Halo: Wrath of the Humans
Chapter three: Ambassadors and Diplomacy.
ZR: Here ya go readers, chapter three! Much discussion in this one, I nearly fell asleep from the drawling discussions.
Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Halo, nor Homeworld.
"Are you sure this is wise?"
"You know what the prophecy said yourself General, they need our help."
The general sighed, "Your right Karan, They need our help more than they realize." The General clicked the COM button, "Ambassador crew be ready to depart in thirty minutes. I repeat, Ambassador crew, be ready to depart in thirty minutes." He turned to the holographic projection of Karan S'jet, "Do you wish to go as well?"
Karan replied, "No, I'll remain here. I will be part of the conversation."
"Of course Karan."
Thirty minutes later the Ambassador's shuttle launched from the Pride Of Hiigara, escorted by Alpha Squadron Interceptors. It was a short flight to the naval docks, considering how fast they were going. Off to their right, the crippled flagship was now swarmed by techs in EVA suits. Several tubes connected to the ship to the docks, as well as three gangways.
In front of them, the Naval docks spread out to their left and right. As they closed in, a large metal door opened, and red light began flashing one on either side of the door. A set of instructions appeared on the pilot's console of the Shuttle, and on the Interceptors, instructing the ships to dock in the bay.
The shuttle and its escorts slowed as they approached the large door. Once they entered, metal claws grasped each ship, and the door eased shut. The large metal claws slowly lowered the ships to the deck. Once they touched the bottom, the bay pressurized, and the door leading to the interior of the docks opened enough for three people to walk through. Two were heavily armed MPs, the third was Admiral Whitcomb.
As they approached the ships, the five interceptor's hatches opened, allowing the pilots to step out. Each held to what appeared to be a small rifle. Then the Ambassador and his pilot stepped out from their ship. The shuttle pilot, like the other pilots, wore a flight suit that had a robin's egg blue to it. Upon the left breast, was a peculiar insignia, and again on the shoulders. The Ambassador however, wore robes with blues of all shades and tints. His head was shaved bald, and he had no facial hair what so ever. Upon his forehead, was tattooed the same insignia as the pilots on their flight suit.
He stepped forward to the Admiral and his guards and bowed, "Greeting I am Ko'ota Soban. I am the ambassador for the Hiigarans."
"So your race, the Hiigarans, came here and assisted us when we received no foreword of your arrival."
"Correct, we've been watching you for some time now. Almost two years now. When we saw what was happening here, we decided to make ourselves present."
"Why now, and not sooner?"
"We saw that your forces were heavily outnumbered, and that this planet is of great importance to you. Is this your homeworld?
"Humanity's? No not this world." Whitcomb turned back toward the door, "Come, this isn't the place to talk.
"Agreed. Lead, we shall follow."
Whitcomb led the Ambassador out of the docking bay, through a series of hallways filled with pilots, techs, and marines. Each stared at the Hiigaran pilots, but more so at the Ambassador. After taking a short ride down an elevator, they arrived at another shuttle bay; this was the shuttle to planet side. However, this was the Admirals private shuttle, and was to be escorted by three Long sword Interceptors. The Admiral led the Ambassador onto the shuttle, along with both their guards. Once the shuttle bay was clear of personnel, the massive doors opened, allowing the shuttle, along with the escorts to leave the bay, and head toward the planet.
Deep underground, within the HICOM facility, the Defense council waited, save for Whitcomb, who was to meet the Ambassador. Along with the Defense Council, was the Master Chief. Dr. Halsey requested that he be present at the meeting, in order to fill in the Spartans on what was discussed. He stood behind the desks of the council, he was here to observe, and nothing else.
There was a small beep at Lord Hood's terminal. Hood answered and listened to a small voice, "Yes, bring him in," he replied softly. The doors opened, and light spilled into the room briefly, silhouetting a man in robes, then closed behind him. John's eyes adjusted to the dim light, but the screens for the defense council played hell with his vision, so he could barely see his facial features.
A light snapped on, showing where he would sit, directly in front of the council. He had his own, however small, table. Another light snapped on, following his progress to the table. As he sat down, lights snapped on over the council, and Whitcomb as he sat down at his seat.
Hood cleared his throat before he spoke, "So, exactly who are you?"
"I represent the Hiigarans. Many decades ago, we were one of the greatest civilizations in our galaxy. But something happened to our race that led us to our banishment," he reached into his robes and drew out a light-blue box. He placed the box onto the table, "If you could please dim the lights." The lights in the room dimmed to a low glow, "Thank you. Now," he activated the device, and a holographic projection of a spiral galaxy spilled into the room. Members of the council awed at the clearness of the projection, "We were banished to a remote system, on a planet called Kharak, near the edge of the galaxy," the projection zoomed in to one of the arms of the galaxy to a desert world, with only a few patches of green near the poles, " WE stayed there for many years. WE eventually forgot our past. Then after finding an ancient city built around a large ship in the desert sea, we discovered a way off our accursed world, and a map to our home planet called Hiigara. The way out of the system was called Hyperspace."
