Unknown Space

September 11th, 0101 Standard Time, 2552

Hours had passed since the disaster with the slipspace drive, during which Richard fought to preserve a sense of discipline amongst the demoralized crew. They ran the numbers dozens of times, repeated scans, doubled up on everything, and came to the same conclusion each time, they were lost in deep space. There were no manmade radio signals, and the only relevant celestial bodies even remotely nearby were the mysterious planet and its moon, as well as some desolate rocks and a gas giant. Bradford had left the bridge to oversee the cleanup effort of the slipspace drive, leaving Richard alone to delegate commands.

"Sir, I have an update on that planet for you ready." Lieutenant Chen said, her voice slightly strained.

"Thank you Lieutenant, send it over." Richard said as he looked at the report on his datapad. At their current rate of acceleration towards the planet it would take them around a month to get there, during which she suggested most of the crew enter cryosleep.

This is what all interplanetary travel used to be like before slipspace drives. Richard realized, feeling a pang of sympathy for his ancestors. I suppose I should be glad our reactor and engines still work.

The examination of the planet itself revealed some startling results. The atmosphere was almost a perfect copy of a pre-industrial Earth, with a few notable differences in minor gas concentrations. The oceans were indeed made out of water, and even more startlingly, there was natural life on the planet. From their incredible distance no specifics could be made out, but it seemed at the very least rudimentary plant life had sprouted up.

At least if we're stuck out here for the rest of our lives we won't starve. Richard thought, happy with the minor victory. Although I really hope animal life has evolved, I don't want to be forced to become vegetarian.

In terms of mass and dimensions, the planet was again similar to Earth. It had a little under 1g of gravity, and a very similar magnetic field to other habitable worlds. Beyond that, few details could be made out, with the apparent exception of its extremely bizarre moon.

"Lieutenant, am I looking at this right?" Richard said as he examined the picture he had been sent.

"Yes sir." Lieutenant Chen confirmed with genuine bewilderment. "I will admit, I was a bit taken aback as well."

The moon was partially shattered, at least a quarter of it had been utterly demolished by something, leaving massive pieces of the celestial body to hover away from the surface. The pieces seemed to not be affected by the natural polar spin and orbit of the moon, adding further impossibility to the already bizarre anomaly.

"How is that possible?" Richard asked, utterly bewildered. "The gravity of the moon should pull the pieces back towards it."

"I don't know Sir, I'd have to get a whole lot closer to answer that." Lieutenant Chen said. "Our scanning equipment has plenty of range, but the closer we get, the better it works. From what we can detect it's similar in composition to Luna, but I'm also reading some unknown elements."

"Unknown elements?" Richard asked.

"Yes, they're not on the periodic table." Chen confirmed.

Richard looked back at the picture. "What kind of disaster caused something like that?" Richard asked, looking at it. "A collision would form a crater, this looks like something exploded from the inside."

"Maybe some sort of explosion?" Lieutenant Gage suggested. He seemed a bit better after his slight breakdown earlier, but Richard was afraid it was just an act.

I hope he made Lieutenant for a reason, although he seems intelligent, at the very least. Richard thought.

"Not likely, anything that could generate an explosion that big would leave some trace of what caused it." Lieutenant Chen pointed out. "Maybe a kinetic impact, an abnormally large asteroid?"

"It would need to travel at superluminal speeds to do something like that." Gage said, obviously in deep thought.

"We're getting off topic." Richard interrupted their thoughts. "We'll head for the planet and do some further reconnaissance, we might be out here for a little while. Keep our distress signal active, and relay the order to prepare non-essential personnel to enter cryosleep."

"Will we be going in the freezer too, Sir?" Ensign Williams asked. Richard was willing to look past the informality of the question due to its validity.

"Not us, we have work to do." Richard said. "Steady out our thrust and calculate our counterthrust."

"Understood sir." Ensign Williams said, returning his attention to his workstation.

Richard turned to his datapad and looked at the planet one more time. From the angle the picture was taken at, one of the continents kind of looked like a dragon, but that observation was far too childish and absurd to vocalize.

"Sir, I just received a message from Lieutenant Oswald." Ensign Gillespie reported, disrupting the quiet that had set upon the room. "He's awake, and on his way to the bridge now."

Ah yes, Lieutenant Thomas Oswald. Richard thought with a hint of resignation. His second meeting with the onboard ONI agent, and he'd have to explain to him that it was at least partially his fault they were lost in space.

After several minutes a man with short brown hair and green eyes walked into the doorway to the bridge in a black ONI uniform. His uniform bore the insignia of a navy Lieutenant, along with the patch of a member of the Office of Naval Intelligence. His posture was unflinchingly stiff, and he practically radiated with a sense of authority and professionalism.

