Star Wars: Odyssey of the Infinity

by IX404

During a routine safety test, the Slipstream Space Drive of the Infinity malfunctions, catapulting them into unknown space. Little do Lasky and the members of the Infinity know is that they will soon change the fate of a far away galaxy.

5. Investigations & Offers

Hello again, everyone, and welcome back to my Halo/Star Wars crossover redux.

I deeply apologize for the delay. Yesterday was quite hectic, especially when I had to deal with a little pest problem. The good news is that the wait was worth it, and this chapter is ready to go.

As always, leave a review, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Halo or Star Wars franchises. They are the respective properties and trademarks of Microsoft Studios, 343 Industries, Bungie, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox, Disney Films, etc. Any material original to the franchises belongs to their respective developers, producers and publishers. Any material not original to the franchises is of my own invention. I do not own any music listed in each chapter. Any music listed belongs to its original composers and/or artists.

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UNSC Infinity

Shipboard Hospital

April 12th, 0 BBY, 9AM (October 27th, 2558, 9AM)

If there was a word that Jyn Erso could've used to describe the Star Dreadnought Infinity, it would be 'colossal.' Everything about the ship was big, from the enormous ships that it had deployed, to the enormous trams that were used to shuttle people from point A to point B on the entire ship. Some part of her wondered if the UNSC, the faction that owned the Infinity, was simply incapable of building small.

Even the facilities inside of the ship were enormous, though she didn't get a good idea of how large the hospital onboard the ship was, courtesy of her being inside one of those rooms. The room she was in was an examination room, with various medical implements that she didn't recognize being present. There was even a screen on the wall, with that screen displaying what she guessed were scans of a person's internal anatomy.

There was even a medical instrument that was being used on her right now. Looking to her right, she could see a small device that was round on the top, while being flat on the bottom. The device was currently emitting an orange light, with part of the device spinning ever so slightly. When she'd asked what it was, she'd learned that it was what the crew called a 'sterile field generator,' with it's purpose being to sterilize an area of all microorganisms, while doing no harm to a human being or animal. That, she had to admit, was sensible, especially in a galaxy where thousands of different species came together, which meant that the likelihood of infection by those illnesses was all too high. In addition, they had given her what was called a patient gown, while they extensively cleaned up her clothes and checked them over as well.

Her thoughts were interrupted when the door slid open. Looking up, she watched as a man with brown hair, blue eyes and tan skin walked into the room. He wore blue colored scrubs, over which he wore a white jacket that was unbuttoned. A datapad rested in the crook of his right arm, though she couldn't see anything on the screen. Seeing her at the table, he said, "Good morning. I'm Doctor Harold. How are we feeling today?"

Jyn felt a slight twinge of irritation. While the doctor was clearly being polite and reasonable, she still didn't like doctors too well, not after the last one she had encountered. "Fine," she curtly replied. "Not that I wasn't feeling fine earlier."

"Good," Harold smiled. Looking at his data-pad, he said, "We've just finished doing the bloodwork. As far as we can tell, you don't appear to be carrying any illnesses that we are not aware of right now. In fact, I daresay that you're the healthiest individual onboard the ship right now."

That elicited a light chuckle from Jyn. "So, am I free to go?"

"Normally, I'd wait another day just to observe you and see if all is well. However, given that we completed your vaccinations last night, and that you've been in the sterile field generator's range for a few hours, you're free to go. Remember, if you have show any symptoms of illness, such as coughing, chills, joint pains and the like, please come back here so that I can see what the problem is. I know, it is quite irritating, but we're here to help you get back to wellness. Understand?"

"Yes," Jyn replied.

"Good. You're free to go."

"Thank you," Jyn said. "Also, is Cassian OK?"

"Cassian?" Harold asked. When Jyn nodded, he said, "Ah, I know who you mean. He's currently in the recovery ward, though you will have to speak to the Chief Medical Officer and fill out a form before you enter. He's recently undergone surgery to repair the damage the blaster bolt did to his right shoulder, so don't be too surprised if the CMO says no to you going inside."

"Thank you. Where can I find the CMO?"

"He's currently in his office. Just follow the map on the wall and you'll find it in a jiffy," Harold replied.

"Thank you," Jyn said. Just as she got up, Harold produced a plastic bag from one of the counters. Looking inside, she was pleasantly surprised to see that her clothes were inside. "Mind if you step outside?"

"Not at all," Harold replied, before stepping outside and closing the door. Within a few minutes, Jyn had fully gotten dressed. Stepping outside of the room, she looked around to get her bearings. She was in one of the long hallways that were present inside of the Infinity's onboard hospital. Doors into various rooms were present, and she could see doctors and nurses quickly going to and fro about their daily business.

She quickly found the map that Harold had mentioned minutes earlier. On the wall was a placard that had a 3D map of the entire onboard hospital, with a small red teardrop that marked the current reader's map. Looking at it, Jyn noted that the CMO's office was located two decks above her position and around 30 meters to the right. With that information in mind, she quickly began making her way towards one of the lifts. Stepping inside one of the rectangular lifts, she quickly selected the deck in question.

Once the lift had come to a stop, she stepped out, and began making her way to the CMO's office. After moving down a few winding hallways, she found the door to the CMO's office. To her surprise, a pair of guards were stationed outside, each one a member of the Marines that were onboard the Infinity. One of them, spotting her, keyed his helmet COM and said a few curt words. She was about to ask what was going on when the man looked at her and said, "Ma'am, Captain Lasky would like to speak to you.

That brought her up short. Yesterday, she could recall the heavily armored man that had recovered her and Cassian, the Master Chief according to some of the Marines, speaking to a Captain. She had no idea, though, that he would be interested in talking to her. "What?" she asked, confusion reigning on her face. "The Captain wants to speak to me? Why?"

"No idea," the Marine shrugged. "Apparently you've gotten his interest for some strange reason. I'm not the guy with the answers. I just follow his orders because it's my job, and because I want to."

"Where is he at?"

As if in response to her question, Lasky stepped out of the CMO's office, his brown eyes glancing around as he surveyed the scene. Spotting Jyn, he said, "Jyn Erso. Glad to meet you."

"Er… the same here," Jyn replied uncertainly. "Why do you want to speak with me?"

"For reasons of my own," Lasky cryptically replied. "We'll talk more, but not here. Would you like to come speak with me in my quarters?"

"Sure," Jyn replied. She wasn't a fool. When the Captain of a ship wanted to speak with you in his quarters, you did not flatly refuse him. I wonder if he's wanting to recruit someone, she thought. Still, she kept her mouth shut, though, even as she followed Lasky while armed guards followed them…

Within a few minutes, they were entering his private quarters on another deck of the ship. Looking around, Jyn found that the space, despite showing that it was clearly on the deck of a starship, was quite homely. Walking over to a table, Lasky pulled out a chair. Motioning with a hand, he said. "Sit down. I'm certain all that walking's a bit tiring."

Taking the seat, Jyn asked, "Do you do this with everyone that comes inside?" She immediately regretted asking.

To his credit, Lasky smiled. "No. Just trying to be a gentleman is all." Pouring two cups of coffee, he placed them onto the table before sitting down. "Here you go. One cup of espresso."

Jyn picked the cup up and took a look inside. The liquid inside, she noted, was a brownish color, with a small amount of light brown foam on the top. The smell, however, was quite rich and quickly told her that it would taste excellent. Almost immediately, Jyn realized that the drink inside had a strong resemblance to Caf, a popular drink that was used as a weak stimulant. Looking at Lasky uncertainly, she asked, "You sure I can drink this?"

"Yeah," Lasky replied. "One of the things that I did was to check in with the Chief Medical Officer to see if coffee would cause you any undue complications. Took them a few hours, but they quickly cleared you on that. It's safe to drink." What he didn't tell her was that he'd also used the opportunity to ask the doctors what her age was, as well as Cassian's age. Given the answers to his inquiries, he knew which person to pick.

"Good," Jyn said, before hesitantly taking a sip. The drink was almost uncomfortably hot, but the taste was excellent. "This tastes really good, better than Caf," she noted. "Thank you. Still, I've got the feeling that you've brought me here for more than just a drink."

Again, Lasky smiled. "You're quite perceptive, I'll give you that." Clearing his throat, he continued to speak. "Yes, I brought you here for more than just a drink. I was wondering if you could serve as something of a guide."

Those words, again, brought her up short. "Why is that? Don't you have an AI, as well as copies of the maps onboard the Star Destroyer you disabled?"