"What is Hyperspace?" asked a female officer.
"Hyperspace is another dimension, where our ships can travel faster than the speed of light."
"Just like Slipspace," remarked Ackerson.
"Slipspace? No, much different. Your slipspace capabilities are limited to the fact that you can't travel much faster than light, and that your accuracy is very poor. Hyperspace allows us to travel thousands of times faster than light, and have pinpoint accuracy. We can traverse great distances of space in a relatively short period of time."
Ackerson's face grew slightly red from embarrassment. The Ambassador took no notice, "We back engineered the technology found within the ship, and created our own ship, we incorporated the original hyperspace core into the ship we built, called the Mothership. The Mothership was designed to deliver six hundred thousand colonizers, along with the crew of the ship, back to Hiigara, "The mage now showed the first Mothership, almost identical to the one above their heads, "It took us twenty years just to complete the construction of the scaffolding for the Mothership, and another sixty to complete the Mothership."
"How do you control a ship that size? And so many ships to control as well?" asked an Admiral.
"I'll show you...or better yet, I'll let Karan show you," the image changed once again to the face of Karan S'jet. The council member were startled at her sudden appearance, "This is Karan S'jet. Since no AI could control the ship, Karan decided to incorporate herself into the Mothership directly."
"How is this even possible? How is it that you can incorporate a human's body into the ship directly?" scowled Ackerson.
"I was the leading scientist for nano technology," replied Karan calmly, " WE used nano technology to incorporate my body and my mind into the ship. In a sense, the ship and I are one."
"Almost like the Mjolnir armor, interesting," thought John.
"Tell me, what is this Mjolnir armor?"
"How do you know about the Mjolnir armor?" said Hood imploringly.
"That man behind you said the this 'Mjolnir' armor is similar to the Mothership. Since he probably knows more about it, I want his answer."
The defense council turned to look at the Chief. He looked at Hood who nodded.
"The Mjolnir armor was designed to create the 'super' soldier. The armor uses an interface that translates thought into motion.. Basically one has to think the action, and one does the action. However the armor multiplies the users strength, and speed so greatly, that a normal human would die from his own pain-induced spasms if he broke any bone. That's why Spartans, such as my self, who are augmented to use the armor."
"How many Spartans are there?"
"Only thirty, but we can take on hundreds of covenant soldiers with only a handful of us."
"Interesting. You may continue Ko'ota."
"Thank you Karan." Ko'ota then told of the Hiigaran's voyage across the galaxy to their home planet. He told them of the Beast and its terrible power, and he told them of the war with the Vaygr.
After he had finished, many were stunned, including Ackerson. Hood however, was not. He clasped his hands on the table, " Thank you Ko'ota. I'll have Cortana send you the data on our history and technology."
"There's no need. We've already gathered enough information on your technology."
"Explain how you did that," growled Ackerson, his face growing red.
"When we entered the system we gathered the information. We, more or less, hacked into your system, and gathered the information we seeked. Histories, technology, star charts. Thing of that nature."
Ackerson's face grew even redder, that this race hacked I to their systems when they weren't looking.
"Now, about your fleet. WE can upgrade your ships to be up to our standards."
"How so?" asked an Admiral.
"We can upgrade your armor, install shield technology, much better than the covenant technology. Also, we can add mass drivers and Ion cannons to your arsenal."
"Ion cannons?"
"The cannons use charged ions," The image change to the picture of an Ion Frigate, "The advantage of this is that you can change the frequency of the ions to match that of the enemies shields. Thereby literally passing through the shields completely."
"Pass through the shields? That alone could turn the tide of this war."
"We can also aid you in the construction of your own Mothership vessel if you wish."
"Like the one you showed us?"
"Yes. The Mothership is able to construct any ship class, except Mothership class. A moving shipyard, if you will."
"If you excuse us, we would like to discuss this privately."
"Of course." The ambassador stood, bowed and exited the room.
It was another fifteen minutes before the Ambassador was admitted back into the room. When he entered, only Lord Hood was there, standing near where his desk was, "We've discussed our options and have decided that we accept your offer. And we accept you offer to aid us in the construction of a Mothership"
"Excellent, very good. What shape would you prefer it in?"
"I believe we will leave that up to your engineers."
"Very good. Where do you wish the ship to be constructed?"
"Earth, it would be a serious morale boost to the humans."
"Ah, I see. Very well, we'll see that the scaffolding is delivered as soon as possible. In the mean time, why don't we upgrade your fleet?"
"Thank you, you don't know how much this means to humanity."
"You're welcome. And there is something I need to tell you."
"Yes? What is it?"
"It seems in our search that we've discovered that one of your officers is conducting some, illegal actions," he gave Hood a small disk, "This contains all the information you'll need on him. I hope justice will be wrought on his terrible deeds."
ZR: oww..the pain..my hands hurt...oww...HOPE YOU LIKE!