Well as i said, I've increased the chapter size, now we'll see how the 2 different 'galaxies' collide ... fun.
I'm also assuming that the languages aren't an issue otherwise it would be too much extra which would just get in the way of the story.
Keep those reviews coming.
Am I dead? Captain Keyes thought to himself, he opened his eyes, but saw only blackness, he struggled to go through what had happened, all he remembered was giving the order to exit slipspace, and then everything had gone black. Then he saw a light, it was just to his side, he could see it in his peripheral vision, but it faded. Then another light appeared, it was bluer than the last, but it too faded. Keyes struggled to move, then he felt a pain in his arm, good, it means I'm alive, he thought. He got to his knees, then found something sturdy, allowing him to put his weight on it and hoist himself up. As he did, there was another flash of light, as he looked towards it, he realised it was coming from outside, weapons fire? he thought.
"Anybody else conscious?" Keyes called out, his voice hoarse.
"Sir," someone groaned.
"Where are you?" Keyes said, feeling his way towards the voice.
"Over here sir, on the floor," the voice said.
"Just keep talking Dominique," Keyes said, as he identified the speaker, "Argh, what was that," he cried out.
"Me sir," Lieutenant Hikowa said, taking in a sharp breath.
"We need some lights," Keyes said, trying to get back up.
"No power sir," Lieutenant Hikowa said, tapping a control panel.
"If there's no power then what are we breathing?" Keyes said.
"Whatever's left," Lieutenant Hikowa mused.
"So how do you fix it?" Keyes asked.
"Well we'd have to get down to engine-…" Lieutenant Hikowa began before partial emergency lights dimly lit.
"Wha-?" Keyes said.
"I managed to re-couple the power conduit to the bridge," Cortana's voice said over the com, though he hologram didn't appear, "There's enough power for minimal lights and life support."
"And you," Lieutenant Dominique finished, being pulled by Keyes.
"And me," Cortana affirmed.
"But how did you do that if the power was down?" Keyes asked.
"There's still minor power in certain places in the ship, I simply existed in those places, using the power to reconnect the couplings, but to get ship wide power restored requires manual work," Cortana said.
"Does engineering have power?" Captain Keyes asked.
"Enough to survive," Cortana said.
"Well get them to start repairs, straight away," Keyes said.
"Aye sir," the speakers clicked as Cortana deactivated the com system.
"What's happening out there?" Lieutenant Hikowa indicated the still continuing flashes of light.
"Looks like a fight," Ensign Lovell groaned.
"Sir, new contacts, unknown classification," a servitor said.
"Why weren't they detected before?" Captain Agros shouted.
"They appeared from out of nowhere," the servitor said.
"They emerged from the warp?" Captain Agros said, trying to concentrate on keeping the ship alive at the same time, firing weapons at the most dangerous target and trying to keep the shields up and strong.
"No sir," the servitor stated simply.
"Then how …," Captain Agros began, before thinking to save that question for a better time, "Are they a threat?"
"No sir, they're without power," the servitor said.
"Derelicts?" Captain Agros inquired.
"No sir, there are life signs, but there seem to be residual energy fields in that area, I am unable to discern what type," the servitor said.
"They can wait," Captain Agros said, refocusing his attentions on the fight. Both sides had suffered harshly, there were only about a dozen ships on each side, both sides fairly even in power, Captain Agros' battle ship was the only heavy ship in his fleet left.
John-117 opened his eyes, there was minimal lighting and everything appeared upside-down. Then Kelly walked up to him and grab his arm, pulling him upright so that everything was the right way up.
"This is no time to nap now sir," Kelly giggled.
"Wouldn't dream of it," John replied, "What happened, are we under attack?"
"I don't know sir," Linda said, "The com system is dead, everything except the lights are dead."
"Life support?" John asked, suffocation was not a way he expected to die.
"Working," Linda said.
John breathed a silent sigh of relief.
Suddenly there were several beeps and the lights turned out, a few seconds later normal lighting flared into light, as well as the com panel.
"What happened?" John asked.
"Don't know just now," Keyes said, "Perhaps Cortana can explain later, but right now we have to figure out what to do."
"So what's the situation?" Fred asked, picking himself up.
"Same as always," John replied.
"So any chance of a little ground action?" Fred asked.
"You never know," John said.
"Good, I was getting bored," Fred picked up his kit, pleased with himself that it was still perfectly stored despite all the shaking around that had tossed the rest of them about.
"We have a problem sir," the servitor said.
"Spit it out!" Captain Agros said, more problems were the last thing he needed.
"One of the unknowns has regained power," the servitor said.
"Can you get anything from it?" Captain Agros said.
"Not at the mo- … wait another one had regained power, and anoth- no wait two, three, they're all activating," the servitor said.
Emperor guide us, Captain Agros thought.
"Sir, the ships seem to be firing at each other," a crewman said.
"What?" Captain Agros said, unable to believe his ears, he instead checked his sensors to confirm this, indeed the mass of ships had broken into 2 groups and had begun exchanging fire.
"Open communications. This is ethereal Auth'Rel, please identify yourselves," the ethereal said.
"This is ship master Farnee Mukaromee we-" before the ship master could continue, a hand appeared in front of him on the view screen. An old, frail looking being slid into view, held up by a suspended chair.
"I am the prophet of Faith, we are the covenant, the instruments of the Gods, and have been given the holy mission of cleansing the human filth from their galaxy," the prophet said.
"You too oppose the humans?" Auth'Rel said, after a few moments in silent thought, he said "We have never seen the likes of your species, however, we would like to discuss combining of our efforts for the benefit of the Greater Good."
The ethereal watched as the prophet conferred with the one that had introduced itself as the ship captain.
After a few moments, the prophet turned back and said, "We shall consider your words and …" the communication was cut off before the prophet could finish.
"What happened?" the ethereal almost shouted.
"Their ship is under attack," a pilot of the air caste said.
"We must aid them …" the ethereal said, before their ship shook violently.
"The imperials have redoubled their efforts, they must have detected our communications," another pilot said.
"We must fall back and regroup ethereal Auth'Rel," the commander said.
"I agree, inform the … covenant, ship that we are falling back and we ask for them to follow us," the ethereal said.
"They say you do not wish to retreat," the communications officer said.
"Inform them that if they stay, the Imperial fleet will destroy them," the ethereal said.
"… They are following," the communications officer said after a moment.
"Good," the pilot said, "Get us back to t'au so negotiations may begin."
"Yes commander," the pilot said.
The tau ships turned and began disengaging from the Imperial ships, while the covenant backed away from the UNSC ships, like a cornered predator limping away from a fight.
"Half of the new ships are retreating with the tau fleet," the servitor said.
"I see them," Captain Agros spat, "Fire all forward lances at them."
Captain Agros watched as his weapons charged and fired. Three beams of energy sped towards the covenant ships, each striking a different ship. The covenant ships' shields flared into life, absorbing the lance strikes.
"Impossible, how can they absorb so much energy," Captain Agros said.
In a few moments though, the shimmering silver of 2 of the shields disappeared though and the lances sliced straight through the covenant ships, bisecting them, while the third ship continued to absorb the lance, until the beam faltered and finally failed.
"Lance number 2 has overheated," another servitor said.
Captain Agros simply watched in frustration as the covenant carrier continued backing away, but before it turned around, it collided with three projectiles, fired from the other group of ships. Projectiles collapsed the weakened shields and smashed into the carrier, smashing it into three sections, all having been crushed by the momentum by the 1st mac round.