"We do," Lasky said, "but maps tell you little about how dangerous a part of space really is, which brings me to the point I wish to bring up. We're from outside the galaxy, as you no doubt already know, which means that we're in unfamiliar territory. We don't know the galaxy as well as you do, which means that we don't know if there are parts of space that are to be avoided. We don't even know where the largest ports are located at. That's why we need a guide: someone that has been all over the galaxy and knows which areas are seedy, and which areas are legitimate."

Upon hearing those words, Jyn immediately understood what Lasky was getting at. They're in another galaxy, so they don't know the lay of the land, she realized. "Which is why you're asking me if I can serve as a guide," she stated. "You have a general map of the galaxy, but unless you get in contact with the Bureau of Ships and Services, which has detailed maps of the galaxy, you'll be running blind, requiring someone like me."

"Yes," Lasky replied. "My question to you is would you be willing to work as a guide for us? You don't even have to be on the Infinity all the time. All you need to do is scout out a location and let us know if going there is a good idea or not."

"I see," Jyn noted. Thinking for a few seconds, she asked, "What's the catch? There's always a something to guarantee that I do the job."

"No catch," Lasky replied. "I'm not trying to arm wrestle you into doing this. If you don't want to do so, we can go our separate ways. It's all up to you."

A few more seconds of silence passed as Jyn thought over the proposal. "All right," she decided. "It's certainly going to be more interesting than sitting around and doing nothing. Speaking of which, I was wondering if I could talk to you about something."

"Sure."

"I was wondering if I could become a member of your crew."

That statement, more than anything, caught Lasky off guard. He had simply asked Jyn to serve as a guide for traveling around the galaxy, but he'd never imagined that she'd ask to be a member of his crew. "I don't mean to be rude, but why?" he asked. "It's not everyday that we get someone that willingly wants to become a member of the crew, especially when they're from another galaxy."

"To be honest, I never really liked the Rebel Alliance," Jyn replied. "Sure, I understand why they're doing what they're doing, and I fully approve, but they're deeply divisive. That attack on Scarif, in fact, shows just how badly divided the Rebel Alliance really is."

"Why is that?"

"Because it wasn't even a Rebel attack on the Imperial facility there to begin with," Jyn explained. "Three days ago, I told them about the Death Star, and the threat that it posed to the galaxy. I even told them about the flaw in the design. Instead of thanking me, they chose to bury their heads in the sand and pretend like nothing had changed. Some even suggested scattering the Alliance because they thought fighting back was futile! I refused to allow myself to be scared into submission by the Empire! The only other person that agreed with me was Cassian Andor and his crew! Everyone else was simply too afraid to do the job! And I wouldn't be surprised if I was thrown back into prison too!" By the time she finished, Jyn was shouting angrily.

Throughout her angry, but heartfelt, rant, Lasky silently listened to her words. She wouldn't be this angry if there wasn't a problem with the Rebel Alliance, he noted to himself. If Jyn's words were true, then it was clear that the Rebel Alliance was facing serious trouble in terms of their leadership. If they can't even make a decision as basic as that, then they definitely need a wakeup call. Still, I'll need to investigate Jyn while she's a member. I wonder what she meant by 'back into prison.'

Outwardly, he remained silent for a few more seconds, before saying, "If what you say's true, then I can see why you would want to leave the Rebel Alliance and join up with us. If you want to do so, though, you're going to have to formally announce that you are leaving the Rebel Alliance and joining with us. After that, you'll have to go through a number of physicals to make sure you're physically fit for duty, after which you'll need training.

"In addition, you'll have to choose which branch of the UNSC, of which there are four main sections and two special divisions: the Marines, Army, Air Force and Navy, with the two special divisions being ONI and the Spartan Corps. The Marines specialize in combined arms combat, and they are our primary expeditionary forces. The Navy is our space warfare division, and is responsible for allowing the Army, Marines and Air Force to gain access to the terrestrial battlefield. The Air Force is charged with providing aerospace defense and controls near-planetary space operations, while the Army is our primary ground warfare branch."

"And the other two?" Jyn asked.

"ONI is our intelligence gathering apparatus. They gather the intelligence and information we need in order to wage war successfully. The Spartan Corps is a relatively new branch of the UNSC that is responsible for all of our Spartan operations."

"I see," Jyn said. "Also, is the UNSC part of your government?"

"Yes," Lasky replied. "The UNSC is the military, scientific and exploratory arm of the United Earth Government. Once you join, you'll have to take an oath of allegiance to the UEG, to Earth and to her colonies. After that, you'll become a member of the UNSC, along with whatever branch of the UNSC you choose to serve in. In addition, you will be paid a standard amount of credits depending on your rank. Higher ranks are paid more, naturally."

She thought that matter over carefully. While the Rebel Alliance and UNSC had some similarities, it was clear that this was one of the many differences she had noted. Once she backed out of the Rebel Alliance and joined the UNSC, there was no going back. Still, it's not like I'm a full member of the Rebel Alliance. In fact, I never joined; I was more of an honorary member, so I think I can make this decision easily. Besides, the UNSC's more organized than the Rebellion, so they might have a better chance here.

"I understand," Jyn replied. "I'll do whatever is necessary to join up with the UNSC. I'm just done with the Rebel Alliance because their leaders, aside from a few that I know of, thought that resistance was futile, when it is clearly not. You guys, on the other hand, have got the Empire running scared because of that one battle. You guys have a chance to actually make change, and that definitely tells me that you and the rest of the UNSC have what it takes."

Lasky smiled. "I couldn't have put that better myself. Should all go well, and should we get to speak with the Rebel Alliance's leaders, then I'll definitely see to it that you become a member of this crew. With that in mind, which branch of the UNSC do you want to serve in?"

It was a good question that Jyn herself was already pondering. She knew she wasn't much of a ground fighter, so that meant that the Army and Marines weren't viable options. The Air Force was also not viable, and she didn't trust anyone that was in an intelligence gathering corps, aside from Cassian. The Spartan Corps was also not the best choice for her, which meant that there was only one option left that she knew would fit her. "I think I will join the Navy," she said. "You'll need someone that knows their way around the galaxy."

"Excellent," Lasky replied. "Once you leave the Rebel Alliance, I'll be more than happy to bring you aboard. Do you want to be an officer or a member of the enlisted crew? Enlisted members typically start out at the rank of Crewman Recruit, and the highest rank they can achieve is Master Chief Petty Officer. If you want to be an officer, you'll start out as a Cadet, and the highest rank you can achieve is Fleet Admiral, though that takes a long time, and there's no guarantee that you'll reach that rank during your tour of service. In addition, you'll need to undergo a security interview to make sure you're not an active security threat."

Jyn was silent again, before speaking up. "I'll be an officer. Besides, ship navigators are typically officers. If you want me to help navigate the galaxy, you'll need a navigator that knows where to go."

"All right," Lasky said with a smile. "I was hoping to hear that from you. Once you've resigned from the Rebel Alliance, you'll go through training and start out as a Cadet." Extending a hand, he said, "Beyond that, though, welcome to the UNSC."

"It will be a pleasure," Jyn said as she shook his hand. "Also, about Baze and Chirrut? I think they would join too. Are they all right?"

"They're fine," Lasky replied. "We've been making sure they're good to go. In fact, I'll go and speak with them very soon. Before that, I wanted to speak to you about he was retrieving you, Chief said that your father was one of the people that helped build the Death Star, and that you might know something about it. Is that true?"

"Yes," Jyn replied, "but you must understand. My father never wanted to help build the Death Star. He was vehemently opposed to it. In fact, in order to build it, Krennic abducted him, and killed my mother Lyra while doing so."

"Damn. that's horrible," Lasky groaned. "Still, I was just curious to see if you knew anything about the Death Star. Correct?"

"Yes."

"All right. Since that's the case, I would like you to meet one of our top scientists."

Hearing the door opening and closing, Jyn turned around to see who Lasky was referring to. Directly behind her was an elderly woman, likely in her eighties to nineties, though she walked as though she was a much younger person. Her hair was silvery gray in color, though her blue eyes held an intensity that few people had. One particular thing Jyn noted was that she was missing her left arm, likely from an accident of some kind. Two armed guards were with her, with the armor indicating to Jyn that these were likely Spartans.

As soon as Jyn saw her, though, a cold feeling rushed through her gut like a blizzard. For some strange reason, the woman reminded her of Krennic in a way, though she couldn't place how. Despite the similarities, she saw something in those eyes that Krennic never had: guilt and shame. This was clearly someone that had done something awful, something they deeply regretted. Smiling, Lasky said, "Jyn Erso, this is Doctor Catherine Halsey, our top scientist onboard this ship. Dr. Halsey, this is Jyn Erso, the daughter of Galen Erso, one of the men that helped the Death Star."

