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.
AN:
What you can expect:
- A crossover years in the works that is of gargantu … who the f*k I am kidding, it's a mixture of google translator and my poor school English. (I sincerely apologies to free man writer for the uncalled jibe. His/Her story is probably better than mine.)
Don't expect anything, I am serious!
What NOT to expect:
- good English
- interesting plot
- any update, like ever!
- Sangheili c*k sucking, go to your favorite adult platform instead.
- interspecies kinder garden cuddle party, where we all love each other
- 343 fanboyism
- dumb turians. They have a reason, not a good one though, but still better than: "They have violated council law, kill them all."
Last but not least, if you like my story good for you, if not well ... do it better.
(An alle die das Original gelesen haben, danke dafür und es tut mir aufrichtig leid ich sie nie zu ende gebracht habe. Wird mit der Übersetzung genauso sein.)
(V1.2)
1922 hours, November 12th, 2595 (military Calendar)
Spaceport, Calais, Arcadis
Eidera System, (Sector L-421), Outer Colonies
"Ladies and Gentleman we are currently approaching our final destination. Please stay seated until the landing process is completed and the green light to your right is on. We thank you for flying with Jetlight and welcome you on Arcadis."
Another gust of wind shook the old Heron transporter gently before the warm voice of the Ship VI had finished speaking. William looked out of the small window. It was pouring rain and the wind howled, not the most perfect weather to land a ship on a spaceport.
But he doubted that the pilots did it themselves. Probably the AI of the Calais spaceport did it. Only a very experienced pilot would be able to land a ship in the midst of a storm.
A little green light to his right went on.
With a sign he watched as most of the 200 occupants were already streaming towards the hatches, in order to escape the cramped Heron transporter as quickly as possible. Few minutes later after most of the people had already poured out William Grand rose from his seat, took his black coat that was lying on the empty seat next to him and walked towards the exit.
He greeted the young but tired looking stewardess with a short but respectful nod before leaving the sip through the open hatch. Her hair was a mess and the woman looked like hell, but who could blame her after five long days cramped in an old transporter from the great war.
Luckily for them the ship only carried a third of its capacity. He didn't dare to think about how it would have been if all seats were sold out. With roughly 4 lightyears per day it was far from the speed of a modern cargo transporter but beggars can't be choosers.
Not many people wanted to travel to one of the most distant colonies of the UNSC but here he was, waiting for his suitcase. While Grand waited patiently at the conveyor belt for his luggage, his eyes wandered back to the old Heron outside.
It was astonishing that the old boy's Slipspace drive was still working and that the ship survived the re-entry into the atmosphere of the planet without being torn to pieces. He snorted as his eyes caught the weathered company's logo. Jetlight nothing could be further from truth.
The last time he saw such a machine was in the Space Museum on the moon of Ballast which he had visited with his class once.
The production of the Heron class transport ships was discontinued over 45 years ago and the remaining ships were mostly used as unmanned transporters for the industry or as practice targets for the Navy.
Unfortunately, the outer colonies did not have this luxury. Everything was repaired until it finally fell apart and even then, the rest was still scraped for possible spare parts.
His train of thought was suddenly interrupted when his eyes fell back on the conveyor belt. "Damn my suitcase," he swore quietly and snapped it before it could disappear again.
William glanced at his Breitling. A gift from his mother after he successfully graduated from the military academy. The watch itself had been heirloom for centuries and was the only real property worth mentioning that he owned.
Like most soldiers he preferred to travel with light luggage.
Fortunately for him William wasn't expected at his new job till Monday, until then he could familiarize himself with his unknown surroundings. With two days to spare he had finally some time to do some research. Like, why he was at the end of the damn galaxy in the first place?
He had found out next to nothing over the official channels. All he knew was that the order to move him to the Linwood sector was personally ordered by Fleet Admiral Steven Hackett. No request has been answered. No explanation. Nothing.
But right know he wanted to get out of the spaceport as quickly as possible, but first he had to get through the security check. Fortunately every spaceport had two checkpoints. One for military personal, diplomats and dignitaries of the UEG and the other for regular civilians.
With William as probably the only UNSC personal on board of the transporter today it was a fairly easy decision. His long legs carried him gracefully over to the counter where two young marines were talking to each other. The two soldiers hardly paid him any attention as he put his bag on the control scanner.
After a minute or two waiting, he became impatient with the behavior of the two uninterested soldiers. "Would the two gentlemen be so friendly and start the checkup before I take root here?"
"Hey buddy be careful; we are having an important conversation here." The one with a small scar on his chin replied angrily.
Grand Raised an eyebrow and studied the other man. He was young, probably just out of boot camp.
A boring job he understood that. No one wanted to stand guard on a spaceport with nothing to do all day long. Still it was an unprofessional behavior.
"May it as it be but you two can gossip during break, after work or when nobody is waiting." He replied with a low voice.
Scar guy wanted to say something but his friend grabbed his arm. "Stay cool Mick we continue our talk later." The marine called Mick made a face but shut his mouth and took his luggage and started with the check.
"Please press your right hand against the hand scanner Sir." William did what the second dark skinned marine asked of him. The surface of the scanner was pleasantly cool. And after a second a low beep signaled him that he was done.
While the other soldier still scanned his luggage for unregistered weapons, illegal substances or explosives, his colleague compared the information on his screen before him.
As if struck by lighting the one before him saluted. "Admiral welcome to Calais, it's an honor." His comrade behind him almost dropped his suitcase in shock. His face lost all color.
Grand couldn't suppress a small smile. He returned the salute. "Nice to be here son. Do me a favor and hurry. I had a long flight and would like to eat something after a week of shrink-wrapped sandwiches."
