Halo: Rise of the Empire, is made possible by the contributions, advice, and suggestions of the following authors: UH-60 NIGHTSTALKER, creamofwheat2311, BraviaryScout, & EternalCanadian.
This is a work of creative fiction utilizing the creative assets of the 'Halo' and 'Star Wars' franchises. All intellectual and creative assets are the respective properties of their franchise owners. No compensation was received for any time spent writing.
This chapter has been edited from its original publication as of June 10, 2020.
The author sincerely wishes you to enjoy this story.
Halo: Rise of the Empire
Prologue
November 20th, 2558; 2214 hours | Sublevel 18B, HighCom Facility Bravo-6, UNSC/ONI HQ, Melbourne Australia
The conference room was filled with men and women in white dress uniforms crowded so tightly together that no one dared to touch their complimentary coffees for fear of spilling on their neighbors. The tight quarters only added to the claustrophobia and the already nervous atmosphere in the room.
They had good reason to be on edge: Sublevel 18B was only used to handle and discuss emergencies that required everyone's presence. Most of the men and women in uniform had been summoned from other deployments for an in-person meeting.
The nervous buzz paused for a moment when an aged woman walked through the doors of the conference room with a trio of armed Spartans escorting her. They stopped outside the door and sealed it locking her in the room.
"Welcome Madame President." One of the older Admirals seated greeted her.
"Thank you, Admiral Hood. I hope you'll excuse me for being late. I came as quickly from New Dehli as I could". President Ruth Charet said as she sat down in the seat reserved for the head of the United Earth Government.
She gestured to her right to a woman of Turkish descent.
"Admiral Osman. I didn't mean to hold you all this long. Can we begin?" she asked gesturing to the head of the Office of Naval Intelligence.
"Certainly." Admiral Osman replied.
The lights dimmed and a projector whirred to life.
"BB, pull up the system charts for Epsilon Eridani and center our focus on Reach" she ordered.
An unseen presence in the room complied and a projection of the Epsilon Eridani system appeared on-screen. A planet, blackened and scabbed with a thick glassy crust came into focus with its neighboring satellites.
Osman began.
"I think we're all aware of yesterday's events, so I'll cut to the case. Yesterday at noon early warning probes detected Slipspace activity in the Epsilon Eridani system. The 7th Fleet moved to investigate. Ten minutes later a trio of CAS-class carriers led by Banished warlord Cassix attacked orbital facilities and science outposts on the planet Reach."
"Admiral Tchkova, who was commanding the 7th Fleet moved to engage the Brutes-" she continued as Red blips appeared and encircled the planet. " - and with the help of a nearby reconnaissance fleet began engaging the Banished's fleet."
Blue blips appeared and began to approach the Brute pirates.
"At 1604 hours, Banished reinforcements arrived. Tchkova quickly lost several frigates and one cruiser. His flagship, the Dauntless, was disabled by boarders and several others were destroyed by anti-matter charges brought aboard.
All the blue ships winked out steadily until one remained. The Banished fleet circled the crippled survivor and launched boarding craft.
"The Banished warlord leading the fleet ordered the Dauntless to be boarded. Our analysis is still unclear on what they were looking for. Possible objectives were Admiral Tchkova, the ship's AI, or the MJOLNIR armor shipment the Dauntless was carrying. The Banished nearly overran the ship's defenders.
Admiral Tchkova was almost killed by a platoon of Stalkers that had disguised themselves aboard the ship. The bridge crew was ambushed and 95% of the bridge crew were killed or severely wounded before the brutes were repulsed and eliminated. Admiral Tchkova was immediately evacuated to a medical facility on the ground along with the other surviving bridge crew members. The defenders caught a break when several Sangheili ships came to aid the defenders. This caused chaos among the Banished fleet. The defenders onboard the Dauntless killed the Chieftain leading the assault and further threw the fleet into disarray. Without firm leadership, the fleet attempted a hasty slipspace jump away. In that attempt, something happened and the Banished fleet was teleported into oblivion."
"Did you say teleported?" someone from the back spoke up.
"I did," Osman said fixing her eyes on the Admiral who had asked the question.
A large purple disc popped up and most of the enemy disappeared. The surviving ships quickly retreated.
"The object you see here matches the spectral signature of the Voi portal. It appears to be of a similar nature. The only difference is that this portal is not terrestrially bound. We've sent probes through but have yet to receive their transmissions. We do not believe it to be a portal to The Ark, or we would have received a response by now".
"Question. Who's in command of the Dauntless right now?" President Charet replied.
Osman's lip curled slightly. "Spartan William Gunther."
"What? Admiral Tchkova's pet project?" someone else spoke up from the back.
"Spartans are soldiers. Not Admirals." Someone else shouted.
Osman silenced those in attendance with a single cough followed by an icy gaze.
