Feet first into hell.
Prologue: Ghosts of Jupiter.
April 16th 2511 military calendar. 0700 hours
UNSC Gagetown monitoring station: Jupiter Post.
This is so god damn boring! The exhausted and stubble faced monitoring tech thought to himself before taking another slug of the most stale bitter, and worst excuse for a cup of coffee he had ever tasted. Even if there is intelligent life out there, I doubt I will see it during my lifetime. He had been working the graveyard shift for over three months now, operating the sophisticated yet useless monitoring equipment on the control deck of the Gagetown: an orbital monitoring and listening post circling around the planet Jupiter. The poor soul working the monitoring gear was 2nd Lieutenant Gordon Lynch. He was young for his rank at the age of twenty three, and received his posting due to a drunken fiasco in a bar outside of Fort Worth. Gordon wanted to join the Marines latest developmental detachment called the ODSTs or Orbital Deployed Shock Troop, but after a disciplinary hearing he was transferred to the Jupiter post. While the brunt of the UNSC's military was fighting insurgents in the Eriandus region, he was collecting dust at a puny listening post monitoring dust and echoes throughout the stations range. This was unfortunately an active range of 1.5 light years. He had a lot to sift through.
The Gagetown was designed as part of an early warning network for incoming meteors on potential earthbound vectors, and also an extension of an controversial project from the mid 1990's called SETI. Lieutenant Lynch was spending his days listening for comets and aliens. Moreover, in the history of the UNSC neither had ever been detected.
The station had a compliment of twelve crewmembers: eight station techs, and four marines. The station was three times larger than Russia's classic space-jalopy Mir, and had ten times the technical issues. On a daily basis several of the stations systems, and sub-routines would fail, or fluctuate. The on-board engineers blamed it on electromagnetic interference from the gas giant, but Lynch blamed it on the UNSC's tight budgets for small ops like this one. Hell, even the coffee was a result of that tight budget.
Aside from the more monotone features of the Gagetown there were some perks. The station was equipped with a powerful magnetic-accelerated-cannon, or MAC Gun. As well as being a monitoring post, the Gagetown also served as an orbital defense platform. The station was in disrepair and a floating hunk of space-junk, but at least she had some teeth in her jaws.
Despite the caffeine coursing through his blood, the young and very exhausted Lieutenant was beginning to nod off. Cursing the joint chiefs, he began to drift off but was rudely snapped out of his near slumber by a shrill alarm on the console in front of him.
"What the hell is that?" Said lynch as he leaned over the panel and ran a quick systems check. "It's probably just another failure in the tertiary solar wing."
But Lynch couldn't have been more wrong. The stations internal systems were nominal. He rubbed his eyes and began to bring up the planetary sensors, which showed him the most bizarre thing he had witnessed during his entire posting on the Gagetown. There on his display was massive white blotch which indicated an energy source. Lynch shook his head and stared in complete awe at the sensor readout. The energy source was emanating from within Jupiter. "Ciara, what is that?"
The luminescent AI pedestal beside his chair came to life in the form of an emerald glowing woman with a slender build. Her entire body was made of a holographic projection containing streaming numerical code. She resembled a sleek woman wearing flowing robes made of purple code. She blinked her artificial eyes and tilted her head in thought "Unknown. It appears to be a rather large power source. I am sending a pair of probes into the gas giant for a full analysis." She said, as her color shimmered and changed to violet as she processed her task. "Negative, Ciara." Said Lynch "Let's open the view port. The sensors are saying its right below the station's orbit." He said.
Ciara was the shipboard AI. She was an intricately designed synthetic construct capable of a multitude of tasks. The AI was the entire mainframe of the stations systems rolled into a single conscious entity. "Yes Lieutenant." She responded.
Red-amber light began to pour into the bridge as a massive rectangular window blind began to retract. The amber glow filled the bridge like a flood of molten gold. Lynch covered his eyes as the windows light filter dulled out the glare. As his eyes readjusted Lynch gasped and took several steps back slumping into the command chair. Without taking his eyes away he cleared his throat and addressed Ciara. "Call the god damned crew."
It took a moment for Ciara to divert her attention from the view screen and carry out her orders. "Yes Lieutenant." She said as a shrill alarm filled the station.
Lynch stared at the view port with his mouth agape. Within the gas giant there was a massive rectangular object. It completely dwarfed the station in size, and was covered in small multi colored lights.
Lynch forced himself to look away and regarded Ciara thoughtfully. "Ok, send out a few probes. But let's keep a safe distance from it." He said, shakily.
"Processing. Probes launched. Estimated time to effective range in fifteen seconds.
Lynch nodded. "Let me know when you have a visual of the object. Any theories?"
The AI put her hand on her chin thoughtfully. "Well, it's too localized to be an electromagnetic storm. Judging by it's output I'd say it's a synthetic power source." She said. "I think it's a ship of some kind."
"Synthetic? You mean a ship? That's impossible Ciara. The UNSC does not have any operations within Jupiter that I am aware of. And I'd be the first to know." He replied as he took another sip of the wretched coffee.
