AN:Long delay, school, blah blah blah
ooooooo
Two salarians stood just outside a battered looking frigate, conversing in low tones, mostly so electronic bugs would have a harder time understanding them. They didn't worry about anyone passing by because there were none in this thoroughfare. A few operatives in very authentic looking, but very fake eclipse uniforms made sure of that. Very few people dared to bother eclipse soldiers on Illium.
"Is that all you found Lieutenant Ganto?" The salarian with an odd green coloring asked the other.
"All I could Captain, the freighter captain was using substandard probes and fled at the first sign of trouble. I didn't find out much more than the coordinates from her ship's computers." The other more normally shaded salarian brought up his omni-tool. What little I did find suggested that this planet was originally held by the humans, not the group using directed energy weapons. However the planet appeared to have suffered catastrophic damage, I would guess that little life survives planet side. The two dreadnaughts that attacked the freighter were likely there on a patrol in force or maybe it is a standard deployment for those races."
"Hmm and how are we supposed to sneak in while a pair of dreadnaughts hovers nearby?" The green skinned captain asked.
"If we approach from the far side of the planet and latch on to a piece of debris we could alter its course slightly, allowing for an observation of the dreadnaughts and the debris field from a position of relative safety. Though captain, if I may, why are we making a recon on this planet and not Shanxi where the turians got hit?"
"Politics mostly, though there's something to be said about gathering as much information as possible about potential enemies and allies." The salarian captain began walking up the boarding ramp to the frigate, "Assemble the team; we will be leaving soon."
The salarian captain's omni-tool beeped, he opened the interface and saw a message from his current superiors, the council. More accurately, an experienced military officer from C-sec, running this operation. The individual races' militaries could suffice to deal with most threats, but the reports that had come back from relay 314 had the council worried. They had pulled together any resource they could get their hands on. After all it wasn't everyday that the turian navy got its cloacae handed to them.
Which of course led to his STG team being assigned to council control. The captain marshaled his thoughts and read the message. He grimaced as he did so, and turned to look back down the alley. A few minutes later he saw the slim form of an asari walk up to him; she was dressed in simple civilian clothes, but hefted a large duffel bag with her.
"Captain Kirrahe I presume? My name is Nassana Dantius. The council wants a diplomat on the mission, I'm your diplomat."
Kirrahe's eyelids flickered several times in irritation, he didn't want to baby sit an asari diplomat on what should be a simple scout mission. If the mission went according to plan they wouldn't even be seen by the inhabitants of the target system. Still it wouldn't do to sour their relationship right at the start. "Yes… Have you been briefed on the mission?"
"A little, they wouldn't tell me much, but I'm to help with negotiations in case someone decides to talk instead of shoot. Don't worry though, I've served as a commando for a few years, I can pull my own weight in a fight." She hefted her bag over her shoulder after shaking hands. "This your ship?" She asked with a measure of incredulity in her voice.
Kirrahe felt his irritation spike a little at the tone of her voice. Unfortunately she, ironically, did not seem overly diplomatic. He could already tell this mission would be more difficult than originally intended.
ooooooo
General Williams, commander of all UNSC assets on Shanxi, stood over a holotable. The map showed marines and army soldiers trying desperately to hold the covenant back from one of the planet's cities. There were enough archer missile silos to keep the corvettes from moving in and leveling the city outright, but thousands of covenant troops had already slipped in past the perimeter and there simply weren't enough troops to hold back the main covenant push and defend the inside of the city from roving packs of brutes and jackals.
Williams balled his hands into fists and smacked the table out of frustration. There was just nothing he could do. Like every other battle with the covenant he was doomed to fighting as long as he could hold out. Every single slipspace capable transport had left the planet as soon as the prowler assigned to the system failed to report in. They were running to one of the remaining inner colonies. Williams didn't know which of the handful of other surviving worlds they would travel to. He wouldn't have boarded the transport even if he wasn't needed here. He had grown up on Shanxi and was determined to stand and fight for his planet.
The covenant didn't make it easy though, even as he watched part of the defenses surrounding the city crumpled and covenant contacts poured in through the breach.
An aide tapped him on the shoulder, "Sir, call for you, from a lieutenant Richard Hall, of the prowler To Kill a Mockingbird. He's calling from contact point alpha."