"As unorthodox as Tchkova's choice was, Beta-0317 holds the rank of Commander and is, in fact, the ranking officer in Epsilon Eridani at this time. The Banished came very close to killing the entire bridge crew and we're lucky that we had a Spartan onboard that prevented a total decapitation. No one from the other ship crews survived."
"Admiral Osman, with all due respect, isn't this old news to most of us?" A Vice Admiral questioned. "We heard the briefing yesterday after the battle concluded".
"Most of is old news until we picked up a pair of UNSC distress signals coming from the rift.
The audience perked up at this piece of information.
"You're sure they were UNSC?"
"The bandwidth and encryption patterns checked out," Osman answered
"Were you able to identify the ships?" asked President Charet.
"Only one, but we have sufficient cause to believe that one of the missing vessels is colony ship CFV-88, the Spirit of Fire."
There was a moment of silence before the room erupted and questions were shouted up to Admiral Osman.
"Order!" someone yelled and the room gradually quieted.
"How do we know for sure, Admiral?" asked Fleet Admiral Hood.
"We've upgraded communication suites and protocols across all ships several times throughout the War. The archaic nature of the data packets retrieved plausibly confirms the identity of the ship. She was the only ship reported using the communications suite native to her in the entire navy. We were unable to determine the newer distress call that came through. All contact from both ceased five minutes after."
"Do we know why?" asked someone in the back.
"No. We at this time do not know why. The signals suddenly cut off. We have reason to suspect that signals may have been jammed or distorted to the point of being unrecognized.
"I don't understand. I thought the Spirit of Fire was declared lost with all hands aboard. What are you suggesting we do?" Dr. Charet asked confused.
"Madame President, the Spirit, and its crew were declared MIA but recent events suggest otherwise. As for what to do, there's no precedent to this situation." Hood said quietly.
President Charet stared at the holo screen for a minute.
"I want to find out for sure. What are our options, Admiral Borodin?"
"Madame President," Borodin spoke up with a thick Ukrainian accent, "might I suggest that we first consider the problem of the portal—or rift—whatever this is? It's stable right now, but we don't know whether it will be in the future. That means we're possibly on a time table. This means that we can ignore it, we can quarantine the area and study it, or we try and go through it again."
"Let's assume we can traverse it. This means we could hypothetically mount a rescue operation. Right?" Charet asked.
"In theory it does," Borodin answered. "Assuming we can survive the crossing and hone in on the signal".
"If I understand correctly, don't the Swords of Sangheilios have several probes that are rated for extreme slipspace operations?" Dr. Charet asked.
Some barely withheld protests met her suggestion.
"Their probes are reverse-engineered from Forerunner technology and possess a greater consideration for the effect of sub-dimensional travel". A disembodied male voice informed before assuming the shape of a floating cube on the holotable.
Someone in the back corner made a joke about sacrificing Sangheili by sending them through but was hushed by the others.
"Any further transmissions besides a distress call? A warning beacon? A navigation buoy?" asked President Charet.
"No," Admiral Osman replied.
The room got quiet again.
"The probes we sent weren't shielded...right?"
"No. That's what was salvageable from the Dauntless. Any shielded vessel would most likely survive though."
"Is it worth the risk?" President Charet asked.
"Madame President, with respect, this is the Spirit of Fire we're talking about." Admiral Borodin spoke again. "There are men and women that have waited 40 years for answers. We know that Captain Cutter was pursuing something of critical importance. We ought to find out what that was. Do we need more reason than that?"
Several others voiced their agreement.
"If I may interrupt for a moment," Fleet Admiral Hood began, "the portal over Voi was a two-way street. What's to stop something from coming through the other side? Shouldn't we be securing the system?"
A chorus of agreements echoed throughout the cramped room.
"Agreed. The 7th Fleet was all that we had. The Dauntless is the only UNSC ship left in the system." Admiral Osman added. "The Infinity and her escort fleet are still in slipspace-transit. Infinity was not meant to be diverted. We need more."
When she was met with silence Lord Hood spoke up.
"Madame President, it's your call."
The President considered the screen for a second. One extended into ten, ten stretched into thirty, until a full minute passed."
"Lord Hood, I want to speak with the Arbiter ASAP and I want you to put together a fleet to reinforce the Dauntless and relieve the Infinity and her escort fleet. Stretch the other fleets if you have to. I want the Eridani system secured. We're going through the portal and finding out what happened to the Spirit of Fire."
-END OF TRANSCRIPT-
Chapter One:
November 21, 2559, 1000 Hours UNSC Standard Military Time/Calendar
UNSC Dauntless Bridge Observation Deck, Epsilon Eridani System, Reach
Spartan William Gunther
The observation deck of the UNSC Dauntless was blinded for a moment as the ship rounded the dark side of the planet and came into view of the local star. The windows automatically polarized to reduce the glare. Below, a long grey-brown sliver began stretching out below. Reach was undergoing the long and lengthy process of being re-terraformed. A lone figure stood in front of the glass viewport watching the planet slip below and twirled a combat knife in his fingers completing a series of complex rotations and then balancing it on the tip of his finger.
