First things first, this story is MASSIVELY inspired by UH-60 Nightstalker's stories, HALO: The Terran-Republic Affair and HALO: The Andromeda War.

I fell in love with those stories and 100000% recommend y'all go read them if you haven't yet. They're amazing.

Now this story is going to have a ton of similarities to Nightstalker's story so I want to make sure I give him ALL the credit for coming up with this concept and backbone.

Prologue

October 31st 2559∣2100 hours Local Time∣Unnamed Pulsar SystemBanished SpaceBlood of Night

"Status report!" Shipmaster Lykan 'Nanamai demanded over the blaring alarms as the Swords of Sanghelios CCS Class Battlecruiser.

"Shields down to twenty one percent and dropping," a Sangheili Ultra roared back, "One more pulse and we're exposed!"

"Venting atmosphere on several ventral decks," another Ultra added urgently, "Serious damage to our starboard plasma batteries and starboard engines! Reactor remains stable, though it is vulnerable to another pulse."

"Get us back from the pulsar!" Lykan ordered, "Get the Huragok down to the engines and disengage from the Jiralhanae filth for a moment, we need to make repairs."

"Curse Atriox for leading us here!" a Sangheili Officer growled as Lykan turned back to the holotable to review the battle. My command is being torn apart at this moment, and my own crew suffers. Cursed be the Banished. Curse Atriox for leading the Allies here. Curse it all.

While Blood of Night was having its own problems, Lykan admitted to himself that the battle was looking to be a crushing victory for the Allies, and perhaps a final defeat for the Banished. Hopefully it would be that way.

Lykan had spent his entire post-war career chasing the Banished all across the Orion Arm with the rest of the Allies. It had been six years since the Great Schism and the collapse of the Covenant, and since those fateful days, the Allied Species had spent far too much time and energy pursuing terrorists. Lykan had been present in his first command when Jul 'Mdama had been killed and the Storm Covenant had fallen near Sanghelios in 2555, and he'd been present for the first crushing victory over the Banished in 2556. In the years since then, Lykan had helped the Swords of Sanghelios chase the Banished terrorists and buccaneers back to the hellholes from which they rose.

But since the Banished's glory days in the mid 2550s, they had fallen into swift decline. The defeat of Let 'Volir's fleet and his subsequent death at the hands of the UNSC during the Battle of Epsilon Halo in late 2555 had been the beginning of the end. The Banished's collective tomb was finalized in 2557 when Colony, leading the majority of the Lekgolo race, split off from the Banished and led the Lekgolo into the Allied Species. In the following years Chieftain Lydus had reported increasing number of Banished Jiralhanae were deserting their posts to join the Jiralhanae sect in the Allies.

And now this is the end, Lykan thought, Atriox knows he's finished, so he's led us to a pulsar to inflict as much damage as he can before he and his last followers perish.

"Shipmaster!" the shout of a Sangheili Officer pulled Lykan from his mind as the CCS rumbled away from the battle, "A sect of the Brute fleet has split from the main force. They're pushing towards the right flank!"

"We're the only battle worthy ship left on the right side," Lykan muttered to himself, then ordered, "Make ready for engagement and inform the Fleetmaster, abandon repair efforts and remove reactor fail safes!"

"Shipmaster!" an Ultra shouted, "The reactor pipes have already sprung a leak, if we push it too hard we could have a meltdown!"

"We must take the risk," Lykan replied, "If they break through our flank, they can engage the main force from the rear or pick off damaged or disabled vessels! We're honor bound to ensure the safety of our brothers, hold the line!"

"Yes, Shipmaster," the Ultra nodded, then shouted orders through the comms, presumably to the reactor crew.

"What is the makeup of the strike force?" Lykan asked, placing his large reptilian hands on the holotable as a hologram appeared, displaying the battle.

An Officer zoomed the display into a small strike force and reported, "I count three heavy corvettes and a destroyer, all appear to be mostly intact. They're at 450,000 kilometres and closing."

"Move to engage," Lykan ordered, "I want the first barrage on the destroyer. We must remove him from the equation to even the playing field."

The wounded CCS rumbled and groaned as it changed its course, halting its retreat and moving towards the Banished ships. An Ultra shouted, "We have a firing solution on the destroyer."

"Cleanse this galaxy of his filth," Lykan growled.

