Chapter 2: Common Evil
Notes:. Also as far as I can tell, one Covenant Unit in distance is about two feet, and in time one Covenant unit is about 4 minutes. Also they seem to use the same term for their equivalent of hours and miles, so it's a little confusing. If the Covenant counting system is base 4, then one hour unit should be 40 minute units? And their mile unit would be 400 feet units? Email me if you have any information on this subject. For that manner, if you have any suggestions/ advice that's too long for a review, email me.
Truthful Flower, Slip-Space, origination point: course correction enrote to tril'mefre
Tilipi never liked slip-space. The thought of tearing a hole in the blackness of space to a universe where it was even darker just bothered him.
And the plasma scoring half a unit away from his head wasn't helping.
It was truly over before it began. The Captain's holo set it all off. Then the "air starving" of the drones, as the Captain had so elegantly put it, put them out of the equation. In response, nearly every Jackal on the ship rose up and were reminded that they were truly "cannon fodder".
A few shots and that was the end of it. But one shot was just a little to close…
Vellen was somewhere off-duty and had asked Tilipi to brief the night shift. After that, maybe he could get half a night of sleep in a methane room, a meal, full air bladder, and a side-arm. After that would be a battle shift.
Beneath him, Vellen strode down a corridor stepping over the occasional Jackal. The day's actions were still clouding her mind. In many ways she was still in shock by the short battle, but the feeling was rubbing off. The ship was transforming; on any other day half the creatures in these halls would be out of uniform, Grunts holding their breath as they ran from methane room to methane room, too lazy to dawn environmental gear.
Outside of his crew, Captain Kallon was not known for running a clean ship.
Yet today the Crew was a flurry of brightly polished red, blue, iron, yellow, and black.
But he was known and respected by his crew as a good leader.
Vellen stopped at a door. It wasn't her door, but in the back of her mind she knew where she was. Memories fell back slowly, like feathers wafted on wind. She felt her hand upon her neck, felt her digits upon the scar. She winced and walked past the door, on to her cabin.
Vellen's cabin was always a cause of many angry moments. She had the head room but not enough floor space so she felt like a tree living in a straw; but she made the best of it. Nibbling on the piece of bird the mess officer had offered, she turned to her Commando-black bridge armor. She never understood why a bridge officer needed top-of-the-line armor, especially for a Com officer no less! But it was one thing Kallon was adamant about; having the Bridge crew ready for the worst, and look for the best. After removing her cloth ship's crew uniform she looked at the window, the light in the cabin made the material reflective. She had been told by a boy she was pretty when she was younger back on… She silenced the thought as images of glassed valleys and a burned world filled her head. She realized her hand was on her scar and she pulled it away.
Her form held only a small leather bag from the neck. In the silence of her cabin she took it off and opened it, peering into the precious contents. She poured out a gold necklace onto her hand, feeling the warmth of the medal. A gold chain and a gold plate barely the size of a digit; a circle with diamond dust for stars, so many stars, conglomerating into a galaxy, her galaxy. On the back held the information that made this a secret. On the back, in human letters no less, was one word. "HOPE." She cherished this and hid it away against her skin, the chain around her neck. After feeling her skin come in contact with the necklace she realized how long she had stood there unclothed. Embarrassed by this fact, she turned to her armor. The eerie medal shown as if it were glowing, yet it was darker than slip-space. She lifted the armor, piece by piece, exposing the mosaic of a prophet that the armor rested upon. With wisdom, she grafted the armor to her flesh. With her task complete, she killed both the light and gravity, floating off to sleep dreaming of summer moss fields.
Tilipi rose from his ice slate to shill singing. In response, he drew his pistol and fired. Sparks flew from the speaker box in sporadic spurts. His day was off to a good start, definitely a good start. He spent more time than most days applying his armor, checking and double checking the seals to his suit.
"U hate prophet voice?" said a young Grunt that hadn't completely mastered Elite Basic.
"No, just a voice at this time of day"
Vellen awoke, her black eyes rolling open to the universe. She dropped her head back, spinning her body until slamming her hoofs against the bulkhead, outstretching her hand to engage the gravity. Vellen felt her weight return; the feeling was not tiring as she expected, but empowering.
Leaving the room, she paused, reached both hands behind her; one grabbed a plasma rifle, the other grabbed the mosaic of a prophet.
And threw it to the floor, shattering it.
Vellen then walked out into the ship. Powerful, Honorable, an Elite. She passed Grunts that ran about with intention, a few of them were using some Jackal blood that was splotched here and there as war paint. She passed a Hunter pair who were chanting a battle cry, starting softly as she passed but growing ever louder, seeming as though it was always the same volume as she walked away.
"By our hands, our world shall be saved!
By our hands, our world shall be saved!
By our hands, our world shall be saved!
By our hands, our world shall be saved!
By our hands, our world shall be saved!"
She walked to the bridge and found herself walking with Tilipi. He had a needler slung to either leg and from experience she new that he was very good with them. A yellow light pulsed twice from a nearby holo emitter.
