A sacred oath chapter 3: Shipyard, Awakening and a new life.
Hi everybody still alive?... Well I can't really hear you so let's just pretend that you are!
I would really like to thank a brave man who has managed to correct the syntax of this story, it is because of him that you can read this chapter today.
A big thank for my beta-reader: gaara king of the sand
And I thank you, reader for keeping to to read this story and following it!
And a special thank for the comments that will help to improve that story! (Particularly this Guest who explained more about how the relays and ships worked in ME.)
And yes, Shepard and Chief will meet, not now but they will.
And Yes, there will be some romances in this story…
Here come the third chapter from A sacred oath: Shipyard, Awakening and a new life.
Beep,beep,beep,beep…
"Wha-What is that sound?" Jane Shepard tried to open her eyes but didn't succeed in this task. Luckily for her, her ears seemed to be in a functional state as she heard.
"There. On the monitor. Something's wrong."
"Monitor?!Am I in a hospital?"
"She's reacting to outside stimuli. Showing an awareness of her surroundings."
That last sentence made her try again to open up her eyes, however this time, she did succeed. A white light and a dark-haired woman for first sight.
"Oh my god, Miranda. I think she's waking up."
"Damn it, Wilson! She's not ready yet. Give her the sedative!"
"A sedative?!"She wouldn't mind going back to sleep, she was soooo tired.
"But I have so many questions to ask? Where am i?"
"Shepard! -Don't try to move."
"Just lie still. Try to stay calm."
"No!I want to know where I am…Where is Kaidan…Garrus…Tali…Joker…?"This name unclenched a shock through her whole body as she remembered what happened!
"I…died…I died alone in space."
"Heart rate still climbing. Brain activity is off the charts."
"Stats pushing into the red zone. It's not working!"
"Another dose. Now!"
"Heart rate dropping. Stats falling back into normal range."
"That was too close. We almost lost her."
Those words did send a shiver right through her spine…She didn't wanted to die again.
"I told you your estimates were off. Run the numbers again."
As she felt her eyelids fall back and the sounds blurred again, covering the two others humans, one last question came through her mind.
"I died alone in space…So why am I here?"
Then she was resting again.
"We will arrive within the shipyard perimeter in twenty minutes Chief, go take the Pelican H-09 and go there, i will stop the Dawn at three hundred kilometers from it."
Chief nodded to his holographic friend before going toward the hangar number four where his ride was waiting for him.
He didn't pass the nines days, waiting around and doing nothing, instead he helped Cortana doing some primary reparations to the ship. They had been able to restore pressure into some part of the warship, allowing him to move by walking instead of moving around while floating weightless in space.
He did use that time to train and exercise too, readying his body after four months of rest did a lot of good to him, both physically and mentally.
After all, Spartans were made to fight, not rest.
As he reached the Pelican, he checked it one last time to be sure, even thought there was no use for it of it as he already did it 14 times before but he never liked risk.
He entered the craft and installed himself on the pilot seat in the cabin he quickly turned the machine on and Cortana's voice entered through his inner com:
"Okay Chief, I've began to decelerate, the Dawn shall be in position in ten minutes, I sense no transmission of activity from this station, enter inside, go the main control room to insert my sub-program, it will allow me to take over this station and put it under our control, after that we shall be able to repair the Forward into dawn in a more effective manner."
"Roger that Cortana, open the hangar bay, I shall leave immediately."
"Understood Spartan, don't do anything of reckless for once." The soldier smiled to his friend rant and began to put the mighty metal bird in the airs.
"You are only 10km away from the station Chief!"
"I read that Cortana." As the warrior got closer, he could verify the data sent by the probe during his stay on the "Dawn " about the shipyard. And at first glance it seemed that they were right.
"It's …Big."The station was 2.2 Kilometers in height, and during all of it, several levels of it was of several hundred wide, each of them full of engineer drones made to create and repair spaceships."Cortana, do you receive that?" Asked 117.
"Yes, Chief. It does seem that there are still some ships docked into the station. Can you go to the other side of the station? I would like to inspect the damage that it received."
With those words, the Spartan drove the Pelican to the other side, where the station has been attacked. He could see some craters, coming from a local weapon, but the damages didn't seem too big to destroy the station or make it useless.
Cortana kept looking at the station before giving her opinion.
