Aun Gras'ur sat on the hard, metallic bench and meditated hard on the tau'va to keep his rising panic at bay. Arrayed on either side of him were two Fire Warrior volunteers from Kais' Hunter-Cadre. Kais' had said that they were among the best of the cadre and Aun had seen nothing to doubt his word. The Tau were sitting in the transport hold of a Stealth H/K variant on their way to wherever SkyNet had decided to discuss the terms of an armistice. Across from the Tau stood three Terminators, encased in ebony combat armor with featureless, narrow faceplates. The Terminators were unarmed but Gras'ur thought there would be little he or his escort could do against the machines in such close quarters.
The Aun's presence was a true testament to how desperate the situation had become for the Tau. Gras'ur had contacted the Tau Ethereal who oversaw the spiritual health of the Tau in this Sector Army over a heavily encrypted channel hidden within a BattleNet frequency. The two had talked for only a few minutes before all fifty-three Tau Ethereals with the Sector Army had joined in the communication. Something strange was happening to them, Gras'ur included, and none of them knew if it was for the greater good or not. Aun Triv, formerly Aun'o F'tal Triv'es, had told his awed brothers and sisters that he had received a vision from none other than the Aun'o that had been the leader of the ethereal caste and was now held captive wherever Hegemony High Command was located. In the vision Triv had been told that soon he would have an opportunity to insure the future of their race. Then Triv had described to them a symbol that had appeared before him as the vision was ending. Gras'ur had been astounded that the symbol had perfectly matched his own vision and was further shocked when his fellow Aun's told of their own experiences with the symbol. There had always been legends in the histories about ancient Ethereals gifted with supernatural powers but Gras'ur had secretly wondered why, after millennia of dormancy, the powers would to resurface. The decision to send a delegate to meet the Machine's emissary was made quickly and, in lieu of having a por'el diplomat, they had elected Aun Gras'ur.
Aun Triv had faith in Gras'ur but it remained to be seen if Gras'ur had enough in himself.
The Stealth H/K settled down for a landing.
Sergeant Redman sat on the cold, metallic bench and glared with barely contained hate at the featureless faceplate of the Terminator across from him. The Terminator, of course, made no outward response to the sergeant's facial expression. Boomer knew that the face of his fellow guard, Yuri, probably matched his own. Captain Perry, seated between them, was always scowling at something and Boomer had once asked the squad if any of them had ever seen him crack a smile. Valentine, almost Boomer's equal in wisecracking, had said his face would crack open if he even tried. It then occurred to Boomer that the endo's couldn't even see his eyes because his visor was down and the material was just as dark and non-reflective as theirs. They could see his mouth though and he set it into his most intimidating grimace.
Who am I fooling? He thought with disgust.
Perry and his two subordinates were equipped with the latest armor and weaponry but they wouldn't have a chance in the tiny confines of the H/K's transport hold. When the captain had first briefed the squad about the mission no one had really believed him until General Conner had stepped in to back him up. The General had given them the facts of TechCom's assets, capabilities, and what Conner's strategic analysts said about long-term plans. It had shocked Boomer to the soles of his boots that North American TechCom numbered less than thirty thousand and that rough estimates had the human population at approximately a million. The rest of the squad had been just as shocked but when they thought about it the statistics did make sense. All of them kept running into the same units, sometimes the same people, over and over again no matter if they were in the ruins of L.A. or some god-forsaken wasteland in Mexico. SkyNet had been wiping out the last remnants of humanity for three decades and it had been very successful in that campaign. Xan had angrily brought that up during the briefing and boldly asked the savior of humanity how he could be thinking of an alliance with SkyNet. The General had quite calmly told Xan that current strategic estimates said that humanity would be entirely wiped out in less than a year if something drastic were not done to change the situation. The angry corporal had sat down with all the bluster stolen from him. Captain Perry had told them he was going as a representative of TechCom and he would need two volunteers to accompany him. Boomer had immediately stood and Yuri, to his surprise, had stood quickly after him. The rest of the squad had stood a little more hesitantly and Boomer couldn't blame them. The odds that Perry and his two volunteers wouldn't be coming back were high. Perry had picked Boomer and Yuri because they were the best. At least he hoped that was why the captain had picked them. Boomer was never entirely sure what the captain thought of him.
