Episode Eleven

Project Failsafe

Neither Tyler nor Anna expected Project Failsafe to be something to fire into the Earth's Core to fix it - no one would have the resources to build such a thing, not in this time. Even MJ12 only built one DESTINI cannon. The logistics of one alone would be staggering, to say nothing of the upkeep to keep it operational. No, DESTINI was indeed intended as a "fire and forget" tool. A ship to go into the core to fix it would have been more plausible, but Anna got the impression from her now-deceased father-in-law that he expected them to survive this whole ordeal. But what they saw appear above their heads was nothing short of astonishing.

A massive vessel, easily eight kilometers long, sat on a gravity beam contained to that dome-shaped platform. It was shaded in a dark shade of violet, with a shine that was like the oily sheen of a beetle's carapace and clear weapons dotting the dorsal, ventral, port and starboard surfaces of the vessel. This was no airship, and clearly no water vessel.

It was a starship. Project Failsafe was a Starship.

"Do my eyes deceive me?" Tyler whispered.

"If they do, they deceive us both," Anna said.

"I don't get it," Sebastian said. "Project Failsafe is a ship? How does a ship help us stabilize the atmosphere?"

"It doesn't," Tyler said, looking over the massive vessel above them. "It was never supposed to."

"Tell them their grandfather died saving his people, your father said," Anna said, the revelation dawning. "Project Failsafe was never developed as a way to save the planet - it was intended to save its people!"

"How?" Grimaldi asked.

"I imagine we'll find the answers on the bridge of this ship," Tyler said. He offered a hand to Anna, who took it as they stepped onto that platform, followed by Sebastian and Grimaldi. They stood atop the peak of the dome, and after a few moments, they began to ascend into the belly of the colossal ship. They were deposited onto the deck of a very familiar environment - or blue and purple hues on bulkheads that shined like an insect's shell. Even the twin-sliding doors were familiar.

"Look familiar?" Anna asked.

"Damn straight," Tyler answered. "This is based on a Covenant architectural design. No wonder the MJ12 outpost on the moon looked so familiar! I've seen it before! Covenant Naval Vessels and outposts used this same setup! If I have the design of this ship right, we're standing in the cargo bay-"

"-Of a vessel based on the Covenant RCS-Class Armored Cruiser - only this is scaled up four times that vessel's size. Welcome to the RCS-Class Armored Warship Iron Regent," came a very deep, throaty voice from nearby. Tyler Anna, Sebastian and Grimaldi turned to see a creature most of them had never seen before, dressed on golden armor, approaching them. He was very tall, very muscular, had double-jointed legs, unusually-shaped hooves in place of feet, and a quadruple-hinged jaw with four mandibles.

Tyler, recognizing the species before him and who the voice belonged to, relaxed. "Do I call you Arbiter or Kaidon 'Vadam?" he asked.

"Neither, actually; my rank is Admiral Thel 'Vadam," the creature said.

"Tyler, who is this?" Anna asked, feeling somewhat intimidated by the massive alien.

"That's Thel 'Vadam - he's a Sangheili," Tyler assured her.

"I can assure you I mean you no harm - we on this vessel have been programmed to be under your command, Lord-Admiral," Thel said.

"Programmed?" Tyler repeated.

"Yes," Thel affirmed. "We are, all of us aboard this vessel, holograms. Well, except the droids - they're BX-Series Commando Droids."

"Holograms and droids... ingenious! And I imagine this vessel is immune to EMP?" Tyler asked.

"As is the crew," Thel again affirmed.

"That is ingenious - holograms run the ship, droids serve as marine defenses and boarding parties... none of them need food, sleep, or other logistical requirements of flesh-and-blood crews, and the EMP protection keeps them from being knocked out by EMP weapons," Anna said. "Brilliant, dad. Just brilliant."

"But why would your father build such a thing if he's trying to save the people of this planet?" Grimaldi asked. "Seems counter-productive."

"If you follow me, I will show you," Thel said, gesturing toward a nearby blast door. The team followed the Sangheili through the halls of the ship, where Tyler took note of multiple species of aliens working aboard the ship - namely Klingons, Sangheili, Gorn, Remans, Romulans, Cardassians, Jem'Hadar, Mandalorians, and Kig-Yar.

"An awful lot of holographic representations of alien races on this ship," Tyler commented.

