Chapter 16: Earth

Riftseeker

"Sir? Are you all right?"

"What?" Ackerson groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. He squinted as the flickering light above his face temporarily blinded him and blinked rapidly to clear the blurriness from his eyes. Once he managed to focus his vision, he noticed Captain Aheb's bearded and aged face looking directly at him.

"Well, it looks like you're finally conscious, sir." Aheb grunted. "You took a nasty hit there when the station blew."

"What's our status?" Ackerson said quickly, his mind snapping back to the mission.

"Whoa there!" Aheb grabbed Ackerson's shoulders and roughly shoved him back down on the bed he was lying on. "You're in no condition to start moving around."

"What's wrong?" Ackerson then noticed a throbbing on the left side of his head and felt it. His fingers came back moist and red with blood. "It's just a concussion. Nothing major."

"Just a concussion?" Aheb laughed. "Speaking frankly sir, your skull was literally cracked open during the blast, seeing as how that tends to happen when skulls meet titanium A bulkheads at high speeds. You're not going anywhere."

"Fine." Ackerson lay back down on the infirmary bed and asked again, "What's our current status?"

"Well, we took several hits from debris as we were making our exit vector. Knocked us around a bit and gave you that nasty head wound. Right now, we've got heavy damage to communications, sensors, and propulsion. We're limping on a single engine, but it should be enough to reach Slispace velocity if we overclock it. Slipspace drive is still intact, thank god, and we've still got weapons and managed to recharge shields to 76 percent power."

"Did you get Nietzsche's exit vector?" Ackerson asked. He knew that such a large catastrophe would only be a simple inconvenience for rogue elements like Lynn and Kyle. There was no way they were killed in the destruction of the doomed space station.

"Like I said, our sensors took a serious hit during the blast." Aheb shook his head. "The damage is too much to repair on site, so I'm taking the ship back to the fleet for emergency repairs."



"What?!" Ackerson nearly shot upright again but Aheb and a pair of orderlies were quick enough to pin him down until he calmed somewhat. "On who's authority?"

"Mine." Aheb said. It was a simple statement that conveyed its message with the power and impact of a MAC round. "This may be your mission, but this is my ship. I'm responsible for it and the crew's well being, so I have seen fit to supersede your orders and return to the fleet."

Ackerson opened his mouth to argue, but he suddenly felt incredibly tired and drowsy. It was when he felt a cold fluid flowing through his veins that he finally realized that there was an IV drip inserted into his left arm.

"You see, sir." Aheb grinned and dropped the IV remote control onto Ackerson's lap. "The convenient thing about being in the infirmary is that you can control the amount of sedative you give to your patient. You can complain to Keyes after you wake up in the Pegasus infirmary."

Ackerson couldn't even yell, or even give a menacing glare to Aheb as he exited the infirmary. He tried valiantly to keep his eyes open, but eventually, like the soothing wind of a summer breeze, Ackerson's consciousness floated off into murky oblivion.

Nietzsche

Everybody sat in Nietzsche's mess hall, all them silent over the loss of both Melissa and Williams. Though they were relative strangers, their presence and assistance certainly left their mark upon the crew, and their sudden disappearance was felt deeply.

"We shouldn't have left them behind." Lynn said, her eyes red from tears.

"There's nothing we could have done." Kay sighed.

"Of course there was!" Lynn screamed. "We could have put up some covering fire, or I could have used my telekinesis to-"

"None of the that would have worked and you know it." Kay shook her head.

Lynn then glanced at Kyle, expecting him to support her. Kyle disliked being put on the spot like this, but knew it was inevitable that he had to voice his opinion on the matter.

"I'm sorry Lynn, but I'm with Kay here." Kyle said sadly. "You should have felt it, and I sure had hell didn't need psychic powers to see it. There was no way Williams was getting out under his own power, there was no way Melissa was going without him, and there was no way in hell we had the time to do anything about it before the station blew."



Lynn opened her mouth to say something, but was quickly cut off by John, who stood up and in a rather uncommon move, took off his helmet and set it down on the mess table.

"Take it from me Lynn, I know what it's like to lose friends, and to leave them behind." Though John's face still retained the hard, emotionless mask that had been set by years of war, it didn't take a psychic to see the emotion and pain in his voice and behind his eyes. "It's not remotely fair, and it should never happen, but it does and you have to learn to deal with it."

"Is that what happened to Samuel?" Lynn asked.

John was taken aback for a second, but remembered that Lynn could partially read his mind. "Yes. Early in the war, we boarded a Covenant vessel to sabotage it, but Samuel's suit was damaged in the process, making impossible for him to return to our home vessel. I can't stop thinking about that day, which is why I can't stop fighting until the mission is done. I owe Samuel that much."

"You're right." Lynn nodded and bit her lip. John had opened his mind a little more while recalling the memory, allowing her to relive it from his point of view for just a brief moment, but it was enough to make her understand. "We can't let Melissa and Williams die for nothing."

"In that case." Halsey chimed. "I suggest we get ready. Me, Hal, and Sanah have managed to decrypt the data and I believe we found Earth."

"Well, assuming that the coordinates and the decryption process were correct." Hal added. "And there is a 30.2 percent chance of that possibility..."

"…which is why we have to actually jump there to confirm." Halsey finished.