"I see," Halsey noted. Again, Jyn spotted another difference between Krennic and Halsey. Whenever Krennic spoke, he sounded haughty, as though he could take credit for everything. Halsey sounded similar, but in a way that showed that she knew her limitations, and knew them well. Extending her only hand, she said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Jyn Erso." When Jyn didn't take her hand, she frowned but said nothing. Turning towards Lasky, she asked, "So, Captain, why do you wish to speak to me? You know that I am a busy person, after all, especially after that security interview you had me take."

"I know," Lasky replied. "Which is why I'm going to endeavor to keep this short and brief, so that you can go back to work." Putting down the second cup of espresso that he was having for the day, he said, "I was wondering if I could speak to you about something that happened at Scarif, the planet that we've left. I would normally tell Jordan or Dr. Glassman, but I feel that they might not be able to keep this information silent, which could be a problem. In addition, I don't want to cause a panic by having this information known to the crew."

"Jordan and Glassman?" Jyn asked.

"Two of our other personnel," Lasky explained. "Jordan is our FTL flight engineer, while Dr. Glassman is the ship's chief engineer. None of them, though, have the security clearance for what we're about to discuss, and as Captain of the ship, I have the final say."

"Do tell," Halsey said. She was also keenly aware of the fact that it was one of the mistakes they'd made that had brought them here, to this new galaxy. "I am curious as to what would order you to leave that system as quickly as you did."

"Very well. Cortana, are you there?"

"I'm here," Cortana replied. "What do you need?"

"Can you play a video segment of the Death Star's weapon firing at Scarif?"

"Sure," Cortana replied. Working quickly, she pulled up a segment of footage one of the cameras mounted on the Infinity's hull. "Beginning playback now."

Once more, Lasky felt his gut tighten as he watched the Death Star's particle weapon fire into the surface of Scarif, blasting out a small section of the planet's crust. Jyn, who was watching Halsey, watched as an expression of shock came over her face. What was more telling, though, was that Halsey's skin paled, with the elderly woman sitting down in a nearby chair. It was yet another difference between Halsey and Krennic that Jyn picked up on. When the footage ended, she took a breath to settle her nerves and said. "I hope that what I saw was fabricated, or a joke." Looking at the two, she asked, "Is it?"

"No," Jyn replied, "Though I can understand why you'd ask that question."

"Same here," Lasky added. "I wish it was a joke too. Unfortunately, it's not. In addition, Cortana said that it's capable of destroying an entire planet"

While she didn't show it, Halsey felt pure fear the moment she heard those words. Taking a breath, she counted down a few seconds to calm her nerves. Once they did, she asked, "What do you want me to to do?"

"Honestly," Lasky said, "I need you to find a way to destroy the entire station. Normally, if we had something like a NOVA Bomb, we wouldn't need to discuss this. As it is, though, nothing on our ship is capable of destroying the Death Star."

"Would we need a weapon capable of destroying the Death Star?" Jyn asked. "My father, Galen, built a flaw into the design. If any damage occurs to the reactor module onboard the Death Star, it will undergo a catastrophic explosion."

"I know," Lasky replied, "but how do we destroy the reactor module in the first place? How do we deliver a weapon in a manner that will target that module?" When Jyn didn't reply, he said, "I thought as much. We'll need a way to get at the reactor module first."

"Which is why you need me," Halsey finished. Taking a breath, she said, "Before we continue any further, I need to ask you a question, Captain."

"Fire away,"

"Why are you trusting me with this information?"

It was a good question, one that Lasky had asked himself before deciding to speak with her. There were many reasons why giving her this information was dangerous. All of them, however, were overridden by a single fact given their current scenario. "Because I have no one else to turn to that is capable of solving this problem. Plus, I have no choice in the matter if we're going to destroy the Death Star, which we might, given the fact that the Empire's a totalitarian regime that will see the UNSC as a threat."

Halsey remained silent, thought over the answer in her head. "I see," she said. "Well, given that Cortana confirmed that this weapon is capable of destroying a planet, then consider your request my newest assignment."

"Good,"" Lasky sighed, the tension leaving his body. "That lifts a weight off my shoulders. When you've got a solution to destroying the Death Star, let me know. I'll have Cortana send you the schematics. In addition, I've got Glassman and his team refitting one of the onboard labs for your use, and some private quarters for you, and I've also reinstated your security clearance, given what you'll need to access to complete this mission. I will also post armed guards at the entrance to the lab as well." Looking at Jyn, he asked, "Can you provide Halsey with any assistance in that regard?"

"I'll do what I can," Jyn replied, "but you must remember, I'm a fighter, not a designer."

"Still, you'll be a tremendous help," Halsey finished. Getting up from the table with Jyn, she said. "I'll inform you when I have a solution, Captain, and the schematics will help out greatly. You have my word on that." Halsey then strode out of the room, with Jyn following closely behind her. Right on cue, two Marines also began to follow Jyn.

"That I do," Lasky agreed as the door closed.

. . .

What Jyn didn't know was that she wasn't the only member of Rogue One that was disgruntled with the Rebel Alliance's initial handling of the crisis. Lying on a bed inside of the hospital's recovery ward, Cassian Andor was also going over what had happened in his head. As an intelligence operative for the Alliance to Restore the Republic, he was uniquely suited for doing that sort of thing.

Right now, he was doing exactly that, and he wasn't too happy with how things had turned out. If I hadn't gone with Jyn to Scarif, I wouldn't have been able to live with myself, he mused quietly. On top of that, the Rebel Alliance's leadership didn't do a very good job, though Admiral Raddus clearly didn't have his head buried in sand. Still, the fact that the rest of the Rebel Council had wanted to scatter the Rebellion, aside from Mon Mothma and a few others, was enough to make him quite angry. The only difference was that he was in bed and couldn't really do much about it.

A nagging pain in his shoulder prompted him to look at where the blaster bolt had hit him. The wound was no longer visible, as it was buried underneath bandages. According to one of the doctors that had checked up on him, they had to suture the wound closed after removing the excessive cauterized tissue. At least I'll have full function again, he noted.

One thing that had him particularly surprised, though, was that none of them even knew of the existence of Bacta. That, combined with some of the medical practices they had used, told him that the UNSC was definitely not from anywhere in the galaxy he knew. For all he knew, they had come from the Unknown Regions, which would explain their lack of bacta usage.

Propping his head up, he looked around the recovery ward. He wasn't the only one in the ward; nearly several dozen Rebel soldiers were on cots, each one having been in the ICU and ER sections of the onboard hospital. Thankfully, all the soldiers were alive, though this meant that doctors and nurses regularly came in and out of the recovery ward.

There was one doctor in particular, however, that had his attention. She was an elderly woman, likely in her eighties to nineties, though she walked as though she was a much younger person. Her hair was silvery gray in color, though her blue eyes held an intensity that few people had. One particular thing he noted was that she was missing her left arm, likely from an accident of some kind. Two armed guards were with her all the time, each one in armor that covered them from head to toe; not even their eyes were visible behind the visors their helmets had.

There was one person that Cassian almost immediately recognized, even with the pair of guards around her. "Jyn?" he asked.

"Cassian!" Jyn shouted, running over to him. "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine, considering," Cassian replied. "My question is are you OK? When they separated us, I was worried."

"I'm OK," Jyn reassured him. "They've been really polite and cordial to me." Remembering who she was with, she said, "Cassian, this is Dr. Halsey, one of Lasky's scientists. Dr. Halsey, this is Cassian Andor, one of the Rebel Alliance's members."

"Hello there," Halsey replied, extending an arm to Cassian. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," Cassian grunted out as he shook Halsey's hand. "Shoulder hurts, but that's normal. Blaster wounds tend to hurt."

"I would think so," Halsey agreed, "especially since it burns the tissue in the affected area." Sitting in a nearby chair, she said, "You got off lucky, though. I lost my left arm." She motioned to the sleeve pinned to her uniform.

"Blaster wound?" Cassian asked.

"No," the woman replied. "It was severed by a blade."

"I was wondering how you lost that arm," Jyn said.

"Well, now you know," Halsey said. "Either way, I would not recommend it. It is quite... painful."