Williams frowned; contact point alpha was where the invasion had started, right by capitol city. Communications from that battle were sketchy at best; the covenant assault carrier had shown up right as reinforcements made it to the capitol city. What reports he had gotten suggested a different covenant race than those ONI had given out reports on.
The General looked back at his aid and nodded, "I'll take it in my office."
Williams stood behind his desk and took the call after shutting the door. The fuzzy image of a prowler crewman flickered into view, stabilizing and becoming clear. The man was still wearing his armor; a few days worth of beard and a plethora of scratches and small cuts completed the picture. The lieutenant saluted, and Williams returned the salute, "Situation Lieutenant?"
"POW technically sir, you probably won't believe it, but they aren't covenant. In fact at this time their landing zone is under attack by a corvette. They've got about a dozen troopships, maybe a few thousand troops, pinned down by that covie ship. The brutes are trying to take them out on foot. Corvette isn't doing anything but keeping them from running right now. Figured you might have a few longswords lying around?" The spook gestured behind him and an alien walked into view. "General Williams, this is General Septimus, commander of the… 5th Expeditionary fleet?"
Williams smirked; he caught the message in the spook's earlier statement. A few thousand more civilians could be evacuated off planet. That was assuming he could take control of their ships. Knowing time was of the essence he quickly weighed his options. He could do nothing, save his strength and bleed the covenant as long as possible, or he could make a gamble, send out his last longswords to take out the attacking corvette, use those fighters to keep the aliens from running and maybe, just maybe get a few more human souls off planet. It was a gamble, the lieutenant could be lying, it could be a covenant trap, the aliens could leave the longswords in their dust and run away, he might not be able to take their vessels from them. Many things could go wrong, but then again he didn't really have anything to lose.
Wouldn't hurt to talk to the alien general before trying anything though…
Despite being obviously non-human, it didn't look nearly as alien as any other covenant race. The alien nodded and spoke, a strange flanging sound accompanying the words, "General, I have to say, when I was ordered here I didn't expect any of this."
Williams scowled, "Assuming you aren't covenant, you did invade one of our colonies without provocation. Karma just bit you in the ass."
His blunt statement didn't faze his opposite number, "Your ship was poking around a mass relay. My superiors in the hierarchy might have overreacted to that, but my job is to follow orders not question them."
Williams leaned back from the video screen, "And my duty is to save as many souls as I possibly can, failing that, to make the covenant bleed." He leaned forward again, "Longsword fighters and Shortsword bombers will be en route within the hour, I trust you will accept their offer of escort to our lines?"
To the alien's credit he saw immediately what Williams was saying, Williams couldn't be sure, but he assumed a scowl passed over the alien's face, "Well, it would seem I have little choice. Hopefully we will last another hour."
ooooooo
Tali followed along behind Shepard and the human called Rodriguez. They walked as part of a much larger group, the six sangheili, the other human, Joker and Liara. The massive hunter, the one that Shepard had somehow convinced to switch sides, ploughed their path through the ash dunes.
Rodriguez started up a conversation "So, what's your story? You aren't covenant, that much is obvious, but you aren't human either. Tell me your fleet is waiting around to give it to the brutes?"
"No, the migrant fleet isn't anywhere near here, and I doubt the council would help if they've even heard of this sector of space, more likely they would just try and blockade the mass relay leading into this sector of space." Tali replied.
"Council? Migrant fleet? You're speaking Greek to me."
Tali frowned, not recognizing the saying, "Am I going to have to give a history lesson to everyone I meet?"
"Right… never really thought of it that way, suppose it would be a pain to explain the history and back story of the United Nations Space Command Army every time I met someone." The human's visor didn't polarize like the armor worn by Shepard and Joker, and she could see him smiling behind it. "That would be a pain in the arse."
Liara dropped back and joined the conversation, "This probably sounds odd and a bit off topic, but did this planet have any ancient alien ruins? We would call them prothean if that helps."
"What is with aliens and ancient ruins of dead races?" Shepard asked no one in particular.
"She is an archaeologist Shepard, it's kind of expected." Tali looked at Liara, "Though, I'm kind of curious too, that was the original reason we were out here."