"Y… Yes Sir. Right away Sir." The two nearly collided with each other. Faster than the young admiral thought possible he was done. He wished both of them a good day and wandered comfortably towards the exit.
The small incident at the checkpoint already forgotten he headed straight away for the next available restaurant on the first floor. 'Italian, could be worse' he thought as he entered the nearly empty restaurant.
"Liang-Dortmund is proud to announce that two more formerly glazed colonies are now habitable again and can be colonized again from November 16. If you have any further questions, please refer them to our press office or to the Ministry of Environment of the responsible sector ", with this sentence the company spokeswoman ended the press conference. The newscasters started to discuss how this would impact the market, the UNSC bla bla bla. Grand had already turned away form the big holo screen.
After the war Liang-Dortmund grew from a small planetary mine company with around 1.000.000 employees to a galactic mega-corporation specialized in re-terraforming glassed planets. The company quickly realized that cleaning and restoring the glazed planets would be the business of the next few decades. Thanks to their know-how, most of the glazed planets became habitable again in the 40 years after the war and billions of refugees were able to return slowly but steadily back to their homes.
Thanks to the UNSCs support with money and resources which were freed after the war ended, Lian-Dortmund had nearly endless possibilities.
However, it was quickly forgotten who provided most of the resources to carry out all these new and expansive projects. The outer colonies did. Hundreds of them milked of resources and manpower mostly left to themselves as soon the Covenant found the core worlds of the human empire.
Only with a few ships left, barley enough to fight of pirates and keep the peace let alone hold of an alien invasion. Many of them, still loyal to Earth and the UNSC, were on the brink of rebellion.
That's why he was here - probably. The young admiral was tasked with restoring the Navy's military readiness, overseeing the expansion of the city's defensive positions on the colonies and improving relations between the UNSC and the population wherever possible. It was about damn time - 40 years after the war.
But why the f*k him?
His gaze wandered back over the mostly empty tables and fell on the blonde woman in the navy uniform who was sitting at one of the tables a few meters away and had been working on her holopad for half an hour.
She had appeared about 20 minutes after he entered the restaurant and had only ordered a glass of water since then. The looks the young soldier gave him every few minutes did not escape him.
At first the admiral believed that she appeared by accident in the restaurant, but William rejected this train of thought after closely observing the young woman for some time.
Grand gave the waiter a quick sign that he was ready to pay, then leaned back in his chair and folded his hands on the table. Persistently he waited for any reaction of the uniformed blond.
It didn't take long before she looked up from her pad. After noticing his cleared table, she rose smoothly from her seat. Smoothed out her white uniform, and put on the beret. The young female soldier came over to him with quick steps.
"Lieutenant, Junior Grade Enfield reports for duty Sir."
"Relax Lieutenant. I am off duty." He calmly replied.
She was gorgeous, no denying that. Large grey eyes in a heart-shaped face with full lips made her a very attractive woman. Her blonde hair was neatly put together in a bun hidden under the white beret. And she was almost as tall as him, but it would take more than a pretty face to impress the Admiral.
"Sit down Enfield and tell me how you found me." She shouldn't have known. No one should.
"Charlotte, our Defense Department AI informed me of your arrival when you entered the spaceport through the checkpoint. I went to pick you up Sir ".
Well that was it. His free days up in smoke.
"I see." He thought for a moment. "All right then, take me to your superior officer. I didn't think I would go undetected for a long time anyway."
"There is only one problem Admiral, I don't have a supervisor but I can take you to your office."
Enfield shifted slightly on her seat.
"What do you mean lieutenant?" He replied clearly confused, and leaned forward in his chair.
"Well ... where should I start? When Admiral Terrel was transferred away nine years ago, Colonel Lopole had to take over until a new admiral arrived. He did, but the UNSC never sent us a replacement despite a dozen of requests.
When the Colonel finally retired a year and a half ago, Navy responsibility fell to Captain Patterson and the rest to Lieutenant Colonel Sleet. Since the two of them were already busy with their own work, most of the leftovers were done by Charlotte and myself. "
That explained a lot. For example, why he was not given the command of a small fleet to gain practical experience. But instead Grand was deployed to a sector with 21 planets at the edge of the known human space. It seems fleet admiral Hackett really disliked him for a reason.
The lack of senior officers in the UNSC must have been worse than he thought.
Lieutenant Enfield cleared her throat and he was finally wrenched from his train of thoughts.
"Pardon Miss Enfield, what did you say?"
"Sir I wanted to know if you have a house or some sort of apartment here."
"No nothing like that ... please take me to the office." Like he had any time for that.
"At this time? It's already past eight Admiral."
"No matter. I sleep on the couch or on the floor if necessary," he added with a half-smile.
Grand didn't wait for a reply. The admiral rose from his seat, took his suitcase and gave the astonished woman a few seconds to catch up to him.
"The car is down in the parking lot."
"Splendid." At least he wouldn't need to take a taxi or the public transport system.
"Admiral, we'll be at the Department of Defense in a few minutes," Enfield said without taking her eyes of the busy street before her.
He briefly looked up from his holopad. "A question, Lieutenant if you don't mind."
"Sir?" She gave him a quick look over the rearview mirror. Her grey eyes curious.
"What can you tell me about governor Brudell?"
"He is a nice, intelligent politician, very charismatic if you ask me. Governor of the Linwood sector for about 4 years. Brudell did a lot to boost economy. Unfortunately, only with moderate success. Linwood has not much to offer besides minerals like titanium and food."
She made a short pause and took the car off the main street.
"He seems to have a great understanding of the concerns and needs of his citizens. And he is loyal."
"Loyal," asked William interrupting her.
