All caught up in the eye of the storm.
Please enjoy because I have put 2 straight days of effort.
(This was WIP, this is not the final product, please not that this will be closing to vote.)
The New Dawn made her approach to the system and her final leg to the distress signal of the Spirit, the view of a planet green and gold, the Dawn stood out from orbit, black and grey it looked like it didn't belong.
Jacob moved about the bridge, he and the technicians were calculating the correct landing trajectory for the Dawn.
"Cyrene, can we get a specific lock on that transponder signal?"
Cyrene materialised on her holo-tank. "No sir, there is too much ground interference, I am detecting a number of energy signals none are natural and most are on the geo synchronous orbit… wait unknown signals breaking orbit and are beginning to approach"
Jacob looked out the view screen to see what looked like and curved shaped fleet, the fleet had matching colours of blue and white and grey they began forming a rough attack formation.
He ordered. "Cyrene, bring the shields up."
It was done so, just as the first volley from the unknown fleet impacted, the crew was shaken as the impacts rocked the ship.
"Cyrene, what's our status."
"There were five impacts along the length of the ship, shields held and stopped their rounds from causing damage."
"Return fire and deploy Vince and his corvettes around the Dawn."
"Aye, Sir."
The Dawn brought her MAC to bear at the attackers, another wave impacted but the Dawn's shields held, and the deployment of the corvettes soon changed this.
"On my mark… fire."
The MACs from the Dawn and Vince flared to life, the 600kgs from the corvettes exited along with the Dawn's 900kg tungsten round at 50% of the speed of light. The enemy suddenly panicked as the wave ripped apart 9 of their 21 ships, they began withdrawing, but the Dawn and Vince continued to hound them.
Finally the attackers escaped to FTL, Jacob managed to relax, and he turned to face the tactical display.
"Cyrene let seven go down with the 21st marines and send along the warthogs, bring us about over the location then deploy, if there are AA tell them to remove first and ask questions later."
"Right, dialling in Seven and the marines, should I call Haley to give the good news?"
"No." He said deftly.
XXXXX
1day earlier
The Spirit of Fire came through a storm of swirling energy, the arcs stretching across the bow to stern, if Cutter had seen the abyss it would most likely be now.
"Serina what's happening?"
"Unsure, no power surge, but energy is being directed here, large concentrations, though I am unsure as to how to say this, we are no longer in our universe."
"What?"
"Yes I know, strange considering everything, it seems more like a concentration of subspace though with a mixture of something different, I'd say a black hole."
"So we're inside a black hole?"
"Well technically it isn't a black hole but a tear in the universe."
Something's weren't getting better for Cutter.
"Can we bring the ship out of it?" He asked.
"Yes, though it will require a lot of force."
"How much force would we need?"
Serina began her calculations and concluded.
"A single missile launched at a horizontal axis ahead of us and detonated."
Cutter thought she was joking.
"That doesn't seem like very much."
"No that is because the space here is unstable, and a single missile is capable of causing this strange build of energy that is surrounding the ship is like a bubble, so we have to simply pop that bubble."
"Alright then, we might as well give it a try, get a missile locked and ready, but tell the crew to brace for impact, we have no idea what will happen when we fire."
The solution was locked in and prepared to launch the missile, Cutter watched then ordered.
"Fire away."
The missile flew off and in a spilt second detonated with the outer wall of energy, though to everyone's surprises it simply vanished.
"Serina what…" He never did finish his sentence.
The ship made a sharp jerk, and then a force of energy threw the crew forwards.
Cutter could feel the entire ship reverberate, and then a sudden stop threw him forwards on to the deck.
1hr later…
Cutter eyes were blurry; the sudden feeling of being thrown back then forwards does not help with age, his eyes came back into focus, the crew was just getting to their feet as well.
"Serina are you there?" He called.
"Here Captain." She replied.
"What is our status?" He asked.
She materialised, appearing to be fine from the transition.
"More or less bad, we have arrived at our destination."
"We're back?"
"No we reached the safety of normal space, and we aren't exactly safe."