Shepard shrugged, "I dunno, if there was it would probably be under section III's control anyway."
"I know," The white armored Sangheili said from up ahead, "This world like many human worlds is rich in the artifacts of our lords. Trying to secure one such artifact is why we ended up stuck here."
Tali frowned underneath her mask. It was bad enough when hanar went on and on about the enkindlers, but they were relatively harmless and uncommon. These Sangheili on the other hand were vicious combatants, stronger than a krogan and extremely aggressive, but they didn't seem nearly as religious as the hanar. Of course, she already had plenty of proof of what their religion drove them to do. She looked around at the blasted landscape of what was once a living planet.
She snapped out of her thoughts when Liara started speaking again, "Artifacts on all the worlds controlled by the humans? Prothean artifacts are extremely rare, only a few dozen worlds out of the hundreds known to council space have even a small prothean outpost."
"That is surprising…" The sangheili officer replied, "It is said that our lords' empire stretched the galaxy, and that they left behind their artifacts in order to lead the faithful in their footsteps; to find the sacred rings, and begin the great journey anew."
"All the prothean relics I have explored have been generally buried or in out of the way places. In fact all the evidence I have found makes it seem as though something wiped out the protheans, and systematically tried to destroy all evidence of their existence. I had not thought that they may have tried to purposefully erase their existence." Liara brought a hand to her chin in thought.
Tali was about to interrupt, but Shepard place a hand on her shoulder and motioned her to be quiet. She shook her head, apparently even after thirty years the humans still didn't know exactly why they were being attacked. It just seemed unfair, thirty years of death and destruction and they didn't even know why. Tali began to feel an unexpected emotion… pity. She inwardly laughed at the notion, a quarian feeling pity for another race? It seemed ridiculous.
The Sangheili with the large translucent visor continued the conversation, "If what you say is true human," He addressed Liara as a human, neither Tali nor Liara bothered to correct him, at least not right away, "That would mean that our lords… left their technology for the humans to find, as well as us. I'm starting to think that the prophets did not betray us, instead they betrayed the gods themselves." The soldier shook his head, "To think… that heretic Sesa'Refumee may have actually been spouting some truth after the destruction of the first ring."
Tali sighed; not really understanding what the sangheili were talking about, the conversation was hard to follow. Liara, on the other hand, even with the face concealing mask looked as if she was hanging on every word. Finding another species that knew the locations of prothean artifacts and had their own theories on that extinct race must have been a dream come true for the scientist.
To Tali, however it quickly became boring. Luckily they arrived at the bunker in question after only a few more minutes, during which the archaeologist rambled on excitedly while the soldiers mostly ignored her.
Tali stood in front of the door, which at this point was a melted twisted mess. She looked up at the massive… hunter, as Shepard had called it. Tali wasn't quite sure yet if it was any more intelligent than a varren, it had a gun, yes… but only the sangheili seemed to understand it, and even then only vaguely. The alien rumbled something in its language.
Odeg walked forward, "He says his weapons might still open the doors."
"Please tell him not to shoot it again… It looks like the hinging mechanism might be damaged… I don't know if this door will open normally." Tali shook her head, "Maybe if I had a few more tools, and more time than how long the filters on my suit can keep squeezing oxygen from this air…"
"Nah, they're fake hinges, the hunter didn't do much more than fuse the edges of the real door to the sides. I remember that from my stay here. Wouldn't have the real deal on the outside of a bunker now would you?" Rodriguez walked up to the edge of the door and ran a hand along the outline, peering into the cracks left by the melted metal. "Yeah, we built these things tough, take a bit more than a fuel rod gun to knock them out." He held out a hand to Odeg, "Your sword please?"
"My sword?" Odeg stood up straighter; an expression Tali was beginning to realize signified surprise, "For what purpose? That weapon is a relic passed down from shipmaster to shipmaster."
"Yeah," Rodriguez turned to look at the sangheili, "It's also really good at cutting things, I should be able to get this door open with it, and without destroying the internals of the door so it doesn't seal permanently shut."
Odeg looked like he was going to argue, violently, he held the hilt in his hand, and had a tight grip on the weapon before he finally let out a breath and handed it to the human.
"Thank you; now… let's get this door open."