Blood of Night shook beneath his hooves as a vast barrage of plasma torpedoes departed rapidly from their launchers and vectored towards their target. It took several moments for the superheated plasma to cross the distance between the CCS and the Avenger Class Heavy Destroyer. Lykan's eyes remained glued to the holoprojector as he awaited the results of his volley. He expected the complete annihilation of his opponent. As long as his gunners did their jobs, then a destroyer had no hope of surviving a full volley from a battlecruiser.

Moments before his plasma struck, the enemy fleet fired, bright plasma erupting from their hulls and vectoring towards his damaged ship. An officer shouted, "Multiple plasma signatures detected! Inbound fire from the Brutes!"

"Status on the shields?" Lykan demanded.

"Up to forty two percent and rising slowly," an Ultra reported, "It remains to be seen whether we can withstand the barrage."

"It's up to the Gods," Lykan growled to himself, then asked, "Status on our barrage?"

"Impact in seconds," an Officer reported, zooming the holoscreen in to show the heavy destroyer gliding steadily towards them through the void of space. Suddenly, his plasma torpedoes came into view and erupted all along the bow of the destroyer. The shields held for a few moments, then fell as more torpedoes struck, their plasma burning through multiple decks as atmosphere vented. The engines shut off and the destroyer began to spin slowly by the force of its venting atmosphere. Knowing the standard layout of an Avenger Class, Lykan knew full well that the bridge had been atomized.

The last few torpedoes struck the destroyer, their inertia transferring into the wreck and halting its forward motion as it spun lazily about, fires burning on multiple decks. Lykan watched with satisfaction as the corvette escort distanced themselves from the wreckage as secondary explosions rocked the stricken vessel.

"Engines disabled, bridge vaporized, reactor leaking," an Ultra read a readout from a scan of the vessel, "Though there are likely survivors aboard, for all intents and purposes, that's a kill."

"Shame," Lykan growled as the bridge erupted into roars of approval and victory, "Status on the escorts?"

"One of the Corvettes has backed off," the same Ultra growled, "Cowardly filth."

"Get firing solutions on them," Lykan ordered, turning from the holotable to the window, looking towards the plasma barrage rapidly closing on their position, "Status on their volley?"

"Impact in less than a minute," an Ultra hissed, "Shields at forty nine percent and climbing. Shall we attempt evasive maneuvers?"

"No," Lykan growled, "Our engines and reactor cannot take the strain. Get firing solutions but do not fire. Transfer all power to forward shields."

"Yes, Shipmaster," the Ultra replied, turning towards his station, presumably to relay the orders.

"Impact in seconds!" an Officer shouted.

"Sound alarm!" Lykan roared, gripping the sides of the holotable tightly, refusing to return to his command chair in case he missed something vital, "Brace for impact!"

The plasma glowed bright outside the windows, then slammed against the battlecruiser's shields. Lykan stumbled but maintained his grip on the table as the entire ship rocked and shook. The rest of the bridge crew was not so lucky, as Sangheili were tossed away from their stations and into the walls and floor.

The lights on the battlecruiser flickered then shut off, plunging the bridge into darkness before the backup generators kicked in. To save power, the normal lights remained off, and only dim red lights glowed. The rest of the auxiliary power was needed for more vital functions.

As the crew stumbled back to their stations, Lykan rebooted the holotable, and quickly read through the most important reports. The reactor was somehow still operational, though the shield generator was gone and the Slipspace drive was having serious malfunctions. Life support was still operating, but there were ship-wide power outages and less critical functions were no longer operating. All the engines sustained damage, and Blood of Night could only make fifteen percent power. This was the ship's fifth engagement of the day in which it sustained damage, and the battlecruiser was surely on its last breath. Luckily the plasma torpedoes were still operational, and the Sangheili in charge had taken the initiative to order their firing in the moments after the impact when contact was lost with the bridge. Lykan made a mental note to promote that Sangheili if they survived the battle.

Lykan observed the holoscreen as the plasma closed the distance on the Banished corvettes. One broke off its push and attempted to evade the torpedoes, while its comrade maintained its suicidal push towards the stricken latter corvette was struck by the majority of the torpedoes vectored towards it, burning through its shields and deep into the ship. The Corvettes reactor exploded moments later, reducing the ship to free floating atoms. The corvette that attempted to flee managed to evade a decent portion of plasma, but a great number of torpedoes struck its stern, evaporating its engines and burning inward. The corvette suffered a burnout, though all the structure remained intact as it spun widely, venting flames and atmosphere from every opening. Two more kills. Thousands more heathens burned. Victory.

Turning away from the beautiful sight of burning Banished ships, Lykan turned to his bridge crew and asked, "What's our status?"