"Hmm, it seems to be a summation shot…I suspect the Geths , the hole look like it was here for only a few century, which means that it could have been fired at during the morning war."
"Why do you think it to be a summation shot? The station has been stricken, not intentionally avoided."
"Normally I would agree with you, but from the data that I got from the probes, it looks like when this place was hit it wasn't personal. They shot only once."
The meaning of those word slowly came to the human.
"Only once? And in a non-vital part of the shipyard? Why didn't they keep shooting? It does seem like the Geth possess a good firepower. And Quarians are their enemies. If they destroyed the station with thousands of Quarians aboard, they would have gained a big advantage in this war." Cortana stayed silent for a few seconds before finally giving her answer.
"Maybe…Maybe that they didn't want to kill them. Maybe that they just wanted them to leave."
John kept advancing the Pelican closer to the station while thinking about that.
"The Quarians wanted to destroy all of them; however, they didn't want the same fate for their creators. They just wanted to live. Just like for us and the Covenants, we just wanted to live…"
Right now, 117 felt a great sympathy to those synthetics being.
"Chef, I found an open bay. Big enough for you to land the Pelican. Follow the tracker, then go to the station, if you can upload me to the main control then we will gain a precious advantage in its place." He nodded and began to lead the aircraft toward the door of their new home.
"She woke up?"
"Yes, sir. But we hadn't finished all of the diagnostics, furthermore we haven't put the control implant and-"
"Miranda!-"TIM Cut Miranda off"-I did tell you that I 'don't want an implant on her."
"But sir, I must insist that-"
"Shepard didn't defeated Saren, Geths, Sovereign or any others criminals that had the bad luck to run into her because she was under control. But because of her willpower and determination. She is a free spirit, and everything to try to tame this spirit would only affect her efficiency when we need it the most." He took a long drag of his cigarette as his shiny eyes met those of the holographic form oh Miranda.
"Sir, like you said, she doesn't really like criminals, which is exactly what we are to the rest of the galaxy. I don't think that she will really be pleased to work with us."
He drank a good part of his drink before responding.
"She is smart…She may not like Cerberus but she will see that with the inactivity from the Alliance and of the Council that we are her best option if she wants to protect humanity and retrieve all those colonists. Furthermore, we are the only one worrying about the Reapers return…And they are probably not that far by now…"
It seemed like Miranda wanted to interject some more but decided against it and agreed with a small nod.
"Very well, I shall inform you if anything else happen." And she cut down the communication with her employer.
The Illusive Man sighed gravely to this and dragged his smoke enough to finish it; he quickly discarded it into the ashtray and grabbed another one.
As he ignited it, an only thought passed:
"It seem like my days will be more agitated."
"Its good Cortana, the Pelican is docked."
"Very well, Chief. Now grab some weapons and check this station. I didn't detect any life sign but we never know."
"Roger." He got up from the pilot's seat and go to the weapons rack.
He quickly checked the weapon on the rack and only found interesting choices:
Assault rifle MA5C
Shotgun M90A CAWS
Battle rifle BR55HB SR
Carbine M395 DMR
Sniper rifle SRS 99D AM
Handgun Pistol M6G
And of course, the impossible to miss fragment grenade M HE-DP.
Those weapons were the standards for almost every UNSC battle group near the end of the war, each of them were the top product of a "specie" (species) determined to survive extinction.
"Let's see, it's a station so a sniper rifle shouldn't be needed, but a DMR could be useful for medium to long range in case if something go wrong…However the MA5C…I'm not sure. I don't really know how their barrier responds to bullet and if my assault rifle has enough of power to break them. However very little things can stand a shotgun that fire 8 Gauge Shell."
Preferring to be wise, the Spartan grabbed the MA from his back and put it against the rack, and then he placed the DMR there instead.
"I will take the Pistol too, just in case .I do not really like having more than two weapons on me but in an unknown environment, it can save a life." He put the pistol to his hips, grabbed alongside four grenades before going to the back door.
He grabbed the powerful shotgun, kept it in one hand before reaching for the lever connecting to the door-
"Cortana, I'm heading outside…Now!"
-and pulled it down.
"Keep going straight ahead, Chief, and then on your left, you should see stairs, go up!"
"Roger that Cortana." The Spartan, still holding the killing-alien-shotgun moved quickly but in a quiet way through the different levels of the station, he checked every corridor, every turn and every rooms to be sure of not getting backstabbed.
