Earth, February 2, 2538
Vice Admiral Preston Jeremiah Cole, one of the leading military leaders against the Covent war, sat in his flag office on the Valiant-class super-heavy cruiser UNSC Everest. He looked over at Earth, sitting perfectly in his view while his ship hovered near the Orbital Defense Platform denominated Cairo Station. The blueprints for the station containing the new Super MAC, a MAC gun theorized to destroy or, at the very least, punch a hole through any ship the Covenant could produce. The major problem was that they were expensive to build and maintain. Cole had wondered if they could be put on a ship when they started making them. But the power requirements for a ship would be expensive and cost a lot of resources that they could use. Not as much as a Punic class, but still costly. Another idea was to place them in places with significant fields of fire and lure a Covenant patrol into an ambush. But the order was rejected due to the cost and time it took to assemble them on-site.
The Admiral saw another patrol of C709 Longswords fly past and into the vast void as his thoughts went to recent events. For the last two years, Cole and his battle group faced humanity's greatest foe, the Covenant, a massive religious hegemony of multiple alien species that completely controlled a large portion of the Orion Arm. He has faced them and won numerous engagements against them with various casualty rates. This last engagement didn't cost his fleet much regarding ships or manpower but munitions. He split his group in half and sent half with him to Earth and the other to Reach for repairs and armament. While also getting his men some much-needed R&R. They deserved it.
Returning to his reports, his ships would be rushed back into service within a standard month. He was content with the timetable as it would destress the crews and look to see about any updates from HIGHCOM. The Inner Colonies were getting hit hard, forcing the fleets to spread out so much that it cost them ships, resources, and personnel. It was an uphill battle straining UNSC supply lines and logistics capacity. The battle line constantly shifts along with their supply points. Sometimes the supply ships don't reach the new address and end up in now-held Covenant territory.
While he was thinking up new ways to get supplies out in the field. A loud alert echoed throughout the room and snapped him awake.
"Alert! To your stations! Admiral Cole to the bridge!"
The old officer hopped up from his desk and moved to the hallway. It wasn't long before entering his ship's bridge. He saw his XO in the captain's chair, and when the two locked eyes, he quickly got off for Cole to take it.
"Report?" The Admiral ordered.
"Sir! An unknown anomaly just appeared right by Luna's defense grid unannounced!" An ensign reported. "Energy spiking from it is making the sensors go crazy. Cross-referencing with the ODPs confirmed they are experiencing it too." Next to Cole, a holographic display table lit up, revealing that of an 18th-century mountain man. This was Mega, Everest's artificial intelligence.
"What do you make of this, Mega?" The Admiral asked the AI.
"Scanners are on the fritz trying to decipher this mess, and I can confidently say this is not some slip-space accident. But nevertheless, it is giving off some crazy readings that are just out there."
"Is there anything we can do?" He asked.
"Nothing I can come up with at this time. The best we should do is let this pass. I wonder what the local news would think of this?"
"Admiral! Message from HIGHCOM, fleetwide." Another ensign shouted.
"Let's hear it."
"All ships are to standby and go to condition two. Condition one will be set if the unknown becomes hostile," the ensign read off.
In other words, be ready for a fight if it's the Covenant. Cole thought to himself. He hoped that wasn't the case as all the protocols he put in place so that wouldn't happen to be for nothing. He waited as his crew sorted through the data. Like Mega said, the scans were like nothing they'd seen. Then a golden light flashed brightly next to Luna like a second sun appeared in Sol. Cole and his staff had to look away before Mega closed the bridge's armored shutters.
"What the hell was that?" Cole muttered. Blinking away the black spots in his eyesight. "Statis on the anomaly."
"It's gone, Admiral. All energy has disappeared and... hold on." His stop drew everyone's attention to him as the hologram concentrated on something. "That's...sir, a... ship just appeared precisely where the anomaly was located."
How the third-generation AI was hesitant to speak drew confusion in the ranks.
"Show me."
"Bringing up long-range scans and imagery. You're going to love this, sir." On the bridge's main view screen lit up, the crew looked at the image in stunned disbelief at what they saw. Even Cole could feel his jaw slightly drop at the picture. The lack of a better description, it roughly resembles the ocean-going battleships from the twentieth century. "Mega, what exactly am I looking at?"
"It's something crazy that's what it is. From visual imagining, I cross-referenced it to several historical data sites and developed a match of 83% correspondence. This tug resembles the Yamato class battleship the Japanese Imperial Navy used in World War 2." Cole remembered the ship in his history class of naval warfare back in his OCS days on Luna. The largest battleship in wet naval history that none wanted to face but was sunk by American aircraft at the war's end. Some would say it was also the final nail in the battleship superiority as nations invested more towards aircraft and aircraft-based ships. But that still leaves the next question. "If so, then who built this?" Cole wondered.
"Sir, I have Admiral Harper on the line." The Coms operator announce.
"Patch him through." The main view screen changed, revealing an older man in UNSC Navy white dress uniform. "Admiral Cole, I assume you're seeing what I see over by Luna?"
Cole nodded to the fellow Admiral. "I do, and I'm both baffled and intrigued by what I see."
"Same here. I received word from HIGHCOM, and they want to know if they pose any threat. I want you to take the lead on this and go investigate. Find out who they are, where they come from, and if they are the source of that abnormality that just happened. The fifth fleet will support from afar while the Home fleet prepares for any hostile contact." Harper ordered.
"Understood, Cole out." The screen was replaced back to the lone ship. "Sound general quarters and set to condition yellow, get everyone to their stations. Get the Everist moving. Contact the Roanoke, Sound the Call, Atlanta, and Abrams for deployment. They are coming with us to investigate that thing. All other ships are to link up with Fleet Admiral Harper."