Tali stepped back and watched the human get to work. The plasma blade was damn efficient at cutting through the thick metal holding the door shut. She found herself thinking about its use as a tool on the fleet and rolled her eyes, remembering the dead bodies chopped to pieces that were left anytime she had seen Odeg in action. That sword might be an efficient tool, but that was definitely not its primary purpose.
She soon found herself in a bunker, feeling oddly at home. It was probably the crowded feeling she got from standing among the rather large sangheili in a room made for humans, the hunter was waiting outside of course, but the room was still crowded. Joker shut the inner door and removed his helmet, coughing a little in the swirling ash left inside the bunker.
"Well, that was a fun little trip, we should do it again real soon," The human smiled at his own joke.
Tali noted that the elites, and strangely Liara had not seemed to get the joke; they stared at the human pilot with blank looks on their faces.
"Tough audience eh?"
Tali shook her head at the pilot. "No, just a bad comedian."
The three humans laughed at her statement, she crossed her arms and stared them down. Shepard seemed to take the hint, though as he took off his helmet he was still smiling.
"Alright Rodriguez, where is this comm relay, I need to contact Artemis." The newest human directed Shepard to a computer along the back wall.
Tali found herself with nothing to do, so she explored the interior of the bunker, taking note of the archaic looking computer systems and large gun rack, while ignoring the stares directed her way by the Sangheili. Eventually one of them spoke up, "You are not human are you?"
She turned to face the elite, "Wasn't that obvious?" She asked, waving her three fingers in front of her.
"Not as much as you might think," The hulking alien replied, he held up his hand as well, displaying four fingers on the limb, two of which appeared to be opposable thumbs. "Though I admit, in close proximity the differences are much more obvious." After an awkward pause he spoke up again, "So, how did your race come to be allied with the humans?"
"We're not, as far as I know I'm the only quarian to ever see a human, didn't you hear this when we were discussing the topic earlier?" Tali brought up her omnitool and her codex, forgetting that the sangheili didn't possess one.
"I joined the conversation late if you remember, I only heard of a council."
"I have a codex here on my omnitool… oh, right, I forgot, you don't have an omnitool do you? Of course not," Tali sighed, "Do you want a short explanation or do you want to wait for the longer one?"
Before the Sangheili could reply Shepard called out to her, "Tali, can you work on getting that security door open?"
"Duty calls," Tali shrugged and walked away from the Sangheili. She came up to the door. The only security device seemed to be a small holopad to one side. As she approached it lit up with a grid of glowing lines, "You are not authorized for entry civilian. There is a planet wide emergency in effect, please proceed to the nearest evacuation transport. Warning: Covenant forces are deployed across the planet, seek a military escort."
Tali tapped on her omnitool as a way of thinking. This was obviously a VI, not an AI. That meant it couldn't be reasoned with, but it could be hacked. Unfortunately that task was made difficult as humans didn't use standard mass effect based computer systems. She tried a few different programs, but they either didn't do anything at all, or were rebuffed. Giving up on the software approach she grabbed a small tool from her belt and began taking off the holopad. Sending the right signal would probably get the door open.
A thought struck her then… all she needed was the right tool. She waved the Sangheili ultra over, "You have a sword right? Can you cut through the door?"
The alien soldier chuckled as he pulled out his sword, "The simple solution?"
"Whatever works," Tali responded and backed away. Four careful slices later and the Sangheili caught the door as it fell inward, lowering it to the ground with a clang. Tali walked into the next room almost happily. It appeared to be a research lab, one that had been evacuated in a hurry. Bringing up one of the computers she was disappointed to learn that it had been wiped as the researchers had fled.
There were a handful of pieces of armor scattered about on workbenches. They were similar to the ones Shepard and Joker had been wearing when they first met on the station. Strangely the techs hadn't made much of an attempt to destroy any physical evidence, merely the computer files. Here and there pieces of half disassembled parts lay out in the open. What appeared to be crude hand drawn technical drawings and equations lay scattered about the workspace.
She wasn't entirely sure, but the schematics seemed to be for some sort of temporary plasma shield. Others appeared to be for miniature fusion batteries, still others for some sort of artificial muscle system. Fascinated she sat down and began looking through all the notes and drawings. The technology wasn't truly more advanced than Eezo tech, the fusion battery, while it provided six times the power of the contemporary source in her suit, was roughly eight times a bulky. She was so engrossed in her task she didn't notice the commotion in the rest of the bunker until Joker tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped at the touch, earning a laugh from the pilot.