He was already there for 20 minutes and he did find some good things for the Dawn he also found an armory, a refectory, and several ships in a bay that looked to be in good condition.
"Cortana?"
"Yes John?"
"Why didn't the Geth take over this station? It may not be the greatest, but it could have helped them to secure their space."
"I don't have much information on them, but I do suspect that it is because they simply didn't need it. Several Reports from the STG say that they have built their own stations, probably of a better quality than this one."
Seems logic; they didn't want any dead weight in their military defense.
As he reached the end of the stair case he saw something on the right. He quickly analyzed it before telling Cortana.
"Cortana, there are two bodies, seem like they are dead." He kneeled beside the formers living being and studied them.
It was two Quarians, apparently both genders, and in a space suit. The male was wrapped in the arms of his maybe mate; a long piece of an unknown metal stuck into his abdomen, the woman had several wounds on her left side, but it seemed that it was her who put them in this position.
"It seems that the male has been gravely wounded, the female tried to drag him to safety but he died on the way, she herself was pretty wounded and choose to rest."
"Maybe lovers…Or even brother and sister. Well at least they don't suffer anymore."Suggested the AI
"Yes…"The soldier got up and began to walk away from the two Quarians,but not before giving a last glance to the fallen couple.
"How many humans died in a similar way during the war? Millions? Billions? The Quarians deserved to be punished for their attempt at genocide of sapiens being. But their species doesn't deserve to suffer and be treated like that."
He kept walking during few moments when he came face to face to a closed door. He tried to open it by pushing the button an alien text on the holographic panel.
"Cortana! Can you translate it?"
"Of course, who are you taking me for?"
"Cortana…"
"Right, right, big guy. I give you that…right now."
"So?"
"It says: Door locked! Pressure leak inside! "It seems that we are in the area that has been hit by the Geths Chief. I should be able to unlock it then lock it back again after you go through but you will have to hurry."
"No worry Cortana, I'll do it."
"Ok, opening in 3…2…1…0."
Air was aspired by the empty room as soon as the gray doors opened. Chief managed to keep his ground and advanced slowly on the floor, but as he was through the doors, a certain AI closed them again. As soon that happened, the soldier felt zero gravity and looked up to find himself face to face with a quarian…Well, more of half of a quarian. The poor guy had all of the lower part of his body gone and floated lifeless in this room.
He was a little surprised but pushed the feeling aside as he examined the room he was in, it was a very big one, he could surely fit four Scorpion tanks on the floor and three Pelican to reach the ceiling. On the same ceiling a giant window that showed the black sea of space. And on the upside of it a hole of three meters of diameters that connected to the emptiness of space
"You're right Cortana. It is here that the Geth Attacked. What is this room?"
"It seems to be the Observation deck. They were at the first line of sight when they were shoot at and had the luck to see it coming."
"Ok."
"Now if this shipyard does follow correctly the same pattern of the others ones made by Quarians hands, then you shouldn't be that far from the control room. I send you a tracker, if everything is going smoothly, you'll be there in five minutes."
The man readied his weapon before responding:
"Since when do our missions go smoothly?"
It did seem that for once, that the mission was turning out to be smooth. As expected several Quarian corpses were found and another locked pressure door, he was now standing right before the locked door that led to the main room.
"Hmm, it look like they tripled the security of this door before leaving, it should take me a little longer than for the others."
"How much time?"
"About ten seconds." The Spartan rolled his eyes to this, which made the AI respond with a small laugh.
10 second later
The door opened, revealing a pitch black room, with the warrior helmet as the only source of light.
"Right there Chief, put the program in."
The Spartan advanced and met a large panel of control, it was several meters wide and it certainly contained everything that it needed to control and secures the station.
He saw a holographic panel and put his right hand on it, a second after, every sub-programs implanted let Cotana take the control over the station.
A hologram of the AI appeared.
"Whoa, it worked. I'm taking control of the shipyard. Over 63% under my command!"
"And the Dawn?"
"I'm still in control of it…Partially, my sub that I implanted there allows me to control only the main systems but it's a so it should be enough for now."
"Good, what about the rest of the station?"
"I am in charge of 96% of it. Some systems doesn't responds, it seem that the hit and time did more damage than expected. But we shall be able to repair them and take over the entire site ." The AI smiled to her partner, gaining control will certainly increase their percentage of survival.
"And the Dawn, will we be able to repair it?"