"Our most severe damage is to the fore section on our port side," an Officer reported, "We've lost decks three through ten fairly far into the ship, and are venting atmosphere from multiple openings. The Slipspace drive is malfunctioning severely and threatening to further damage the reactor, so we have Huragok attending to that first. According to human predictions, we should have about an hour before the pulsar emits another pulse of radiation capable of damaging us. That gives us enough time to get clear of its damage range. Sangheili engineers managed to get all the engines operating up to twenty percent power, but they do not recommend we push it to that. The only function we've lost completely is shields. Comms and weapons remain fully intact."

"Get us clear of that battle, and have the Huragok continue repairing the reactor and Slipspace drive, after that I want them to begin repairing the shields. Seal the vented decks, they can be repaired later," Lykan ordered, glancing back at the holotable which showed the battle on a macro-scale, as the Allied joint fleet pushed the outnumbered Brute ships closer to the star, "And hail the Fleetmaster."

The Officer relayed the orders as another secured a link between Blood of Night and Fleetmaster Rtas 'Vadum aboard the CAS Class Carrier Shadow of Intent. Moments later, the half jaw appeared on the holoscreen, saying, "Greetings, Shipmaster 'Nanamai. I commend you for holding the flank. Those ships should never have been allowed to blast through our lines, and we were blessed by the Gods to have you present to remedy a potentially costly oversight."

"Your words humble me, Fleetmaster," Lykan bowed his head respectfully, "We are all honored to have provided vital service to the Allied fleet, however this ship is on its dying breath. Request permission to vacate the battle area?"

"Your battlecruiser has done far more than its share today," Rtas replied, "There is no dishonor in leaving the battle to repair when there are others that can fulfill your role. Are your engines operational?"

"Yes, Fleetmaster," Lykan reported, "But they have sustained heavy damage and can only make a fraction of their usual output."

"Make your way to the human repair ship UNSC Nightingale," Rtas ordered, "Their Huragok will bolster your own. Ensure that they make best speed, Lykan, I need your battlecruiser back in the fleet."

"Of course," Lykan bowed his head respectfully before cutting the transmission. Then Lykan turned to his navigator and said, "Set course for Nightingale and inform their shipmaster of our arrival," Lykan then asked, "Status of the battle?"

"The Allies have the Brutes backed up against the pulsar," an Ultra reported, "Both fleets are in range of the radiation, though the Banished are struggling more. Atriox and his scum seemed to have noticed that the radiation interferes with our plasma guidance as well as the humans' missile guidance systems. He's using that to his advantage, though it was hampering his own offensive efforts. The Allies are relying primarily on the human ship's mass drivers at the moment."

"But we will overcome these odds to find victory," Lykan stated flatly, looking at the projection on the holotable. His eyes avoided the casualty estimate, for that was a worry for the future, not the moment.

"Without question," the Ultra replied rather passionately, "The iron heart of the Sangheili will prevail in the face of any Jiralhanae trickery!" this claim was met with many shouts of agreement from across the bridge, much to Lykan's approval. The Ultra added, "Besides, we outnumbered them three to one at the battle's opening, and that discrepancy is even greater now. Our losses are heavy, but there's are even more so. Their capital ships are mostly finished, and its up in the air whether Atriox is still alive. His CSO his functional, but only barely, with heavy damage to the bow."

"If Atriox falls, the battle has been won," Lykan growled, the terrorist's name tasting foul on his tongue, "Without him, the Jiralhanae will collapse, of that, I am certain."

"It's a miracle they've held formation and maintained their discipline this long, a veteran Ultra hissed, clicking his mandibles, "During the Schism, the Jiralhanae broke their lines even before their command structure had been broken."

"Indeed," Lykan agreed, briefly reflecting on battles of the past, "But I am blessed to think that this holdout is a last ditch effort. When this fleet collapses, the Banished will be no more."

"The Storm Covenant are gone," an Ultra growled, "The Servants of Abiding Truth are gone, the San'Shyuum are gone, N'thoko 'Nuntak's Remnant is gone. Now the Banished are all but finished! No one can stand against the might of the Allies, no one can withstand the might of the Sangheili!"

"The bridge erupted into cheers and roars of approval as Lykan finally allowed himself to return to his command chair and leave the lesser functions of his ship to his subordinates. The battle was at its conclusion, and he would finally allow himself to stop worrying about his ship and crew. All of his Sangheili were competent, honorable, and driven, and he was truly blessed to have such a crew. They could handle the ship, and did not need him micromanaging every effort from the bridge. Besides, the younger Officers needed the leadership experience, and there was no harm letting them run the ship as it limped towards the repair dock.