The ship passed the wreckage of a Corvette that had participated in the battle from yesterday strewing metal and oxygen in a long ghostly trail that stretched more than double the ship's original length. Several Marathon class Cruisers then drifted past the window after the Corvette. All had been gutted by the energy projector attached to the CAS Class Assault Carrier that came into view after the Cruisers.
It had been a dozen or so hours since the battle ended and they still had yet to receive reinforcements to secure the area. Every second without additional reinforcements would cost them dearly if the Banished were to attack again. Intelligence about the splinter organization was woefully inadequate - as yesterday's battle proved. They had all underestimated the Jiralhanae leading the assault. The battle had been shorter than some of the others he had participated in before but it was one he would gladly never repeat.
Lieutenant Junior Grade Avery Potter, one of the few members of the bridge crew that had survived yesterday's slaughter, nervously approached the Spartan from behind. He paled when he saw the combat knife twirling. The last time he had seen their temporary Captain, he had been surrounded by a massive pile of dead soldiers. If the rumors were true, the twirling knife had claimed the life of all the dead aliens in that unholy pile.
"Uh…um, Captain?" Avery nervously asked.
"I prefer Commander." the Spartan replied.
Potter was somewhat startled. The Spartan's voice, while possessing a hint of coldness and bitterness was surprisingly kind.
"Commander?" he asked again.
The Spartan turned around, his face obscured from vision by the glaring sun behind him.
"Oh, come on now can any of you take a joke?" he asked somewhat humorously. He laughed good-naturedly twice. "Captain's fine for now - at least until they kick me out and say that I can't run a ship anymore."
The crew member nodded. "Captain, we're picking up more spikes from the portal," he said regaining his composure.
Silently Avery sighed that the interaction went well. The ship's Captain was an intimidating figure. Seven feet tall and clad in MJOLNIR armor. He gave a silent prayer of thanks that the Spartan had been close by when the Bridge crew was attacked.
"Very well then, show me." the Spartan replied.
The technician turned and began walking to the bridge.
"Oh, Lieutenant?" the Spartan asked.
Avery paused and turned around. It was a little unsettling that he knew Avery's name.
"You can call me Will if that makes you feel better."
"Yes sir." he saluted.
Avery turned again and walked toward the bridge.
As the Spartan stepped out into the illuminated stairwell he revealed himself to be clad in navy blue armor with ice blue accents. He clutched an MJOLNIR Mk. V Air Assault helmet to his side, also navy blue with a frost black colored visor. His torso was fashioned in the Assault/Commando variant with FJ/Para knee guards and HAZOP shoulder plates. A tacpad twittered on William's left arm before spitting out a complicated series of numbers.
For all of Will's education, he never claimed or endeavored to verse himself in the finer details of slipstream physics.
William watched Lieutenant Justice as he walked away and noticed the men's posture relax enormously.
"How little they all knew," he thought wistfully.
William knew the rumors that circulated around him and the rest of his Spartan brothers and sisters and he had to admit he would be intimidated if the roles were reversed. The Spartans carried an almost mythical ethos for both human and non-human alike.
William was a Spartan III. An oddball. The middle child. The Spartan IV's were common knowledge to the public and touted as the next generation of Humanity's heroes - the inheritors of the legacy left by their ancestors: the Spartan II's. These were the giants who helped change the course of the war; holding back entire armies, buying the human race invaluable time, and saving millions. Where the II's and IV's were thrust into the limelight, the III's were more or less kept behind the scenes or else lumped into the II's.
William wasn't bitter, his predecessors deserved every bit of credit they got. If it further solidified public morale and opinion, so be it. He would continue to work to bring down the enemies that Humanity faced, both internally and externally.
Right now, he had an entirely different enemy: time.
He entered the bridge with these thoughts still in his head. The bridge doors slid open with some resistance - a memento to the battle that had been fought here in earnest.
"Report?" he asked as he came to the holoprojector - the only element of the bridge that had survived unscathed. A map of the Epsilon Eridani system was displayed tracking their location and the rift in slipspace.
"Spikes in radiation every minute right now before they settle down. They're all clustered in the immediate area around the distortion in Reach's pole about 100,000 kilometers away."
He paused for a second. His arms crossed over as he thought.
"Sarah, you there?" He finally said.
A flash next to the holo-tank revealed Sarah, the ship's smart AI. Sarah's chosen avatar was a woman with a fair complexion and dark hair matched by equally as dark eyes.
"Yes?" She said pleasantly.
"Please contact HighCom and tell them it's spiking again."
"Yes, Commander." She said ignoring his temporary rank. "Infinity and her escort fleet will be here within the next thirty minutes." She disappeared in another flash.
