SALVATION
Copyrights 343 Industries & Bioware
Rated A for Adult
Additional Sources:
(I will use a lot from them, bc I am too lazy to make something up myself.)
- Daia's Asari Wiki
- CerberusDaily News Wiki
- Halo/Mass Effect Wiki
I tried to contact an admin for permission, but I didn't find a PM button (maybe I am just plain stupid).
All credits to their respective owners.
Thanks for the reviews but i dont read them - like ever. I wanted to update a month ago, but you know how it goes.
Props to Fade Maybe for his little rant in his last chapter. Some of you guys are ungratefull little bi***es. So if you ever read this I enjoy your story. Thanks for writting it. Really appreciate it.
We got a new mass effect trailer. Lets hope the Dumb and Dumber Ryder twins are gone and Sheploo is kicking some ass. Probably not but maybe as a side character.
Infinite is still a clusterfuck and 343s latest book "Shadow of my Ass" doesnt have anything to do with the original Fall of Reach beside the cover. A new book with forges daughter was announced as well and her mary sue robot. Gulty sparks should stay dead the fucking idiot. But no he is ourer mascot and he is so cool - F off.
Anyway happy new year and stay save.
(V2.0)
1730 hours, November 15th, 2595 (military Calendar)
City traffic, Calais, Arcadis
Eidera System, (Sector L-421), Outer Colonies
"Are we going to make it in time Lieutenant? There seems to be a lot of traffic on the streets today."
"Don't worry Sir, we will arrive on time," his driver reassured him and closed the car's door.
Enfield drove the car gently out of the parking lot, through the grey gate of the ministry onto the busy streets of Calais.
Grand had his meeting with the governor and the representative of Liang-Dortmund or should he say lobbyist, in less than half an hour.
To be honest, William had completely forgotten about the meeting and only thanks to Charlottes reminder he would be able to make it in time.
He still didn't know why one of the largest mining companies in the galaxy suddenly had an interest in one of the most isolated places of humankind. Normally he wouldn't care, but the governor wanted him there.
His best guess would be mining rights, but there were more than enough zones closer to Earth, which were better mapped, developed and protected by the UNSC.
The Linwood sector however was well explored around the individual planets, but especially near the border were massive regions of space sparsely or not at all mapped.
It would be a shitload of work to get through all the bureaucracy, not mention the exorbitant costs of mapping out every potential star system. The mapping of a system was a rather tedious undertaking.
The first step would be a superficial scan of the system. What type of sun, how many planets and which kind and god forbid if there is an asteroid field - such things.
Should something of interest be detected you had to explore the entire system at great expense. Mapping a planet for example could take several days to weeks. Mapping an asteroid belt was a nearly impossible undertaking.
Even a superficial scan could take longer than a day. The five minutes scan you could regularly see in some sci-fi holovids were laughable – at best.
Enfield stopped the car at a red light and William watched the people on the streets for a moment.
As much as he knew there were only a few mining locations in sector and all of them were in hand by smaller companies or private individuals.
All in all, it was pretty much a zero-sum game. The sector roughly mined as much of various materials as it need for the local market.
The rest was exported. On a galactic scale it was a joke.
But he was sure that there were still tons of undiscovered ore sources. It was a huge sector after all.
"Admiral, we are here," Enfield informed him as she pulled the limousine of the main street and brought the car to halt in an underground car park.
"I will let you know as soon as the meeting with the governor is over."
"All right, good luck sir", Lorena said as he got out.
Grand looked briefly at his watch and walked with brisk steps towards the elevator. Not a minute later, right on time he reached the governor's office and was greeted by an already opened door. He knocked hard on the door frame. Twice.
"Come in Admiral and please close the door behind you." Brudell's deep voice came from somewhere inside. Quietly he closed it and walked through the reception room into the actual office.
The giant turned around and came towards him and shook his outstretched hand.
"May I introduce you to my guest Mr. Hibbert, he came all the way from Earth." Only know he finally noticed the slender, older man standing a little behind him. Hibbert held out his hand with a friendly smile on his face.
"Hibbert Aldwyn, Liang Dortmund. It's my pleasure to meet you Admiral Grand. I hope with your help we can find an agreeable solution that is stratifying for us all."
"The joy is entirely mine, Mr. Hibbert, even if I still don't fully understand why you need my help," the Navy officer replied.
"Don't worry Grand, Aldwyn will explain everything to you, but let's sit down first." Brudell gestured invitingly to the couch in the corner of his office.
While his guest sat down, he took three glasses form the display case and poured everyone a sip of his finest whiskey. William gave the glass a reluctant look.
With a few quick commands Hibbert activated the tables holoprojector. The device quietly came to life and projected a two-dimensional map of the Linwood sector on the table.
"My company would like to claim several possible sites for ore mining in this sector – mostly titanium." The lobbyist highlighted a dozen places on the map.