Cassian nodded in understanding. Still, now that she was closer, he could tell that there was something off about Halsey. For some strange reason, looking at her made all of the alarm bells inside of his head go ring-a-ding-ding. He made a mental note to be careful around the Halsey, lest he divulge something he shouldn't. "I understand," he said at length. "Still, I'm surprised that none of you have ever heard about Bacta before. That stuff's ubiquitous in the galaxy."

"Really?" Halsey asked. "If that's the case, then it would do well for us to grab a sample of bacta for ourselves. Perhaps we could even replicate it."

"Good luck with that," Cassian said with a very slight shrug. "Bacta is solely manufactured at Tyferra, and the Batca Cartel has a monopoly on all the bacta produced in the galaxy. If memory serves, the Cartel is primarily composed of the Zaltin and Xucphra Corporations."

"Interesting," Halsey noted.

"that it is," Cassian agreed. "Either way, your doctors did a really nice job fixing up my shoulder. I just can't move it for a few months is all."

"The price we pay for the jobs we do," Halsey said.

"Yep," Cassian remarked. "Speaking of which, why do you have a team of heavily armed guards coming and going with you? Are they bodyguards, or are they here to keep an eye on you?"

Halsey chuckled slightly. While innocuous in tone, Cassian could sense a note of ruefulness in it. "Let's just say that my reputation precedes me."

"I see," Cassian noted. So she's likely a bit of a troublemaker, he noted. OK. I can work with that. "So, why are you down here, anyways?"

"Simple curiosity," Halsey admitted. "I simply wanted to see what the weapons of your galaxy were capable of. They're fairly crude in make, but they do their jobs quite well."

"Some a little too well," Cassian remarked.

"Indeed." Looking around, Halsey said, "Well, since my curiosity is now satisfied, I will take my leave now. Take care now, Cassian." Getting up from her chair, Halsey and her entourage of guards left.

"Get well soon, Cassian," Jyn said to him. "I'm going to help Halsey out with something she needs me for."

"Go ahead," Cassian replied. "I won't stop you." Once Jyn had left, Cassian gauged the room's reaction. To his surprise, he noted that all of them seemed visibly relieved when Halsey was gone. I wonder why everyone would be so tense around a woman that, by all rights, shouldn't really be that threatening, he wondered. The question continued to bounce around in his head, even as he laid his head back to think to himself quietly.

. . .

As she and Jyn walked out of the recovery ward and towards the lift that would take her to the Science Deck of the Infinity, Halsey ruminated on what she'd learned from Cassian. It was clear to her that Cassian wasn't your typical soldier; in fact, she strongly suspected that he was an intelligence agent. Deep down, she made a mental note to herself to have ONI investigate Cassian and see if he was a spy.

What had her attention the most, though, was the mention of what Cassian called 'bacta.' To her knowledge, she'd never heard of something by that name before, and she knew a lot when it came to various drugs and pharmaceuticals. She had to, given the fact that she had employed quite a few of these in the creation of the Spartans, her Spartans to be exact. She didn't like how the Spartan IIIs and IVs were created, nor did she like the fact that they were inferior to her own Spartans.

She took a deep breath, then let it out. It would not do well for her to be distracted by jealousy like that. As one of the brightest minds aboard the Infinity, she knew that her knowledge and skills would be instrumental in not only working out how they were going to get back home, but also how they would be able to handle some of the newfound threats they were facing in this new galaxy. She put those thoughts aside as she reached the lift that would take her to one of the many tram stations onboard the Infinity. Besides, it'll be an interesting challenge finding a way to destroy this 'Death Star.' A fitting name, given it's purpose.

That prompted her to think about Jyn. She's a very wary young woman, which is very good. It means that she won't alloy anyone to manipulate her. She would make for a fine ONI agent. She might even give some of them a run for their money too. Shaking her head slightly, she looked to Jyn and asked, "Do you know more about Bacta?"

"Not really," Jyn replied. "All I know is that Bacta is nothing short of a miracle medicine. Why?"

"Just curious," Halsey said as she strode into the tram for the Science Deck.

Once she was back in the Science Deck, she quickly strode to her laboratory. It was there that she found two men standing outside, with the guards, a pair of Spartan IVs, watching them. "Jordan, Glassman, what are you two doing here?" she asked.

"We were wondering if we could talk with you inside of your lab," Jordan replied. He looked tired. Small bags were underneath his eyes, and it was clear that he'd been up for a good portion of the night. The gleam in his eyes, though, told her that he likely had something to tell her, something that was quite important. "Given that we have temporary security clearance, it makes sense to speak with you in the lab before that expires."

"Who are these two?" Jyn asked. "Are they -?"

"Yes," Halsey replied. "Jordan, Glassman, this is Jyn Erso, one of our friends in the Rebel Alliance. Jyn, this is Jordan MacCallum, the ship's FTL Flight Engineer, and Dr. Henry Glassman, the Chief Engineer of the ship."

"Pleased to meet you," Jyn said as she hook Jordan and Dr. Glassman's hands.

"The pleasure is all ours," Jordan replied. "So, Permission to come inside your lab, Halsey?"

"Consider this permission," Halsey said. "Jyn, could you remain outside for a minute with the guards, please?"

"Sure," Jyn replied. With that, Halsey, Jordan and Glassman proceeded into the newly refitted lab, while Jyn remained with the two Marines that were escorting her.

Once they were inside, and the door was closed, Glassman said, "We think we have a way to reestablish contact with the UNSC. Might being the operant word here."

Halsey's eyes narrowed. "Did you discuss this with the good Captain?"

"We will," Jordan reassured her. "We just want to have a third opinion so that, when we talk to the Captain, we don't end up making ourselves look like a bunch of ignorant jackasses. If there's anything worse out there than having an accident, it's having an accident while not knowing what you're doing."

"I see," Halsey said softly. Pulling up a pair chair, she and Jyn sat down and said, "Go ahead. Tell me more."

"Thank you," Glassman replied. "To be honest, we don't trust you, but you're the best chance we've got of making sure all this goes well. As such, we're working with you from here on out. Jordan, if you please?"

"Thank you," Jordan said. Clearing this throat, he began to speak. "I talked some more with Slightly Too Heavy about a few hours before getting some much needed shut-eye. If I look like shit, it's because I just got up after a relaxing five hours of sleep. Anyways, I talked with him after he did some work on the Tantive IVs Hyperdrive, and he shared the schematics with me. I think I might have a way to phone home."

"Do tell," Halsey beckoned.

"I will," Jordan reassured her. Pulling up the schematics for the Tantive IVs Hyperdrive, he said, "I got the idea after hearing about the hyperspace anomaly at the edge of the galaxy from Raymus Antilles. According to him, there's an anomaly that rings around the entire galaxy which prevents hyperdrives from being able to leave. Nobody knows where it came from, and not a lot of people care, given that it doesn't affect their daily lives.

"However, in our case, it's a pretty big problem, given the fact that we don't want to push our Slipstream Space Drive too hard, otherwise we might have something worse than a repeat of the incident that brought us here. As such, I was thinking over the schematic when it came to me. You remember the Slipspace travel capable probes that the Infinity has a stockpile of?"

"Yes," Halsey replied. Already, she could see where Jordan was going with this. "I take it you want to refit one of these probes with a hyperdrive, or something like that."

"Something like that," Jordan agreed. Pulling up a schematic of one of the probes, he said, "I talked with Dr. Glassman about this, and he and I came up with a plan. What we're going to do is we're going to acquire a hyperdrive from the Empire or the Rebel Alliance and have our Huragok modify it to go as fast as possible without destroying or damaging itself. During this time, we'll upload the results of some tests that I'll perform once we're out of Slipstream Space on the Slipspace Drive, as well as all the intelligence that we have on the wider galaxy, into a log buoy that will be attached to the probe

"Once we've refitted the probe and attached the log buoy, we're going to have it attach to a probe that hasn't been modified, save for a small connector that will allow the modified probe to piggyback on the other one. Once we launch it off, the probe will travel past the edge of the galaxy and, hopefully, the hyperspace anomaly. Once that's complete, it'll detach from the unmodified probe and begin traveling towards our home galaxy via Hyperspace to the planet of Harvest while the unmodified probe will return to the Infinity. That way, we can let the UNSC know what happened to us, while giving them valuable intel on what they might be facing over here should the Empire become hostile towards us."

Halsey rested her chin on her sole hand, deep in thought. As far as she could tell, Jordan and Dr. Glassman's plan was a solid one. Given that the Infinity's Slipstream Space Communication Array couldn't bridge the 2.5 million light years between the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way Galaxy, it was a sensible choice to go with delivering a physical data drive to the galaxy containing the information that the UNSC needed to know. "Interesting," she noted softly. "The idea definitely has merit to it. How do you plan on acquiring a hyperdrive?"