"Helm, bring us into a high orbit around Reach!" William ordered.
The ship hummed and shifted as the Dauntless adjusted its course.
The UNSC Dauntless was the brainchild of Admiral Pyotr Tchkova in the aftermath of the Great War as humanity began to rebuild its infrastructure and a much-depleted navy. The Dauntless was to be the lead ship of the new Dauntless class of Carriers. Theoretically, the "Battlecarrier" as it was nicknamed would have filled in a gap between the Infinity class of warships and the new Vindication class of Light Battleships but cost overruns and a lack of major administrative support prevented other ships like it to be constructed. The Brass were focused more on the "quantity" of ships built more than "quality." Construction was begun in March of 2557 a month after the Infinity was unveiled and hadn't been finished until later that year.
At over four kilometers long and equipped with four MAC cannons and numerous Archer, Rapier, and Howler Missile Pods, the ship was designed for orbital supremacy and strategic command and control. Recently an EMP cannon had also been added to its arsenal which contributed to most of the cost of the ship. To protect it further, it packed a hefty amount of AAA muscle that included 600 M965 Fortress 70mm guns, an M97 GMWS network, and an M85 AA gun network. Another recent refit had added a dozen "Onager" class Mass Drivers that were mounted dorsally and along the sides to protect the ship from threats that got too close to it.
Unfortunately, for all the weaponry the ship possessed, it hadn't made a difference when the ship was disabled by a well-placed EMP mine which allowed boarding craft to slip pass the ship's impressive point-defense network. The unusual sensitivity to electrical surges was a concerning flaw that William would bring up with Admiral Tchkova the next time he saw him.
The Dauntless carried engines and slipspace drive was near identical in design to those mounted on the UNSC Infinity which significantly improved its effective range and response time. Under normal circumstances, it carried a full Brigade of Marines of about 8000 strong and a full wing of Air Force pilots. Twelve platoons of ODST's were stationed on board with another contingent of soldiers apart from the Army numbering around 5000 strong. It also carried additional complements of former Covenant Separatist troops and a myriad of vehicles that could be readied for usage in any environment. To top it all off, the Dauntless had the potential to fully house 50 Spartans, their armor, and all the other material needed to support them on its own (S)partan-Deck. Current UNSC policy suggested that Infinity was the de-facto home of the Spartan branch so unfortunately there weren't any Spartans that called it home with the exception of William. While not as impressive as the Infinity, its larger, more advanced cousin, the Dauntless was very capable of sending its own message in its own unique way. Most of these troops hadn't been present during yesterday's counter-boarding operation and had instead been sent to fight off the Banished forces attacking the planet below.
Admiral Tchkova's final personal touch to the ship had been to overhaul the ship (again) so that she could carry additional ships internally like the Infinity. The main hangar had been overhauled and expanded to carry two Paris class Heavy Frigates, the infamous Frigates Saratoga, and Yorktown. Both of these ships had been lent to Infinity and her escort fleet for several rotations. William hoped they would be rejoining her when the fleet arrived.
The Dauntless was a powerful ship. That it had survived the events of the previous day was a testament to its engineering and the devotion of the crew. William watched as a file of Sangheili in EVA suits moved past the bridge viewport carrying Plasma torches and replacement armor plates in tow. William had tasked the ship's armed complement to take over and handle repairs under the direction of one of the few surviving crew members from Engineering and Damage Control.
Curious, he brought up a live feed of the aft of the ship where the Dauntless had docked itself to a derelict refit station that was serving as a mobile control base for the ship's repairs. The ship's AI noticed his curiosity and sent a series of reports to his TACPAD.
Before he got a chance to read them, a beep from the com station got his attention. He strode over and registered that it was from Fleet Admiral Hood. He keyed open the channel, assumed a parade-rest stance, and saluted as the face of Lord Hood filled the screen.
"Greetings Spartan." He said in his clipped British accent. "The Admiral still in surgery?"
"Greetings to you as well Fleet Admiral. The Admiral is out of surgery and recovering." William replied.
"Sarah just informed us that you're picking up more spike in activity?"
"That is correct sir." He said.
"Thank you for keeping me posted. Just as a heads up, I've asked the Swords of Sangheilios for assistance on studying the portal. They're also deploying a fleet to help secure the surrounding systems and hunt down any surviving members of the Banished. We're thinking of mounting a mission to see if we can recover the source of the distress signal. As of right now, this is a joint-operations mission. The Arbiter will relinquish control when he arrives. Admiral Del Rio is slated to take over in a few hours." His fleet should leave after tomorrow.
"Sir, can I ask why I'm still here?" he asked somewhat confused. "Why am I leading this ship? I'm a soldier, not a Captain. There are other bridge crew members on the ground who would have gladly left their hospital beds to take control."
