Ferro-Carbide armor plating. It is composed of a titanium based alloy, with scans indicating that it is likely five to six meters thick. The hull has no ablative armor mounted on it's chassis, rendering it vulnerable to weapons fire. Other scans of the WarShip indicate that it is primarily armed with missile and ballistic weaponry, with none of the energy based weapons that are typically mounted on a standard SLDF WarShip. The last series of scans also indicates that the WarShip does not have any external heat sinks. While scans did reveal an internal cooling system around the fusion reactor of the WarShip, the weapons do not have access to an internal cooling circuit."

When she said this, Chernenko was baffled. What kind of idiot designs a WarShip with no ablative armor and no cooling circuit for the reactor, systems and weapons, he thought. If a WarShip designer in the Inner Sphere did something like that, he would be laughed at before having his ship building license revoked. Something else is going on here. Pacing back and forth, he said, "Communications, get me a MILCOM (Military Communications) link to the rest of the fleet."

"Aye, Admiral," Persephone replied. "MILCOM link is active."

Clearing his throat, Chernenko began a short speech. "To all SLDF WarShips, this is Admiral Chernenko speaking. We have suffered a misjump that has landed us far from our destination; in addition, we have encountered an unknown contact using a WarShip of unusual design and make. Rest assured, we have identified the problem, but we will not be able to return to the Inner Sphere for some time, due to the nature of the misjump. Please remain calm and make sure your crews are unharmed. Once you do so, enter Formation Delta and await further orders. That is all."

Closing that MILCOM link, he ordered Persephone to create a MILCOM link to the unknown WarShip. Clearing his throat, he said, "Unidentified WarShip, this is Admiral Mikhailovich Chernenko of the SLS Dallas. Identify yourself immediately. If you attempt hostile action, we will fire upon you." With that said, he stood to attention and awaited a response. The next words that would be said would be the most pivotal in his career.