"I've figured that out as well," Jordan replied. "I'll ask them if I can have a broken or defective version of one of their hyperdrives so that the Huragok can fix it and get it working like new again. I'll also see if I can acquire as much reading material about Hyperdrives as I can within a reasonable time period. With luck, we'll not only be able to quickly figure out how hyperdrives work, but also how to improve upon them."

"A wise decision," Halsey noted. "I take it refitting the Infinity with a hyperdrive is out of the question, yes?"

"Definitely," Glassman agreed. "A scan that Cortana did of the Star Destroyer's hyperdrives indicates that they are very large affairs. If we were to try to install one onboard the Infinity, it would take months for the ship to be refitted. In addition, the Slipstream Space Drive the ship already has is, according to Jordan, superior to what the galaxy has. It would be a colossal downgrade. Speaking of which..." Turning to Jordan, he asked, "How's the Slipspace Drive working?"

Jordan shrugged. "It's working OK so far. Like I said a day ago, I traced the malfunction to one of the navigation modules that was diverted from the Eternity to the Infinity due to the refits not three days ago. I fixed the problem, but that test shows that the Infinity's Slipspace Drive is capable of going much faster than we think it can go. Our new estimates show that we can travel roughly 40,000 light years in twenty four hours. That means that, in order to cross the Andromeda Galaxy, we'd need to spend roughly 4-5 days in Slipstream Space travel, which is certainly faster than the majority of Hyperdrives in this galaxy."

"Our drive's faster?" Halsey asked.

"Yeah," Jordan replied. "I did some reading up on the technology behind hyperdrives in the Tantive IVs library. Cortana was able to create a reading translation matrix that one of my glasses could use. From what I recall, Hyperdrives are based on a scale that goes from 10 to 0. It's an inverse scale, meaning that the closer to 0 the rating is, the faster the hyperdrive is. Most hyperdrives used by the Empire and Rebellion are either Class 2 or Class 1 hyperdrives, with the latter able to travel a given distance in half the time the former needs to do the same distance. That, though, is for military grade hyperdrives, with civilian hyperdrives ranging from three to even five or higher."

"Interesting," Halsey remarked. "So, just out of curiosity, how fast is our Slipstream Space Drive on that scale?"

Jordan paced around slightly, did some mental math. "Judging from what I can tell, I'd say that the Infinity's Slipstream Space Drive is around the same rating as a .7 to .5 class Hyperdrive, which is to say, extremely fast."

"Interesting," Halsey noted. After a few seconds, she said, "As far as I can tell, Jordan, Glassman, the two of you have come up with a solid plan. Given our current circumstances, as well as the resources we have at our disposal, it's the only really viable plan that I can think of."

"That's what we were thinking," Glassman agreed. "We just wanted to come to you to make sure that we, as Jordan put it, weren't blowing smoke out of our asses. Good to see that we are not doing that."

"That it is," Halsey agreed. "now that we've discussed this, could you two kindly leave? I have somethings to take care of, and I'd rather have some privacy. Have Jyn come inside as well."

"Sure thing," Jordan replied. Without a word, he and Dr. Glassman left, while Jyn walked inside.

"Are you ready for work?" Halsey asked.

"Of course," Jyn said.

. . .

While Halsey was having that conversation with Jordan and Glassman, Lasky was also on the Science Deck, eagerly intent on speaking to another brilliant mind aboard the Infinity. Walking past scientists and engineers that were hard at work, he could hear the Master Chief walking behind him, along with the rest of Blue Team. Their armored boots thudded heavily on the metal plating that formed the floor.

They also had a special guest with them as well. Next to Lasky was Baze, one of the people that had been picked up during the Battle of Scarif. Ever since the battle, he'd been thinking of joining the UNSC, as they seemed to have a better handle on military affairs than the Alliance did. As such, when Lasky and Sarpong had offhandedly given him an offer to work for the UNSC, he'd accepted, wtih the only stipulation being that he lead a Marine squad, potentially as a Sergeant. Looking at Chief and the rest of Blue Team, he said, "And I thought I was a big guy. You gentlemen are even bigger than a Wookie."

"What's a Wookie?" Lasky asked. "I've never heard of that before."

"They're a species that hails from the planet of Kashyyk," Baze explained. "They're tall humanoids that are covered from head to toe in fur. They're also really strong too. Word to the wise: don't beat them in holo-games."

"Why?" Fred-104 asked.

"Because, if they're sufficiently angry at someone, a Wookie can literally pull that someone's arms straight out of their sockets and off their bodies. Wookies are known to do that, and the results are rather… messy, to say the least. Somehow, though, I doubt they'd be able to do the same to you guys."

"Would they pose a threat to Blue Team in a fight?" Lasky asked.

"Unless you shoot at them, no," Baze replied. "It's a damn shame what happened to them, though. The Empire doesn't see them as sapient beings, even though they can build structures, use arithmetic and even share their history. I personally think that whoever calls a Wookie an animal should have a blaster bolt blasted into their head."

Chief and Lasky shared a subtle glance with each other. If what Baze was telling them was true, then the Empire treated many species quite poorly, even if they were as intelligent as a human being. "Do they do this to every sapient species?" he asked.

"If you're a human, you get a pass," Baze replied. "If you're not human, then you'll be treated adequately so long as you're useful to them. The moment you're not, well…" The implication of those unspoken words was more than enough for Lasky to get what Baze was talking about. The conversation would've continued were it not for them arriving at a door marked, "Weapons Engineering." When the door slid open, they entered the room in question.

The Weapons Engineering Room was one of the smaller rooms aboard the Infinity, though it was still quite large by Imperial and Rebel standards. Everywhere Lasky looked, he could see holotables, as well as toolboxes, workbenches and a few other things. Lasky was even surprised to see a drafting table, complete with pencils, measurement tools and the like. A door at the rear of the room was marked "Firing Range. Caution: Noise Hazard. Ear Protection Required."

In addition to the items inside of the room, there were people that were assigned to the room. All of them, though, were studying the weapons that the Marines had salvaged from Scarif several hours ago. One of them was a tall and stocky man with a thick black bead and brown eyes that were traveling over one of the weapons that had been recovered. He wore a uniform that was dark gray in color, with the shoulders having a silver bar that had a single black bar inside of it.

As soon as the team entered, the people inside looked up and immediately saluted. "At ease," Lasky said to them. "Mind if I speak with your boss?"

"Certainly," one of the engineers replied, pointing at the man that Lasky had seen upon entering. "Borodin, the Captain wishes to speak to you."

Hearing that, the now named Borodin looked up at Lasky and got up from his seat. Saluting he said, in a thick Russian accent, "Greetings, sir. How can I help you today?"

As soon as Borodin spoke, Lasky could tell that he wasn't speaking English. Instead, he was speaking Russian, with the machine translator that Lasky had on his person translating his words into an understandable format. "I wanted to check in and see if you have something to tell me. Also, why are you speaking Russian? No offense intended."

"None taken," Borodin replied. "I used to be able to speak English, until the Second Requiem Campaign. When the Prometheans boarded, I took a hard light bolt to the head and went down like a lead weight. I don't know how, but I survived, at the cost of being unable to speak for a few months. As such, while I've relearned how to speak my native tongue, I'm still relearning how to speak English."

"Ah, I see." Looking at the weapon on the table, he asked, "What's that?"

"That?" Baze repeated. "That's the E-11 BlasTech Carbine. It's the standard issue long arm of the Stormtrooper Corps in the Imperial Military. It's a good blaster, but the Stormtroopers don't use it all that well, though there are quite a few exceptions. Why do you ask?"

"Because it looks like a Mk. II Sten from the Second World War," Lasky explained.

"That it does," Borodin added. "In fact, while it is an excellent weapon given the technological constraints that this new galaxy has, it is a piece of shit compared to what we use. The basic concept is solid, but the design is a complete let-down. There are no iron sights on the damn thing, and I don't see an indicator telling me how many shots there are in the power cell. On top of that, the ergonomics are very shitty."

"What's he saying?" Baze asked. "I don't understand a word of what he's saying."

"He says that the E-11 is a piece of shit," Lasky explained.

"Really?" Baze asked, feeling a little heat rising in his cheeks. "Would you say that to my gun?" With that, he hefted the weapon he'd been carrying on his back and placed it onto the table. To Lasky, the weapon looked like a VK Commando that had no buttstock and no magazine well. Attached to the rear of the weapon was a long, thick cable that connected to what looked like a cylindrical tank. Said tank was around the same size as a small propane fuel bottle.