"Liang-Dortmund would of course finance the complete development of the star systems as well as the construction of required building, ship ports and so on. This would create several hundred thousand jobs in this sector over the next few months and if the mining on a large scale pays off, we expect this number to go up till around 1.4 million. These statistics don't include required staff for transporting minerals, maintenance and supplying."
Aldwyn made a pause and looked at the governor before his gaze wandered back to him.
"And of course, you need to count the additional taxes LD would pay and to top it off my company would be willing to grand you a small percentage of our minerals."
A great deal at first sight. So where is the hook?
Companies don't want to pay taxes. Not now, not tomorrow, not in a thousand years.
"Forgive me for interrupting Mr. Hibbert, but what has the UNSC to do with this," William interjected before Aldwyn could continue.
"Well, while a permit from the UNSC is not required I wanted to talk about something else. We don't have a definite result yet, but we are pretty confident that our research ships found a considerable number of rare materials."
"I still can't follow you completely, I am afraid. If you found a large amount of rare minerals, you'll have to request a mining permit from Governor Brudell," a slightly confused Navy admiral replied, nodding in the Governors direction before he took a sip from his glass.
"The mining site is outside of our border." Brudell, who remained in the background until now told him surprisingly.
Finally, came a little light into the darkness. When a research vessel ventured into unknown territory outside of UNSC claimed space, it has to be accompanied by an UNSC escort. That was required by law.
This was mainly to protect civilians, as a Navy ship had better equipment for emergencies. The MAC was another good argument against uninvited quest.
"So why don't you search for additional sites?" There was enough space to mine, even for rarer materials.
"Oh, what the heck, it's about dark matter. Our research ship performed multiple deep scans in the systems around Halea and near the border and discovered three very promising looking site for dark matter mining. That's why I wanted to talk to you personally, the LDC would of course compensate you for the costs and like I already said we would agree to hand over five percent of the mined material to you and the governor."
Grand took his glass and emptied it. Dark matter was the most valuable thing in this millennia. A drop of it was worth a fortune. The lobbyist on the other side must have taken his silence as disapproval or lack of interest.
Brudell refiled his glass with two fingers of the golden liquid. None of the two other men seemed to notice his disapproval.
"Listen admiral, we both know the situation in the inner sectors. New colonies are shooting up like mushrooms after three rainy days. In addition, the huge shipyards of the UNSC on Earth, Mars, Reach and other major strongholds are producing more and more ships very day. I hardly have to explain to you what huge amount of dark matter is needed for just one of these new carrier classes, cruisers or the new orbital MACs and shield systems."
He was right of course. When the Covenant attacked earth, the orbital defense network counted 300 OPDs. The last time he checked their number was around 4200, not counting orbital and planetary shield generators, elevators or the hundreds of ships and smaller weapon stations.
That was only one planet out of hundreds and after the war only the biggest and most valuable planets were equipped with it, but over time the number of resources needed reached astronomical heights.
Due to the massive reconstruction and of the UNSC and UEG with new tech, ships and what not, a real competition broke out between mining companies. While the territory wasn't expanded, nor did the Navy have enough ships to do it at the time, most space in the inner colonies became densely populated.
And Earth fueled it further by buying everything, no matter the price.
The rebuilding wasn't done in a decade or two of course, but slowly these new technologies made their way into the outer colonies of the human empire. Newborns for example were vaccinated with new compounds that made their muscle tissue denser, gave them harder bones, better eyesight and a longer lifespan.
All these possibilities were previously only available to the Spartans, but with the constant technological progress it became accessible to the general public.
Without a doubt on a much smaller scale. Still, the unspoken goal of the UNSC/UEG was clear: they saw Spartans as the next step of humanity's evolution. All traits were inheritable as far Grand could tell. It would take decades, centuries even before it would be standard for every single human.
But most of all the military benefited from it.
Soldiers became more persistent in combat, had quicker reflexes, and thus became even more dangerous in ground battles.
Of course, a normal marine couldn't be equated with a Spartan or an Elite, but it was a start. He himself had received some such modifications that he found useful - but he strayed from the subject.
Every ship he gave away would put a strain on his already few numbers. William looked to the governor. The man gave him a pleading look - a lot of money was at the stake.
"How many ships would you need?"
He still looked at the men on his left side.
The governor understood. He owes him one.
"We currently have two research vessels in orbit around Halea, so if you would provide a frigate for each ship that should be enough, I think. I don't assume we run into unexpected problems. The other ships will operate within the border and won't need any further protection. It's a very peaceful sector after all. Wouldn't you agree, Admiral?"
"I can spare two ships. I will inform you in the next few hours who will accompany your research teams," with these words he rose from the couch and drained his whisky glass.
"Gentleman, I am deeply sorry but I have a ship to catch. Mr. Hibbert it was a pleasure to meet you. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me."
"Thank you, Admiral, for the uncomplicated support. Liang-Dortmund will not forget that."
After a brief handshake, the governor accompanied him out.
"I didn't expect that you would agree to it so easily Admiral," adds Brudell as they slowly walked back towards the exit.