"Why?"
"Contacts on approach, arriving from within the system, there is a safe zone but it might be risky."
"Where are they?" He asked as he looked to the bridge view.
"Seven hundred thousand meters a stern to our current location and fast on intercept course."
"Where's the safe zone?" He asked.
"Located on the planet below us, though there is a high concentration of EM fields."
Cutter didn't like being the one to run away so fast but the crew came first.
"Get us down there, and get the rest of the crew out of cryo, we're going to need everyone on their feet."
"Right waking the crew, should I give them a warm welcome?"
"It's probably the best thing to do." He said.
The ship began rapidly descending towards the planet.
XXXXX
Present location: Unknown
"Spartan on the ground, we're heading to the Spirit of Fire." Jonathan said as he moved in with the marines.
"Spartan, do you have the location?" Thel'an asked.
"Soon, we should be right on top of it."
The warthogs made their way across the dusty ground; the planet they were on was a dust bowl, heading across the dust plain under the shadow of a canyon, the teams approached the signal.
"Sir detecting something, can't get fix on location, estimate 500m in range."
"Right, slow down if you get within 100m and then proceed on foot, if you find them signal by flare."
"Roger that sir."
Jonathan's team made their way through the canyon, the sand hills and tall cliff faces were the only things he could see, the chances of locating a 2.5km ship is possible but with so much cover, it would take more than enough time to lose them.
"Sir we're picking up a signal concentration, were very close at least 150, maybe around the next bend." The marine said.
"Right we'll set a signal flare." He said pulling out the flare pistol.
"Signal one away." He fired, a pop from the launcher and a blue flare soared into the sky.
Now approaching the signal the team unmounted from their warthog, Jonathan stepped out and drew out his ILD (Integrated Laser Designator) to locate the ship and mark it out for the New Dawn to send in a message to them.
Walking ever closer to the signal, stepping out across the field they made their way till 100m, then looking about they saw something, a part of an engine or the rear of one, they were off and the ship seemed running on silent.
"Get about troops we're heading in."
Thel'an was looking cautiously; he stayed close until they finally made it around the bend where the ship was located, his eyes focused as they entered the silhouette of the ship.
It was there they saw the Phoenix class colony ship. The white metal plating the blocky but familiar design, Jonathan and the team had only seen these types of ships during the Reach reconstruction plan, and those were the refits, he had never seen one this old.
"Sir we are receiving a signal from the Spirit."
"This is Captain James Cutter CFV-88 Spirit of Fire, who am I speaking to?"
"This is Lieutenant Jonathan-017 Spartan IV; we have received your distress and responded, what is your status?"
"Green lieutenant, we didn't expect any UNSC ships out here though."
"There is an explanation but not here or now, the ship the New Dawn is now in geo-synchronous orbit, we have removed hostiles and are awaiting to approach the surface, the New Dawn will land not far, other search teams are also en route."
"Right we'll let you in, approach the lower hangar we'll send a pelican."
XXXXX
The crew of the Spirit of fire was relieved to know that there was help, the captain and Spartan Red team was heading down to the hangar, the drop-ship arrived, landing with a solid thud, the engines cooled and the hatch opened.
The lieutenant stepped out with a marine squad and a…
'Elite' Jerome thought.
The Spartan II sprinted so fast it was a blur, drawing out his pistol the Spartan was about to grab the elite behind the squad, until he was stopped.
Another armoured soldier nearly in equal height grabbed Jerome by the waist and tackled him.
"No one is attacking anyone." The other Spartan said as he pinned the gun to the ground.
The other Spartan II were about to react as well, though they paused at the sight of the two.
"Damn it, stand down soldier." He ordered.
Jerome got back up with the Spartan IV.
"Maybe there is a misunderstanding?" Thel'an said.
The captain was trying to grasp the situation with an open and cool mind, the others in the hangar were unsure as to how to act with the elite.
"Stand down; we have no need to cause problems." Cutter said to the marines.
The crew didn't seem to stand down but hostilities didn't seem to go any further.
Anders walked into the hangar and seemingly froze at the sight of the elite.