"Yes, he is loyal to the UEG, which can't be said of all politicians out here or the population. The UNSC is not exactly popular around here, thank God the insurgents are even less so."
"Let's hope it stays that way," Grand replied. He wasn't in the mood to hunt insurgents and spies. And he could survive without the almost weekly bombings like on reach back then.
"We are here. I'll see to it that they let us through," Enfield informed him as she switched on the turn signal and headed towards a complex of buildings protected by a massive gate. She stopped right in front of it. While the female officer was taking care of the pass permit, he had time to inspect the ministry.
It was still relatively new or freshly restored. As far as he could tell, the complex consisted of three buildings arranged in a triangle, all of which were connected by a 3-meter-high wall. The buildings were all about five stories high, making them small compared to the other nearby office buildings and skyscrapers.
That made it easy to see the inside from above. 'A potential weak spot,' he thought.
Shortly after his driver got back in the car, the heavy titanium gate opened and both of them could now continue on their way to his new job.
"As you have noticed, the resort consists of three parts. The Air Force is on the left, the Army and Marines on the opposite side. The Navy and its office are located in the building at the very end of the street at the Tropic. In addition, all the buildings have a canteen, a press room and a fitness room," explained the blonde as she stopped the limousine in front of the entrance.
She hurried around the vehicle and opened the door for him before he had packed all his things together. The young admiral politely thanked her and both strode past the two saluting soldiers in navy uniform at the entrance.
With a brisk walk she led him up the large marble staircase to the third floor of the house and then stopped in front of an elegant, wooden double door.
After a moment, Lieutenant Enfield pushed open the door and revealed the view of the room beyond. Actually, there were two rooms: a smaller one, which was in front of his actual office and acted as a kind of waiting room, fully equipped with a work station on the left and a few leather armchairs and a small table on his right.
The two rooms were tiled with dark brown, almost black marble flooring. A heavy red carpet covered most of the floor. The dark-painted walls combined with the high dark wooden ceiling and floor created an almost overwhelming atmosphere.
His actual office, which was about twice the size of the anteroom, was dominated by a big walnut wood table in the back.
Behind it, between two windows on the wall hung the bronze blazon of the UNSC.
Even a bar was in his study, which was on the left. The opposite side was occupied by a meter-long book shelf. A couch with matching armchairs and a table stood in front of the shelf.
The cold light of the moon fell through the windows behind the desk and dark shadows danced over the interiors. William only noticed that he was standing in the middle of the room when Enfield closed the heavy double door at the entrance and put on the light switches on the side of the door.
"Sorry, it is a little dusty. The office has not been used since Admiral Terrel was transferred. I will send someone over tomorrow to clean everything up and fix the computer. After that I will help you with your duties Admiral. If you want."
"You would be a great help to Lieutenant, but don't you have to go back to your own tasks?"
"Sir. As your secretary it is my job to help you "
"My secretary?" William was grateful for any help, even if he hadn't expected to get a secretary.
"Yes, the desk in the front room is mine," she replied with a wry smile.
"I'll bring you a blanket and a few pillows." With a nod, he dismissed the woman. Only now did he take off his coat, hung it on the clothe rack and went to look outside of window at the city.
Calais was founded in 2447 as the first city on Arcadis. In the years that followed, more nearby star systems were colonized. When the number of colonies grew to 15 the Linwood sector was eventually founded. The official name was Sector L-421, but everybody called it Linwood after the man who discovered the star cluster.
For a short time Haela even held the 'furthest colony from earth' title before Harvest was founded in 2468. Eight years before the war with the Covenant, the number of populated systems rose to 21.
When the war raged in the outer colonies closest to the Covenant, Linwood was sparred due to its location on the other side of the empire. As the conflict progressed, the UNSC withdrew more and more troops and material from this part of the empire in order to bundle them at the front.
When the aliens finally were defeated in the battle for the earth, most of the colonies were at the end of their strength, militarily and economically. In the following years, the reconstruction of the inner colonies and the military was the top priority.
While the inner and most outer colonies benefited from newly discovered tech and resources, the Linwood sector only got the outdated or decommissioned ships, equipment and technology. The new commander-in-chief somehow had to solve all these problems in the coming months in order to bring the planets up to the minimum standard specified by the UNSC.
With a worn-out sigh, he took his eyes off the nightly silhouette and turned around just in the right moment when miss Enfield came back. Carrying his blanket and some pillows.
"Sorry sir it took so long. I hope it is enough," she said. Visibly exhausted as well from today's events.
"It's okay, Lieutenant. You can go home and get some sleep. We'll continue tomorrow morning at half past nine."
"Aye sir. Good night".
"Night Miss Enfield," the two officers said goodbye to each other. He waited at the window until she left the grounds with her car before getting ready for the night. Everything else could wait, at least until the next day.
"Garbage, Garbage and … more Garbage," muttered William annoyed.
Since over one hour he was searching through the files from his predecessor. With his right hand he picked another holographic file and threw it in the trash bin. For a second, he considered to rip the entire pc out of his desk and replace it with a new one.
Most of the data inside was completely out of date and a waste of time. Protocols and service records of UNSC personal, long retired or dead were the majority.
From time to time William found an old list of ships and their crew, which have been scrapped or decommissioned. It was a mess.
For a split second, he again played with the thought of just throwing it out of the window.
Ultimately, however, he decided against it because the risk was too great to destroy existing and usable material.
Every now and then he came across an encrypted file. Some even from Admiral Terrel's predecessor. Without a possibility to open them he just copied them on his personal pad. Later someone would have to take care of their decryption and check the content for relevant data.
The officer looked up from his display set in the desk, slightly annoyed. His gaze wandered across the bar to the couch he'd spent the night on, and ended up in the hallway outside his office.