It was a short trip for the five UNSC warships. When they were within the 5,000 Km range. Cole split his group with the Everist would stay behind with the Roanoke and Atlanta, his two Hillsborough-class heavy destroyers, while the Sound the Call and Abrams, two Charon-class light frigates, move in closer for a better look.
"Sitrep," Cole reported.
"Reading minimal power functions coming from the ship. Systems, including life support and gravity, appear to be operational. Live feed coming in from the Abrams now." Mega showed the visuals coming from the frigate and showing an unbelievable sight.
It was like looking at old historical footage from a bygone age. If Cole looked at it from a broader view, he could see that its main batteries were out at their firing arcs, definitely fighting whatever came at it. Ready to give full broadside to whoever was willing to challenge their might.
"Damn, she looks like she's been through hell," one crewman commented.
The vice admiral silently agreed. Damage was sighted all over her from visible sections where the armored buckled from pressure, odd gun batteries missing from their turrets, and scorches Cole recognized from seeing similar damage from Covenant plasma. There was a major breach from the top deck in her bow section, where it looked like something ripped right through and came out the bottom port side. It wasn't done by a MAC round, as it would be more circular. This looked like something crashed through it. That was then the camera angled to view for a better view of its underside. And what was sticking out of it?
"What in the world." Cole raised a brow in confusion.
Sticking out the ship's starboard, it looked like a sword pierced its side. Only if the said sword was the size of a Prowler. The design was hard to describe as the blade portion was a series of overlapping lines that shaped diamonds that could be seen through, the hilt had big thrusters, and on the cross guards were set of some triple shot turret emplacement. One thing that made it clear as it was not made by human hands, as no one but the insane would design a ship like that. Even the Covenant would not make something like this.
Cole didn't like it. "Any radio traffic?"
"I'm reading a faint signal from the battleship's communications relay. Or I think it's one. I can determine it's an IFF of sorts like what we used but way outdated. I'm isolating the signal and prepping it for decoding." The AI announced.
Looking back at the sword-shaped ship. The sight of that thing alone was giving Cole a bad feeling, one that he often trusted. But it only came from that sword ship, not the wet navy ship. Like it spoke of a history that was not meant for his ears. Why was that? The questions were starting to pile up, and he and the rest of HIGHCOM needed answers.
"Have the Sound the Call deploy her ODST detachment for a boarding action. Get on that ship and find out what this thing is and where they come from." Cole's orders were relayed, and all they could do was watch.
"Yes, Sir. Also, I've got a visual description on its starboard side, just below the observation tower." The Ai reports.
The image changed again to the ship's other side. There faded out in white paint what looked like an old wet navy ship anchor. In fact, having a closer look further up its bow showed that its anchor pulled. This means that a size ship could land and take off in bodies of water. Cole remembered a ship idea of a similar nature somewhere back on Reach years ago before the war was proposed, but no ship-making company wanted to take up the project. So, it was mostly forgotten and scrapped.
Mega soon pulled next to him. "Sir, I've decoded the signal. Bringing it to your tac pad." He pulled it up and looked it over.
"UNCF BBY-01 Yamato." Admiral Cole read aloud.
"Just like the ship of old but given an unbelievable overhaul. Although, sir, I'm unable to recognize the origination to which the Yamato is from."
"Just another question to add to the pile." Cole deduced. Already feeling a migraine starting.
The frigate moved parallel to the WWII ship and seeing the two ships side by side gave the UNSC personnel a better understanding of the ship. The Yamato reached 333 meters in length, while the Sound the Call dwarfed it by an additional 160 meters. Soon Pelicans with teams of ODSTs flew out of its hanger bays and latched, belly first, onto the unknown ship.
Inside, several teams of humanities best entered through the exposed sections and airlocks. As they cleared the areas of the Yamato, the teams found signs of post-firefights in the corridors against some tall robots. They were at least two & half meters tall and were painted blue on their body, torque painted on the arms, and lightly armored. The soldiers couldn't pinpoint any obvious weapons on them, but they were significantly damaged and riddled with bullet holes.
Finding where the gunfire came slightly surprised the troopers. Before them, several down forms of green armored suits and a few armed with rifles of an unknown make. The team quickly searched for survivors and found none living. Under one helmet, they saw a human man of Asian descent. Further back, the team found what looked like a combat model of a cyclops exo-suit with the pilot dead inside. This wasn't the only incident, as other groups reported similar cases across the ship.
On the Everest, Cole listened to everything the boarding teams were relaying. Everything he was hearing was putting a clear picture of what went down.
The battleship had partaken in a fierce battle. How big against who is another matter. The fight took them within knife-fighting range. Not a risk any commander goes in lightly. But their enemy did and got to the point where they boarded her with nonorganic units. A wise alternative if he ever heard to avoid wasting lives, but still a gamble no less. Then, an anomaly happens during the battle and engulfs the ship, taking it to Earth and setting off every radar in the system.
"Admiral, the teams found a survivor!" Cole looked at the monitor and saw one of the ODST teams find a woman in a purple and gray flight suit sprawled out on the deck in what looked like engineering.
"Your order, sir?" The ensign asked.
"Rescue and recovery. I want her recovered and ready for debriefing. The same with anyone else found, and that goes the same with those robots. I want to know where they came from, why they came here, and who they fought with. Send traffic."
Just as the order was given, one team entered the central observation tower and the bridge. Two more survivors were found together in each other's arms and unconscious. One male wearing a white and red uniform, and the other in a yellow and black. The ODSTs quickly checked them over before transfusing them back to the fleet.
Once the Yamato was cleared of hazards, she was dragged off to the closest drydock. Where the UNSC as a whole was about to be shaken to the core once more.