"We've got a ride, someone from something called a special tasks group came here, not entirely sure why, but it sounds like you've got a ride home." The pilot smiled, "They'll get here in an hour, so… you know wrap up here I guess."
Tali's good mood evaporated, she remembered why these humans were so anxious to get back to their world, their race was facing the same fate as hers, if not worse. Tali didn't really know what to say, so she simply didn't say anything, and returned to gathering all the leftover bits and pieces in the research lab, though now in a much more somber mood.
ooooooo
Captain Kirrahe paced the deck of the frigate. It was a salarian design, and as such had the command stations at the center of the craft, along with the control systems. He sat back down in his chair. No point in fretting about what he couldn't change; his crew would tell him if they spotted anything of note in the system.
It was only a few short minutes before their probes finally came within range of the target planet. Everything was as expected, except for the notable lack of any active ships. There were plenty of dreadnaught sized vessels in the debris field surrounding the planet, but none appeared active. Only three vessels appeared as if they could be in working condition, and of those only one was dreadnaught sized, another the size of a frigate, and a third the size of a cruiser, though it had major structural damage. All of them appeared to be human. None were similar in appearance to the unknown aggressors.
Kirrahe leaned back and took in the view of the debris field, watching as the screen updated every few minutes. The field was mostly random, the result of a battle individual pieces of wreckage would drift the way they were moving when the ship they used to be had died, all normalized into an orbit by the planet's gravity.
All the bits of wreckage drifted along these random paths. All except one.
The salarian leaned forward again, "Bring up grid 45.2," It took a probe slightly less than a minute to get into position. The image brought up was that of a large block. It was the dreadnaught identified earlier, a particularly ugly looking vessel bearing the scars of its last battle. Unlike the predatory designs of the turians, or the smooth elegant designs of the asari, this ship was just a slab. A particularly large barrel from a mass accelerator protruded from one end. The ship's surface was covered in smaller weapons emplacements. Every so often the ship was broken up by a landing bay of some kind.
"Ugly to be sure, doesn't have much on the Destiny Ascension I'm afraid." Nassana crossed her arms over her chest, looking far too comfortable in her hard suit than a diplomat on a combat mission should.
Kirrahe suppressed a sigh, and glanced over at the asari diplomat, "Yes aesthetics do not seem important to these humans. However this ship is the only vessel in the field that is maintaining a geosynchronous orbit."
"Survivors then?" The ex commando uncrossed her arms, "Maybe they fought off those other two dreadnaughts."
"Two dreadnaughts with directed energy weapons versus a single dreadnaught that does not appear to even have kinetic barriers? Unlikely." The captain was about to continue when the operative in charge of their scan of the system interrupted.
"Wreckage detected from multiple dreadnaughts, all appear to be the same style as aggressor dreadnaughts. One such wreck is still warm from whatever destroyed it."
Kirrahe ignored the self satisfied smirk the asari shot his way. "Interesting, but where is the other ship?"
The crewman paged through several more displays, "Unknown sir."
"Wait until the human dreadnaught is on the other side of the planet from us then take us in close, avoiding the debris field." The salarian captain leaned back in his chair; it would be several long, boring, hours until they began moving.
The trip was boring, at least for the first two hours.
A beep from his omni-tool brought him out of his bored stupor. A new message… That should have been impossible. They were laying comm buoys behind them true, but those buoys were currently disconnected from the extranet. He looked up, other members of the crew seemed to be getting messages as well, a ship wide broadcast of a message obviously innocuous enough to be routed to every omnitool on the ship. He couldn't think of anyone on the ship that would play such a prank, which left either a ship that went through the relay previously or survivors from Dr. T'soni's ill fated research mission.
He looked to the message again and brought it up on his display, no designated sender, which made it even odder that spam filters hadn't stopped the message.
Hello,
Assuming I haven't misjudged my transmission strength, coding, and such things, and that my guess towards your origins is correct, you are the crew of a small military scouting ship from the citadel species. I have to say, I'm a little surprised that a military vessel would be sent after an archeologist and an engineer, seems a little over the top.