One of his first actions after cultivating and dressing was to open the windows, doors to his study and the hallway so that as much fresh air as possible could flow into the room.
Sometimes a curious employee or soldier peered through the doors to see what was going on. Not that he was surprised. The rooms had been locked and abandoned most of the time in the last few years. Enfield used them as her office, so most of them expected a beautiful blonde sitting on the table.
Unfortunately, everyone saw only a young man sitting at the table staring back at them. It was always the exact same awkward moment before their gaze slowly fell on the insignia on his collar.
After that came a hasty salute with an embarrassed 'Good morning Sir'. On or two dropped a pad or their breakfast. He friendly returned their greetings and dismissed them with a wish of his hand. Grand returned to his work, but not for long.
A quiet sound signaled the arrival of a message. With a swipe of his hand he opened the massage and frowned.
- I would like to introduce myself. -
Another one. After a few moments, he deleted the message with a scoff. He made a mental note to message to the IT service. Probably his spam filter wasn't up to date.
Just as he wanted to go back to work, the device signaled him with a gentle beep the arrival of another notification. Mumbling a unintelligible curse he tabbed to open it.
- I would really like to introduce myself. Charlotte. -
Charlotte? Wasn't that the AI Lieutenant Enfield mentioned yesterday?
He thought about it, then he got up and closed the door between the two offices. He pressed his finger against the touchpad on the left side of the door. An orange light over the door went on. Anybody now knew he was busy.
Back at his table, he leaned back in his leather armchair and pressed the accept button. A few seconds later, the holoprojector came to life and a 35 cm tall woman appeared on his desk with a beautiful smile on her face.
The artificial intelligence wore an elegant dark gray dress with a white loop on her right hip. If he had to guess, William would say its from the 1940s. She wore a matching hat and her brown hair was pinned up. To complete the AIs outfit, she wore black gloves which perfectly corresponded with fitting black heels.
Curious large brown eyes looked at him. Her full red lips and high cheekbones gave her a very graceful appearance. For an AI she looked rather normal.
"Good morning admiral Grand," she purred with a silk like voice. "My name is Charlotte and I am very pleased to finally be able to meet you." She graced him with another one of her gorgeous smiles.
"The pleasure is all mine miss charlotte. I am terribly sorry for letting you wait so long." William gave her an apologetic look.
"Ah a gentleman, how gratifying. There are so few left in this part of the galaxy."
She made a few steps forward and was now standing on the files Grand had opened on his display. With a curious frown she looked down at them for a few moments, before turning back to her superior officer.
"I thought you might need some help with your spring cleaning. To do this, however, I would need your permission to access the computer and laptop."
With an inclined head and a look that could melt stones, she waited for his answer. "Do I have a choice?" He countered with a wry grin. An AI could be very helpful.
"I don't think so sir, unless you have no plans for the next few weeks."
"All right then. Permission granted. Copy the important things onto my laptop and the rest goes to the bin."
"Aye, Aye Sir's. Your wish is my command," Charlotte replied with a short salute. After a few minutes, the entire computer was cleaned and all important files were saved on his laptop. Neatly sorted into categories, of course.
"Should I start with the decryption of the files admiral?" A short nod from him was all she needed and with a snap of her finger she started the process. "It will probably take a few days to get it done Sir."
"Don't worry, I got time," he told her. "But you can tell me some basic stuff of the Linwood sector. I didn't really have time to get much information."
"Hmm sure," she put a finger on her lip. "Well like you know the sector is made of 21 planets. We have a total troops size of 19.921.455. The army is with 13.694.629 the biggest part, the navy follows with around 4.098,342 military personal. The remaining people work for the Air Force. I included civilian employees in the list.
Our overall population is " Charlotte stopped for a second and a small smile made its way over her face.
". Mrs. Trudy gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Sorry, back to topic.
Unfortunately, it must be said that the majority of the equipment and vehicles we use are still from the war with the Covenant. The state of the defense installation on the individual colonies, is apart from Calais, Halea, Nerus, Adrilia and Agrion, to say the least, more than insufficient to nonexistent.
The current safety measures for the civilian population are pathetic at best. These include bunkers, evacuation plans, warning systems and emergency rations. The only planet in the sector that meets the standard is Halea. The UNSC used the old mine tunnels to build a huge bunker system during the great war. That was decades ago, so … it's probably as bad as the rest."
"Understood. Please go on."
"Unfortunately, the condition of our fleet is no better. The navy currently has 238 war ships in total. 64 Charon-class frigates, 48 Stalwart-class light frigates and 87 Paris-class frigates. We also have 16 Halberd-class and 12 Hillsborough-class destroyers, as well as 2 Marathon cruisers.
The remaining 9 ships are 5 Orion attack carriers, 3 Epoch-class and 1 gutted Punic-class carrier. Sadly, the Pu…"
"A Punic-class carrier? Are you sure," a baffled Admiral interrupted her?
"Yes, according to my list, the Starsky is in Agrion's orbit. Our junk world of this sector, if you want to call it like that."
"Is it operational?"
Charlotte scoffed at his question before she put both of her ands on her hip. "No way! The Slipspace drive has been removed, the fusion reactors are defect and you would have to replace them entirely with new ones. In addition, most of the electronics on board have been destroyed by the impact of several plasma torpedo's and so is the hull."
That was a shame, a damn shame. A working carrier of this class was on par with most of the old Covenant ships.
The AI took a few steps to the side and just as he was about to ask what she was up to, a holoprojection of the carrier appeared on his desk.
The ship was a 4km long, 800m high monster made of the finest titanium-A humanity had offer. She was armed with two super MACs, dozens of M910 point-defense guns and had 70 archer-missile system pods. Every pod was loaded with 30 missiles.