For the first time since the dawn of the battle, Lykan 'Nanamai allowed himself to relax.

October 31st, 2559∣2100 hours Local Time∣Unnamed Pulsar System∣Banished Space∣UNSC Infinity

This is it, Captain Thomas Lasky thought as he gazed out through the void of space at the remnants of the once mighty Banished fleet, now pressed between a hammer and a hard place. Or more accurately, between a pulsar and the Allied fleet.

Atriox has really done himself in this time, Lasky thought, turning back to the holotable. Though he did understand the Brute's thought process. Atriox's numbers were in decline, due both to desertions and crushing defeats at the hands of the Allies. His systems were being routed by the Allies, and his last stronghold had finally fallen after a prolonged siege against a primarily Swords of Sanghelios attack. So the Brute had decided to risk it all in a decisive engagement with the odds in his favor.

Atriox had attempted to lure the Allied task force into this uncharted pulsar system and pin them in the exact location they now pinned him. Had his attempt gone as planned, then the Allies might have been in a dire position indeed. But alas Atriox's gamble had not paid off and now the remnants of his fleet were getting ground to bits by the combined task force.

"That's their last CSO, Sir," Roland reported as the last remaining Banished supercarrier, Scent of Carrion, exploded under a combined barrage of MAC rounds and plasma torpedoes from the joint strike fleet, "I think its safe to say we have this one in the bag."

"Let's not start celebrating just yet," Lasky replied, keeping his eyes glued to the hologram of the fleet on the holotable, "But you might have a point, start pulling back the main line of the task force and send in the cleanup crew. Let's give our boys a break and get some fresh replacements in there to finish this off."

"Yes, Sir," Roland replied before winking out of existence as Lasky looked away from the holotable and out at the battle once again. Infinity had sustained damage after engaging a CAS class and its CCS escorts and had been pulled back. The UNSC supercarrier was not in danger by any means but Lasky had strict orders to keep his ship fully operational. UNSC Eternity would not be battle worthy again for a few months due to the damage it had sustained during the Third Battle of Delta Halo earlier in 2559, and UNSC HIGHCOM had made it crystal clear that Infinity was not an asset they could afford to put out of commission even for a few weeks. So Lasky was playing it safe.

As for the rest of the fleet, casualties were quite high, higher than predicted. While Lasky was not satisfied with the results, as he was with any battle where a casualty was taken, he was not particularly surprised. Atriox knew he was running out of options so he had put all his cards in one basket for one final battle, and Lasky knew the Brutes would fight to the last. It didn't matter that their plan had backfired, and that everyone knew the Banished was finished, they would fight to the last. And they're getting pretty close to that, Lasky thought as he watched an Allied Lekgolo led CAS class carrier engage several wounded Banished CCS class battlecruisers with devastating results.

As he watched, he saw a number of UNSC Autumn and Marathon class cruisers making their way into the battle line for the first time that day as wounded UNSC ships slipped away from the frontlines to link up with one of the many repair ships floating far from the battle.

The new arrivals made their presence known immediately as they let loose a hail of MAC rounds into the shattered Banished fleet, causing one of two remaining CAS class carriers to explode as its reactor went critical, and also claimed several kills among the remaining destroyers and battlecruisers.

"Roland," Lasky summoned the smart AI back to the holotable, "What're the odds that Atriox is dead?"

"I put it at almost fifty-fifty, Sir," Roland reported, "His flagship CAS class, Killing Frenzy, is dead in space but at least some sections of the ship are still habitable. Nothing has gone critically wrong yet, though scans show its reactor is in the early stages of a meltdown. There's structural failures all across the board and its venting atmosphere from hundreds of gaping holes. If Atriox is not dead yet, he'll surely be dead soon."

"Glad to hear it," Lasky nodded, welcoming the news, "Let's finish this."

October 31st, 2559∣2100 hours Local Time∣Unnamed Pulsar System∣Banished Space∣Feeding Frenzy

With a furious roar, Atriox fled the bridge of the ruined carrier as plasma consumed what remained. The survivors of his bridge crew followed him the short way to the backup command center. Atriox viciously backhanded an unlucky Jiralhanae that got in his way, sending the unfortunate individual flying across the hall.

Everything was going wrong.