"We were all chosen for specific functions," Thel explained. "Take the Romulans, for example - their expertise is clandestine infiltration and intelligence gathering. The Remans? Nocturnal by evolution, they are perfect for Nighttime operations; between them, the Cardassians and the Jem'Hadar, they make a formidable offensive force to assist the BX Commandos. Sangheili, like myself, work with the Klingons and Gorn as defense forces, keeping interests and this ship safe from enemy attack. Mandalorians provide both, and the Kig-Yar are the most capable scouts anywhere."

"If you're holograms, how do you leave this ship?" Sebastian asked. In response, Thel tapped a device on his wrist.

"Mobile emitter. Lord-Admiral David, before he programmed us, found it in a crate that appeared from a temporal anomaly. Once he figured out how, he used facilities in America to mass-produce them. Also in that crate was the computer core that eventually spawned the rest of us."

"So the technology that this ship is equipped with comes from the future," Tyler surmised. "Meaning someone sent it, whether intentionally or accidentally."

"Regrettably, none of us know who or why," Thel sighed as they stepped onto an intra-ship tram.

"It still makes some sense," Anna admitted. "Technologies this advanced had to come from the future." The tram started moving after that. "What I want to know is how this ship is supposed to get the population of this planet off-world. As big as this ship is, it doesn't have the space for that many people."

"Not on it's own, no," Thel agreed with a shake of his head. "But it does have Polymorphic Drones. The shipboard AIs can control them and direct them to different settlements to evacuate them."

"Polymorphic Drones...?" Anna repeated in confusion.

Tyler tapped her arm. "Drones the size of a starfighter that use projection emitters and a highly-advanced materialization system similar to how we materialize our equipment. They can literally become different types of starships and remain that way indefinitely."

"Very good, Lord-Admiral," Thel said with a toothy smile and a nod. "Indeed, a ship this size, we have many of those drones."

"So that's how David planned on saving everyone," Sebastian surmised. "Send ships to evacuate them."

"With messages sent beforehand explaining the necessity of such an evacuation," Thel stated. The tram stopped a few moments after his statement, and they stepped off and headed down the adjacent hall to an ascending walkway.

"However effective that may be, I don't think everyone will believe that - and there will be some groups that refuse to leave," Tyler suggested.

"Like those religious zealots in Egypt," Anna commented.

"A sad, inevitable truth. We cannot save everyone. But we can save those that choose to cooperate with us," Thel sighed. They stepped onto one deck, hooked a left, and came onto the bridge of the massive vessel.

"Lord-Admiral on deck!" shouted one of the crew. The entire crew snapped to attention. Before Anna could make any kind of comment, Tyler spoke,

"As you were." The crew didn't budge. He walked to the central platform on the bridge, looking over the various screens, showing all the locations they'd been as well as several others. It was as Thel was walking up behind him that Tyler said, "If we're gonna get the word out, we'd best do it now, while we have time."

"We were waiting on your word, Lord-Admiral," came a female voice from the computer. Immediately, over a small projector, a small hologram of a woman appeared.

"Lord-Admiral Tyler, meet Kaylee, our chief AI," Thel introduced her.

"A pleasure, sir," Kaylee said.

"Can you get word to the other settlements that we need to evacuate?" Tyler asked.

"Affirmative," Kaylee affirmed.

"Can you convince them?" Grimaldi queried.

"Aye, sir," Kaylee said. Tyler nodded, processing this in his head.

"Lord-Admiral... that title is gonna take some getting used to," he said to himself. "Send the messages - but I want to talk to General Carter in Washington myself."

"Understood, sir. I'll get you a line," Kaylee chimed before vanishing and one of the screens came up with a pending transmission window. It took a good ten minutes before Carter's face was seen.

"Mister Horgus... I trust you have good news," he greeted him.

"This is gonna take some time to explain, General, so bear with me..." Tyler started, before he outlined everything he and the team had gone through in their trek around the world. When he concluded with the evacuation plan, with Thel pitching in, the general let loose a long sigh.

"No wonder David never told me what Project Failsafe was. If I'd heard the truth before now, I wouldn't have believed him. But even if we manage to get everyone off this planet, where are we gonna go?"

"To Dragonaria," Anna said without hesitation.

"A kind offer, but there's just too many of us," Carter discounted.

"For one planet, yes. But we're talking about a massive ship that can spawn fleets," Tyler said. "We can settle humanity and dragons on neighboring planetary systems."

"You're sure about that?" Carter queried.