"One unit until we drop out of slip-space, we should hurry." Tilipi went from a brisk walk to a flat out run. Vellen went to a brisk walk. Once at the bridge, they went around to their station, relieving the night shift. As Tilipi and the night shift grunt passed, Tilipi said "Give them salvation Pelto" and the two grabbed each other by the arm and stared each other in the eye for a moment. Then the other grunt moved on.
"Friend of yours?" Vellen asked, without much interest.
"We both went through training together I promised his house matriarch I would watch out for him; a bit of a klutz but a stalwart warrior."
With a double ping the bridge doors slid open and there stood the Captain in his iridescent crimson-orange armor. His steps clicked across the deck, reverberating through the silent room. Reaching his post, he turned to face his crew.
"As you were. Today we join our kin- the kin that has not turned on us- in battle! As far as we know, we are one of the first ships to rally at Dállidis and we are charged with defending the planet until reinforcements arrive. We can expect casualties. We can expect pain and loss. But we shall not die in vain!"
"You have seen the tactical data on the humans, how they sacrificed so many warriors upon their ships for a planet of civilians, they were RIGHT to do so! All we saw was them protecting the weak, and hindering the path to the great journey. But all they wanted was peace, a calm. A calm we blindly only saw in the Great Journey. We have fought too long, so, so long, and now we can only imagine what peace is."
"But now we can stop imagining peace, stop calling it by the Great Journey, we can create it. And we will start. Right now. We will protect those who can not protect themselves!"
Cheers erupted from the Bridge, the loudest from the Hunter pair that was on Bridge Defense.
"Dropping out of Slip-Space" The Nav. Officer said "In 3, 2, 1!" Light fizzled into being on the main view screen.
"Activating instantaneous information network crystals:" Vellen's voice was all duty, not her preferred way of speaking. "The three ships in system are the Silver Blade, Forerunner Tapestry, and the Windward Shield. All show as friendly, The Silver Blade was nearby like us. The Forerunner Tapestry is a heavy Weapons ship, 50 plasma turrets, laser banks, and reverse engineered Human magnetic accelerator cannons, it will be nice to have in a fight. The Windward Shield is the system defense ship, light curser, refitted for a Hunter only crew. Crystals coming online, Elite victory at Sol, remaining ships are enroute, along with… Human ships?"
"Ship count?"
"17 of ours, 65 Human. That's all."
"Commander Vellen?"
"Yes sir?"
"Never underestimate Humans."
"Eye sir"
ONI Building for alternative maters. Nebraska
Anna Silverman was extent of the UNC diplomatic taskforce. she had always been branded a traitor as she tested surrender speeches in her windowless office in Polaris. That was before Polaris was glassed and she was sent to CASTLE base on Reach. Then when the Covenant ships loomed above Reach the order was given for the second time to compress all data and make for a FTL capable craft. scoring a ride from a ONI spook, she was sent to another windowless office, this time on earth.
Anna took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. She slicked her clay brown hair back behind her ears and slid on her shoes. Standing up from the desk rubbed her sore shoulders and shuffled to the cooker unit on the other side of the "cell" as her AI had named it. Ever since the first Covenant fleet attacked earth and were destroyed to weeks ago she had gotten only a few hours of sleep. Updating census information, natural resource inventories, she hated her job. But everybody new that we won because the fleet that attacked earth was only several dozen ships. Several dozen ships had destroyed two of the two orbital gun platforms and 20 of earth's fleet.
The fleet that destroyed Reach was ten times the size of the fleet that attacked earth. And it was only a mater of time until a fleet that size showed up here.
Her fingers numbly made instant coffee and lifted a sandwich out of the mini fridge. she drained the coffee in one uncomfortable gulp and then finicky assaulted her sandwich. As she began to wonder how many years old the mayonnaise used for the sandwich was when the color of the lighting tinged purple. She turned to the holo-emitter Expecting Darled but in his place was this buildings ONI attaché, Hale. Her self picked animation was a soldier animated as a kids Holo show would be animated. Over-exaggerated emotions and beauty.
"Anna your services are required..."
"How bad… are we losing" Anna had been on the ONI payroll for twelve years to prepare her for this day but she still loathed the thought of surrender. When the AI couldn't seem the find the words it wanted Anna spoke again. "give me a minute to collect my speech"
"Oh but its not like that" The AI was pacing back and forth while trying to explain the situation. "Most of the fleet just jumped with... There has been some sort of coo in the Covenant. We always suspected races that were conquered by the Covenant were added to their ranks, hence your position Dr. Silverman," Anna dropped the sandwich with a dull thud. Anna through herself at her desk, franticly collecting papers and data cubes. Turning back to the bewildered Hale she screamed "well don't just stand there, keep talking!"
"Right... brass will be up in ten minutes, they will be fully briefing you on your flight, as far as I can tell the Elites seceded from the Covenant because of loss of political footing or something. The grunts and hunters stood with them against the rest of the Covenant. Mind you all of this is very sketchy Intel. The Master Chief showed up in the battle, and had about 30 seconds to talk fast about everything that happened to the Covenant lately" Anna Slammed her suitcase closed, and was pulling on her uniform when a second AI formed in the holo field. Glasses, scrawny build and 21st century business attire, a perfect Animation for her paper pushing AI, Charles.
