The universe is a wierd place. After all the wars, a peace of five years, the new foes raised their heads over the horizon.
After all the years of fighting, the war was over.
Harvest's Covenant and Earth's Abyssals were defeated, but a new foe arises from the fog of the mist, pinning them back once again.
For two thousand years, the descendants of the survivors of the United Colonies of Kobol had flourished on their new colony, Earth, their origins being lost to time.
But now, a new foe is here, an old foe has come.
The descendants will know the truth about their origins.
A new age has begun.
An old age has ended.
An old foe must be confronted.
Hope Springs Eternal;
The Alliance forever.
*sun rises over Earth's curvature, illuminating the satellites in the foreground*
—
/SYSTEMS BOOT/
/UNSC HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL, EMERGENCY BOOT SEQUENCE INITIATED/
/PERFORMING SELF CHECK/
/WEAPONS: PARTIALLY ONLINE/
/PROPULSION: ONLINE/
/SLIPSPACE: OFFLINE/
/FTL: OFFLINE/
/SHIELDS: OFFLINE/
/HANGARS: ONLINE/
/CAUTION: NUMEROUS HULL BREACHES REPORTED/
/AI CURRENTLY NONRESPONSIVE, HARD START Y/N?/
/HARD START CONFIRMED, STAND BY.../
/SYSTEMS BOOT COMPLETE, AI CURRENTLY DORMANT, AI HARD START Y/N?/
/AI HARD START CONFIRMED, STAND BY.../
/AI STARTING.../
/AI STARTING... /
/AI STARTING.../
/AI HALIFAX CURRENTLY ONLINE, ASSUMING FULL CONTROL.../
/INITIATE FULL SENSOR SWEEP Y/N?/
/FULL SENSOR SWEEP COMMAND VERIFIED, INITIATING SENSOR SWEEP.../
/SENSOR SWEEP COMPLETE/
/FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD/
—
"Oh man, what the fuck?"
The first thing that the girl felt was pain, pure and simple. The back of her head throbbed stubbornly, mostly the result of a bang to the head she had taken during her last engagement. Checking her bridge, she sighed as the displays showed even deeper trouble, navigation was completely thrown for a loop. Their last known location was Utopia, where she had done a blind FTL jump in accordance with the Cole Protocol. Checking her systems showed another problem altogether. Her weapons systems were all offline, save for her MAC, her shields were offline, and all her FTL comms systems and drives were inoperable. Her sensor units registered multiple unknown contacts, but time for later.
Checking her body, she winced. Her entire body felt hammered via sledgehammer, and her left wrist was numb.
Well fuck that and see what do we have on this damn planet. she thought, as she fired up her engines and gave them a quick but slight throttle-up, sending her at a measly twenty-four knots.
Whatever they are but maybe they are just some locals, hopefully I can blend in with them. she thought, as she stumbled upon the fleet, which had a large ship in the center with four triple turrets and dozens of quad turrets scattered across its hull, as it saw her, and without hesitation, opened fire.
She immediately dodged back, the shots barely missing her original position. She brought her weapons to bear, only to realize that they were offline.
Light cruisers like you can stand up to them, but not when all their weapons, shields, and FTL systems are offline. the void spoke to her, as the weight of the situation suddenly brought her to reality. Turning around, she gunned her engines to full, and went off at flank, her engines burning the water steam-high. Turning to her comms unit, she started the standard distress call on all UNSC ships.
—
"Alright, sea, sky, sea, sky, whatever, just the goddamn usal, not much..." Tenryuu rambled as she sailed with her patrol group. "Sea, sky, sea—"
"Skyscrapers."
Tenryuu smiled at the young destroyer's humor.
"Good that," she said, when a single message in voice was suddenly received and displayed across all stations.
"Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is the Halcyon-class light cruiser UNSC Hope Springs Eternal broadcasting across all frequencies, distress, Priority Red distress, coordinates attached. Weapons inoperable, defense inoperable, propulsion compromised. Am pursued by unknown hostile. Message repeats, mayday, mayday, mayday..."
Tenryuu can only think off one thing right then and there.
"All fleet, change heading. Plot course for the transmission source."
—
God damn it, this hurts like a damn fucker, the girl thought, as she weaved her way throughout the maze of explosions caused by the damn hostiles as she swung herself for a burst of fire from a Gauss Rifle she dug out her armories, as the enemy fleet kept keeping on their fire.
She could have just blasted them to slag right then and there, but cannons they had, and coilguns she didn't.
Or at least, anyway. She still had her Gauss Rifle.
But right now, it was pretty damn useless especially as the damn rifle was meant for antitank, meaning that she couldn't just gut the pesky damn annoying dreadnought on her tail.
Goddamn it, she thought, when a volley of shots flew overhead with a deafening thunder, and six figures matching nuthin' on her databases raced past her.
—
Tenryuu had arrived at the origin of the transmission expecting to find a single cruiser being pursued by a few Fog ships total maximum, her own experience showed that it was the most possible outcome. Therefore, she had arrived at the source, and what she saw shook her to the core, keeping her awake at night for weeks to come, at the sight of a kanmusu she had never before seem with a futuristic rig was being pursued by not only a fleet of destroyers, not only said fleet accompanied by a flotilla of cruisers, but to top that all off, a goddamn dog crap Resurgent-class dreadnought.
She can only contemplate for a few seconds before she fired her guns at the dreadnought's center startling the kanmusu and causing the dreadnought to swing at her, while the kanmusu flew at top speed away some distance, as she drew her sword at the dreadnought to meet its blade as she struggled on for a few-times-ten seconds off and on as the dreadnought's 380mm triple secondary batteries and 800mm primary dual turrets turned to face her. Cursing, she fired her turrets at the dreadnought's guns, sweeping one lucky hit down one of the 800mm barrels, putting the turret out of commission as the glow signifying the oncoming fire met her gaze, she closed her eyes, as the dreadnought fired a broadside into her killing her instantly.
Or rather, it didn't happen.
Three deafening pows resounded in rapid succession, as Tenryuu opened her eyes to stare dumbstruck at a Resurgent-class dreadnought, or rather, the bow and stern of a Resurgent-class, its entire midsection simply gone. Looking around, she spotted a contrail leading from the target, and looking around, she spotted the kanmusu, her right eye covered by a bloody bandage wrapped rather clumsily, as Tenryuu slowly approached and called her.
"Hey, pal, why didn't you use that sooner?"
The kanmusu immediately spun around into a salute more similar to the ones Nagato would more often do, accompanied by a response in Japanese, albeit with a thick British accent.
"UNSC Hope Springs Eternal, Halcyon-class. Where am I to start with?"
Tenryuu sighed.
"Bloody that, maybe we can just discuss this in port, do you think?"
The kanmusu nodded at that, and going no further than to merely wince at a sudden ache in her left, as the seven of them made the awfully slow journey to Yokosuka.
As the girl moved painfully into fleet position, the void spoke to her.
UNSC Hope Springs Eternal, hull number ST-C-546, from now onward you will be the sword and shield of mankind until the day you are lost in the darkness of the void beyond and never be found. But heed this, even in death you will still carry the wish of mankind, a wish that has been granted by the loyalty of your commanders, the truth of your oath, and that is the greatest way they honor us for we will never be lost in time amidst space.
The Void has just been revealed, and you are the one to first venture it. Shine the light for us to follow, for we have lost in the darkness far too long and blinded by it.
Be the light that guide us.