"Son, let's face it. The Brute's made it their priority to eliminate all leadership and they **** near did a flawless job. I need those that are currently hospitalized to stay put. I don't want more of my officers killing themselves trying to run a ship. You have a well-trained crew at your disposal and a Smart AI onboard. I think you will be fine. The Infinity and Fourth Fleet should be arriving soon to relieve you."
"Sir permission to speak freely?"
"Granted."
"We're currently strategically in a bad position yes, but isn't this overkill sir?"
"Infinity's the only ship with an attachment of Spartan IV's onboard. She's being deployed to give the scientists a chance to analyze the portal. Since your probes haven't yet bounced a signal back, we can only assume that they didn't survive the crossing. Captain Lasky has been briefed on the situation and he's happy to assist in donating any men and materials you need."
"It's just manpower we need Admiral. We've done a good job of patching up the ship. I'll have a memo I want to forward you about suggested improvements for future ships of this class."
"Can't guarantee I'll have the time to read it before the end of next week, but I'll forward the message on to the relevant parties. I'll also speak with our logistics office and see if they can shift a few men your way. Any change in the distress signals?"
"No sir. Still as cryptic as ever, sir," William said.
"Understood. I appreciate the update, son. Thank you for keeping this ship out of enemy hands. Give the Admiral my greetings if he arrives. Hood out."
William saluted and the screen closed. William turned his attention back to the holoprojector table.
"They must be hiding something. ALLCOMM doesn't get involved unless it's that important."
He mused about how interesting it was to see the changes that came out of the end of the Great War. In a historic move in 2555, the Governments of every species in the galaxy came together to create a mutual alliance they dubbed the Allied Species, a sort of galaxy-wide United Nations in the process. An increase in technological advancement and trading between the two grew rapidly and peace for the moment was established.
Humanity and the various species of the Covenant Separatist still had much to go as far as friendship (if he was honest it was tenser than anything) but in comparison with two decades earlier, the situation had improved vastly. For the moment, it was only in important matters that affected the welfare of every living thing did Allied Command (ALLCOMM) get involved.
"Orbit around planet achieved." the voice of Sarah said from behind him.
"Go ahead and establish contact with the fleet when they arrive." He said still thinking.
"Infinity task group arriving in t-minus thirty minutes." She said.
William looked out the viewports in front of him and waited for the fleet to arrive. While he waited he absentmindedly fiddled around with the tacpad. He accidentally triggered the roster function and suddenly a projection of 20 names, faces, and numbers surfaced in his memory. Friends, Teammates, Family. They were all gone with the exception of one of them and he didn't know where she was assigned to.
All that he could do was pray that six of those names that were marked MIA were actually MIA and not the alternative.
He stared at Reach and felt many memories bubble up. So many of Special Warfare Team Castle had fallen trying to save lives on Reach. Now the majority lay in a gravesite at Earth. The battle here had been years ago but it was still painful to think about it. Now the only real inhabitants were a couple of corporations chipping away the glass, trying to breathe life into the dead planet.
He wondered for a moment whether they found any ghosts.
As the ship was orbiting, a large purple disc of energy came into view and floated off in the distance as it pulsated slowly. He stared at the disc and then went back to staring at the planet where so much had changed. Once upon a time, he had a team, a goal, a task, and a place within the universe. Now the team was gone and his goals were unreachable.
"Task group arrives in ten seconds!" one of the techs said after some time had passed.
A bright flash of brilliant white, blue, and purple produced an enormous ship surrounded by several smaller ones. He quickly identified them as 14 Autumn class cruisers. He also spotted three Epoch class carriers among the group, and numerous Stalwart Frigates and Destroyers. The rest of the bridge looked up from what they were doing and almost silently moved over to the viewport to catch a glimpse. They all stared in amazement at the size of the Infinity compared to the rest of the flotilla.
"No wonder they call it the jewel of the Home Fleet," remarked Sarah with interest.
Another flash of white and purple brought the Covenant fleet into view.
William whistled as he saw the enormous hulk of a CSO class Supercarrier flanked by three of the much smaller Assault Carriers come into view. This vanguard was followed by six heavy cruisers, four RPV class destroyers, and six SDV class Corvettes. The two fleets completely filled the space above the atmosphere of Reach.
"Total ship count stands at 46 sirs," said Sarah. The Arbiter and Infinity are both hailing us."
"Establish communication with both," William said distractedly as he pondered his next move.
The two-colored holographic images of a middle-aged captain with a young but somber-looking face and a Sangheili adorned in gold armor filled the command table. He looked up and seeing communication had been established bowed slightly.
"Greetings Demon, Captain Lasky, I am Fleetmaster Uhze 'Nodstrom of the Supercarrier Rising Flame at your service." He said in the deep guttural voice of the Sangheili."
"And to you as well Shipmaster. Greetings Captain Lasky." He said addressing the younger Captain.