"Why not? The sector can use the resources and money. I don't see any serious problem with the whole undertaking," he replied calmly.
"Thank you, Grand and good luck, on your journey," Brudell said as he stepped into the elevator.
Enfield was already waiting in front of her limousine. When she saw him, his Lt. opened the car door for him.
"Did it go well?"
William nodded. "Do you want to know something," he talked more to himself as he sat down in the backseat.
She didn't say something so he continued.
"I hate whiskey."
His slightly confused Lt. closed the door behind him.
2030 hours, November 15th, 2595 (military Calendar)
Orbital lift, Calais, Arcadis
Eidera System, (Sector L-421), Outer Colonies
"Hurry, lieutenant we only have a few minutes left," Grand called back over his shoulder.
He slipped Charlotte's data chip into an inside pocket of his uniform, grabbed his trolley and began walking quickly towards the entrance of the orbital elevator.
As he was about to go through one of the large front doors, he heard the familiar sound of clicking heels hurrying up behind him.
"Excuse me sir, but some jackass occupied my reserved parking lot," Enfield gasped out of breath.
"No matter where you go, there is always an idiot who doesn't know how to park." He shook his head. Still a little bit surprised and amused over her choice of words. "Throw your luggage on my trolley and let's go."
"I am taking my luggage it's no … Aye Sir." She finally mumbled under his gaze and attached her bag ho his luggage rack.
"Keep your eyes open, we are looking for Terminal F4." Both of them checked very sign as they wandered through the main hall.
"Back there, at the very end," she finally discovered the neon green marking. The two Navy officers moved as quickly as possible through the crowed towards their transport cabin. Just before the door could close, William managed to put his foot inside.
After a split second the door opened again and both Navy officers could enter the already crowded cabin. Most people were dock workers, mechanicians and passengers. Only a handful Navy personal was present in the far-left corner, probably coming back form shore leave.
William made sure nobody else wanted to enter, before he pressed a button on the door's touchpad.
With the elevator door closed he turned around and made himself comfortable. After a few seconds they heard a low hiss. Their cabin was now completely sealed off.
Finally, they got up. Slowly at first, but with increasing speed every second and for the first time he was able to take a proper look at Calais.
Calais was located on ocean and split into three parts by a river and its smaller sidearm. A smaller island was based right before the river merged with the ocean and was connected through brides with the rest of the city.
The island was especially popular with the rich and powerful as it offered wonderful views of the rest of the city and the blue sea. The City was surrounded by a 10-meter-high reinforced concrete wall. The wildlife on this continent was a little to fond of human flesh.
What interested him more however, were the two large military bases that were nearby.
One was right at the water in the southern part of the metropolis and he was able to spot a few large carriers for unmanned F-99 drones. The other was a few klicks outside of the city and was stationed close to a mountain side, inside a lush green forest.
William saw a large airstrip with a few hangars and some buildings through the top to the trees.
"Can you tell me something about the Army base in the forest over there," he asked his companion without looking away from the ever-shrinking town. There were a few seconds of silence between them.
He could tell from Enfield's expression the blonde was thinking hard about a satisfying answer.
After a little eternity she finally replied, "Fort Green? Next to nothing sir. The base was one of the first to be established after Arcadis was officially colonized and was massively expanded from 2548 to 2552.
Billions of credits had been put into underground facilities, but the digging was stopped almost overnight.
Some suspect that ONI found something down there and then declared everything top secret and made it a no-go area." She turned towards him.
"It's certain that the bunker or system goes a few kilometers deep into the mountain behind, but I cannot say whether it is being used or for what." Lorena shrugged casually before she continued. "Reminds me a little of Halea, they had a similar situation."
"What exactly does that remind you off?" He was genuinely interested. He read a few reports from different Navy personal, but nothing suspicious.
Halea had a big Navy base, a really big one for a such a seemingly unimportant planet. It didn't have any strategic value. No rare minerals, no significant ship yards nor was the locations important. The war waged on the other side of humanities territory, unless of course the UNSC expected a second enemy coming from this direction.
That didn't make much sense either. The UNSC couldn't win against the Covenant, how should they win against a second threat?
"Halea was just a mining colony in the beginning, but when the mines on the outskirts of the capital was exhausted, the UNSC bought the whole territory and built a massive base in the following years.
The old tunnel systems were used as bunkers for all sorts of things, but like in Calais they were massively expanded towards the end of the war and nobody knows why. The war ended and most of ONI was gone."
When he looked away from her and outside of the window, he was already able to see the darkness of space. I wouldn't take much longer now.
But the story of Fort Green didn't let him go, why should you build bunkers in the middle of nowhere far away form the actual combat. For protection? Not very likely. The bunkers had probably enough room for hundreds of thousand people, maybe even millions.
When the Covenant attacked a planet it usually happened without much time to prepare. They hit hard and fast. The resulting chaos in the cities would hardly allow most civilians to get out of them or reach the shelter system in time.
No, the most common strategy was to keep the Alliance away from the civilian as long as humanly possible until reinforcements arrived and you could evacuate the whole planet.