Atriox had known failure was a possibility, but he had not anticipated his trap to fail this badly. This was supposed to be the during point, the decisive engagement that would allow the Banished to regain the initiative and push back against the Allies to regain lost territory and lost strength. This was supposed to break the balance of the Allied fleet with Atriox's ace in the hole.

The cursed Allied fools were supposed to jump at the chance to meet the entire Banished fleet in the field. They were supposed to be lured to their dooms with his own fleet as bait.

Atriox knew the Allies. He knew that while perhaps not the Sangheili, but all the other species were tired of war, the humans in particular. They should have seen this as him ceasing his retreat to finally meet them in combat the way they wanted. They should have seen this as a tactical error on his own part, and their chance to finally put down his insurgency.

But someone must have smelled a trap.

Atriox had known it was a possibility but he had judged it as unlikely. The Sangheili in particular should have rushed right in to engage him the way they wanted. The stupid reptiles were all tall and proud with their honor, and had always frowned upon insurgents and pirates like himself, thinking him to be dishonorable. They had chased him and chased him and chased him, desperately trying to meet his fleet in the field so they could finally put him down honorably.

No the Sangheili had not smelled a trap, someone had warned them.

Perhaps it was that traitor, Colony. The Lekgolo leader had been one of his top lieutenants for years, and it was certainly possible that Colony knew him well enough to deduce what he had planned here, or at least that all wasn't as it seemed.

In some strange way, Atriox had a sliver of respect for the hulking Lekgolo. The former representative of the Lekgolo in the Covenant, Colony had led a vast percentage of the Lekgolo away from the Covenant and to the Banished when the Human-Covenant War had been at its peak. Colony had expressed that he felt the Lekgolo were mistreated under the San'Shyuum's leadership, and that he was trying to look out for their needs. Once the Covenant had fallen, Colony had drawn even more support, as all the Lekgolo in the galaxy joined the Banished ranks, aside from a tiny fraction that chose to join the Swords of Sanghelios and Covenant remnants.

In a way he should have predicted the Lekgolo's betrayal. They had come to him seeking sanctuary, so when the tide turned against the Banished, he could understand why the Allies looked so appealing to Colony and his Lekgolo. The Allied Species were a large conglomerate where each species found equal representation in a central council, and they offered protection and stability. While at first their government had been a shaky pact between the Swords of Sanghelios and humans, it had in time grown more stable and drawn more factions in. And as the Allies grew in strength, the Banished was weakened, unable to sustain a direct war against them.

As the Banished fell away from its glory days in the immediate post-war environment, the Lekgolo had become unsatisfied. Atriox had known that Colony and his Lekgolo were tired of war, and in retrospect, he thought that it was extremely foolish of himself not to expect the Lekgolo to abandon the Banished and seek acceptance into the Allied Species. But alas, whats done is done, and the Lekgolo were gone.

But Atriox doubted a Lekgolo traitor had predicted his trap today. No, Atriox had another, more infuriating enemy in mind.

Humanity.

The thrice cursed human filth had always been paranoid and vigilant, and though their days of annihilation by the Covenant were gone, their paranoia remained. And much to his misfortune, it served them very well.

Atriox had little doubt that one of the human mutts, or perhaps one of their ONI serpents were responsible for the failure of his trap, and his fleet's current predicament. It had been one of Atriox's lasting goals to watch human civilization burn, due mostly to his countless Jiralhanae brothers that had fallen when deployed against them. Though he had worked with human terrorist and splinter groups on occasion, his desire to see humanity burn had always remained.

But now it was all for naught, as the carrier was rocked by another barrage of plasma from the Allied force. The trap had failed, his fleet was in shambles, and he knew it was only a matter of time before he met his maker.

There was one last thing he needed to do, as the massive mammalian monster growled into his communicator, "Activate the device."

October 31st, 2559∣2100 hours Local Time∣Unnamed Pulsar System∣Banished Space∣Shadow of Intent

"They're collapsing before our might," an Ultra growled rather passionately as more Banished vessels were reduced to mere atoms under the Allied barrage.

There were roars of triumph across the bridge and another Sangheili commented, "At long last, the heathens are finished."

But one Sangheili was not so sure. Rtas 'Vadum, the half-jaw, sat in his command chair and spectated the battle with a look of deep concentration on his reptilian face. On one hand, his bridge crew had a point, all accounts suggested that the Banished fleet were indeed finished, and the battle was won.

Experience had taught Rtas never to celebrate before the battle was completely over, and all the enemies had fallen. And something was nagging at the veteran Fleetmaster's head. While it was certainly possible that Atriox had indeed set a trap to lure the Allied fleet between his and a pulsar in an effort to destroy them, something suggested to Rtas that it went farther than that.