"Permission to come aboard, Sir?" Thomas said in a neutral tone.

"Granted." Richard said. "Have you been briefed on the situation?"

"Yes, Lieutenant Bradford already filled me in extensively." Thomas said, now slightly looking irritated. "However, that doesn't mean I know what happened."

"That's something we'd all like to know." Richard said apologetically. "As of right now we are lost in deep space, we have no way home and we're extremely far out of UNSC space, even if our slipspace drive worked we don't know the way home."

"I'm aware." Thomas said. "But I'm more concerned about how we're going to deal with the Covenant prisoner that I was assigned to escort to Concord."

"What about him?" Ensign Williams interjected, rather informally. "Those bastards glass our worlds, let him rot in his cell."

"Focus on your assignment, Ensign." Richard chastised before letting Thomas speak.

"The intel that Elite might have could save a lot of lives." Thomas said urgently, looking the Ensign disapprovingly. "We need to find a way to coax it out of him, and get that intel back home."

"Perhaps you misunderstand our situation Agent" Richard said. "We're lost, we have no way home, we're going to have to wait for someone to find us, or to find a charted area of space."

Thomas sighed with frustration. "For the record, I'm not taking responsibility for this."

"I don't blame you." Richard affirmed. "I will take full responsibility for this accident if we can get back home. For now, see if you can get that Elite to talk, let's at least have something to report when we get home."

Thomas mumbled under his breath as he left. "That's not exactly my area of expertise but-" The rest of his sentence being too quiet to hear.

Richard didn't answer his challenge, as long as Thomas did as he was told they would have no problems. Once Thomas left the Bridge, Richard was temporarily left with his own thoughts. All he was able to think about however, was the horrible situation they found themselves in.

September 11th, 0117 Standard Time, 2552

Most of the crew of the Dominion were asleep at this time of day, but those who were awake were abuzz with the news of what had happened. A sense of nervousness and fear radiated around the ship. Most of the crew had families back home on Earth or on other surviving colonies. Nobody really knew what was happening on the bridge, but the lack of communication wasn't helpful.

Ben however, had ample confidence in Richard, and he did his best to share that confidence with the crew. Richard had told Ben many stories about his missions behind Covenant lines, the ones that weren't classified at least. Richard was immensely qualified for this situation, at least, as qualified as someone could be.

Still, Ben couldn't help but feel slightly nervous, especially since they had no idea which way was home. As far as he knew, they were deep inside of Covenant space, or even a whole other galaxy. While he did have a direct line of communication to Richard, he decided against bothering him, as it would be grossly out of line and risked distracting Richard from what he was currently doing.

But without any updates or further orders, Ben was left alone as Nathan and Fairfire went to sleep once their shift was over. For a couple of hours Ben and Curie elected to use their spare time to help around the ship. Ben mostly assisted with maintenance, as well as helping to carry the heavier things that needed moving. Meanwhile, Curiemade herself at home in the ship's systems almost instantly, doing her best to help everyone with what they needed. Ben didn't like being separated from his friend, but he trusted the other personnel on the Dominion to keep her safe.

It feels weird not having Curie plugged into my neural lace, my head is so much warmer than normal. He thought, noticing that the familiar coolness was gone.

While he worked, almost everyone on the ship gave him a wide berth that was a mixture of awe and a small amount of fear. While initially Ben just didn't like it, he grew to outright hate it. He had respect for the crewmembers who were willing to look past the fact he was a Spartan and just work with him. Several of them even tried to spark up conversations, asking about what kinds of adventures Spartans went on. sadly the only stories Ben had to tell were heavily classified (as was most of his life.) Still he didn't want to disappoint the few crew members willing to talk to him, so he exaggerated a few stories about some of Alpha Companies early missions from the start of the war. When his tasks were done, he decided to ask Curie about what she thought of the crewmembers perception of him.

"Hey Curie." Ben said, opening a channel directly to her. "Why do all of the crewmembers keep looking at me like they're afraid of me?"

"I can not say for certain." Curie said after a moment. "But I would assume their wariness stems from the rumors."

"What rumors?" Ben asked, even more confused than before.

"There are a multitude of usual rumors that are somewhat accurate, that Spartans are trained for young ages to become super soldiers. But there are more... unrealistic ones." Curie explained. "Some people believe there's no human inside all that armor, that you are just a robotic drone."

"That's lunacy." Ben stated, appalled that he and his fellow Spartans were labeled as robots.