She could carry hundreds of Longswords and Pelicans, plus thousands of Marines, their equipment and vehicles. It was a beast.
Thanks to the two miniature versions of the orbital MACs and the 10-meter tick hull she could take in as much as she could hand out.
If the Starsky was functional, which is not the case.
"It would take months before she would be operational again. And I am not talking from the required costs and the personal to man and equip her." She gave him a pleading look. "You don't really think about it sir, do you?"
Grand nodded with a mischievous grin. "I do. Please get me a ship, I'd like to see the Starsky up close."
"As you wish Admiral," she replied and rolled her eyes, still Charlotte couldn't suppress a small smile. "As long as I can accompany you."
"Don't you have to take care of the Ministry?"
"No, Ben can do that too, he is actually responsible for the Ministry of Defense. I am your personal AI admiral, so you have to take me with you." She had a begging look on her face.
"Why not."
"Splendid, oh and Lieutenant Enfield is waiting in the other room." The AI disappeared. For a short moment he watched the spinning holo-ship on his desk before he deactivated the projector. William rose from his chair and unlocked the door.
Enfield was sitting at her desk when she heard the door click and looked up from her work to greet him.
"Good morning sir," she said. The young Lieutenant look way better than yesterday. A good night sleep could do miracles.
"Good morning Lieutenant."
"Charlotte has already informed me about your travel plans. I hope she wasn't too much trouble, she can be a handful sometimes."
William snorted quietly at her words. "No, she was very pleasant to talk to."
"Good, good. Do you want to leave immediately?"
"No in a few days at best. I hoped you could make an appointment for me with the governor first."
"Of course, sir," the female officer answered.
With a nod, he left her to her duties and returned to his office. His next point on his list, was to find someone who had experience in building planetary defenses and could intelligently integrate them into already existing infrastructures.
Easier said than done, because who would go to the outer colonies if you had more and better available jobs in the core worlds? Not to mention the much better payment and the chance to get a promotion. He couldn't really keep up with that.
He probably would have to appoint a local civilian from around, maybe in combination with someone from the army. It wasn't ideal.
In the end, admiral Grand decided to post a job on the internal job board of the UNSC Waypoint network and in the public newspapers of the Linwood sector.
A soft knock on the door announced his secretary. "Come in Enfield."
The young soldier opened the door and stopped a few steps from his table.
"Do you have something for me?"
"I have an appointment with Mr. Brudell, but it is quite short-term."
"When?"
"In about 30 minutes or next week."
The admiral closed his laptop and looked briefly at his watch. Half past eleven.
"Let's go. You drive!" Admiral Grand stood up, put on his white uniform and walked past her in the direction of the elevator which led into the garage.
1230 hours, November 13th, 2595 (military Calendar)
Seat of the Governor, Calais, Arcadis
Eidera System, (Sector L-421), Outer Colonies
William purposefully went to the large reception counter, which stood in center of a big, light-flooded and very elegantly furnished lobby.
Bredell's office was located a good 20-minute ride from the ministry in the downtown near the river which split the megacity in two parts.
"Hello, could you take me to the governors office please," he asked the young lady at the marble counter.
Without looking up from her workplace she replied in an annoyed voice. "Mr. Brudell does not receive any guests today, he is currently in an important meeting. Thank you for your visit."
For a moment William stood there, not trying to explode and grab the girl and pull her over the table. 'Be calm, its just your second day,' he thought to himself counting to 10 in his mind.
"He definitely will make an exception for me," Grand replied in an overfriendly voice. Behind him he heard Enfield mumbling something about 'rude civilians'. "Please call the governor an let him know Admiral Grand is here. We have an appointment."
Finally, the receptionist looked up and dialed her boss's number under his iron gaze. "Sir, I have an Admiral Grand here, he claims to have a meeting with you." After a brief exchange, she put the phone down and turned back to him.
"All right sir you can pass. Take the right elevator in the back. 3rd floor and straight ahead, you can't miss it."
"Thank you." Without wasting any more words, Grand walked towards the lift, closely followed by his Lieutenant. It took only a handful of minutes to find the governors office.
"If you want, I can wait outside sir." Enfield interrupted him before he had a chance to knock on the door.
"Nonsense," he grumbled and knocked twice on the heavy wooden door. He didn't wait for answer, opened it and entered the office of the highest UEG politician in the sector. Elvis Brudell was a giant of a man, 1,98 m tall and had shoulders like a grizzly bear. It almost looked like it could blow him out of his suit if he made a wrong move.
He had a young, round face with two sharp, but soft blue eyes. With a smile on his face, the giant rose and held out his big right hand to Grand.
"I already thought the UNSC forgot us."
He took it without hesitation.
"We don't forget anyone," William replied seriously. "Admiral Willam Grand, I am pleased to meet you Governor."
"Likewise, Admiral," they shook hands for a second. He had a strong grip – as expected. "Of course, it's good to see you as well Lieutenant," he said to his companion.
"I am honored as always sir," she replied politely.
He led bot UNSC officers to a rather large sitting area. "Would you like some water," he asked while they sat down.
Both of them politely declined.
The Governor just shrugged before he continued. "Its good that HIGHCOM finally remembered that we still exist. Please don't get me wrong - Lieutenant Colonel Sleet and Captain Petterson did a good job, but anytime you needed a frigate to protect a trade ship, you had to call weeks in advance. Nobody had the authority to issue instructions. It was a mess. Everybody was annoyed – greatly. Good that a real admiral is finally taking command again."