I suppose I might as well get to the crux of the matter. I'm the acting captain of the Halcyon class cruiser, Dawn Under Heaven, and I could use your help. Send a reply to this message to contact me.
Artemis
To an observer, Kirrahe would have seemed frozen as if in shock from reading the message, but his salarian mind was racing at a mile a minute. The implications of the message were many, One of them was that the asari researcher was still alive and in contact with the humans. The second was that the humans appeared to be vigilantly watching even dead worlds, and third, by far the most important, humanity already seemed aware of the citadel, which implied even more.
The salarian captain nodded at his comm officer. The man had read the same message and knew what to do.
"Well, it looks like I'll have a job to do after all." The diplomat commented dryly from the back of the command bridge.
Kirrahe was saved from further conversation with the asari as his technician brought up an audio link.
A voice similar to asari, or females of various races came over the bridge speakers, "Ah! I was wondering if you were going to reply to my message. Took you long enough."
Kirrahe checked his omnitool's clock; barely a minute and a half had passed since he first received the message, fast even for a salarian. "Yes, you are the acting captain of a cruiser her in orbit?"
"Well, technically yes, bit insane to consider myself the captain of a cruiser, but it's been a hard past few months. If you want to know which cruiser, it's the only intact one, and the same one you've been trying hard to avoid since you entered the system. Would've worked if I didn't have my fingers in every working bit of tech left in this debris field." The unknown captain seemed to ramble a bit, probably a very junior crewmember forced into the position. Kirrahe made note that what they had initially termed a dreadnaught was called a cruiser by this race.
"You mentioned being in need of assistance?" Kirrahe typed out orders on his omnitool and the crew brought the ship up out of the debris field and over the pole of the planet, into view of the dreadnaught they had been fighting.
"Oh yes, right… your archeologist, engineer and a good portion of my remaining crew were stranded planet side during a rescue operation, they ran into some covenant entanglements. The covenant troops have been dealt with, but their transport was destroyed, and I don't have any more available to pick them up."
Kirrahe had no reason to trust the voice on the line, and he made his sentiments perfectly clear, "Why should I trust you? You could easily have enough troops to storm this ship waiting on hand."
"Well, that would be the problem wouldn't it? Let's see, a gift would be rejected, because I could just take that back, threats would be ignored, you're just out of range. I guess I don't have any proof, well, I suppose I could patch the signal from the bunker they're holed up in to your ship, would talking to the good doctor T'soni do you any good?"
Kirrahe made a motion to cut his microphone, and then turned to the asari diplomat, "What do you think?"
The asari brought a hand up to her chin, "If she is an actor, she plays her role well; besides, they have little to gain from the capture and interrogation of an STG team, too much effort spent for too little gain."
Kirrahe mulled over the situation for a few more minutes before signaling to turn the microphone back on, "We'll talk to the doctor."
"Oh good, I'll get her on the horn right away."
A few minutes passed and a crewman indicated that video was now being included with the message. Kirrahe found himself face to face with an armored human, not the missing asari. The alien's basic form mimicked a male batarian, broad shouldered compared to a salarian; the difference was in the face. It appeared for all intents and purposes to be a tan colored asari, except for the gray around its chin. The human cocked its head at him then stood up from its seat. Right afterwards another sat down, lighter of stature, He assumed a female human.
His assumption was proven wrong as the soldier took off her helmet. It was a she, but it was not a human, but Dr. T'Soni wearing what appeared to be human made armor. He recognized the doctor from his mission briefing, "Dr. T'Soni, I trust you are well?"
"As well as I can be considering the past few days. Fighting covenant, meeting…" The asari began counting on her fingers, "…six entirely new species, who are busy fighting a war," The doctor looked tired, dust and grime stained the armor she wore, "To top it all off, the STG followed me here? Why?"
"Normally we wouldn't be, but right now the council could be looking at war. Whoever those humans are fighting managed to decimate a turian battle group." Kirrahe made sure not to mention that the turian group had been fighting humans at the time. "We need more information."
The camera's position changed to that it tilted upwards, the human from earlier re-entered the frame. "We have plenty of information about the covenant; twenty seven years of war will give you that, but we're about to lose."