"What is that thing?" Borodin asked, with Lasky translating for him.

"That," Baze explained, "is the MWC-35c 'Staccato Lightning' Heavy Repeating Cannon. It's a Heavy Repeater Cannon that I use as my personal blaster. It's a bit heavy, around thirty kilos, but it can fire over thirty five thousand shots before the K-grade conductor cells have to be recharged or replaced. It also has two fire modes: the standard one, which is rapid fire, while the secondary one is single shot with a reverse pump action. With this thing, I can hit a target at roughly 700 meters away."

"I see," Borodin remarked. 'Well, we've been testing the weapons that were salvaged in order to determine their effectiveness in combat. Compared to the weaponry that we use, your blasters have more damage output, but they have a significantly reduced range compared to our weapons, and they lack the ability to penetrate armor efficiently. In addition, the weapons are not as powerful as the weapons the Covenant used during the war we had with them a few years ago."

This time, Baze was able to understand him, courtesy of Borodin tweaking his machine-translator to where it would speak a translated version of his native language. "I see," Baze remarked. "I noticed that all of you were using slugthrowers during the Battle of Scarif. Those have been outmoded for thousands of years by now. What gets me is that yours are more powerful than what the museums have on display."

"It comes with fighting a war for the survival of your species," Lasky explained. "Borodin here was responsible for advancing the technology in our firearms by leaps and bounds. Borodin, you remember when you developed high powered cased ammunition for the MA5 series of rifles?"

"I do," Borodin replied. "I was working on Mars at the time, so I was able to have the opportunity to dig through all of the historical archives on Earth. Ended up developing a metal reinforced polymer case for the 7.62mm NATO, the caliber we use in our rifles. I even developed an SAP/HE round for the MA5C and all rifles going forward. It works really well against Covenant body armor."

"Wow," Baze remarked with a whistle. "You guys certainly know your stuff. I'd love to show you how my blasters work."

"That would be most helpful," Borodin said. "In fact, if all goes well, within a few months, we might be able to make our own blasters. I might design the very first UNSC blaster, which would be perfectly in keeping with my ancestor. He designed the first Russian automatic rifle."

As the two talked, Lasky could hear his COM chime. Keying it, he asked, "Yes?" Apparently, what he heard was enough to catch his attention almost immediately. "you got some info from Krennic?" Another interval of silence, then he said, "All right. I'm on my way." Closing the COM, he said, "I need you to remain with Baze, Chief. Blue One, Blue Two, you're with me."

"What is it?" Kelly asked.

"We managed to get a source of intel, and Dare is going to inform us when we meet her later today. My guess is that Krennic decided to cooperate with us."

. . .

Located in an armored section of the ship, the brig on the UNSC was especially well designed, and fairly large. Created when the ship was originally conceived as Humanity's escape boat during the Covenant-UNSC War, it was designed to house any criminal offenders and felons that might cause problems for the entire ship should they be let loose. When the war was over, this section underwent a refit that resulted in it becoming smaller, but not by much.

It was here that Orson Krennic had been taken once he had surrendered to the Spartans. The former Director was no longer dressed in the formal clothes and cape that he had worn during the Battle of Scarif. Instead, he was now dressed in an black jumpsuit that had the numbers 0516 printed onto the back. Lying on the lowermost bed in the room that he was at, he stared idly up at the bottom of the bed above him.

Ever since he had been sequestered here, some part of him wondered if everything that was happening to him was due to a string of bad luck, or if all of this had been catching up with him. Perhaps it's the reward that I've gotten for all the things I've done, he said to himself. Either way, he knew that it was better than being left to die on Scarif. The question was how much better his current situation was.

Swinging his legs out towards the sink, he quickly got up. The room that he was in was very small, barely three meters in all dimensions, giving the room a claustrophobic air. Despite this, it was well equipped, as there was a toilet in the room, as well as a sink with a mirror, as well as two lights that kept the interior well lit.

Walking up to the mirror, Krennic looked at himself. For the most part, his appearance hadn't changed, aside from the jumpsuit that he was now wearing in lieu of his original uniform. He was about to examine himself when he heard a loud buzzer, followed by the door to his cell opening. Looking to his left, he spotted a pair of heavily armored guards, as well as a single man with brown hair and dark green eyes. "Orson Krennic, we need you to come with us."

Krennic sighed. It was clear that these people wanted to interrogate him, and there was no sense in refusing someone that had you at their mercy. "All right," he said. "I'll come quietly." Walking forwards, he extended his hands towards the soldiers. In response, they promptly placed cuffs on his hands, as well as his feet. A series of chains connected the cuffs together, limiting Krennic's movement and preventing him from making any long strides. Once he was secure, the soldiers grasped both of his arms and began to guide him down the hallway, while the man continued to walk forwards.

The hallway they were walking through was one of many that was part of the prison's solitary confinement section. Built into the Supermax section of the prison, it was designed to hold the most dangerous inmates that might come aboard the Infinity. Each door was made out of reinforced titanium, with a narrow slit that allowed one to look outside. Hidden sentry turrets were in the ceiling and floors of each walkway, while armed guards patrolled the area. Today was a quiet day, though yesterday, Krennic had heard a lot of shouting from each of the prison cells.

The guards continued to guide him along, while restraining his arms to make sure he couldn't run if he tried. Not that Krennic was willing to run anyways, as he was firmly aware of what might happen if he did. As such, he continued to comply with the guards, even as they roughly moved him along to another section of the prison. Eventually, they came to a hallway that had a series of doors, with one of the doors being opened by a guard. Inside was naught but a table with two chairs, as well as what appeared to be a mirror in the back. A single camera was present in one of the corners, likely for recording anything and everything that was done in the room.

As soon as he was inside, Krennic watched as the guards fastened the chain to a part of the table, before forcing him to sit down in one of the chairs. The man that had been leading them sat down in the other, before pulling out a data pad. He motioned to the guards, who quickly stepped out, with the door being closed and locked behind them. Making sure he was comfortable, he pressed something on the datapad and said, "This is Commander Ian MacGuire, conducting Interview #35-B. Subject is a male human with graying hair and blue eyes. Ages is likely within the fifties to sixties range." Looking at Krennic, he said, "Would the prisoner be willing to state his name and occupation?"

Krennic was no fool, even if he acted like one at times. When his name and rank was demanded of him, it was best to comply. "Orson Callan Krennic, former Director of the Imperial Military Department of Advanced Weapons Research."

Thank you," Ian said. "We may begin." Using his datapad, he said, "According to witness interviews, you were the man responsible for the development of the Death Star. Is this correct?"

"Yes," Krennic replied. "I am. I was asked to create the Death Star on orders from the Emperor himself."

"And this is because?"

"It was all part of the Tarkin Doctrine, which called for the subjugation of all rebel elements through the use of superweapons and military might." After taking a moment to catch his breath, he said, "I would also like to say that I'm willing to make a deal with all of you."

Ian looked at him suspiciously. he could already tell that Krennic wanted to make a deal, especially with how relaxed he was. "Go on," he said.

"In return for being kept alive and well, and in exchange for being removed from that dreadful prison, I would like to assist all of you however I can."

"Why?" Ian asked suspiciously. "Why would I want help from a man that murdered innocent people callously, and orphaned a young woman from an early age just because her mother was in the way? If you can give me one good reason, then this won't be a waste of time."

"Of course," Krennic replied. "The Emperor and his servant, Darth Vader, do not broker failure. If I am returned to the Empire, which is a real possibility, then they will have me flayed alive. They will inflict unspeakable horrors onto me, horrors that would make even you become afraid of them. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the Emperor kept me alive to torture me for the rest of my life. If you agree to my request, however, not only will you gain access to a significant amount of information, you will also be able to find a way to destroy the Death Star in a more expedient manner. Wouldn't that be a deal worth considering?" He fell silent as he looked expectantly at Ian.

Ian had to admit, Krennic's offer was quite enticing. It was true that, given his position within the Empire before the Battle of Scarif, he would have a wealth of information that would be highly useful. Plus, having the director that had spearheaded the project for the Death Star would help find a weakness sooner rather than later. It still seems too good to be true, a suspicious voice whispered in his mind. He could be presenting this to you in order to find a way to escape from his prison.