"Absolutely," Anna affirmed. Carter thought on this a moment, then said,

"Alright, I'm giving the order for evacuation. But hurry - we have a raider threat bearing down on us. They trekked here from California, and they're packing heavy firepower," Carter said.

"Understood - we're on our way," Tyler said officiously. "Thel - deploy the fleet. We're getting everyone that we can off-world. All ships will meet in orbit where we initiate the temporal jump to Dragonaria."

"Aye, sir," Thel said with a grin. The Sangheili and Klingons present let loose a gleeful, war-ready growl. Tyler looked to Anna for the longest time. She just smiled and nodded. No words were said. You've got this. You're ready.

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Carter had no more than just sent the evacuation order when word came of the raider attack on an outpost outside of DC. And last report from the area had them on a direct course for DC. Carter and the President both agreed, they had to hold the line 'till Tyler and the forces from the Iron Regent arrived.

The first wave was repelled easily enough. The raiders came at them with piss-poor leather outfits that barely covered their bodies and ratty submachine guns that jammed half the time. The second wave came in the form of better-armed raiders, with assault rifles and shotguns in better repair, but this was also repelled. It was the third wave that managed to establish a foothold. A group of commandos armored in metal armor stormed into the capitol, and took over a building just inside the DC perimeter. After that, all hell broke loose. The raiders set up a radio jamming antenna, and the range more than covered DC. Without communications, the DC troops were effectively cut off from command.

So that was what Staff Sergeant James Hudson was doing in this Humvee. He and his team were to go deep into raider-occupied territory, take out the jammer. Easier said than done - the mounted machine gun on top was low on ammo as they were approaching the target AO, and the Raider presence was thick.

"RPG on the roof! Look out!" one of Hudson's teammates shouted. Hudson had no more than heard this when the RPG projectile slammed into the ground beneath them and sent the Humvee tumbling end-over-end. When it finally came to a stop, Hudson grabbed his M4A1 and loaded it, then pushed open the door to reveal a pitched firefight in the street.

"Jeep's toast, Sergeant," one of his teammates said. "Where to?" Hudson took a moment to survey the situation. He could see the jammer - not too far. It was a simple matter of fighting through a gauntlet of raiders to get there.

"The jammer is a couple blocks away - ditch the jeep. We go on foot. Weapons, safety off," Hudson commanded. The team moved along the street, keeping to the cover of ruined vehicles and pieces of collapsed building as they went. Now and again, they drilled a raider fire team or two, but they nonetheless trekked to the objective. Once they reached the target building, they stacked up by the door, while Hudson's explosives expert placed a breaching charge on the door. They waited a moment once placed, and on detonating it, charged inside and fought through dazed raiders in polymer combat armor as they made their way to the roof. Once on the roof, they made their way through the walkways to the jammer, drilling raiders that tried to stop them, until they got to the radio jammer. While the explosives expert rigged the jammer with Thermite charges, the team covered him from a team of raiders that came to stop them.

"Charges set! Get clear!" the expert shouted after the last raider was downed. The team ran to the other side of the building before the charges detonated, and the antenna was decimated. It was then that all the radio channels came back at the same time. It gradually settled down, and Hudson accessed his own radio:

"Sergeant Hudson to command, the radio jammer is down! Repeat, the radio jammer is down!"

"Good work, Sergeant, stand by," Carter's voice said. An open transmission was sent immediately afterward: "General Carter to unidentified craft approaching DC, do you read?"

"Affirmative, general; Iron Regent reads you five by five," came the response.

"Hudson, look," one of Hudson's teammates said, indicating something in the distance. Hudson looked and saw it; a massive ship approaching from the direction of the Potomac. It looked like a giant manta flying through the sky, but colored purple.

"Lord-Admiral, we're in a bad way, here; Raiders have launched an invasion, and we need assistance, badly," Carter said.

"Understood; reinforcements incoming. Tell your people to keep their heads down," the commander spoke as the massive vessel settled directly over the capitol complex. Moments later, a strange mechanical roar was heard, as several aircraft swooped over and lit up the raiders with lasers. Hudson and his team cheered as the raiders tucked tail and ran. What was even more surprising were these flashes of light that brought creatures they'd never seen before - who then engaged the raiders with highly-advanced energy weapons. Inside of a day, the raiders were driven from DC.

But the next news that Hudson got put down any thoughts of a victory celebration...