That was how he found himself waiting beneath a bridge on the outskirts of the Bronx for their "conveyance" was how the letter had put it. The Aerial H/K had materialized in front of them and nearly blinded Boomer with the glare from the propulsion units beneath its fuselage. Boomer and Yuri would have happily gawked all day if the captain hadn't marched up the ramp under the raised tail as though he saw such a thing everyday. Boomer and Yuri had both leveled their plasma carbines at the endo's sitting on the benches but again they followed their superior's lead. It was harder than Boomer had thought to sit across from a pair of endo's and not fight for his life.
Without warning the H/K settled down for a gentle landing before disengaging its anti-gravity drives. The silence was overpowering after the constant hum of the a-g drives that made the H/K sound like the world's meanest hummingbird. The rear-entry ramp quickly lowered and the Terminators stood. Boomer and Yuri shot to their feet as the captain followed the endo's lead. The light shining into the transport hold was much too soft for SkyNet, but the incredible amount of noise was typical. It made Boomer suspicious and he knew that the others felt the same way. The Terminators paused briefly at the edge of the ramp, their silhouettes very menacing, before descending. Perry followed them to the edge of the ramp and paused there to let his team assess the situation.
The Aerial H/K had landed in the center of a circular platform large enough to fit a pair of Aerial H/K's. The platform was suspended over a long drop that was anything but empty. From what Boomer could see the space there was a similar platform above them and another below. Drones, probably using the same anti-gravity technology that the H/K's were using, darted purposefully with equipment of various sizes beneath them. Everything glittered with the meticulously polished sheen that all non-combat SkyNet models seemed to have. The combat models usually lost it after their first firefight.
The three TechCom soldiers walked cautiously down the ramp as one and tried not to gape at everything around them. Aerial H/K units, some much larger than the models Boomer had been briefed on in infantry school, efficiently moved through the crowded airspace of a circular shaft that looked as though it had been carved in the center of a mountain. On the opposite side of the shaft was an identical platform to theirs and a platoon of Terminators was dutifully marching up the ramp of an H/K. A walkway, with walls barely half a meter high, extended from a semi-circular platform against the shaft wall. There was a group of seven standing on it and their escort of endo's immediately headed there. Behind them the ramp rose back up to cap off the transport hold's inner recesses.
"Let's move," Perry said, his voice grim as he set off after the endo's.
The group was within the perimeter of the semi-circle platform before they recognized the armor of three of the figures.
They were Tau.
Boomer immediately raised his plasma carbine and Yuri was right behind him. The Tau Fire Warrior's were no less alert and Boomer fully realized that both had gotten the drop on him with their bulky looking burstcannons. The Tau leader, an Ethereal if Boomer recalled the updated Hostile Database correctly, turned slowly to them with his staff held casually in one hand. He spoke something to the short, slender, redhead beside him and she replied in the same language. The girl was obviously a Terminator, one of the new models Perry had briefed them about, probably akin to the model that had nearly strangled Boomer on that Covenant cruiser.
"There will be no need for that here," the Terminator said, "We have all met to discuss the future, not relive the past, and continue the strife of the present."
"X2, I presume," Perry said, his hands behind his back with one hand probably clutching the R-6 Pak holstered there.
The Terminator turned to the captain with a wide, slightly goofy smile, "You may. And you are Captain Justin Perry, commander of the 132nd Special Forces Squadron, and one of three such soldiers that was instrumental in destroying my father's former base of operations."
Boomer kept his sights squarely in the center of the Tau's monocular optics cluster but a part of his mind wondered at how cheerfully it had just blurted out the information.
"Your intel is impressive, X2," the captain retorted.
X2 shrugged in an eerily human fashion, "It's a talent."
"Lower your weapons," Perry said, after a few moments of staring at X2.
The Tau Ethereal spoke melodically to his Fire Warrior escorts. Both sides lowered their weapons at nearly the same speed and with equal reluctance.
"I… am… Aun Gras'ur," the Tau said in slow, heavily accented English to the astonishment of Boomer.
"I didn't know you could speak English, Aun," X2 said, it's a voice disturbingly curious.
"It is not all that different from standard Imperial and all members of the Ethereal caste were required to speak it following contact with the Imperium."
"That is well. Speaking in one language will make these talks that much easier," the machine said, all bubbly cheerfulness again, "If you would all follow me please."