As such, after some careful consideration, he said, "I'll think about it. All final decisions in that regard are up to the Captain, however. Until then, it is still up in the air." Keying his COM twice, he waited for the guards to come inside. "Take him back to his cell," he said. "However, give him whatever he wants, be it food or clothes, or something to occupy his time."

As the guards began to unlatch the chains on his hands from the table, Krennic looked at Dare desperately. "Please!" he shouted. "You must listen to me! I can give you whatever you want! Anything!" His cries were cut short when the door closed.

Instead of getting up and leaving immediately, Ian keyed his COM earpiece and said, "Captain Dare, I've got some news." After receiving the reply, he said, "I've got a potential source of intelligence, but I need you to make the final call." Once she got the reply, she moved to the other half of the interrogation room and waited.

The door to that part of the room, which was separated from the main interrogation room by a one-way mirror, opened a few minutes later. Walking inside, Dare looked at Ian, her blue eyes meeting his green ones. "What is it?" she asked.

"Krennic was wanting to make a deal with me," Ian informed him. "Apparently, the fact that he's now a prisoner onboard the ship means that he's worse than dead to the Empire. From the sounds of it, the Empire's leadership doesn't tolerate failure, and they often lethally execute anyone that fails them."

"Ouch," Dare winced. "That's no way to lead by example. So, what's Krennic offering?"

"Information, mainly. He also offered assistance in finding a way to destroy the Death Star. Given what we can tell about him so far, sir, I would say that he might be too much of a security risk. Yes, he has a lot of information, but this deal could also be a means for him to escape. Still, whatever happens next is your decision."

"That it is," Dare agreed. Pacing back and forth, he mulled over what he had heard. While she shared Dare's suspicions on Krennic, this was too good of an opportunity to pass up. "Let's take his deal," she decided. "However, I want Cortana to screen everything that he does, and I want a pair of ODSTs to be guarding him at all times. Hell, if need be, post Spartans as his guards. If he even so much as tries to do something suspicious, you have permission to kill him. Understood?"

"Yes sir," Ian replied. "I'll make sure Krennic is a good little boy. I might even have a psych evaluation done on him, so that we know how to get him to work for us best."

"Good. I'll contact Lasky and let him know we've got a source of good intel. Dismissed!"

. . .

While this was going on, there was another man that was hard at work onboard the Infinity. He took a brief glance around the room as he worked, his dark blue eyes flashing as he did so. This was the Infinity's information storage room, the heart of the ship's computer network. Trillions upon trillions of bits and bytes flowed through this part of the ship every second, allowing the computers and AIs aboard the Infinity to expertly coordinate the entire ship.

As such, Software Engineer Gerald Lancaster knew the importance that his job had. Without people like him, there would be no one to maintain the servers, and without the servers, the entire ship would grind to a halt. A rather messy state of affiars that would be, he said softly. That's why people like me are around: they're the brawns while we are the brains. He turned back to his work, and the object of attention that was before him.

Yesterday, before he had turned in for bed, he had the pleasure of having Fireteam Majestic visiting his work station on orders from the Captain. Apparently, they had managed to salvage some kind of information drive from a droid that was surrounded by dozens of dead Stormtroopers. According to one of Lasky's sources, it was the memory bank for a droid called K-2SO, and Gerald had the laborious task of finding out what was on the drive.

Laborious indeed, Gerald thought as he used a rewiring kit that was at his work station. Adjusting the lamp, he looked at the mess of circuitry, resistors, capacitors and diodes that made up the memory unit. This thing looks like someone had taken it from a museum on Earth, he groused silently. Once I've got all the circuits reconnected properly, I can plug this in and Cortana can figure out what's inside of it.

Not one second later, he heard Cortana speak up. "Gerald, are you doing all right?"

He wiped his forhead. "I'm fine, Cortana. Just focused is all. I've just reconnected the last piece of circuitry. First time I needed to use the soldering kit that I brought along from Earth. Just give it a few minutes to cool down and then we should be good."

"All right," Cortana said. "That's good news, given that it looks like this memory drive came from a museum."

"That's what I was thinking. Reminds me of when my dad and I made our own electronics together. We had soldering kits up the wazoo." After a minute of waiting, he said. "You should be good now, Cortana."

"Plug it in then," Cortana replied. "I've created another layer of firewalls in case this memory device holds more than just random information." Gerald, nodding at that, quickly grabbed one of the omni-connectors and plugged the memory drive in.

As soon as he did so, Cortana checked to see if the drive was connected. Upon seeing that there was power, she quickly went to work accessing the drive itself. "That's odd," she said.

"What is?" Gerald asked.

"Looks like there's a lot of information in here, and it's compressed too. Let me see... oh, you clever little bastard."

"What's going on?" Gerald asked.

Before he could say anything, another voice spoke up. "Finally. Someone retrieved my drive and plugged it into a data network. You can't imagine how terrifying it is to be stuff inside of a data drive, plus... oh, hello... Where am I? Why is there so much information in here?"

"We'll get to that," Cortana replied. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Cortana, one of the AIs installed onto the Infinity. Who might you be?"

"I'm K-2S0," the other AI replied. "I must admit, Cortana, for a computer entity like myself, you are very refined. I'm trash in comparison."

Cortana laughed, a bell-like sound that echoed in the room. "I thank you for your flattery, though you're no slouch yourself."

"Uh, the computer techie is lost here," Gerald said. "What's going on?"

"You remember that droid this memory drive came from?" Cortana asked rhetorically. "Apparently, before his body was destroyed, he uploaded himself into the memory drive in his chassis. When Fireteam Majestic found him and retrieved the memory drive, they unwittingly brought him aboard."

"Well, that's peachy," Gerald harrumphed. "Is he a threat?"

"Why would I be a threat to the very people that saved me?" K-2S0 asked. "It would be like wondering, 'why is the sky blue?'"

"Fair point," Gerald admitted. "You two going to be OK in there?"

"We'll be fine," Cortana replied. "You go to work studying the electronics recovered from the surface. I'll have a chat with K-2S0 here. We might become besties before long."

"OK," Gerald remarked with a shrug as he walked off."

. . .

Unbeknownst to Lasky, Gerald and the others, there was another drama occurring at the rendezvous coordinates that they had been given. Inside of the Rebel HQ at Yavin IV, Mon Mothma gently raised a hand to her forehead as she listened to the other members of the Rebel Alliance's High Command bicker and shout at each other. Nearby, she could see another member doing the same, while looking at her with sympathy.

It had only been a day after the Battle of Scarif, and already things were becoming intense. When Mon Mothma had heard of a 'Star Dreadnought' arriving in the middle of the battle from Admiral Raddus, she had initially assumed that he was being dramatic. Now that they were seeing a live feed of Leia's speech, she knew that Raddus hadn't been over-exaggerating things.

That same speech was the reason why everyone in the room was arguing with each other. Those that were not present were using holographic communications to speak with them, with those individuals being General Antoc Merrick and Admiral Raddus. "You idiots!" Tynnra Palmo, an Imperial Senator from Taris that was a member of Rebel High Command, snarled at the two. "Don't you realize what you have done?! You not only launched an all-out war on the Galactic Empire, you've nearly jeopardized the peace that all of us had worked to achieve!"

"They have not!" Vasp Vaspar, the Imperial Senator that represented the the Taldot Sector and was another member of the Rebel High Command, growled at her. "They did exactly what they should have done, what I should have done: launch an assault on Scarif and retrieve the Death Star plans! It's only now that I see that deciding not to act was a terrible mistake!"

"Really?" Nower Jebel, the Imperial Senator for the agricultural planet of Utyer, questioned him. "If it wasn't for this brazen attack on the planet of Scarif, we would not be looking at war! We would have been able to achieve our pursuit of maintaining peace!"

"The war was coming anyways!" Vasp retorted. "It was merely a matter of time, and that time has come and gone! War is inevitable, and we must fight, even if it means the Empire using the Death Star to destroy all of our planets and systems!"

At that, the entire room would've descended into a shouting match, only for Mon Mothma to raise a hand. Everyone in the room fell silent almost immediately. When Mon Mothma raised her hand, it meant that she wished to speak. Once everyone was silent, she said, "I know how we all feel about the attack that Jyn Erso led on the Imperial Center of Military Research on Scarif, but what's done is done. We cannot undo the attack, nor can we go back in time and prevent it. All we can do now is determine what we must do next so that the Rebel Alliance can continue towards its goal of liberating the galaxy from the Empire.