Cortana, smile tuned down at this.
"Well, we can repair it, even upgrade it…But…We will need Titanium…And in a great quantity."
The Spartan shoulder felled down but only for a nanosecond, he may do not know where to get Titanium but he would find out.
"Chief!" He glanced back to Cortana, a blue light emitted on one of the panel before being focally shot down by the AI.
"Something happened. When I reactived the main system of the station, a signal has been sent. "
"Sent! To who? The Quarians?"
"Yes. But I 'don't think that they will receive it. The frequency it has been broadcasting hasn't been used in centuries, I do believe them to not use it any, but just to be safe, we should move the station."
"To move the station? How?"
"Like that!" She snapped her holographic fingers and suddenly light came back into the room, and sound came from all around him, signifying the return of power going to the station. John approached the observation windows and soon so the entire shipyard illuminating itself.
"Chief, I will dock the Dawn to the station, I will need your help, then we will use her reactor to keep the station active until it can be independent again, do you agree to this for now?"
The soldier stared right at her before responding:
"Of course, Cortana,I trust you."
The AI smiled to her human.
"Very well then. First we shall-."
"Stop right there Cortana.
"What going on Chief?" She asked intrigued by the reason he had to interrupt her.
"Before we start working on the Forward into dawn and this station, we must do something."
"And this something is?" She asked with a curious and teasing voice.
"That!" The Spartan grabbed something from a pouch on his back and showed it to Cortana. When she saw what it was, a small smile appeared on her face.
Four minutes later, the duo left the room, who still had, attached to a wall, a flag with a mighty bird protecting a planet, and before this planet, four simple words: UNITED NATIONS SPACE COMMAND.
This shipyard, now belonged to the UNSC.
"And, you are sure of what happened?"
Two young Quarian shivered to the question posed by their officer, the captain Zola de'aresh Vaas Tiy delaziyaa , main officer of the Quarian ship Tiy delaziyaa. Ship tasked of communication, research of the missing, collect of resources and recon in unknown territory.
Zola, was perplexed by what his two subordinates just told him, an ancient move shipyard that hadn't been seen or heard from just started transmitting for a few seconds before being cut down. He glanced briefly to his subordinates before going back to his computer, where the data that they had sent him earlier seemed to confirm their story.
"Damn, an active shipyard station… It could be very useful to the fleet. After all every one of our ship are crumbling down." He sends a quick glance to his small observation window situated on the left side of his office. The neighboring ship, the Brave rider, couldn't last another ten years, and for his own ship, it would maybe be fifty to sixty.
"A possibility to get brand new ships would be wonderful…But this shipyard… The Keelay yee sorna. It has been floating in space for three hundred years, without any maintenance. I read there that it has been built only six years before the Geth Uprising, maybe that we can still manage to salvage some part of it or some resources. "He glanced back to his subordinates who were still as nervous.
"Did you tell anyone else about this?"
They looked at each other before answering:
"No sir, we thought that maybe it was a mistake and wanted to confirm it with you first."
Responded the Quarian on the left, a young female who came back from her pilgrimage not even a year ago.
"Good, we wouldn't want to make a bad surprise to the fleet, don't we?"
They shook their heads.
"Very well, then I will ask to keep this to yourself for now. Tomorrow I must go to my superiors to present my monthly report. Then I shall go there myself to see if it is true. But as said earlier, I don't want to make fakes hopes. So not a word of this, understood?"
"Yes, my captain".
"Very well, I shall contact you before I leave. Any question?"
"No captain, not a single one." Exclaimed the male, he was he has served Zola for a few years now and totally trusted his superior.
"Good, now go, you're dismissed."
The two youngsters Salutes before going back to their works. Meanwhile, a certain captain was readying for his travel that could bring back a better future for the migrant fleet.
End of the third chapter Shipyard, Awakening and a new hope.
Here is the end of the third chapter from A sacred oath:Shipyard, Awakening and a new life.
Thanks again to my Beta reader, the royal:gaara king of the sand
He had the courage to correct my text, and with the numbers of error it must have been hard.
Thank you, readers, for all yours support, in follows, favorites, comment and by the views, that keep this story going on^^.
The fourth chapter should be released in 7-15 days, I hope to see again^^.
And don't forget about the poll on my profile, apparently Cerberus is more liked than what I thought. (I would have followed him; the Council is annoying).