"There is also an older rumor about a single Spartan beating up a fireteam of off duty ODST's. But I couldn't find any official source on that, even classified." Curie continued.

"I think we can discount that, unless it was a misidentification." Ben said. That's the only excuse he could think of for a Spartan to attack friendly forces unprovoked. "Or maybe it was some sort of training exercise that got out of hand?"

"I can not say." Curie admitted. "Like I said, it is a rumor, it does not need to be true for it to be prevalent. Regardless of whether or not they have a valid reason, some people will be afraid of you. Spartans have legendary capabilities in battle, and it's only natural to fear what is more powerful than you. It is a leftover instinct from our neolithic ancestors, and it is completely normal."

Ben was dissatisfied with the answer Curie gave him. He had wanted to be a hero when he signed up to be a Spartan, not someone that inspired fear even among his fellow soldiers.

"If it makes you feel any better, you are obviously respected." Curie said, realizing his silence and guessing how he felt.

"I suppose." Ben said, slightly relieved. "So, what should we do now?"

"Well it is almost time for breakfast, most of the crew will be getting up soon." Curie said. "Maybe we could even meet some more of our new squadmates. Find a holotank and let me download to your armor, I'd be happy to come along with you."

"Sounds good." Ben said, even though he wasn't really hungry. Still, having Curie back inside his head gave him a sense of reassurance.

When he arrived at the Mess Hall it was already somewhat crowded. Most of the crewmembers were too busy talking about the ship's situation or eating their food to focus on him. He got his food without incident and sat in one of the booths by the windows, as they were the only seats that could hold the weight of his armor.

He noticed he got a few looks when undid the pressure seal on his helmet and removed it, but he just ignored them. By the time he was about halfway through his food, he was joined by a pair of ODSTs who sat at the same booth he was sitting in. One was an older Caucasian man with shaggy black hair and blue eyes, and the other was a younger Asian woman with short black hair and green eyes. They seemed a little surprised when they saw his slightly burned face, but they both recovered their expressions quite quickly.

I don't understand why people don't just ask. Ben thought. It's a deformity from a wound, it's nothing special.

"Hey, you're the new Spartan with Fireteam Onyx right?" The man asked.

"I am." Ben said, paying a bit more attention now.

"I'm Sergeant Meadows, and this is Corporal Sato. We're part of the same unit." The man said. "Pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise." Ben said, shaking both of their hands. Yu seemed a bit wary for some reason, but she did so despite her apparent caution. "I'm Ben, and Curie is in my helmet."

"That's right, Fairfire said you had an A.I in your suit." Meadows commented, as if speaking to himself.

"I am typically located in monsieur Benjamin's neural interface, but I digress. It is nice to meet you." Curie said, her voice emerging from the speakers of Ben's helmet, even though he wasn't wearing it.

"Wait, you can do that?" Meadows asked, Yu looked equally surprised, perhaps even a little disturbed.

"Yeah, her datachip plugs right in." Ben said, pulling Curie's chip and holding it out for them to see, the familiar blue hue giving both of them an indicator as to Curie's presence.

"Damn, I bet that one piece of tech costs more than your armor." Yu commented, to which Ben didn't reply, mostly because he didn't know whether it did or not.

"Wait, if she's in your neural interface. Does that mean she's inside of your brain?" Meadows asked.

"More or less." Ben answered. "We've been partners for a couple years now."

"A couple of years?" Meadows asked, seemingly surprised for some reason.

"Yeah, we've worked together for a little while, she's a good friend." Ben replied.

"Have you ever worked with ODSTs?" Yu asked.

"Not really." Ben said, not counting his training. "Just Curie, for the most part."

"We have only worked with other Spartans." Curie added in a half truth. "And even then, it was rare."

"Curie, that's-" Ben began, about to chastise her about sharing classified information.

"Their clearance is high enough to hear it." Curie explained.

"Is it?" Ben asked, mildly surprised. Usually people of such low rank weren't granted such important information.

"It is, we got bumped up." Meadows confirmed. "Although I'm sure that extends about as far as "you exist"."

"Fucking ONI." Yu commented. "If they fought half as well as they maintained information discipline, this war would be over by now."

I see, they only have access to certain aspects about Curie and I. Ben thought. I will need to double-check just what they're cleared to know.

As they ate, Meadows continued to ask further questions, which Ben did his best to answer. "So how did you become a Spartan?"

Ben stopped for a moment thinking up a good answer. He didn't want to reveal too much, but also felt that it was a reasonable question he could answer.

"I volunteered." Ben explained. "But some Spartans were selected for the role. There's a lot of specific qualifications you need to fill."

