1410 Hours, September 10th, 2186 (Alliance Calendar)

Voyager Cluster, Gateway

Cerberus Forward Operating Base

Bullets and burst of energy crisscrossed the corridor as the last of the Cerberus resistance fought to maintain control of the Alien Structure. Two troopers and a Centurion maintained cover behind the corners at the entrance to the massive room beyond, while a Guardian hunkered behind a shield at the center.

Shepard, Vega and EDI continued fired down the corridor, unable to advance. Shepard considered this a moment, a plan forming. She hunkered behind the wall and began giving orders. "EDI, on my mark deploy a hologram behind them. Once they are distracted I will deploy a singularity. Vega, once that is done, Vega you move up with your shotgun and deal with them while they are suspended in air."

Vega swapped weapons, drawing his trusted N7 Piranha. He gave a predatory grin, "You got it Lola."

Shepard chuckled, firing a few extra burst from her Particle Rifle in order to draw the attention of the Cerberus forces. Giving a nod she moved to the side for cover, while EDI popped out and extended her Omni tool long enough for the hologram to be deployed before going back into cover. EDI raised her Geth SMG and pointed it towards the wall. The Hologram mimicked this motion and looked as though it was raising its weapon to fire.

The Cerberus forces took notice and spun, firing at the Hologram. With the fire from down the hall momentarily diverted, Shepard spun around and deployed a Singularity above the Troopers, pulling them all off their feet. Vega sprinted down the corridor, crossing the distance as the Singularity field collapsed. He quickly dispatched the Troopers and spun from side to side, scanning the room for targets. He called over his shoulder, "All clear."

Shepard and EDI began to move forwards as the radio clicked on, "Shepard, its Tali. Garrus and I have taken the Control Center. I am reprograming the defense network now. Any Cerberus ships that try to approach are going to have a bad day."

Before she could reply Javik cut in, "The Command Center is secure. Liara is signaling the Fleet. They should be here any moment."

Shepard smiled a little at the efficiency of her team, "Good work everyone. Stay on guard. Cerberus may have left some surprises for us."

As she cleared the corridor and entered the room that Cerberus tried so hard to defend. It was rather bare save for a few consoles that Cerberus had brought with them. The room was the same grey metal as the rest of the structure. The only thing of interest was a black circle at the center of the room. It looked to be made of highly polished onyx.

EDI and Vega formed up behind Shepard, as she crossed the room towards one of the terminals. As she crossed over the circle, she glanced down for a moment and felt as though she was looking into eternity.

"Fascinating", Edi commented as she walked over the Circle.

Vega only grunted, "I don't see what the big deal is. Just a big empty room". The he stepped foot on the circle. Suddenly the whole room lite up. All three of them instinctively brought up their weapons. Above them a holographic representation of the station floated. Around the large circle holographic displays showing strange symbols appeared, awaiting use. Vegan gave a whistle as he lowered his rifle, "Okay… Now that is something."

EDI approached on of the consoles and studied it a moment, "These symbols do not conform to any languages within the Alliance database."

Shepard looked about, fascinated. She looked up towards hologram above. There were symbols in certain areas, clustered together around a certain part of the one of the arms. Even as she looked she spotted more symbols appear over a different arm.

"Could this be a tracking system of some sort?" Shepard said as she pointed towards the two clusters in question, "That first group has the same amount of ships we know the Cerberus Fleet has. The new cluster must be our fleet."

EDI considered this a moment and nodded, "That seems to be a likely theory. This place will be most useful to our forces as we study this installation."

Vega looked up a moment in consideration, then pointed towards the arm across from the Alliance fleet, as new symbols began to appear, "Ok, so what are those?"

Shepard saw this as well. The symbols were different than the ones over the Cerberus and Alliance fleet, "If only we could zoom in and find out."

Vega blinked a moment then looked towards a console. Without thinking he reached out and touched a symbol. The hologram suddenly shifted, zooming in on new fleet of ships.

Shepard turned towards Vega, "What did you do?"

Vega blinked, feeling confused, "I'm not sure…. When you said zoom in, I just somehow knew what to do. I have never felt anything like that before."