"Well looks like we have an interesting visitor." Serina said.
XXXXX
"So the war is over, and elites are our allies and the covenant now lives alongside us?" Cutter asked.
"Well most of the old covenant no longer exists; they're independent nations of their own choice that formed along with our own." Jacob explained.
The talk about the Covenant War was not something simple, the fact that humanity was rebuilding and the war was over, and the rise of the UNSC in the galactic community.
Jerome and red team kept an eye on the Spartan IV and Thel'an, they were unsure as how they were to react, the Spartan II no longer existed and that they were listed as KIA, the also shock of meeting someone from their future was not something easy as well.
They were all inside the conference room of the New Dawn which had set herself down on the field next to the Spirit of Fire.
XXXXX
Anders was on the ship but she was examining the Forerunner ship and talking with the Covenant Engineers, she had a good understanding thanks to the translators but had no idea of how advanced the recovered ship was.
But it was obvious it was not going anywhere fast, the slip-space core had overloaded and there was little chance of building another trans-illumine-drive that the covenant had never reached.
"With all the things in the universe, they just don't seem to get better." She said to herself.
"Well it's not like it's going to get better." A fairly familiar voice said.
Anders turned to face a woman who seemed more like…
"Halsey, what are you doing here?"
The woman looked quickly baffled of her being called Anders ex co-worker.
"I'm not Halsey, my name is Elizabeth Haley, and despite what other people say about me is untrue of my mysterious origin."
Anders was now the one to be confused at the situation.
"Well, my apologies, you just seem so much like her."
"No problem, I usually get that a lot." She said.
"So what do you do here on the ship?" Anders asked.
"I monitor the Spartan IV program and work on the AI development team, I have extensive knowledge in Forerunner technology and artefacts, and this made me a prime candidate for help."
"So then, what did the ship do that you are stranded here?"
"The ship core detonated as we entered slip-space, the Spartan team never knew how to fly ships, but they improvise." She gave a half chuckle.
"They sure do." Anders added.
XXXXX
Jacob had sent his repair team with rig equipment to reconstruct the damage that was inflicted on the Spirit of Fire. Three teams were dealing with external hull, and others internal damage, Cyrene had traded data with Serina and sent a data attachment on extending her life cycle, Serina accepted and was now running better than ever.
The slip-space engines of the Spirit were impossible to replace, there was no large enough drive for the ship from Vince and his defence pack, and the engineers would take years to construct another from scratch.
Cutter was happy to know that they were not alone, but the shock of them knowing that the covenant had glassed Reach was a pin to the heart, most of the crew had family and friends and he himself now knew that…
"Reminiscing about something captain?" Serina asked.
"Not much, just never knew."
"I'm sorry; guess that we know that this was going to be a one way trip."
"We all knew, Serina, but to know the end."
"We can't do anything to change it, they've all gone."
"Well then, we still have something left."
"Yes we do."
The tactical officer alerted.
"Sir the New Dawn has alerted us, there is another signal in orbit, they set some subspace beacons to alert them for any approaching vessels, and there are now multiple signals that have arrived in system, different from the one we and them encountered."
A transmission from the New Dawn came through.
"Captain Cutter I believe it is time for our departure, we can't stay here there is another system not far, though it will take a few hours at best possible speeds, it maybe inhabited, most likely not the same species that is now in orbit, we'll cover your escape route."
"Right, we'll get to it."
The transmission ended.
The New Dawn powered up, lifting steadily from the ground, the ship accelerated as it gained altitude.
"Sir, do you wish for me to signal unknown?"
"Fine, contact the lead ship."
"Com channel is open." Cyrene said.
"This is UNSC New Dawn, to unknown ships, you have attack and pursued hostilities, remove yourself form this area, or we will be forced to defend ourselves."
A signal returned.
"Human filth, your alliance already has the Traverse to yourselves and now you want this area of space, you have no claim here, you are to surrender or die." The image had that of a four eyed alien with a very bad attitude.
"Sir picking up spike in energy from enemy fleet, magnetic fields, most likely MACs." Cyrene said.