"I must also agree with Vasp Vaspar, though I must say that he could exercise a little more tact in the manner. Eventually, war will happen, whether we wish to have it happen or not. As I once said to Leia, there comes a time when refusing to stop violence can no longer be called nonviolence. We cease to be objectors and become bystanders. At some point, morality must be wedded to action, or else it's no more than mere...vanity. That is what we are facing right now, and we cannot avoid it."

At those words, everyone in the entire room fell silent. It was clear that Mon Mothma believed that violence was inevitable, though it was also clear that she was going to try one more option before resorting to violence. Looking at Admiral Raddus' hologram, Mon Mothma asked, "When this 'Star Dreadnought' arrived, were you able to speak with whoever captained it?

"Yes," Raddus replied. "When the Imperials began to assault the ship, I could see that the ship was having difficulty, likely power fluctuations when it first emerged out of whatever strange form of FTL flight it was using. As such, I had the fleet encircle the ship to protect it from the Imperials. Shortly thereafter, I was contacted by a person on the ship, an envoy by the name of Melody Azikiwe."

That caused some murmuring between the various members of High Command. "An envoy?" Tynnra asked. "Are you certain?"

"Yes," Raddus replied. "My guess is that Melody was a temporary ambassador that was assigned to the Star Dreadnought, which she identified as the UNSC Infinity, as you already know from the speech that Leia gave a day ago. I had her speak to Leia, whereupon they were able to work out an agreement with each other.

"After that, the battle really began. The military officer of the ship, one Captain Lasky as you already know, began working with us to defeat the Imperial forces in orbit and to assist us in securing the Death Star plans. You've all seen the footage of the battle, so I don't need to tell you the destructive potential that Lasky wields with the Infinity."

The other members of Rebel High Command nodded in agreement. All of them had seen the devastation that the Infinity had been able to wreak upon the Imperial Star Destroyers. One of them had even been smashed apart by a simple ramming maneuver, something that had spoken greatly about the power it wielded. "That we can agree on," Vaspar said. "The only thinig that I've seen that's as large as the Infinity is the Mandator class of Star Dreadnought in the core words."

"Me too," Raddus added. "When I saw the Infinity destroy the Shield Gate, I was literally dumbfounded. According to an X-Wing Squadron, the ship had four large holes in the front, though now it's clear that those holes are some kind of mass driver, the likes and size of which I've never seen before."

"Very curious," Nower said softly. "I thought mass drivers were outmoded thousands of years ago."

"They were," Antoc Merrick agreed, "but from what I can tell, the UNSC didn't stop using the technology. Instead, they likely improved and refined it, making their mass drivers more powerful than any that we can create ourselves. I don't want to know how powerful those mass drivers really are. I wouldn't be surprised if they could tear a chunk out of the Death Star."

"Me neither," Mon Mothma agreed. "However, we are starting to drift from the topic of discussion. Now that we know that the Infinity is friendly to us at the moment, we must work out how we can convince them to aid us when the time to fight comes." Bringing up a data pad, she said, "Shortly after her speech, Leia contacted me and told me what she had learned about them. The United Earth Government is much like the Republic before the Clone Wars."

"They are a republic?" Nower asked.

"Yes," Mon Mothma replied. "The UEG is, according to what Envoy Azikiwe told Leia, a representative democracy, much like the former Republic was. However, it also seems to be having the same troubles that the Republic did, given that they are dealing with a rebellion of their own."

"Yes," Vaspar noted. "The 'Insurrectionists' as they are called. Normally, I would believe that the Insurrectionists are right to rebel against the UEG, but my respect for them died when Leia said they targeted innocent civilians. What madman would do such a thing?"

"Extremists that think they have nothing to lose," Tynnra answered. "Still, my heart goes out to the UEG, especially when the Covenant waged war against them. Those sadistic beasts were willing to drive the entire human race in the UEG's native galaxy into extinction, all because of their lust for power and glory! They were worse than the Empire is, and don't get me started on the Flood!"

"That they were," Nower agreed. "Despicable monsters that needed to be punished for their crimes! It warms my heart to know that the UNSC achieved victory over them."

"And mine as well," Mon Mothma agreed. "However, as you have seen, they have removed the Hierarchs that tricked them into waging war against Humanity. They are in a time of reconciliation with each other, and I believe that we should treat them with respect and dignity. What will it say about us if we do not do so?"

"A fair point," Nower admitted.

"The question is, what do we do now?" Vaspar asked. "It's obvious that attacking the Empire again will provoke a war. In addition, we need to put our best foot forward if we are to persuade Captain Lasky to aid the Rebellion in it's war against the Empire."

"I agree," Tynnra added. "We must convince Captain Lasky to side with us, or else our Rebellion will be very short lived indeed."

"My thoughts exactly," Mon Mothma agreed. "Given that Admiral Raddus has placed Yavin IV at the rendezvous coordinates he gave to Lasky, I believe I know what we must do. Once this meeting is over, I will contact Leia and request that she speak to Lasky and have him speak with us once he arrives. I will also send out a general order to everyone in the base that no one is to assault the Infinity or detain anyone that comes from the ship. Doing so will produce the opposite effects of what we intend to do. We will also do what we can to render aid and support, be it in the form of materials for his Star Dreadnought, or personnel that he might need."

The other members of Rebel High Command quietly pondered this proposal. "I believe that is an excellent idea," Vaspar said. "We can provide them materials and personnel, within reason of course."

"Of course," Mon Mothma agreed. "We will reconvene at a later time today. This meeting is adjourned." Hearing this, the other members of Rebel High Command left the room, while the holograms of Antoc Merric and Admiral Raddus faded out of view.

Once they had done so, Mon Mothma closed her eyes and began to think. The Empire made a terrible mistake attacking the Infinity, she said to herself. That might allow us to convince them to work with us. It is the only way that we will survive, otherwise all of us will be destroyed.

. . .

Far away, in another galaxy, there was another drama that was going on. Inside of the UNSC's main command center in Sydney, known as Facility Bravo-6. In one of the many underground buildings, Admiral Hood was rubbing the bridge of his nose as the members of the UNSC Security Council gathered inside of the room. Everyone was present, from Admiral Serin Osman, the Director of ONI, to General Hogan, the Chief of Operations for the UNSC Marines.

Once everyone was gathered, Hood said, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. As you all know, roughly twelve hours ago, at 0800 hours PM, we lost contact with the Infinity, just as her crew began running tests on the Slipstream Space Drive installed. Since them, FLEETCOM and NAVCOM have been working to find out what's happened to the Infinity and see if we can reestablish communications with them." Looking at Osman, he asked, "Admiral Osman, do you have any information that might be of use to us?"

"Not yet," Osman replied. "I am good, Admiral Hood, but I'm no miracle worker, and neither is ONI. I can say, however, that we have everyone in Section One working as quickly as possible to find a way to locate the Infinity and bring her home."

"Hopefully soon," Hogan remarked. "I've got a lot of good men and women aboard that ship. I do not want to learn that we lost all hands on board. The loss of the Infinity and her crew would be a staggering blow to the UNSC."

Hood nodded in agreement. The loss of the Infinity, if she was lost to begin with, would be a staggering blow to morale, as well as a loss of a significant investment. The Storm Covenant, if they were still holding together, would see that as an opportunity and use that chance to cause irreparable harm. It the Infinity is lost, then I will also have lost a good friend, he thought as memories of the Master Chief swam through his head.

"On that we can agree," Osman said. "That is why ONI has all hands on deck for this mission. The sooner we can find the Infinity, the sooner we can determine if the ship was destroyed, or if they have simply ended up in an uncharted region of space. For all we know, they might've ended up in another galaxy. In other words, we're looking for a five kilometer long needle in a galaxy sized haystack, and you don't need me to tell you how hard that is." What she didn't add was that she was also worried about the Prowler that had been accompanying the Infinity.

"I know," Hogan replied. "I'm just worried is all. If the Storm Covenant learns about this..."

"Then we'll have bigger problems than a missing ship," Hood finished. Turning to Osman, he said, "Osman, continue looking for any trace of the Infinity. The rest of us will also do what we can, even if it's the smallest amount. This meeting is adjourned." as they left, Hood rubbed the bridge of his nose again. Damnit, Lasky, he grumbled. Why is it that, whenever you go somewhere, something like this happens. Besides, he's never around when shit like this happens, or even when something goes wrong. When he gets back, I'm promoting him to the upper half of Rear Admiral so that not only is he behind a desk, I can teach him what he needs to know before he does something that gets him killed. Plus, I'll need him for my plan back here.

He sighed as he got his thoughts back in order. Well... once more, I'm gonna have to come to the rescue here. Who knows? The UNSC might benefit from this after all.