"I'm glad to have had this chance to meet." Captain Lasky replied. "Where is the Arbiter?"
"He was to join us but recent events on Sangheilios have changed his plans. He is needed on the battlefield so he sent me in his place."
"Your journey was safe then?" William asked.
"Yes, thank you, we are grateful that the UEG has graciously allowed us to use your refueling ports and shipyards. Half of what you see here has been chasing Jul' Mdama's ships and that coward Atriox. They started terrorizing the shipping lanes and raiding any valuables and depriving us of much-needed ships. We've had to resort to convoys but as you can tell, it hasn't had much success. We're following up on a lead from our spies that there is a fleet in one of the surrounding systems. My Supercarrier was on its way to inspect it when we heard your call for help."
"And you Lasky?" William asked.
"Infinity and fleet are a-ok, though we've had the same problem with Jul. Before I forget, Captain, I have orders to transfer a few men temporarily to assist in the ship's functions."
"Much appreciated."
"Demon, forgive me, but I must say, I expected an Officer in uniform to greet us, does your military now put you in positions of power?" the Fleetmaster asked.
"We were recently attacked by the Banished They destroyed all of our ships but this one and killed most of our leadership before we had time to react. Most of the survivors are in recovery on the ground. I am the ranking officer for the time aboard this ship for the time being.
"No Demon. I was only asking."
"Glad to hear it. Now, first things first," said William bringing up a map of the system.
"The distortions, if you haven't seen already, are coming about one hundred thousand clicks near the northern pole of Reach. Probes have been dispatched and have revealed that this disruption is similar in nature to the one activated above Voi in 2552; that is to say incredibly fine rifts in slipspace that possess a gravity of their own and lead to somewhere.
Explorations of probes have turned up somewhere else entirely, the where about's we are still trying to figure out. Radio messages from all probes ceased at 01:30 hours last night when they entered the portal. The latest development occurred yesterday when two UNSC distress signals came through. Command has yet to tell if they've identified them or not. The plan of action is currently not set in stone with most of the leadership gone but I'm sure now that we are here we can set up a research station and study this anomaly in more detail."
"I'll dispatch some of my ships to study it. Do you need anything to help act as security should anything hostile come through?" the Fleetmaster inquired.
"Yes, just for the time being until we can secure this system."
"Then form upon the carrier and accompany to the disruptions. We will dispatch science craft immediately and I'll send a few Huragok to aid in making any repairs to your ship" said the Fleetmaster.
"All ships," the Fleetmaster now said over the comlink with the other vessels, "Set heading to 020 by 255 and form up on the Rising Flame. Adjust the Reactor output to 65%. And accompany us to the portal." He ordered.
The ship leaped forward with the rest of the fleet. The Dauntless and Infinity formed up on either side of the Supercarrier. The rest of the fleet formed up in a diamond formation. Firepower and size of the various ships were taken into account, ships maneuvered, and the fleet moved forward.
The fleet passed the refit station on the right. A squad of Broadsword fighters flew past the window and started docking at the station. William strode over to another viewport and stared at the rift that they were approaching.
While the ship was transitioning to its assigned position, he began to monitor as Sarah coordinated incoming and outgoing traffic shuttling supplies and replacement crews back and forth. William spent the next ten minutes organizing this effort and only stopped when one of the crew gave a cry of alarm.
"We've got something!" said one of the Tech's said looking at his identical console. "Rift's gravity field is fluctuating."
"How badly?" William said striding over quickly.
The ship suddenly jerked as they crossed over an invisible line.
"That badly?!" the man asked fearfully.
"Take reactor speed to 75% at full reverse and increase shields to 50% forward!" William barked. "Order the repair crews inside ASAP and prepare to discharge the refit staton."
From the comm station, there was a sudden burst of messages as everyone gave orders to get out of the sudden gravitational field.
"All ships bring up reactors to 150% output and apply 200% reverse! All shields deploy bow wards!" 'Nodstrom ordered panicking slightly.
William was knocked off his feet as the ship gave another jolt and roared even louder as it tried to stop. Lights surged and a couple cables overhead broke loose.
"Disruption is stabilizing!" Lieutenant Junior Grade Justice called out.
The ship stopped bucking and Will gave the order to get the ship far away from the rift.
"Attention all ships! Power down reactor levels to 29% to cool off and maintain formation and assume coordinates at these poistions" said the Fleetmaster after another moment. "That was too close."
The hum of the Dauntless increased again as William ordered the ship to its newly assigned position.
The Command Table suddenly lit up with the holograms of the Shipmaster and Captain.
"Thanks for the heads up," Lasky said. "Now that we know where the distortion's potential field of gravity is, our AI recommends that we split the fleet and establish a perimeter for the science teams-"
"Spartan." a cold voice from behind Will said.
William turned to see a shorter man with graying hair and a stern face.