As soon as the Aliens found a planet, it was usually a goner. You can run, but you can't hide.
So, why all the trouble?
A loud beep tore him from his thoughts and signaled the end of his journey. The door opened and the passengers began to pour out, while they patently waited.
There was a hectic readiness everywhere, goods were unloaded and loaded, AI-controlled vehicles swirled around and brought everything to its intended place.
The large cargo elevators carried all the containers to the surface, where they were loaded and unloaded again. This way several thousand tons of the materials required for the planet's daily life could be delivered in a simple and above all, cost-saving way.
"The frigate is in bay A23 and is already waiting for us there," his Lt. reminded him. After walking for several minutes and a few turns later they reached Dock A23.
There she lay, the Brotherhood, a light Stalwart-class frigate with a crew of almost 600 men, made up of Crew personnel, Marines and some ODSTs.
He headed for the connecting gate, which was directly below the bridge of the vessel.
Erwin Cleveland, Captain of the Brotherhood and over 37 in active service was already waiting for him. The older dark-skinned officer, who was a strict man if you believed the files, saluted Admiral Grand as soon he came in sight.
"Admiral Grand, I am Captain Cleveland, my crew and I are happy to welcome you on board and escort you to Agrion," he introduced himself politely.
"Thank you, Captain. My deepest apologies for taking your time and distracting you from your duties." Grand knew most Captains wouldn't complain, even if he used them as his personal shuttle service, but it wasn't something he enjoyed.
"May I introduce my right-hand Lieutenant Enfield."
"Captain." Enfield saluted quickly.
"Welcome on-board Lt." Cleveland returned it with a nod, before he led them inside of the frigate.
"I can take you straight to your quarters sir."
"If you don't mind, I would like to watch the start on the bridge." It wasn't necessary for him to overlook the start and the FTL preparations, but deep-down William missed the feeling to be on a ship. The constant noises, the low humming off the ship machines in the background or the occasional announcement of the ship's AI.
You don't join the Navy to sit behind a desk all time.
"Of course, sir leave your luggage here. I will send someone to pick it up and bring it to your quarters."
As the trio stepped through the blast doors of the bridge, William was greeted with the familiar and somehow soothing sight of a busy ship bridge.
Directly in the middle of the bridge was the square holotable, which was ideally suited for representing space or ground battles. The current hologram represented the orbital lift and every ship and vessel floating around it.
On the left and right side of the projector were in each chase two chairs on the wall, already occupied by two hard working bridge officers bend over a dozen shimmering displays, which bathed the bridge in a blue light.
Directly in front of the table was the chair of the commanding officer, a little further ahead on his left sat the navigation officer, while the weapon officer sat on the other side to his right.
"Admiral on deck," called a crewman when he saw Grand and Captain Cleveland step through the door, whereupon all Navy personal stood attention.
"At ease," he replied calmly before turning to Cleveland: "Let's begin Captain."
"Aye, aye Admiral," replied the older officer and sat down on his command chair.
"Mr. Miller retract the gateway and inform the stations AI that we are ready to undock." His navigation officer swiftly followed his orders with a trained routine.
A loud noise, accompanied by a vibration, went through the ship as the magnetic mounts began to loosen its grip. Stalwart-class frigate tumbled for a split second, before the ships artificial intelligence activated the thrusters and moved the thousand-ton titanium colossus smoothly out of the hangar bay.
"Bring us to a safe distance and then hit max speed, as soon as you are outside of the safety zone, you have the green light for a Slipspace jump."
"Yes Sir," he latter confirmed while he was entering the necessary commands into his console. The FFG didn't need long before it was ready for FTL.
"Sir we are ready to jump," Miller informed his Captain.
"Give the crew 30 seconds," Cleveland ordered.
A loud alarm could be heard through the ship. Pressure doors were closed in case something went wrong, as well as all bridge windows. Enough time for every crew member to hold onto somewhere.
When the time had passed the Shaw-Fujikawa drive of the Brotherhood started to rip a black and blue hole into real space, directly in front of the frigate.
"We will drop out of FTL in around 17 hours," the navigation officer informed them.
Grand was satisfied with the crew; they were well trained and did their jobs swiftly but not hectically.
He turned around, made a sign to Enfield and left the room through the bridge door, which was now unlocked again.
William headed for one of the doors he had noticed on his way to the bride. With a short movement of his had he opened it and with a further step he found himself in one of the very spacious conference rooms – at least for military standards.
An elegant wooden table with a small holoprojector for an AI dominated the room. On each side were eight chairs and an additional one on the head. On the opposite side was a large window, currently covered by a thick bulkhead. Not that you could see anything inside Slipspace.
Already slightly exhausted from the day's events, sat down in the chair at the head end. Enfield and the Brotherhood Captain stood at the other end of the table, waiting what he would do next.
"Thank you, Captain, you can go back to your duties," he turned to the officer.
"Yes, sir. If you need anything else, my cabin is only a couple of doors next door ", with these words he withdrew from the conference room.