"Well let's give them get our response to threats."
The New Dawn turned to face the oncoming fleet.
They fired on the New Dawn, though the shields quickly absorbed the fire, the inside began shaking from the exchange.
"Return fire." Jacob said.
The Dawns cannon returned the compliment with MAC shots, three solid slugs 600kg each propel across space at 50% the speed of light.
In the blink of an eye the pirate's ships scatter, several of their vessels blown into dust or severed cleanly by the slugs.
The commander of the ships panicked at the fire power and quickly ordered a retreat as their flagship was destroyed, their fleet turned about as the New Dawn continued to fire upon them.
Jacob watched as the ships eventually jumped to FTL.
"Bring us down to standby, tell the Spirit to move off world and head towards the designated marker." He ordered.
"Aye sir, message away."
XXXXX
Gathering at the jump point the Dawn and Spirit began their journey to the local system.
Cyrene and Serina began their search on the wrecks of the mysterious alien pirates; they discovered an interesting find, a material called Element Zero, the AI compiled some data on this with what they found on the alien ships, though there wasn't much left.
This and an interesting find of the galaxy they were in.
XXXXX
"So we're in an alternate universe?" Cutter asked.
"Parallel or alternate, you can always find a friendly human hating species." Serina said.
The conference room aboard the New Dawn was now in discussion.
"We can ask for assistance."
"From who, the humans on this side are not at war, it's not likely they'll just help because we ask." James said.
"Actually they might." Cyrene optimised.
"How would we get their help?" Jacob asked.
"Simple the Alliance is technically capable of allowing asylum for us or assisting us with our current situation, plus we have evidence, but the technology we have, shouldn't be allowed to fall into anyone's hands."
"And what would that reason be?" Cutter asked.
"The simple fact that I there are other factions within the alliance military, I have connected to their extranet and pursued a long system penetration of their database, and found some disturbing evidence.
And organisation called Cerberus, a human survivalist group founded on the belief of human improvement and dominance over other sentient life, they are highly xenophobic and extreme in the methods they use and implement. They have infiltrated the alliance and their governments as well as the population."
"So we hand our technology over to extremists who hate aliens?" Enders asked.
"We would be considering the situation, but I'd suggest nothing powerful or new, that would probably be our mass accelerator drives and weapons, the difference is large considering everything."
"Well then let's get to that relay and head to the alliance command, though they might be a bit hesitant on our arrival."
"You know we can always go to the citadel." Cyrene said.
"Then what, all we'd cause is mass confusion, the people will not react to well with a couple of heavily armed dreadnoughts and a small fleet of ships."
"Yes but we could appeal for assistance in our situation, though an AI does not have technically any rights, which I would like them to notice me." Cyrene said with an evil smile on her face.
"Cyrene, i don't think we need any more issues than we already have." Enders said.
"Well then, how long is the trip to Sol?"
"Nearly a week, but the trip to the citadel is much shorter, we would arrive in four days."
"So we vote, how says try initiating contact with the alliance in Sol?"
The officers from both ships put their hands up the count was 15/49.
"How says we contact with the citadel directly?"
Officers voted again with 19/49.
"Is there any alternative plans?"
Hands of only 6 went up.
"Fine then, we'll go to the citadel, but we should be cautious when we arrive." James said.
"All dismissed, back to your posts, we're heading in, in four days, shifts for officers and regulars in effect and crew." Jacob ended with.
XXXXX
The Spartan IV and II were chucked together on the New Dawn, and Haley and Anders were placed aboard the Spirit of Fire for continued research on the Forerunner ship.
The day went by quickly, though arriving at the system with the relay was a hassle, the New Dawn and Spirit of Fire had to synchronise the jump, it took a few minutes for Serina to get their position locked and ready.
The crew watched as they approached the relay, the fork like end and large blue coloured core seemed to get their attention.
Once there the ships began to accelerate and ran alongside the relay, picking up speed and energy they were slung forwards beyond FTL at an instance.
