Halo: Predator Lost, chapter 2.
Final checks are complete, estimated rendezvous time with Nova's mothership is half a cycle. Scopes show nothing in our path thus far, so now I'm bored.
In order to better keep his mind occupied, Scythe got up and did a routine check of the shuttle's interior. Larger than a scout ship, but smaller than a Stalker class corvette, shuttles are often used to transport cargo and personnel. Armed with only two retracted plasma cannons on dorsal and ventral turrets, though armament could vary widely as clans often design and build their own shuttles. They also lack armor, and their shields are just strong enough to take a handful of hits before breaking. Suffice to say Yautja Shuttles were never made for combat.
Unlike the major shipyards of Yeager 1 or Yautja Prime, Clans often build their own, as such, there is no standardized class and even size could vary greatly. The only commonality they have is their purpose and the popular three-engine configuration for redundancy. Interiors also varied depending on the preference of the Elder. In this case, the Shuttles interior was devoid of any semi-organic systems, and just enough interior lighting to navigate its corridors.
Meanwhile sleeping like a mole, in a bunk Winter slept.
"Hey Winter, how would like to go to the beach, I'm sure the kids would love it." "Brilliant idea, sweetie, I'll go pack my things". " No, last time we had the cops called on us because you thought it would be a good idea to bring weapons and whose idea of fishing was to use explosives."
Cops?, Enforcers are never called cops but I did as she said. Sometimes I wonder how I got so lucky to find a woman like her. Blakely, pale brown, skin, smooth black hair, and a figure that was just dying to be ravaged, and she was all mine. Then a thought just occurred to me, she is human, I look down, I'm human, only white. Looking around I noticed I was on Earth, but one different than what I've seen, this was more, advanced, more peaceful.
"Honey, are you alright, you look pale". I jumped, this was a nightmare yet not a nightmare, this was, I don't know what this was. "I'm fine, what do you need"?
"Your opinion, I'll be back in a minute.", I waited and when she came out, I had an instant boner. "Be honest, how do I look.?" She was wearing a red string bikini and right then, human or not I wanted to mate with her. "judging by your drool and your pants I'll take that as a good thing. Putting her clothes back on she led me to the vehicle. There I saw three children, two boys, and a girl, the vehicle its self appeared adequate, as I never studied human basic transports.
Allowing my mate to drive, everything seemed perfect, clear blue skies and nothing but the clear road. Then everything changed upon feeling a horrendous impact, slamming into us from the side, I didn't see what it was but right then, lights, shuttering, nausea, and finally, confusion hit all at once.
Alarms sounded throughout the small ship as Winter had slammed onto the floor plating, pain erupted in his groin area. While the new armor made such things unlikely, no thought was given as to what would happen should that section get hit while having an erection. Slowly getting up Winter steadied himself and gradually made his way to the cockpit.
In the cockpit Scythe at been alerted and now things were looking bad. "Systems check," Scythe mumbled before rapidly pressing buttons, switches, and swiping displays, Scythe eyes couldn't believe what he was seeing. Sensors had picked up an anomaly that has somehow penetrated the ship's FTL corridor. The impact was such that had he not been strapped in then death would've been likely. Beep, beep beep," Warning subspace field unstable, navigation systems compromised, Engines overheating, FTL drive malfunctioning."
"Pauk, Okay dropping us out now". Upon hitting the button needed to drop out, something amazing happened, nothing.
"Scythe, what's the problem?, one nano cycle I was dreaming, next I'm being thrown around." Winter at this point had put his helmet back on, but truth be told he was nervous and scared as a newborn pup.
" Something hit us and is messing with our systems, and if we don't eject the drive now then we are going into oblivion. Now since everything shy of basic controls are working I need you to head to the rear and manually eject the drive, then find a chair to strap into as this isn't covered in any course I've been in". As usual Scythes knack for leadership was truly inspiring.
Turning around, Winter headed toward the rear, emergency systems were kicking in as doors were closing. Temperatures were increasing rapidly, all pointing to imminent destruction. Upon seeing the core, the spectacle was quite amazing, blue, purple, violet and even maroon arcs of electricity were dancing from the drive in a cacophony of doom. Opening up the emergency release, the outer hatches opened up, ready for immediate ejection. "Any last words Scythe?"
"Call me weak but I wish I had finally asked Spirit to be my life mate." "you?"
" I wish we had used the Phantom instead." Hitting the big button, the FTL core was ejected into subspace, wherein a matter of seconds it detonated with tremendous force. Shutting the hatches Winter quickly sat down, strapped in, then held for dear life as the ship's dampeners started failing and things began shaking. Finally, with G forces that would make Colonel Stapp proud, the ship finally ripped free and back into normal space. Winter and Scythe both passing out from the stress as even Yautja had limits.
UNSC weapons research base, colony Angolis, timestamp 2536.
Sitting at one of many radar terminals was private Mayweather. Originally an intern at the colony's observatory, her skill set made her ideal for the colony's advanced radar scopes. As such she was drafted into the UNSC and made a radar specialist, strangely enough, this proved to be less boring than her old job despite the near-zero chance of living, should the Covenant show up.
The weapons being developed at this facility could help bridge the gap between humanity and the advanced Covenant. As such people like her were critical to warning others early as the colony was so small that only a civilian model dumb AI was present.
Still, nothing could have prepared her for something that amounted to massive disturbance never seen before. Hitting the call button an officer was notified.
"What is it private, if this was the Covenant then you wouldn't need me, find something interesting?"
"Sir, take a look at this, radar recorded what amounted to a massive disturbance in subspace in sector 19g just beyond the L1 Lagrange point." Bringing up the recorded data the LT perused it.
"What, in heavens name is this?" On the screen, scans showed high emissions normally associated with a star going critical but the computer couldn't make heads or tails of the other stuff.
"I don't know sir, none of my courses covered anything like this. What do you want to do?" Internally Mayweather was more excited than a toddler at a candy store. As there was still so much more to discover out there.
Letting out a breath and resting his arms behind his head, he made a decision. " Send the data to ONI, then see if you can find what caused it. If there is a ship or what's left of one in that mess then we need to know if it was Covenant or an ONI experiment gone wrong."
"Yes sir." Sending the data to ONI, followed by inquires to the colony's local orbital telescopes. She clocked off for the night, excited to hopefully, discover what the cause of such a phenomenon was.
Okay, please leave a review, and if you have any helpful tips, either in writing or halo lore PM me.
As for technobabble, don't expect much as Predator technology is quite vague.
That said, I hate writer's block, so any helpful tips or ideas in the reviews are very welcome. I do give credit.
Thank you.