Addressing Enfield, he continued.
"Have a seat, Lieutenant, you still have to help me with one thing", he waited a moment before continuing.
"The meeting with Brudell and the representative from Liang-Dortmund, was about mining rights that are outside of our current border. I would need a ship as escort for each of the two research vessels, and that in the next few hours if possible."
"Understood sir, I'll take care of it."
"There is one more lieutenant, you would have to draft a job advertisement to recruit additional people for the planned shipyards and SRR stations,"
"A certain number?" She inquired.
"At the moment we have about 13 mobile teams of 76 men each, that makes a total of 988. I would leave the mobile teams as they are for the time being, but to be able to occupy the new stations we would need an additional 3000 men. If you have to, try to poach people from other sectors, you should also ask SinoViet Heavy Machinery whether they could support us with the construction."
They should start as soon as possible with all the paper work. He stole a quick glance at his watch and cursed. Already past twenty-one hundred.
"Forget it Enfield, we'll take care of it tomorrow. Go, grab something to eat and get some sleep. We meet again at 0700." He dismissed her with wish of his hand. His Lt. stood up an wished him a good night.
He landed back in his char tiredly and closed his eyes for a few minutes before returning to his work. So far, he had planned to build around 14 shipyards for frigates and destroyers, 4 for cruisers and one for carrier ships, plus around 12 SRR stations.
William calculated it would take more than a year to build all stations, unless he could secure the help of SinoViet, one of the largest manufactures of frigates and cruisers.
A small bonus would be the additional materials the Liang-Dortmund sector would receive over the next few months. However, there were some good news as well: Agrion had already started putting together some teams for the planned construction of the Remote Scanning Outposts.
The plan was simple to understand: secure the border with RSOs, bundle the ships that became available as a result into a task force and if possible, to modernize them one by one.
His biggest problem however was still there. He had no one who could take care of the Army and the planetary defense and he had to find a captain who could take over the leadership of the future task force.
Grand glanced back at his watch for a moment and groaned, he had eight hours left. With a low grumble, he got up and left the room in the direction of his quarters, hoping to find a solution for his remaining problems tomorrow.
0815 hours, November 16th, 2595 (military Calendar)
UNSC Stalwart-class frigate Brotherhood
Slipspace to Agrion, (Sector L-421), Outer Colonies
"Coffee or tea sir?" asked a young soldier who had just come through the door with a tray.
"Tea please," replied the admiral, after briefly glancing up from his holopad to examine the troublemaker.
Alone again, Enfield cleared her throat slightly: "I have taken the liberty of choosing four ships to escort the science ships."
He looked up from his pad and gave her a short nod to show her he was listening. "Go on."
"Unfortunately, there are only three frigates and one cruiser that are fully operational and manned in orbit around Halea."
"Pick two frigates of your liking and send out the necessary orders. They should contact the research vessels and discuss all details with them. As soon you got it send me a copy, then you have green light."
"Aye Sir."
A sudden low humming sound drew is interest away from Enfield back to the table. It took him a few moments to realize that the built in holoprojector in the table had been activated. Carefully not to spill any of his tea he pushed the cup aside, which unfortunately stood on the projector.
Charlotte appeared with her arms folded before her chest and gave him a grateful look.
"Good morning Charlotte, what gives us the honor," he asked cheerfully.
"Bon jour sir," she began with a gleeful look. "I have good news for you."
"Excellent, shoot."
"I have already been able to decrypt some of the encrypted data that you found in your office. Most of the files are out of date information about troops, ships, and other junk, but I also found some documents about a project called Noah."
"And what exactly is Noah?"
"As far as the data goes, these ONI facilities are located in the unexplored area behind UNSC border. They were abandoned shortly after the war and most of the data, such as station descriptions, were destroyed as well. Looks like somebone wanted to keep all evidence of their existence a secret."
"Can you tell me anything else about these stations or whatever they are?"
The AI glanced at the floor for a moment, then ran a hand over her dress as if to smooth out wrinkles.
"Little sir. I can only say that there are very likely three constructs, but I do not know whether they are stations, ships or something else. It doesn't look much better with the coordinates; I only have incomplete pieces of one and they are vague."
She had a small map of the sector projected onto the opposite wall. The border was marked in green and more smaller parts below it in red.
"I suspect Noah must be there somewhere," she continued. He ran a hand through his short, dark blonde, almost brown hair and pressed his lips together while he stared hard at the map.
He realized that the red areas were probably hundreds of light years long and at least a dozen wide. Which no better clues, it was like searching a needle in a haystack. A fucking big haystack of the size of a cruiser.
Grand suspected that he could let his entire fleet hunt for pointers and they would find nothing, even after decades of searching.
William needed to narrow down the area to a handful of systems to organize an effective search.
After a few minutes he averted his eyes back to the two women in the room and asked straight ahead: "Does anyone have an idea?"
It was so quiet for a few seconds that he could even hear the mechanical ticking of his Breitling and the constant sound of the ship's engines.