Admiral Del Rio eyed him back with contempt. Two Spartan-IV bodyguards in Gray stood motionless behind him.
"Commander, what are you doing up here at the bridge of MY fleet?" he said smugly with the trace of a smile. "I thought you were supposed to be in your quarters." The smile and sinister joy emerged slightly from behind a cold mask of disgust.
"Admiral, with all due respect you said you would be here for another hour or so. You sent me a memo to my Tacpad earli-"
"That's funny Commander, but I can't seem to recall any memo." He said too innocently.
William stared at the Admiral for a second and decided this was not the hill he would die on today.
"Now then Commander, I'll be nice to you. You get off this bridge in the next three seconds or you will be put in the brig for an entire week. I'm in command here now.
"Lord Hood sends his greetings Admiral."
William saluted and started walking.
"Sarah, I want an estimate on how to split the fleet! Navigation! Keep us out from being sucked in until we're ready to proceed. We're proceeding earlier than planned." said Del Rio, his words trailing as William continued down the hallway.
The various crew and personal on the ship parted as he walked. He strode by a trio of grunts hefting a large support beam to where a Sangheili was directing a repair of a bulkhead. The squat aliens stared in a mixture of awe and terror at him as he walked.
As a final, personal touch, the Dauntless had been specifically requested by Admiral Tchkova to be able to include living quarters and accommodations of the various races of the Allied Species. He had long since respected the species of the late Covenant Empire for their unique talents as well as their devotion to a cause, a fact that hadn't pleased everyone he had met; Admiral Del Rio being one of the top five on that list.
Will in his frustration found himself subconsciously heading to the armory to access the firing range for practice instead of the gym.
The door opened and he was greeted by nobody inside. Perfect. Nobody needed to see this Spartan vent a little anger.
Will decided his helmet was a little too stuffy and took it off. He quickly found a DMR hanging on the wall. He picked it up grabbed a few magazines from a nearby dispenser and checked the action before moving over to a corner and scanning the room.
He stepped up to the line and waited.
"Welcome back Spartan. Would you like to run last time's simulation?" Sarah chirped at him from above.
"No thank you. Small targets please." He answered.
Several fist-sized targets popped up and began moving in random directions.
He picked the nearest one and fired drilling the target in the center of the bullseye. A second one met a similar fate, then a third, then a fourth.
"You and I both know just shooting targets is not a good way to relieve stress." A voice from behind said.
"Sarah, suspend practice," Will said putting the gun down and turning around to see a longtime friend and blood brother, Ripa 'Talam striding towards him. He stood a foot and half taller than William, considered slightly larger than average by Sangheili standards, and wore SpecOps armor. His claret red armor with crimson accents had just been cleaned with a slight smell of chemicals.
William remembered with grim satisfaction the incidents on Mamore, a colony filled with chaos and disorder at its best that had brought these two warriors together. They had first met when a local terrorist group had blown up the exit to a tunnel that ran underneath the Capital and blocked off the road. They had captured around 15 dozen civilians, a couple Sangheili ambassadors that had been taken hostage days before, and a few police officers who had tried to help, and strapped them with bombs. Then they had stuffed them in the tunnel and told if anybody were to rescue them they would blow up the tunnel killing all.
They had again met by chance when they were picked to help rescue the hostages. They served as distractions and drew attention away from the hostages while others freed them. The two fought their way out, Ripa getting wounded in the process. They eventually had to leap off a bridge to avoid being killed. Ripa had broken several bones doing this but William had carried for ten excruciating miles for help and then gone back to help.
The mission had been a success after William used Sarah to disrupt the link between explosives and detonator but it created a friendship between the two. Ripa and William were so close afterward that he had received an honor that only a few individuals experienced. He had been deemed an honorary member of the 'Talam clan and had had their crest, a sword and a forge, branded on his armor at a special dinner that he had been the guest of honor for. Ripa also had one of these symbols branded on his right shoulder plate at the same dinner.
"You fought well yesterday Demon."
"As did you."
"Those traitorous vermin will pay for all the blood they spilled, but no more on that subject. It is better to dwell on the finer points of existence such as literature."
Ripa moved past him and sat in a chair in the corner and opened a holopad.
"Shall I tell you about the latest literature of your kind that I have read?" he asked.
"Go for it," Will said unloading the DMR and cleaning up the brass he had thrown on the floor.
Will privately wondered whether this was the best place to be reading literature but dropped the thought. Ripa looked up and watched as William strode over to him.
"I recently finished 'Huckleberry Finn' by your author, Mark Twain.
"I thought you were reading Sun Tzu."
"I devote other time to studying military tactics. He has honorable ideas but some ideas I think are slightly beyond reason."
"Such as?" Will raised an eyebrow.
Ripa waved it away. "Another time. Now's not the moment to be debating the merits of Sun Tzu."
"So what did you think of Huck Finn?"