Suddenly the command deck doors hissed open and eight groggy crew members entered rubbing their eyes. "This had better not be another fuckin drill. I'm sick and tired……" The crew member shut his mouth and just stared in unison with his colleagues at the view port.
"The hell is that thing?" Asked a crewmember. She sat down at the telemetry station and tied her tangled brunette hair into a ponytail.
Ciara reappeared on the pedestal. She closed her eyes for a moment in thought as she processed several data routines. "The probes are in place. I have a visual of the object."
"Show me." Said Lynch as he stood up and turned to examine a large monitor.
The large screen came to life and revealed something odd. It was some sort of long rectangular object suspended within the gaseous body of Jupiter. Rectangular wouldn't best describe it though. It definitely resembled a ship of some kind but it had several tower like protrusions, and relay dishes. The surface material appeared to be metallic and was extremely shiny. "Ciara, magnify the image, I want to get a better look at what this thing is made of. And while you're at it get me in touch with ONI. They're going to be interested in this." Said Lynch as he stood up and approached the view screen.
As the screen changed to show a close-up of the objects surface he noticed several strange symbols on its outer hull. "I have a telemetry report on the object Lieutenant. The object is approximately 3000 kilometers in length and 800 kilometers wide. It is definitely a vessel or some sort of station, but the technology is not registered in any known UNSC files. This object is not of human origin. I would further theorize that the …Lieutenant I'm receiving some sort of transmission coming from the object." Said Ciara.
"Let's hear it." He responded.
The control deck was suddenly filled with a high pitched squeal that made the crew's ears burn. "Cut it off!" He yelled over the shrill blood curdling noise. Ciara was quick to comply. She was about to offer her analysis of the transmission when suddenly the Gagetown shook violently as though some invisible hand had grabbed it and shaken the station like a baby's rattle.
Lynch was violently thrown to the deck like a rag doll. He stood up confused and tried to look around but his vision was clouded with blood. "Report!" He cried out.
"The object just hit us with some sort of focused energy weapon. All sub systems and communications have been nullified. I recommend abandoning the station before we are attacked again.
Negative. It's hostile, whatever it is. Prep the MAC. We're going to take a chunk of this thing." He said as he tapped several buttons on his console.
Ciara didn't verbally respond and instead, quickly began prepping the firing controls. The Gagetown's deck vibrated with a soft hum. "MAC gun is prepped sir."
"Fire at will." He said as he gripped the armrests of his chair until his knuckles turned bleach white.
BOOM! The deck plating rattled as a round shot out towards the object. It struck the dorsal section of the object and bounced off like a bullet ricocheting from a granite wall. It did however tear off a rather large section of antennas and other unidentified protrusions.
The object responded with a second strike of focused energy which sheared away the Gagetown's secondary solar wing. The station trembled from the hit, and new alarms blared throughout the installation.
"We've lost the number two s-wing. We can't take another hit like that…" The engineering officer said in a trembling tone.
Ciara examined her telemetry reports. She focused on a bulbous, dome like section toward the aft of the object. "Sir! I've found a weak spot." She said.
"Exploit it." He didn't even have to wait for her response. The deck rattled again as their second round hungrily shot towards it's target. The shell pierced the dome perfectly. The resulting breach of the object's hull sent it spinning out of control. A massive cloud of oxygen sprayed out of it like a fresh puncture wound gushing blood.
"Critical hit! The object is out of control inside the gas giant." Said Ciara.
Second Lieutenant Lynch was about to respond to the AI's recommendation when something on the view screen captured his attention. An intense glowing light was building up on the nose of the object. "Oh shit." He thought as the light morphed into a long beam of purple hued energy streaking outward toward the station at an alarming rate. "Lieutenant: brace yourself!" Cried the AI. However, her warning was in vain. In a matter of seconds, the beam struck the Gagetown followed by a blinding explosion reminiscent of a nuclear flash.
The crew members rushing to repair damages to the bridge never knew what hit them. The energy collected around the station, which in turn imploded on itself. The power within the beam intensified and detonated the Gagetown into a massive shockwave of molten hull plating turned into space born shrapnel.
What remained of the UNSC orbital station floated in a long streaming trail of debris strewn all about Jupiter's orbit. Immediately following the violent explosion the energy beam trailed back to its source at the nose of the object. The lights dotting its surface flashed a bright shade of red, then a deep blue before flickering into darkness as the object powered down and vanished into Jupiter's atmosphere.
Simultaneously as the Gagetown detonated, in the course a nanosecond Ciara executed her counter measures. She subconsciously downloaded herself into a sub-space file transfer. In a state of existence only a shipboard AI could understand the following took place:
Begin/counter-measure-Ciara-Backup Alpha-1…done
A.I.-compression-done…Shipboard AI intact.
Begin emergency-transmit/REACH….ONI Section3…. Begin-Send/Priorityone
All crew dead. Station compromised.