"Understandable, but I want to be honest with you Governor, its not my most important issue. I try to make sure someone is authorized to help you with such trifles." Grand allowed himself to sink a little more into the soft couch.
"Outstanding. Unfortunately, that's like you said one of our smallest problems. Most politicians, including myself, and the majority of the population and the companies based here believe that the planets are not being adequately protected in this sector. They are calling for a better distribution of ships and personnel to protect the merchant fleets that are so important to us. Even if we don't have much noteworthy to export, minerals are the biggest part."
William knew that the only reason why this sector is not constantly raided by pirates - is its location. Most raids happened in the transition space between inner colonies and outer colonies. The constant flow from high end tech, military or civilian, is way more lucrative then to board a ship with raw materials at the end of known space. And technology like weapons and armor are way easier to sell than thousand tons of raw titanium.
The UNSC and the Navy were aware of this problem. While the UNSC had a firm grip on the inner colonies the outer colonies still made up more than 50% of all human territory, but only 20% of the population was living there.
The doctrine after the war was easy, reclaim all or as many planets of the inner colonies as possible, terraform glassed or to this point inappropriate candidates. The shorter the distance to earth, the better.
"I know, I know, but to do all of this, we would need significantly more money. We would need more ships, personal, equipment and so on. At the moment, according to my information, only 1.8% of GDP is used for the military, the current standard is around 5%," explained William.
Brudell was silent for a few moments, glanced around the room and replied with a sigh. "At the moment I cannot approve an increase of the funds, the budget will not be changed till January."
Grand snorted in his mind – typical politician.
"However, until then I might be able to offer you something else," Brudell answered before the Admiral could respond.
"And that would be?"
"A representative from Liang-Dortmund contacted me five days ago, he wanted to meet the UNSC commander and me to talk about exploring new mining sites. I told him he could come over next week. Captain Petterson has unfortunately canceled, but since you are here Admiral, I was hoping you would attend to the meeting."
"Forgive me Governor, but I don't see the connection." Whatever a private corp had to do with the government doesn't normally affect the military. This was going nowhere.
"Do me the favor Admiral", Brudell replied as he saw his sour expression.
"That would be on the 15th. What time?"
"I think about six o'clock in the evening, here in my office".
"All right, I'll be there governor," with that everything was said and the three people stood up.
"Thank you, you are doing me a great favor, Admiral." They said goodbye to each other.
Both of them left the building, slowly walking their way back to the car.
"Have you already thought about where you want to sleep permanently, sir", his driver asked after a few minutes of silence. "You could buy a house or an apartment. I don't think you want to keep sleeping on the couch?"
"A house would be too big for me alone, and I'm in the office most of the time. There should be an apartment nearby."
"Charlotte could certainly help you Admiral… or you could have the adjoining rooms remodeled, which have long only been used as storage space. That also gives us the opportunity to clean out properly," she suggested thoughtfully.
"I'll think about it tomorrow, but the couch has to be enough for today."
1330 hours, November 14th, 2595 (military Calendar)
Ministry of Defense, Calais, Arcadis
Eidera System, (Sector L-421), Outer Colonies
Grand stood at the window and looked at the area below. It was a beautiful day on Arcadis, the sun was shining and most of the employees spent their breaks on the green spaces between the buildings.
The tall skyscrapers around the Ministry stood proud an unyielding, like nothing could harm them. The city was buzzing with life. Calais was a megapolis with a hundred million souls living in kilometer high skyscrapers or hundreds of meters underground. Every one of them was a small city itself connected with each other through brides and tunnels. Build to endure the forces of nature and the challenges of modern society.
And as impressive they were, they would never be able to rival the cities on earth or other inner colonies.
Grand finally turned away from the window.
Since his arrival two days ago, he was flooded constantly with messages and requests form military personal or politicians. The politicians were the worst, while most of them didn't want anything out of the ordinary and their request were mostly friendly, some thought they could give him orders like he was a damn dog.
He felt like he was drowning, but that's a part of the job. So, he did answer what he could without promising anything.
But there was also good news, the room next door was already being cleared out and the renovation work would start this week. If he was lucky, he could move into his new apartment in two or three weeks.
He had completely handed over the planning for the renovation to Charlotte. She made some additional adjustments, like a second door which connected his office and his future living room.
The majority of work should be done when he returned form his sightseeing tour to the Starsky. This thought brought a little smile to his face – he would finally get out of the stuffy office and sleep in a real bed again. A luxury he greatly enjoyed.
A familiar, soft voice tore him form his thoughts. "Sir, Colonel Sleet is here to see you."
A short look at his table confirmed that he was right, his AI stood here and looked at him with a cocked head and an expectantly expression on her angelic face.
"Sorry Charlotte I wasn't paying attention. Who again?"
"Lieutenant Colonel Sleet – should I let him in or …"
"No, send him in and tell Enfield I won't be available anytime soon."
"Yes, sir." She disappeared in a flash of light.
A Just as he was about to sit down at the desk, the door opened and a slender, middle-aged man stepped in. His brown hair was cut short and he wore a clean medal-covered green Army uniform.
William didn't know much about Sleet other than that he was born here on Calais and joined the Army when he was 17. He slowly worked his way up over the next 40 years until he finally became supreme command of all UNSC ground forces in this sector.
But what caught his eye most was the exhaustion that was clearly written on his face. The Colonel stopped, took his beret off his head and gave a sharp salute
"Colonel Sleet Sir. Sorry for just popping in sir, but I happened to be in the area." The Admiral returned the greeting.
"Don't worry Colonel, you aren't disturbing. Get a chair and tell me what I can do for you." He sat down in his black leather chair and folded his hands on the table. Patiently waiting until Sleet had made himself comfortable in his chair.