Shepard looked towards the console a moment, then up towards the holographic display of the new fleet. By the looks of it there was not one, but two different fleets. One fleet was made up of ships that were bowling pin shaped, the largest of the ships present was of that same characteristic. The other fleet was more varied, of different shapes and sizes. The hologram was no detailed on the textures, but four letters stood out that she could understand.

U-N-S-C

1430 Hours, September 10th, [Date Unknown] (UNSC Calendar)

Voyager Cluster, Gateway

Onboard Covenant Supercarrier, Avatar of Truth

Henr'ak Takalu stood before the bridge holo emitter, studying the vessel that they had nearly crashed into when passing thru the slip space field. Shortly thereafter, Fleet Master Grenar 'Kelacal had invited the Jiralhana representative to the bridge to be a part of the conference that was about to begin.

Henr'ak looked towards the clock display, taking note of the [Date Unknown] scrolled out in the universal language of the Covenant. Slip Space was always a tricky thing when it came to time. Intense Slip Space distortions have been known to throw ships forwards or back in time, but in this place that did not matter. Time could be moving faster or slower. Thus the year would remain [Date Unknown] for the time being.

Henr'ak turned, his attention diverted by the sound of the bridge doors opening. Admiral Churchill and Major Lopez entered the bridge. They approached the group in silence, but before the meeting started Lopez set a small UNSC long distance holo emitter on the table. When activated the AI for the lead UNSC vessel Agincourt. The holo image was of a human male with a beard and a strange uniform. Apparently it was a representation of a famous human general named Thomas Jonathon Jackson, or Stonewall Jackson, from a war referred to as "The United States Civil War".

All those present gathered around the war table, a holographic image of both Gateway and the unknown ship appeared.

Fleet Master 'Kelacal began, "As you all know by now, Gateway is surrounded by a powerful Slip Space field. We believed that the mechanism behind this phenomenon is located here."

The location in question was at the center of Gateway. On the Ark this area was used to build replacement Halo arrays. On Gateway there was a massive ball approximately 6214 miles round, with three spires at the top that seemed to glow constantly.

"The purpose of this mechanism remains a mystery to us. Regardless, that mater can wait," Grenar pressed some commands on the display, enlarging the image of the ship called Normandy.

Admiral Churchill spoke up, "We have analyzed the information our sensors managed to get from the ship before it withdrew. At this moment we are at a loss to explain it. The ship does not match anything in the UNSC records. We considered the possibility that it belonged to one of our rogue colonies, but that to does not make sense as their ship would at least have technology similar to our own. This Normandy does not."

Jiralahana Chieftain Revar growled, "Or perhaps you have been lying to us human! Looking to betray my people and the Sangheili out of such a great prize!"

Henr'ak had considered that for a moment himself, but that did not make sense, "Had the humans wished to study this place in secret then they would never have told us of it in the first place."

Lopez gave Henr'ak a nod, while the Chieftain Revar stewed.

At this point AI General Jackson spread his arms and spoke up, "Gentlemen, I beg you please contain your excitement. Every action we take here is together. Thus this enterprise will either succeed or fail together." The AI folded his arms a bit, but brought his holographic hand to pull on his holographic beard as if to think, "Now, we also know there are two other fleets in proximity of Gateway. Currently their attentions seem to be on one another, and they are engaging in small skirmishes. That can change quickly. Now, I suggest we fortify our hold on this section of Gateway, in the event these strangers decide to perform their own version of Battle of Front Royal."

Henr'ak did not understand this reference, and suspected the other non-humans would not understand as well. Regardless, the idea was sound, "We have been scanning our sector of Gateway and have discovered several positions that can be fortified and held. If I might be so bold as to recommend that each of our groups send forces to different key positions, as to rapidly secure the target bases."

The leaders of the Fleet all considered this plan and agreed.

Elsewhere on Gateway

Deep beneath the surface the Gravemind laughed to itself, as it saw all of the doings of its thralls. The forces called Cerberus, the sour meat, was doing all it could to contain the spread of the Flood, but even now they did not know their efforts wore in vain. Time had taught it patience, and it was patient. Soon someone would make a mistake that would lead to their eternal damnation.

With the arrival of the two new forces, its chances of escape were increasing by the moment.