"Were in hell have you been!" Anna was rushing herself for the first time in years. Exhilarating.
"your lucky I got here at all! the ONI network is getting slammed with transitions about what just happened, the civvies don't believe it"
"Christ, I don't believe it" Anna was brushing her hair back into what could almost be considered up to code "you" pointing at Hale "tell the brass to meat me at the landing pad we don't have time for there damn pleasantries."
"you just don't want them to see your office don't yo-"
"I SAID NOW YOU SADISTIC PILE OF CIRCITS!"
"pff! humans.. see you around Charles"
"And you..." Anna found herself smiling "sort our files and yourself, I want every last bit copied and handwritten into our planes onboard memory I do not have time for network lag." She was stepping out the door when she turned around "and for your own good stay away from that Hale, for your own good"
"Article 51 Amendments to the Rights of Artificial intelligences give me the right to tell you to shove off on that one."
"Fine" Anna was yelling over her shoulder as she sprinted down the hall "hell if we pull this off, you two can have a week off in a privet server for all I care!"
as she turned a corner Charles popped up on a electronic bill board and whispered "I'm going to hold you to that"
Onboard the Custer, the de-facto human flagship, Slip-Space.
John kept his finger on his holstered pistol. This would take some getting used to. In front of him Captain Logan was being briefed by a Grunt who was standing on a bar stool brought up from the officers lounge.
"We expect big bunch bad things! Maybe 150 ships, all bigger this one"
Next to them stood Ethan, a whiny AI dressed in a bed sheet robe, crown, and a scepter with some sort of controller on the end. He seemed to have a frustrated look from all the translating Grunt to English and English to Grunt.
"This is going to take some getting used to" Sergeant Johnson said. John looked over and saw that the sergeant still had his finger on the trigger of his battle rifle. This was going to take some getting used to. Fifteen hours ago, he had killed the Prophet of Truth and a too many covenant to count to get to the Prophet. To his bewilderment, he found out that the human ships were only shooting at about half of the covenant ships; even stranger, half weren't firing at the UED ship but rather themselves.
In this battle among a attack fleet, a victor was found, a poetic Elite explained a few things, a truce was made, a cry for help was presented, and a response in good faith was sent.
John was sent.
Along with what was left of the UED fleet.
"Hey! Captain Dude, we will be there about 5 min's or so." Then after a moment "yewwata! de baaaaa Woof!"
"Thank you Eathen, get everyone to battle stations, and prep all Pelicans and Hell-Jumpers for friendly territory landing and reinforcing." Captain Logan was fingering is short red mustache as he sent off orders.
"That's my cue for an exit" Sergeant Johnson nodded at Master Chief and walked off barking orders into a radio.
"Master Chief, I want your Spartans on the MAC Dart boarding party. They are going to attempt to take the enemy flagship. Your primary objective is to assist., but remember, our new friends are still not to be completely trusted." The Captain was skimming over the ships inventory, "At battle duration 20 minutes we will be detonating a full spread of Nova bombs, that is your operation time limit."
"Yes sir."
Master Chief slid down the zero gee access ways of the ship. The 2nd generation Slip-Space drives could out-run the Covenant, and jump in with their accuracy, but it drew so much power that non essential systems were shut down in Slip-Space. As he reached the air hatch to the Dart room, he cycled through it, on the other side he found his three remaining Spartans, Fred Will and Linda along with fourteen Elites, and a dozen Marines.
Darts were a new addition to the UED Navy, they were projectiles that were loaded into the MAC guns, and fired at low yield. Inside was hydrostatic gel, like the liquid in Spartan armor, which reduced G-forces. Each could sit two humans or one Spartan plus their tactical equipment. Also, each dart had a small ion engine to maneuver back to the mother ship in case of a miss.
If there was a mother ship left.
Darts came about because the best the UED Navy could do was stall a Covenant Fleet for about half an hour at best, then everybody would be dead, except the Covenant. Near suicidal missions were better than plain extinction.
Darts were manned by "bananas" , a special wing of the Hell-Jumpers division. They got their name from the saying "Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana". All of them knew that they were being loaded into a gun and fired, and if they missed, they had a 3 survival rate. It took a special kind of crazy to join the Hell-Jumpers.
But it took a death wish to join the Bananas.
John had already prepped his Dart; technicians were trying to find a way to connect an Elite's life support systems to the Darts, and had settled on duck tape.
John enclosed himself into his Dart, letting the Fluid envelop him.
On the bridge Captain Logan started counting down to the entrance into normal space. At the end, he was rewarded with a near blinding flash of light.
Above him hung the Brute fleet like a swarm of locusts.
"Assign targets, if those maggots think we're easy targets, by hell were going to prove them wrong."
Next Chapter: Vellen's scar.