"Well sir, Captain Peterson originally planned joining us today but unfortunately he is sick and unable to do so."
"I hope its nothing serious," he asked concerned about the Captains health. Peterson was a senior officer in the Navy. Very experienced and skilled.
"No, just the flu. Like I know him he will back on his feet in a few days. It would take a lot more to keep him from his duty." The Colonel activated his pad with a touch of his fingers, entered some command, before he laid it on the table.
"Anyway," he made a short pause to collect his thoughts. "Since you are the highest-ranking officer know, we wanted to give you a short briefing about all ongoing operations in our branches and discuss how you may want to proceed in the near future. You may have noticed, that our current state is – well, chaotic would describe it best I think."
"I did," he answered truthfully. A blind man with a stick could see it. "So, what are we doing about the Navy since Peterson is not here today?"
"The captain sent me his documents yesterday evening. I already forwarded them to your AI. We should have all information we need. I would like to start with the army if that's alright with you sir?"
"Of course, Colonel, just give me a moment please." Grand typed a few commands into his PC, after an eyeblink Charlottes holographic avatar appeared on his desk. She had to put a hand on her dress to keep it in place as it was caught by an invisible breeze before it could reveal more of her shapely legs.
"Admiral, what can I do for you?" Her seductive voice was low and heavy. William swore that she did it on purpose – like she had a bet going on to catch him off guard.
"Its good to see you well Colonel Sleet", she made a small graceful bow in his direction.
"Likewise, ma'am." Sleet didn't seem to notice her unusual behavior, he probably knew Charlotte a lot longer than William.
"I would like you too provide us with additional information if necessary." Grand broke eye contact with his AI. "All right, you have the word Colonel Sleet."
The small briefing took over two and a half hours. At the end Admiral Grand had a precise picture over the most pressing problems of the Army, many of which he already heard from Charlotte, but he had no idea how bad it truly was.
"Hmm, a lot of work to do. Sadly, I don't think our budget will allow more projects of this size and scale. The Army is in dire need of more modern weapons, vehicles, etc. … heck even the infrastructure is mostly out of date."
"A General is what we need," grunted the old soldier. The man bevor him was right, William had enough problems with his military branch.
"Will sir there is a possibility," interjected his artificial intelligence. "At least for the money problem."
"And that would be?"
"For around 6 years the military didn't use its full funds. I saved the additional money in a separate account for 'internal renovation'. A little trick I used to prevent more budget cuts by the government.
"About how much money are we talking?" Sleet sat a little straighter in his chair.
"A third of our yearly budget." That's a lot of money realized Grand astonished. "With my little treasure you could start the most urgent projects and bridge the time until next year."
"That could work," mumbled Grand and checked his watch. Their little briefing took longer than expected and they didn't even start with Captain Petersons part. "If you need to go Colonel, we can cut it here."
"That would be very much appreciated sir. I have to be on Nerus tomorrow and I am already late for my ship. I was invited to hold the welcoming speech for the candidates of the army officers academy this year." He stood up and carried his chair back to its place. "If you have any further questions, just let me know. I am happy to help."
"It's all right Sleet. Thanks for the information and the assessment of the situation. I keep you updated."
"Admiral," he gave a short salute and then quickly left his superior's office to catch one of the many caps waiting nearby the defense ministry.
It was near midnight when Grand finished reading the documents provided by Captain Peterson. The Navy had as many problems as the Army. Old gear, completely out of date weapons were the smaller ones. It was desperate.
While he was sure that he could handle everything related to his branch, with enough time at hand, William knew that his knowledge of the ground forces was satisfying – at best. He would need to put someone in charge for that. Sleet would be the easiest choice, but taking him away from his current duty would impact a big part of the Army negatively.
The man was already doing what normally a general or more colonels would do. No, he would need someone new, without an active role.
At last Grand decided to tackle the problems of the Navy first. From Petersons files he already determined the biggest problem.
The amount of ships in orbit to defend a planet from a theoretical covenant attack.
While a planet like Arcadis or Halea, a military stronghold, had a respectable fleet size in orbit others only had a bunch of old corvettes and some frigates and maybe a destroyer. If they were lucky.
By far not enough ships to fight of a more than two or three covenant ships, not to mention a full-scale invasion.
He needed mor ships – desperately. But his resources were limited, materially and financially. Equipping all planets in the sector with enough ships to make them defensible is almost impossible.
What made it worse was the fact that nearly half of the 237 ships were used for border patrol.
The special location of this sector and how to deal with it made him nearly go crazy. Linwood had, not like other sectors of the UNSC, a direct neighboring sector. It was more like an island 300 km away form the mainland.
Linwood was located in the space between the Orion Spur and the ongoing Sagittarius Arm. Still a part of the Orion Arm but the next sector was 105 light years away. Originally Linwood was planned to be a launching pad for humanity's conquest of the stars.
Abruptly halted 2525 by the covenant.
Instead of defending one or two sides, he was siting on a damn island surrounded by space and dust. If an emergency occurred and Grand would be forced to call for help, how much time would a UNSC task force need to aid him? A month. Two?
Ridiculous.
Guarding a boarder with ships wasn't really that effective. You had to leave FTL every few light-years, dispatch some Slipspace drones, check if something coming your way or scan for Slipspace anomalies and then jump again and inform your supervisor.
Not to mention all the time you lose on the way. Enemy ships would be gone for a long time or even worse, already attacking without warning. There had to be another way. A cheaper one. A more effective one.
Maybe he could use ….
A plan was taking shape in his mind.
Quickly he opened a holographic map on his table. His eyes wandered from Calais over to Adrilia to Halea an finally to the border. With a command, William highlighted the current border patrol routes and their length.