The blond Navy women folded her hands on the table before she began to speak: "No matter what Noah's actual purpose was, you definitely had to provide it with food, personnel, etc. I would therefore start with searching every database for ships which made supply flights outside the boarder."
"Can we possible narrow down the time frame," said Grand, with a look in the direction of his AI.
"The las change in data took place in 2559, most likely that was the order to delete any evidence."
"So, all flights before 2559, civilian and military," concluded Grand.
"We should also look for witnesses," he was about to ask what she meant by that Charlotte continued, "perhaps a dock worker or a trader noticed something strange and noted it."
"If I'm being honest, I don't think we'll find the slightest clue," Enfield muttered almost so softly that William almost missed it. "30 years are still a decent amount of time."
"Lorena, since when have you become so pessimistic?" Charlotte exclaimed in fake shock, not used of this behavior by her dear friend.
"Just saying. I mean, everything about the data, the supply routes and the locations of these things has been kept so secret, it seems they don't want them ever to be found again. I am pretty sure ONI had a hand in whole thing."
"That may be true Lieutenant, but even the Office of Naval Intelligence most likely wasn't able to do a project of this size and scale without the support of the UNSC. I think ONI planned the project and monitored its progress," he said thoughtfully.
"Then we just have to look for the people who worked there," proposed the artificial intelligence.
With a shake of his head, however he had to dampen her enthusiasm a little.
"Everyone who works on such an undertaking is handpicked and mostly has been working for ONI for a long time. I wouldn't be surprised if they were relocated to their next location after this assignment," he finished.
"All right, you two, we're ending this topic for today. Charlotte try to find out what you can."
"Aye Sir," the brunette hologram diapered, leaving the two humans alone.
1449 hours, November 16th, 2595 (military Calendar)
UNSC Stalwart-class frigate Brotherhood, Orbit, Agrion
Beta Columbae System, (Sector L-421), Outer Colonies
Agrion was a beautiful world with large continents covered in seemingly endless green forests. Humanity had only founded a few cities on this planet, most of which were small and very close together.
The only thing that clouded this idyll was the huge junk field, hundreds of kilometers wide in orbit above Agrion. It hung over the colony like a black, ominous cloud, according to most of the visitors.
For most of the local population on the other hand was the debris field a constant companion in their lives. Most of them were working in the large recycling plants in orbit or are responsible for dismantling and salvaging of old ships.
No matter what they did for a living or for whom they worked, their entire daily routine revolved around this orbital junkyard.
A constant incoming flow of old, disused ships from all planets and sectors in the vicinity provided plenty of work.
Almost all types of ships could be found here form small AI controlled cargo freighters for the daily transport of goods, to the once proud UNSC warships.
Each one had its own story, some told of adventures who set out to find new worlds, civilization or ruins from long forgotten times. Most of them returned after months of unsuccessful searches, but others were still missing to this day.
In the end it didn't matter what kind of ships or for what purposes they were built, all met the same fate.
From a distance it looked a little bit like a graveyard. The only thing that bothered this tomb on regular basis were the bluish flames of the welding machines that slowly ate their way through the hulls.
The most valuable thing about a ship was its Slipsapace drive and the fusion reactor. You still got a detent price on the used goods market - as long as they were functional an in good condition.
The second components were the cables that ran hundreds of kilometers through the ship like veins in a body. The cables were followed by computer terminal, holoprojectors and everything else on a ship linked to electronics.
Ultimately, only the titanium hull remained, which usually had to be dismantled over a month-long process. Deck by deck, section for section.
As the dismantling of the hulls and their recycling by melting them down was a very time- and energy consuming undertaking, most ships were simply left to drift in space.
Recycling the sturdy cladding would only pay off if it was done in large quantities. This was one reason why most companies didn't care too much about it, the other was they were simply too small to do it efficiently.
Even if they did join forces, it would be a losing business as there were no buyers in the Linwood sector who needed that mass of material – till now.
William stood at the window of the conference room an let his gaze wander from ship to ship until he finally got stuck on a massive structure far in the distance.
It had to be her.
The Starsky.
The once imposing carrier floated in the middle of the field. There must have been several decades, if not centuries of human space history in orbit around Agrion.
A sad sight, especially for every sailor and human who spent more time on a ship than on a planet.
Only now he noticed the silence that reigned in the room, the Brotherhood must have deactivated her engines, which could only mean that they were already in a stable orbit over the colony.
Grand left his temporary study and made his way to the elevators to get down to one of the two hangars, from there he would use a Pelican to fly him to Captain Delany on the Intruder.
Just as the elevator doors opened, he heard the distinctive voice of Captain Cleveland behind him. The older Captain was marching in his direction, with a young female officer at his side.
"Admiral, Captain Delany has just asked permission to dock and would like to bring a civilian on board"
Civilian? A civilian person on a warship was rare, but not forbidden. In the end, it always depended on the attitude of the commanding officer whether he would allow it. Perhaps she was a close confidante he would like to call in for support on this matter.