Rtas had fought Atriox often enough to know the Jiralhanae warlord usually kept at least one card hidden to play at a critical moment in the battle. But in this most critical of battles, Atriox had not played one yet, and that made Rtas uneasy. What was Atriox's endgame? Atriox was smart and this play seemed risky. Rtas knew that even if the Allies had fallen into Atriox's trap, there was a good chance they could break right through his lines and still annihilate his fleet, even if the pulsar caused heavier casualties. To risk it all for a trap that could easily fail even if everything went right...there had to be more to it. Rtas searched his mind to try to imagine just what the weathered Jiralhanae had in mind.

There was something there, right at the edge of Rtas's mind. The Sangheili Fleetmaster dug deep into his memories, searching ravenously for the elusive tidbit of information, and he began to pick up clues. It was something the humans had mentioned before the battle. Something one of their AIs had discovered. Something about this system...

Rtas's eyes widenend as it came to him. The Absolute Record discovered in 2557 by the UNSC had pinged this system as a location for a Forerunner artifact but the spooks had been unable to deduce exactly what it was. The symbols had been seen in any other Forerunner archives or artifacts, and the AIs had yet to discover exactly what they were.

But Atriox's scientists could very well have figured it out. The Fleetmaster was about to inform when suddenly, a Sangheili Officer called out in an alarmed voice, "Fleetmaster, massive energy spike detected!"

Rtas leaped out of his command chair and ordered, "Divert all power to shields, preemptive defensive measures! Explain the anomaly."

"Growing energy spike detected," the Officer reported, "Origins...the pulsar. Energy build up passing ten quadrillion joules and climbing rapidly. Multiple magnetic and electromagnetic anomalies detected around the pulsar!"

Rtas did not wait to hear more as he contacted the entire Allied fleet and ordered, "All craft, full retreat! Shields to max and brace for shockwave, distance yourselves from the destabilizing star!"

While he was not technically in command of the other factions present, he was the highest ranking Allied officer present, and as his orders were pretty much common sense, he was not worried about anyone arguing or disobeying, and by ordering the entire fleet, he ensured that the fleet did not fall into chaos as some units retreated while others did not.

"Status report," Rtas demanded.

"The fleet has begun a coordinated retreat," an Ultra reported, "Shields at max and holding. Banished units have not broken formation."

"More anomalies in the magnetic and electromagnetic categories," an Officer added, "Picking gravitational anomalies as well. Energy buildup still increasing!"

While outwardly appearing calm and collected, inwardly, Rtas was worried. The energy buildup in the already unstable star was cause for extreme concern as the energy output, at 10^22 joules and climbing, was already enough to vaporize the fleet if they were too close. Though at the moment it seemed the anomalies were remaining relatively close to the star, and were not effecting anything beyond one AU from the pulsar.

"Gravitational fields increasing in intensity," an Officer reported, then added with a touch of awe, "Its tearing the Jiralhanae apart."

Sure enough, as Rtas looked on, he could see the Banished fleet being tossed about like small boats in a vicious hurricane. The once mighty fleet was quickly torn to nothingness in the fluctuating gravity field near the bright blue pulsar as jets of radiation were emitted from the poles.

"Energy buildup slowing," a Sangheili Ultra reported, "Release imminent, but the fleet is clear."

Rtas welcomed the news as he observed the readout on the holotable as the graphs showing energy increase flattened out.

Suddenly, it spiked again, as the derivative of the function was momentarily near infinity. Looking out the viewport, Rtas watched as the pulsar suddenly swelled outward rapidly, then seemed to collapse upon itself as if it were about to supernova. Rtas calmly noted that if the star indeed became a supernova, then there was a good chance the fleet could be vaporized.

But instead of exploding outward violently, releasing massive amounts of energy, the remains of the pulsar slowly spread away from the singularity to form a massive circle, the center of which appeared darker than the blackest night.

An inexperienced individual might assume the star had created a blackhole but somehow avoided the supernova phase, but Rtas knew better. He had seen something like this before, only that one had been millions of times smaller.

Rtas silently acknowledged the fact that the Forerunner artifact, somehow activated by the late Atriox, had created another portal. But where it led to was anyone's guess.

The Fleetmaster knew exactly who to hail, as the only reclaimers left in the galaxy would surely have a better idea as to what this was then a Sangheili would. Rtas growled, "Hail Infinity."