After a few calculations he finally got a number to work with.
3000 light-years. A damn long boarder for such a small sector. So, the question was still up – how do you secure a 3000-light-year long border?
You don't.
But you could monitor it through a network of remote scanning outpost, or RSOs for short.
RSOs are small space stations on the edges of UNSC controlled territory, only manned by a handful of Navy personnel. Outfitted with three drones, which are capable to scan Slipspace for any signs of pirates or Covenant vessels.
They were cheap, easy to construct and reliable.
But there is still a problem - RSOs sent an hourly status report to all active UNSC ships or colonized planets. William didn't want them to be so close to colonized space. No, he wanted them to be a dozen of light-years outside of officially controlled UNSC territory – to fully realize their potential.
So, they needed to be equipped with some sort of Slipspace communication. Humanity currently had two ways to communicate viva Slipspace – 'real time Slipspace communication' and 'Slipspace packages'. Real time was out of question, only the inner colonies and modern ships were able to use it. The Waypoint network used this technic as well to establish interstellar communication between planets.
It had to do something with quantum entanglement. Grand didn't really understand how it worked but he knew it was expansive as hell. In a few decades maybe.
The other option was Slipspace packages, which are data files of any kind transferred through a miniature Slipspace hole to its destination. Developed around 2552 it rapidly became standard after the war and till this day most of the planets, ships and even Waypoint outside of the inner colonies used it to a massive extend.
Slipspace packages were not streamed in real time, but they travelled as fast as most of modern ships. Half an hour – that's how long they would need to reach Calais. Enough time for the Navy to send a warning out and prepare for an invasion.
In addition, a RSO was also outfitted with a bunch of sub light drones, which could be installed in neighboring star systems to detect and locate ships traveling without FTL. A station had an effective radius of 120 light-yeas. If he stationed the RSOs around 20-30 light-years outside of the current boarder, he would need 13, let's say 15 outposts to completely cover it.
With this strategy he could free a large part of the 90 assigned patrol ships and combine them into a task force. The task force was another part of his plan, but without an adequate fleet size to protect all 21 planets he was forced to try out something different.
Finally, admiral Grand pronounced against the idea to split his fleet up and grand every colony a handful of ships. Instead, he would assign additional ships to his task force.
Yes, that would leave most of the 21 colonies without real protection, unless you count the corvettes, but in case of an emergency he could send in a full equipped and battle-ready fleet.
Presently William expected the TF to be around 80-90 ships in extent. He liked the idea of a fast and powerful cavalry, always ready to intervene anytime and anywhere.
Better one decent fleet instead of a handul smaller and weaker ones.
His next and probably biggest problem he had to tackle would be the current state of the fleet, most if not all ships were constructed during or shortly after the great war. All of them were still operational, but technically completely out of date.
Countless commanding officers were complaining about the present state of equipment and its possible negative effect in a conflict.
To make matters even more complicated, some frigates and one or two destroyers had been waiting for a functional Slipspace drive for years. Without a working FTL drive these ships could only be used for orbital defense or transportation.
None of his ships, as far as he could tell, were at the current state of technology. It started with the outdated fusion reactors, which either have to be repaired or completely replaced and ended with the obsolete 2nd generations MACs. The standard was somewhere between the 6th and 7th generation.
Grand didn't even dare to think about a possible equipment with direct energy weapons and modern energy shielding system.
As a matter of fact, it perhaps would be cheaper and less time consuming if he scraped the entire fleet in his sector and request a new on earth. But beggars can't be choosers.
The last and 4th point on his plan included the expansion of additional ship yards and repair stations - a central hub to repair and upgrade all Navy vessels in Linwood was the best potential solution. The current process was a chaotic mess of a few repair teams traveling around the sector and repairing ships where they are. They were always on the move, instead of doing what they meant do.
Whereas planets like Calais, Nerus, Safrion and Halea would be his first choice, they all lacked the necessary infrastructure, skilled personal and local resources.
With all of them he would have to build shipyards first and that would easily cost him 6-8 months if everything went according to plan.
Actually, there was only one possible place - Agrion, the junk world. It offered everything he needed, experienced personnel in handling ships, mostly civilian but better than nothing, the existing dockyards and machines for repairing ships and the necessary material resources - especially Titanium-A.
Nevertheless, it would not be enough for his planned expansion. He would need more workers, shipyars and additional repair and service crews.
Grand also had to find someone to entrust management.
Someone who knew what he was doing and was familiar with personnel and process planning.
"Charlotte, do you have a minute." Grand was tired as hell, but he wanted to be done with it.
"Always Admiral for you, what can I help with?" came the familiar voice.
"I need you find someone for me, a Captain or a Commander preferably, who is familiar with construction plans of ships and shipyards. Experienced."
"Hmm a second sir. Yes, we might have someone there. Captain Mikel Delany, 82 years old, graduated 2541 as ship engineer on Reach and worked there until 2550. He was promoted to captain during the war until he was finally stationed here - 17 years ago. He is currently on the Intruder in orbit of Nerus and the head of the local UNSC Navy forces." She finished her report.
William thought for a moment, first ordering the captain to Calais and then taking him to Agrion was too laborious.
"Give him the order to fly to Agrion and wait there for me."
"Immediately sir?"
"Yes, immediately and find someone to replace his post," he informed her. If everything went well, he would leave tomorrow after his conversation with Brudell and would be in orbit of the planet by noon on November 16.
If his plan worked, he could start construction RSOs, other shipyards and SRR stations in an estimated two months. If it went wrong though, he might waste billions of credits and that wouldn't show up well in his service record.
However Grand was still confident that his plan would work out in the end. 'It had to work,' he thought as he stared into the nightly darkness.