He looked at Cleveland, who was patiently waiting for an answer.
"I am sure the captain has a good reason for wanting to bring someone. Since its your ship Captain, I it's your call," said Grand after a short pause.
Delany was speechless for a moment, but after a brief consideration he answered in a firm voice: "I will inform him that he and his company may come on board."
"You should come to the conference room as soon our quests are here," with these words he turned around and walked back to the room he had left a few minutes ago.
His decision to let the captain have the final say had been made carefully. There were only a handful of unwritten laws in the Navy, this was one of them. As long he did not put the ship under his direct command, the captain was the one who gave the instructions.
The basic rule was simple: his ship, his rules. Without a valid reason, a flag officer would not insert himself into the ships business.
He put his holopad back on the table and made himself comfortable in the chair. He didn't have to wait long for a knock on the door.
"Come in," Grand called, getting up to head for the door. It opened and an elderly woman with ash-gray hair stepped in, with Mikel Delany standing behind her in his white Navy uniform.
"Sir, Captain Delany. Nice to finally meet you."
"Nice to meet you too Captain," replied William, "would you introduce me to your company?"
"That's not necessary Admiral, I can speak for myself," she said with an iron voice and looked him straight in the eyes.
"Forgive me madam, but we haven't had the pleasure yet."
"We'll see if it will be a pleasure. Evelin Hopkinson, I am the elected president of Agrion." She didn't look like a politician, more like a woman who had been in the junkyard all her life – probably was.
"Let's sit down," he suggested, pointing to the chairs at the table. "You have received the documents Captain, what do you think?"
"A daring endeavor sir, not impossible, but it requires careful planning and the support of the colony," he began, "In my opinion, the 3000 men you have planned may not be enough. In addition, we need a reliable supply of material, especially titanium A, electronics, weapons and ammunition. Mrs. Hopkinson might have a few things to say about the first two points."
"Thank you, captain. Let's get straight to it and don't beat around the bush - it looks like we need each other. You Admiral, you need the resources and the help of my people to build up your desired naval base and Agrion in return needs your financial support.
So, I propose the following deal to you: you build an orbital lift, the buildings required to recycle and melt down the titanium and pay a decent price for the materials we deliver and our work.
We, on the other hand, build the shipyards, SSR station and supply you with as much materials your docks need."
The costs for the facilities to melt down the old ships were manageable, fair payment as well, but she also wanted to fund an orbital lift for the colony. One of these things easily cost a couple billions of credits and even one would noticeably strain his budget.
Hopkins didn't look like the woman he could charm out of it.
He pondered shortly before answering: "I'll build your lift, but only if you give me a discount on the titanium and don't charge anything for the RSOs."
It was a fair proposal for both sides in his eyes. Agrion gets a reliable buyer for the barely profitable material and probably a lot of new jobs and Grand would get his 15 outposts as soon as possible.
President Hopkins took a few minutes to consider his offer. "All right," she responded, "I accept your terms." She got up and held out her hand to him.
"If you don't mind, I'd like to go back to my people and start with the preparations Admiral."
William shook her hand. "Understood. My lieutenant will take you to a Pelican."
He escorted her out of the door and let Enfield escort her back.
Only when the elevator door closed behind them, he returned to the conference room, relived. Captain Delany was still sitting in his chair.
Spent, he sank into his seat. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Delany's amused face while the older officer put two glasses of water on the table. The conversation hadn't lasted long, but the president quickly made it clear how things would go.
A shame she was a civilian and not one of his officers.
"Thank you," he quickly took a long swig from the glass before turning to Delany. "You know the President Captain?"
"Yes, I've known her for a couple of years, we've met every now and then at various events. A honest woman. I put in a good word for her before the meeting," he replied, still amused.
"You call that a good word?"
"Be glad sir, she had one of her good days today. Even though she maybe got the idee with the elevator from me."
William nearly chocked on his water. "I am sorry what?"
On which side was the Delany actually?
"I didn't think she would in fact go for it." He smiled, but stopped after he saw his look. "Come on Admiral, it will benefit both sides in the long run."
He scoffed. Surrounded by traitors.
"Anyway, back to why I originally came here. Are you accepting my offer Captain?"
"I wouldn't be here if not sir, but I have two additional points I would like you to consider." Grand made a gesture with his left hand, already knowing whatever it is, it would cost him a fair share of credits.
"First of all, I would like to recruit additional people for the project. Mostly military staff, a few hundred at most. People with experience in this field, people I know from my time on Reach.
"Send me a full list," William replied. More staff means higher cost, but as long they are a benefit it would be doable.
"The second point would be the more important, I need more ships to secure the system. There are currently only three other frigates in orbit of Agrions. At this time two of them don't even have a Slipspace drive and are nothing more than orbital defense platforms."
"I thought so too." Grand had a rough plan of the future fleet size in his head. "All right, I will move five frigates and two Halberd-class destroyers to Agrion, should be enough for now at least."
"There's something else, sir."