Hopefully that's a good enough answer. He thought.

Yu looked at him with an expression that showed further interest, but decided not to push him. Meadows on the other hand, wasn't satisfied.

"So, did you volunteer from the Marines or another branch? Or did you go right into the Spartans?" Meadows asked.

"I went directly into the Spartans, right from being a civvie." Ben said in a half truth. "The training takes a lot longer though, as you might imagine."

Meadows was obviously still curious, but elected to halt his questioning there.

"What about the armor?" Yu asked, speaking through a mouthful of food.

"What about it?" Ben asked, not understanding the question.

"Like, what's it called? Where did you get it?" Yu asked.

"Mjolnir. This is the Mark V variant, with a prototype Mark VI helmet." Ben said, laying his hand on the helmet. "I was issued it towards the end of my training."

"I like the angular design." Yu said. "Can't wait until we get them."

They'd break their bones just by moving. Ben thought unpleasantly before remembering the standard SPI could be worn by normal humans, and that some ODSTs had been cleared to use it. "I think they're working on a variant for ODSTs."

"That's power armor right? Like the old exosuits they were testing a couple decades ago?" Meadows asked. "I can't imagine how you would move otherwise."

"It's powered." Ben confirmed. "Beyond that I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say about it, but I can at least tell you that without the hydraulics I'd barely be able to move, let alone fight."

"Yeah I guess that makes sense." Meadows said. "One of my old squadmates knew a designer on the project. They didn't say much about it, because it was all classified. but they said it cost about as much as a Frigate, but he might have been being metaphorical."

"It's certainly expensive. I never got handed an official price tag on the suit, but I'm glad to have it nonetheless." Ben said.

It was around then that he realized his breakfast was long since eaten, and that he should probably get back to work.

"I'm afraid I have to go." Ben said as he put his helmet back on.

"It was nice meeting you both." Curie said before Ben collected her chip and inserted her into the back of his head.

The two ODSTs said their goodbyes before the Spartan left to put his tray away and get back to work.

"Was it just me, or was he really pale?" Meadows commented.

"I was going to go with young, he can't be older than twenty." Yu said. "I guess they really aren't all that special after all..."

"Yeah, weird." Meadows said, even though he didn't agree with her sentiment.

Bridge

September 11th, 0905 Standard Time, 2552

Richard was exhausted, he had run the ship throughout the night, and frustratingly, they had come no closer to a way home. Most of the original bridge crew had already gone to sleep, leaving their replacements and the shipboard dumb A.I to run the vessel.

"Sir, are you ok?" Lieutenant Chen asked, looking at him, Richard realized he was staring out the front viewport blankly into space.

"I'm fine, thank you." He answered, snapping his mind back to attention.

"With all due respect Sir, don't forget that you need sleep too." Chen stated. Although her comment was technically out of line, it was well-intentioned and justified.

He gave a weary sigh of reluctance, he wasn't eager to leave his crew in such a state, but knew that staying awake would be useless if he couldn't think properly. "I know, I think I will take my leave. But I do have some last minute instructions."

"Go ahead sir." Lieutenant Chen replied, with a hint of weariness in her own voice.

"I need an inventory on the entire ship from Engineering. We need to catalogue every screw, every bullet, every computer, and every spare part. If we're going to be stuck out here, let's at least know what we have to work with." Richard instructed. "And delay the order to enter cryosleep for another twenty-four hours, I want all the rumors to die down, and make sure everyone on board is aware of our situation."

"Was there anything else?" She asked. Although she strived to stay professional, he could tell that she was starting to feel the pressure that had been placed on her shoulders. As the Navigations Officer, it was largely her role to find them a way home, and he shared that burden with her.

"Almost, I need you to keep scanning that planet as we continue to close the distance." Richard added. "It's our only source of material should we need it, unless we want to start digging away at asteroids."

"I'll get some scans going now, Sir." Lieutenant Chen confirmed. "And I'll relay your orders to the rest of the crew."

"Good, thank you. Once Bradford gets here, transfer the bridge to him and get yourself some sleep, we've got a lot of work ahead of us." Richard instructed, as he stood to leave the bridge. "You have the bridge, Lieutenant."

"Yes Sir." she confirmed. Although she was exhausted, her determination had not yet faltered.

The whole ship was eerily quiet as he reached his quarters, and he found them in a quaint, orderly state. The previous Commander had left some parting gifts on the rack, which he carefully moved before climbing in.

First day on the job... and all of this happens. Richard thought, letting his emotions hit him only now that he was in private. Mercifully, dreamless sleep came easily.