He chuckled. "Twain's tongue could certainly do battle with some of the elders at 'Talam Keep. His…what is the term?"
"Satire?" Will provided.
"Yes. Saatire." Ripa said mispronouncing it despite his best efforts. "It's ingenious with how he applies it to so many topics. If this book were to be translated for all the Covenant to read, it would be decried as heresy. No prophet would suffer such words on organized religion and slavery to be made."
"Then I'm sure Twain would have been pleased."
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Hmmph." Ripa huffed. "What's wrong with you
"I am totally fine." Will lied.
"And my mother was an Unngoy." Ripa snorted. "What troubles you brother?" he asked this time in Sangheili.
Will finished checking the weapon and hung it back on the wall.
"Some people just need to be thrown to a pack of hungry Jackals." Will replied in near-perfect Sangheili.
"Admiral Del Rio?" Ripa said switching to William's tongue.
Will nodded before turning to face him.
"My apologies. He seems like the type of creature nobody wants to interact with."
William said nothing but leaned against the wall.
"Between you and I, I've heard rumors that he had falling out with your supreme Demon or something to that effect. He didn't want to be shown up and the supreme Demon proved himself right and your Admiral wrong. Any humiliation might be explained as an expressed hatred towards you. You are after all kin of sorts."
"That's what I thought," Will said returning to his native tongue.
The holopad suddenly flickered along with the other lights.
"Again?" Ripa asked. "What happened the last time?"
"The gravitational field spiked and we were being temporarily pulled in. I would have thought that we would have moved away."
"Perhaps the ship is still feeling the effects of yesterday?"
The ship gave a low and ominous wail.
"Oh please don't tell me the portal's acting up," Will grumbled.
The lights in the room suddenly went out entirely plunging the firing range into complete darkness. William found his shields suddenly depleted and slowly recharging. Several screams and roars issued from the mouths of various frightened soldiers outside as the sudden darkness took them off guard.
"Gravity field from the rift!" Will said as his eyes rapidly adjusted to the sudden dark. "If Del Rio is smart then we should be out of this in a moment."
The ship bucked wildly without warning eliciting more shouts from the people outside. A needle of fear began to prick his consciousness. He always knew that going through the portal might be an option but so soon? Had the field expanded that much?"
"You were saying?"
"Please don't become like Mark Twain. Will added.
Pale red emergency lighting illuminated from a single light above barely lit up the room. Another jolt caused William to stagger slightly. He quickly put his helmet on his head and tried to get his bearings again.
"Sarah what's going on?" he asked as he rubbed his neck where Ripa had just accidentally smacked him.
Instead of an answer, he got instant chatter that filled the helmet as radio started picking up dialogue from other soldiers and sailors in the fleet. He picked out one message from the rest.
"All hands, be advised the rift is destabilizing, recommend that we abort the mission for the time— "
A massive bang accompanied by a horrendous jolt lifted the two of them off their feet as the artificial gravity was momentarily neutralized and brought them down again as the ship lurched and jolted. William saw Ripa growl as he tried unsuccessfully to get up. The emergency lighting failed all of a sudden and the ship rocked back and forth as gravity started fading.
"Attention all hands!" William heard Admiral Del Rio call over the emergency PA system.
"We have suffered a complete and utter failure of navigation and propulsion, the fleet is reporting massive power failures and chaos! All hands brace for emergency protocol! We're being sucked in!"
The emergency lights flickered back to life and Will moved to the exit. The door opened and through one of the reinforced windows, William saw that they had transferred into the realm of Slipspace.
"We're going to die!"
William realized he had wandered right into the middle of a platoon of Marines that was struggling to hang on to something.
"This isn't the best of places to be standing!" roared Ripa at the terrified group.
"Not the easiest of tasks!" one of them angrily retorted.
They felt the hum of the ship increase as the Dauntless struggled to maintain power to its critical systems. A small viewport ran alongside the firing range. The inky black of slipspace seemed to suck away what little light they had. The gravity failed suddenly and William activated the magnetic soles on his boots and tried to keep the surrounding Marines on the floor as much possible. He could now hear screams and shouts from other parts of the ship reverberating around the hallways. The ship hurdled left and right faster and faster with the loud roar becoming ever more present until with an enormous bang the ship emerged out of slipspace.
The ship was dead silent. Sparks flew from cables overhead that been torn open and William felt the ship spinning slightly. He only needed to look out the window to confirm that they were indeed spinning slightly. As the ship rotated slowly a blue sphere came into view, clearly a planet, with what looked like a surface completely covered in ice and snow with massive storms brewing on the surface, one that he did not recognize at all.
"What's the phrase your author Frank L. Baum said?" Ripa asked. "We're not in Ohiio anymore?"
"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." William corrected.
I think we're just getting started! Enjoy the rest of the story!
Yours in writing,
theotherpianist