For fucks sake. He furrowed his eyebrows and gave his captain a questioning look.
"The RSOs don't have their own drive to make a jump, so we need a ship that's big enough to take them to their destination. I was thinking of the Andromeda, an Epoch-class carrier."
"Captain, you realize we only have three carriers of this class? I don't want to waste their time carrying out delivery missions."
"Absolutely sir, but it is the only type of ship that has enough space for the components of the stations, the necessary personal and can provide increased protection for the crew an all other personal involved."
Delany was right, he had to provide a carrier for this task and for the protection of the future naval base. At first William was sure two Orion-class carrier would be enough. The Orion-class type was 300 meters shorter and was more designed as a support and supply ship, while her bigger sister was more an attack-carrier kind of ship.
The Andromeda was currently stationed over Halea, another one at Arcadis and the last ship should be the lead vessel for his task force. Both of them were not up for debate.
He decided to swap one of the planned Orion-class carriers over Agrion with her. Not an ideal solution to be fair.
"I hope that's all Delany or do you need anything else," he asked after a while.
"No admiral." The older Captain looked at his data pad. "The only question that remains is: Were should I begin?"
"Take the ships that you free up by replacing them with the RSOs," answered William after he bit.
"Do you plan to withdraw all ships form the border sir. Is that wise," questioned the captain cautiously.
"No only temporarily. I have thought of stationing three frigates nearby each station, in chase something out of the ordinary should happen they can intervene quickly.
I planned to hand over the command to Captain Peterson in regards of border control."
Delany nodded: "Yes, Peterson is a good choice, he has been stationed at the border for years, he knows the area like the back of his hand."
The two men were silent for a while, only the hum of the ship engines many decks below could be heard in the background. The whole morning, he was busy with reading reports and dossiers.
"I'll send you a weekly report on the progress."
He gave him a short nod: "All right Captain, I think we are done here." The tired look on his face didn't escape his counterpart.
"Take a break, Admiral. Rome wasn't built in one day either," he said as he rose from his chair and saluted, before he the shook hands.
"I am trying, but sometimes it feels like time slips through my fingers just like water," he said. "Thanks for your time." Delany silently left through the door.
He buried his head in his hands resting on the table, closed his eyes exhaustedly and almost fell asleep if a knock on the door had not stopped him.
"Door is open," he called after sitting up straight. Lieutenant Enfield walked smoothly int the room, stopped on the seat to his right and handed over a data pad.
"I have selected two frigates to escort the Liang-Dortmund research vessels, the Wildcat and the Lancaster, bot Paris-class ships."
"Very good job; Miss Enfield, inform the COs of their new orders and let me know as soon as they are ready to go," he praised his right hand.
"Already done sir. Both have already started replenishing their supplies and are ready in less than 27 hours. All I need you to do is authorizing it," she announced proudly at the praise of her superior.
He quickly checked the report she had complied.
Everything was neatly listed:
Information's about the ships, their crew and qualifications, as well as a complete curriculum vitae of the captains and a personal note from Enfield why she selected these ships and their crew.
He skipped over the most parts of the dossier. Her work was as professional as he expected it to be.
In the end he just pressed his finger on the pad's built-in scanner. Done.
William gave it back.
"There may be something else that might interest you, sir," she reported. With a few swift movements of her fingers, the blonde officer opened a new window.
His brow furrowed as he tried to understand the displayed information in front of him.
It was a huge inventory of a SinoViet warehouse complex in Artemis sector. On the list were all possible parts of a ship, from computer terminal, magnetic coils for a MAC gun, hydraulic oils for the blast doors to Slipspace drive spare parts and fusion generators.
"Impressive ... but what exactly do I have here?" He continued scrolling down.
"A complete listing of the stored replacement ship parts from SinoViet from the era of the Great War. Since most of the ships had been replaced by new ones from time to time after the war, SinoViet decided 2562 to store all the remaining spare parts of the old ships in one place. The aim was to save costs and free space for newer things. Now the contents of the warehouse are for sale for just under 2,87 billion credits. "
"Hmm, 2,87 billion is cheap. Where's the hook?"
"The warehouse has to be completely cleared in four months, if not, everything will be scrapped."
Four months was a very short period of time to find a place that has the capacity to accommodate all parts. Not to mention the transport.
There was no cherry-picking. SinoViet wanted to sell the whole package.
"Get in touch with SinoViet and ask if you can delay the move a little longer. Let's say two, maybe three months," Enfield hastily typed her new commands into her data pad. "Captain Delany will receive a copy of the data. I want to know his opinion and possible suggestions where the material could be stored. That would all be Lieutenant," he finished.
"At your command, Admiral, I'll see what can be done."
She left and he turned his chair around.
Four months were not enough. Much too little. The silence of the room was only broken by the ticking of his clock as he stared down at the planet.
The anxious feeling that he had successfully pushed aside over the last hours returned.
It felt a bit like he was in a race - against whom he didn't know.
But Grand knew one thing for certain ... he was losing.