Kirrahe frowned at that statement, "I am sorry to hear that-"
Another alien, huge, hunched over, and with a strange four mandible jaw squeezed into the frame on the other side, interrupting him. This one wore thick armor and looked as if it could go toe to toe with a krogan. Sharp teeth lined the insides of its mouth. Strangely his translator worked when it spoke, "You misunderstand the human. If the prophets and their brute lackeys take earth they will also possess the key to halo."
"Halo?" Kirrahe noted the words prophet and brute, apt descriptions for the two aliens in the intercepted communiqué, if that was who they were referring to.
"A forerunner superweapon," The human glanced at the asari, "I think you would call them prothean."
Kirrahe was understandably skeptical, "Do you have proof that such a weapon is still in operation?"
The human shook his head, "Not here, we learned of Halo's existence after we lost this planet. I'm sure the Office of Naval Intelligence had plenty of evidence of its existence, but that's on Earth, which is currently under attack by the covenant."
The other large alien gestured to the human, "I served during the battle for the second sacred ring during the fight for the control room, if your construct can interpret the video log you will have all the evidence needed."
Kirrahe wondered what he meant by construct, but the statement was addressed to the human, so the salarian assumed he would know what the other alien meant. "Then we will be there shortly to pick you up." The human nodded and closed the connection. Kirrahe turned to his crew and began issuing orders. After the ship started moving to the planet's surface he addressed his comm officer again, "Prepare a report to the council, we'll append this video evidence they have and send it off."
Kirrahe turned to look at the asari diplomat, "You seem awfully quiet for a politician."
The asari smirked, "I prefer to talk face to face, but honestly this isn't exactly what I expected. I assumed we would come into contact with the human government, not a few soldiers sitting on a damaged dreadnaught thinking they're about to lose a war against militaristic hanar. This isn't exactly the most conducive situation to acting like a politician."
"True enough, hopefully it won't come to that. Though I have to wonder who the other race we saw in that transmission is," having seen the intercepted transmission from the covenant dreadnaughts he was inclined to agree with Nassana's metaphor of military minded hanar, even if they didn't share any physical characteristics.
"Allies possibly… we don't know anything about either side other than that they're fighting, and at least one side thinks it's on a religious crusade. There's too much speculation, we'll have to simply ask them."
ooooooo
Roughly an hour later their frigate landed on an ash covered platform. The landing struts sank slightly into the swirling dust, but they hit solid ground soon after. He walked down the ramp backed up by several members of his team, assault rifles in hand. Kirrahe noted he was met with a similar reception, Dr. T'Soni stood by the door to a bunker flanked by various other aliens, all except the doctor held their weapons in hand. Three humans armed with unknown weapon types, a quarian with a shotgun held loosely in her hand, four of the larger aliens, each carried a weapon loosely in one hand, to him they might as well have been heavy weapons, but they carried them as if they were sidearms.
The last alien would have been mistaken for a heavy mech except for the odd sway of movement that proved it was organic in nature. One arm ended in a glowing cannon, the other in a shield. Kirrahe wondered idly if that cannon could do enough damage to his frigate to knock it out of the sky. One of the humans walked up and tapped the side of his helmet, clearing the visor. Kirrahe recognized him as the human from the communication. The human stuck out a hand, then cocked his head to the side, "You know I should probably ask how you greet each other before offering a handshake, I'm Commander Shepard United Nations Space Command prowler corps."
Kirrahe nodded, "Captain Kirrahe, Salarian Special Tasks Group," He gripped the human's outstretched hand and shook, "It's close enough to our own greetings."
"So is this your ship or some sort of shuttle? I don't know of a slipspace drive that would work with this small of ship." The human looked up at the frigate taking in the view.
Kirrahe didn't recognize the term slipspace but didn't question the commander, figuring that he would learn soon enough and of course that it would be wisest to keep any technological advantage his race had over these humans a secret. "It's our ship commander, it may not look like much, but it has served my unit well the past few years."
Shepard nodded, "Permission to come aboard then?"
ooooooo
AN: Finally got through with this chapter, this one was hard to write next one should be easier, but I also have exams unfortunately so won't be able to work on it all that much for the next week and a half