XXXXX
Jonathan and the Spartan II were talking about their program, though there was little to talk about, the program was similar on many bases but the different augmentations and adjustments made to their bodies seemed less extreme and more promising.
Jerome hand to learn some restraint with the covenant crew on board, there were a few elites and some engineers but the biggest surprise was just the hunters sitting in their own private room, Jerome had seen thing but a female trooper sharing a nice spot with an elite?
'Things do change fast.' He thought.
The same could be said for other members of the Spirit of Fire considering the covenant engineers were busy patching things up and rebuilding the damaged sections of the ship.
Captain Cutter never thought he'd ever see an engineer capable of doing things most of their engineers couldn't.
Though Serina was having an interesting time with an engineer which had decided to update her program, she did feel guilty about asking to change her clothes to a more elaborate style, scrolling through she found the thing she always wanted to wear.
XXXXX
4 days into their journey and it was nearly over, arriving in the serpent nebula the relay activated, the two ships came out of the range of the relay.
Now looking into the mist like nebula Captain Cutter asked.
"Serina where are we?"
She materialised, in something more casual, she had a smile on her face with her new black jeans and long white blouse, and she had small silver ear rings.
"Well Captain, we have arrived, though I doubt we can see anything just yet, we will be in visual in a few seconds."
No sooner than she finished, the ships came through the purplish mist and came into full view of the massive space station.
Jacob had heard of the battle of the Ark and the reports made of the large structure, but this stationed seemed unlike the forerunners, its arms more cylindrical rather than spread open, but still the immense size made it obvious.
"Cyrene have they greeted us yet?" Jacob asked.
"Yes, and there seems to be a welcoming committee on approach." She said.
The view of the citadel changed as a fleet of ships began forming in front; the winged ships of the citadel were seemingly much smaller than their own, but still had plenty of numbers.
And one large ship of the fleet seemed to be the only one on approach.
"Sir, we are receiving transmission from the citadel fleet."
"Put it through."
"Unknown ships state your intentions or we will open fire."
Jacob didn't need a more open invitation to reply.
"This is Captain Jacob Hartman of the UNSC New Dawn; we have arrived in system for assistance to ask government officials of human systems alliance or council for this specific aid."
The citadel fleet was surprised they hadn't expected a human vessel that large or that many asking for assistance, but what caught them off the most were the term 'UNSC', the council decided to hear these humans appeal, the human embassy was alerted and a certain ambassador with captain was to see the council on the developing situation.
The New Dawn and Spirit of Fire were granted a position to wait seeing as the two ships were far too large for any of the docks, sending over a shuttle, or in this case a large drop-ship to meet the delegates.
Though arriving on a landing pad, they stood out more than that of anyone else, especially the Spartans, greeting the guards and delegates, Captain Cutter and Jacob were unsure to how things were about to go.
A man in his 40s and another early 50s arrived to greet them.
"So you must be Captain Jacob?" The man in white clothes and grey hair said, his face was slightly frowning.
"Yes and this is captain Cutter, we're both commanders of the ships now at anchor." Jacob said curtly.
"I am ambassador Udina, and this is Captain Anderson." Udina said.
"Good to meet you." Anderson said with a handshake.
"Well you have placed us in a difficult position captains, the council is demanding an explanation to your arrival, and an explanation of your ships." Udina said gesturing at the massive ships.
"We do have an explanation, but that might be harder to explain to your council, we need some help but we cannot discuss this here." Jacob said.
"Fine, we'll discuss this at the embassy, but keep your soldiers at bay." Udina said pointing at the armoured Spartan soldiers.
(Sorry some asshole deleted part of the story we will not know all details.)
WIP not entirely finished and the work will continue with parts later.
I apologise about the end of the chapter, a part was deleted in school, no idea, and some jackass thought he was a genius.
Thing is should I have Serina with a romance?
The upcoming chapter (Wake me up tomorrow at sea) I have no idea how to approach, the infiltration was discovered by Serina and Cyrene, this is the reason for the jump around, we have less action at this point and just a little bit more build.
We will have Shepard and the Normandy.