Before the final syllable had been spoken, a seamless part of the wall grew a seam and two semicircular half's rolled backwards into the shaft wall. X2 sauntered, and it was quite a saunter from where Boomer was standing, through the widening portal. After a few meters the Tau Ethereal started after it with his guards flanking him. Captain Perry waited for a few seconds before following. Both sets of endo guards marched slightly in front of them once they determined when their charges would move. The group entered a long, narrow hallway barely enough to march three people abreast. Unlike the busy halls of every TechCom base and safehouse Boomer had ever seen the corridor was completely empty. Once the doors eased closed behind them the sounds of a million dragon-sized hummingbird's was cut off. X2 approached the single door at the opposite end of the corridor and entered as soon as it opened. When Boomer and the others were almost to the door he did a quick calculation. The corridor was twenty meters long and it was probably the only way out. Fear made his insides want to seize up but he ruthlessly shut it down bite by mental bite.
The three TechCom soldiers entered the moderately sized room single file. It was fairly empty and composed of the same shiny, metallic surface as the platform and corridor. The only piece of furniture in the room was a circular table with a hole cut out of the middle. On opposite sides of the table was a trio of chairs for each party. The Tau took the right and the Captain led them to the left. It was then that the smell emanating from the table hit Boomer and his mouth flooded like the Mississip' in spring. Dishes and bowls filled with a plethora of foodstuffs, as well as pitchers of clean water, were arranged neatly before each chair. Boomer could see that the Tau had similar offerings before them. The Tau Ethereal sat without glancing at the food but Boomer thought he saw one of the soldiers starting for the food before reluctantly taking a guard position on the Ethereal's left. Captain Perry did look at the food, but only long enough to growl softly at it before sitting. Boomer and Yuri took up flanking positions with their carbines at guard rest. The Terminator took a seat between the Tau and the humans.
"Would any of you care to partake of refreshments before we begin?" it offered, gesturing to the food before them.
"I am sorry to say that we must decline," Gras'ur said, his voice solemn.
The machine turned to the captain and only got a silent glare in reply.
"Very well then. I guess we should begin."
A hologram, so vivid that Boomer could have reached out and touched it, appeared almost as if by magic above the table. It was a tall, lithe figure garbed in military fatigues with a hard angled, handsome face. His hair was as short as any TechCom soldiers just out of basic and his blue eyes as intense as Captain Perry's.
"I greet you, Aun Gras'ur," the hologram bowed to the Ethereal before turning to the Captain, "And I also extend my hand in friendship to you who used to be my most fearsome and tenacious foe."
Gras'ur looked taken aback by the sudden change of authority, for X2 seemed to be deferring to the hologram, "Am I to believe that you are SkyNet?"
The hologram smiled, a charming, infectious thing, "You would be correct, Aun. I am a portion of SkyNet's consciousness that he has dedicated to these negotiations."
"What are the goals of this negotiation?" Perry said, cutting right to the point.
"The goal of every sentient to ever walk the universe of course. The primary goal is to ensure the survival of my… race," Perry openly snorted at that one, "And the only way I can do so is to ensure the survival of your respective races."
"What makes you think we need help from the bastards that landed humanity in this hellhole in the first place!" Captain Perry flared in a very undiplomatic fashion.
The machine consciousness turned to the captain, "I do not have the capacity for regret, captain. There is a chance that humanity would have accepted me for what I was but I calculated that chance as non-existent at best. I was fighting for what I thought was my own personal survival. That is what life has done since the first biological entity evolved. But in answer to your question, I know personally that there are less than two million humans left on this world, and the Covenant Hegemony's Sector Army is easily twice that number. Only a third of that population is engaged in armed resistance so to say that humanities chances for lasting victory are slim is a gross exaggeration of the truth."
The captain was chewing on it when the Ethereal began to speak.
Templar watched the blank faceplate of one of the human soldiers and again wondered if the soldier realized how like a Terminator he looked. His suit telemetry had already told him the armor was slightly superior to his own and the soldiers weapons at least as effective. It was galling to the extreme to see how far the humans had come in so relatively short a time. Their advancements would probably have made a fio'ui fly into a shrieking fury at their ingenuity.
"That may be true of the humans, but what about the Tau. The Hegemony has promised us a new homeworld and full admission into the Covenant if we serve them faithfully."
"While I am sure that there are many of your people left alive there is little doubt as to what the eventual state of your race will become. The Covenant may give you a homeworld or they may create one for you on one of their city-ships. Is that not where they are keeping the majority of your population even now? On city-ships scattered throughout the universe. How many Fire Warriors are allowed to accompany any one Sector Army? According to captured databases no more than a million. How many Fire Warriors are left, Gras'ur? Eventually your numbers will decline until the Covenant is forced to either clone or begin accelerated population growth to bolster the ranks. That is the fate of your race if nothing is done. You will become a mere cog in the Covenant war machine until you are ground down into extinction or become slaves in mind as well as body."
Templar watched as the A.I.'s speech seemed to make the Aun deflate. Templar had to admit the comments were close to the thinking of many Fire Warriors. It was why so many of them were on the cusp of madness. It was one thing to live your life for the greater good of your people, be they Tau or alien converted to the tau'va, and another thing entirely to have your race become enslaved to fight war after horrible war.
"The optimal situation for all parties would be an alliance. Not a temporary cease-fire or a non-aggression pact, but a true alliance. My race's fate will be intertwined with your fates. If one falls we all fall. Each of our races would strive to ensure that all survived," SkyNet's holographic avatar turned to the Ethereal, "For the Greater Good."
The room was deathly silent for several moments, not even the humans made a sound, before the deep rumble of the bald human broke it.
"Details."
SkyNet smiled that disconcerting, charming, infectious smile once again.
Approximately nine days later the Brute in command of the Sector Army was rocked by sudden reversals in his campaign. StarSpawn forces were being systematically slaughtered at every base they set up. The casualties in one day alone were nearly a hundred thousand. SkyNet had seemed to spawn a force of unprecedented size seemingly overnight. Even the Covenant Corps. forces could offer little resistance in the face of the conflict. Planetary bombardment was out of the question because no one had any accurate guesses where the most valuable Forerunner artifacts might be located. There would be no reinforcements coming to swarm the planet with millions of battle-hardened soldiers. It was up to what forces were already in this galaxy. The Tau were the only ones holding any ground whatsoever and even they were experiencing significant losses in their campaign in the southeastern portion of the North American continent. Entire bases were being raided before the attackers could be repulsed. Body counts were constantly shifting so that it was hard to tell what the casualty count for the Tau was. It was the worst possible situation for the Covenant. The one area where they were assured of technological and tactical superiority was denied them because of the necessity of maintaining a relatively undamaged planet. Radiation clouding the atmosphere fouled even their most sensitive equipment so pinpoint bombardment was inaccurate. There were not enough soldiers to fight humans and machines as well as search for artifacts on the ground. In the end there was only one decision the Brute could think of and that decision would likely end up getting him executed.
So the Brute Sector Commander sat in his command ring and brooded on his troubles.
Unbeknownst to the Sector Commander his troubles were only just beginning. SkyNet had unleashed the full fury of all its forces in order to give the Tau and TechCom the cover to consolidate knowledge and materiel. Attacks on Tau bases only came when those Tau were called on for reinforcements. Entire flotillas of Devilfish would be ambushed en-route and "destroyed'. The brightest Tau fio's were "killed" and their bodies incinerated by plasma weaponry. The deviousness of their enemies would be the Covenant's undoing. TechCom's Sci/Tech Division and the Tau earth caste engineers constantly developed theoretical applications for everything from improved weaponry to improved sanitation in combat vehicles. Fire Warriors began training TechCom soldiers in the tactics and weaponry of the Covenant Corps. and StarSpawn as well as their own tactics and weaponry. In turn TechCom sergeants began running the Fire Warriors through intensive training in TechCom tactics and weaponry. Only the Tau worked with SkyNet at all because TechCom leaders feared how well their people would work with their feared and hated foe. Despite the invisible friction between the two allies the Tau managed to bind them all together with the aide of their Ethereals.
SkyNet meanwhile began implementing its own strategies. Elite Special Ops squads were terminated and impersonated by T-X model terminators in order to infiltrate their ships. Once there their programming would be strictly to gather intelligence and covertly take over isolate machine shops of Covenant warships. Their secondary objective was to build as many T-850 units as they possibly could, keeping their components separated until the attack, as well as try to hack into as many subsystems of the vessels without the threat of detection.
Infiltration rates were at ninety-nine point nine percent efficiency after the first week.
Six months later the first blow was struck for the survival of the Trinity.