"Isn't that a little dangerous?" Sanah asked. "Just going in without any kind of preparation?"

"That's pretty much how we got this far." Kay shrugged.

"We'll hook up with Halaan and give him the data." Kyle said. "I know he wants it just as badly as they do."

"But for what reason?" John asked suspiciously. "He may be your ally now, but he's still part of the Covenant."

"Was part of the Covenant." Kyle corrected. "Besides, I know Halaan. He'll do the right thing, even if it means hiding what he knows from his superiors."

"Why would we need him anyways?" Kay asked. "We can just jump there ourselves."

"And then what? Anything can happen once we exit Slipspace. We might end up jumping straight into an asteroid field, a black hole, or even in the middle of the entire Imperial Covenant Armada. Halaan's got the means and the resources to scout systems remotely without risk of detection." Kyle retorted.

"I agree." Lynn nodded. "I know Halaan too. He'll do the right thing."

"If you say so." John shrugged and put his helmet back on. "Just remember, I'll be watching in case things go south."

"Glad to hear that." Kyle grinned. "Hal, drop off a message to that relay satellite Halaan uses. He should respond pretty soon after that."

"On it."

Exile Fleet Earth, onboard the new flagship Valhalla

A pit grew in Keyes' stomach when he saw the Riftseeker jump in requesting emergency repairs. At first Keyes thought the worst and believed that Lynn really did go rogue and attacked Ackerson and his men. However, after a quick debriefing with Captain Aheb and his men, Keyes was relieved to find out that Lynn and her group were not responsible for the damage, at least not directly responsible.

"That's all I have to report." Aheb concluded.

"Damnit." Keyes sighed. "That girl is simply impossible to reign in. What am I supposed to do about her?"

Aheb merely shrugged and said, "Permission to speak frankly, sir?"

"Go ahead."

"Sir, I'm a family man. I've got three Aheb juniors running amok in the fleet and if there's one thing I've learned as father, it's that once kids realize they no longer have to rely on you, there's not much you can do about it."

"Just like their father, eh?" Keyes cracked a smile. "I seem to vividly remember a young petty officer who would always say 'no' to his superiors, and even punched them out if they gave him shit about it."

"Yeah, good times." Aheb laughed. "How's that jaw, by the way?"

"Well, I can eat again, that's for sure." Keyes laughed as well, military discipline and doctrine temporarily thrown out the airlock. He then stopped and exclaimed, "I'm such an idiot, thinking that I could try and keep Lynn from following in her parent's footsteps."

"Come again?" Aheb asked, curious. "I've heard stories, but nothing concrete."

"Just like the rest of the fleet." Keyes sighed. "I've either not told them, or sworn the few who did know to silence. I didn't want to risk any of it reaching her."

"The stories about her parents, you mean." Aheb confirmed.

"That's right." Keyes nodded, staring out the viewport. "They were a lot like Lynn. Rogue stars that went their own way whenever they liked. They were always coming and going, looking for that mythical planet we once called Earth. Then, one day, they arrived on the Pegasus, carrying a baby Lynn in their arms and pleading me to take care of her. I didn't think much of it then, since I assumed they were off on another extended expedition. But that day was different. That day, their ship made the jump the Slipspace and never came back. It's been almost twenty years and I'm still waiting for the Weatherlight to return."

"So that's why you suppressed everything." Aheb nodded in understanding. "You didn't want Lynn going off find them or anything."

"No, that was my biggest mistake." Keyes said sadly. "I fell prey to human weakness without knowing it and saw Lynn and her powers as an asset to the fleet, not as a living, breathing person. Protecting her from her past was just a cheap justification to soothe my conscience."

Both men were silent for a while until Keyes then spontaneously burst out in laughter again.

"But none of that worked anyways. Instead of searching for her parents, Lynn adopted their original dream and went to make it a reality, while I just sit here and maintain the status quo."

"Why are you telling me all of this, sir?" Aheb asked, perplexed.

"Because for some reason, there's something special this time. This time, I genuinely believe that Lynn will succeed where her parents didn't." Keyes said proudly. "Plus, this story isn't just for you. You're not the only man listening in on this conversation after all. Isn't that right, Ackerson?"

"What?" Aheb whipped around to see Ackerson limp out of hiding and yelled in surprise. 

"You're not even supposed to be conscious yet, let alone walking!"

"Don't underestimate my abilities, Captain Aheb." Ackerson grinned. "Be glad I'm on your side, because all of my enemies usually don't stick around long enough to make the same mistake twice."

"I'll keep that mind." Aheb grumbled.

"So, Admiral." Ackerson turned to Keyes. "I assume the point of that heartwarming story was to tell me that I'm officially being reassigned."

"That's right.' Keyes snapped his fingers, summoning Eurale's holographic image. "Eurale."

"Yes, Admiral?" The AI chimed politely.

"Access file codename: Get Together."

"Right away." Eurale responded and her image changed to show several floating pages of text and a holographic representation of two Covenant fleets in space.

"While you were away, our friends in Somm managed to intercept several encrypted transmissions between the main diplomatic bodies of the Covenant Imperium and Republic." Keyes explained. "Which is both good and bad. The bad news, it all but confirmed the rumors about an upcoming truce between the two powers."

"Well, I always expected this to happen." Ackerson shrugged. "What about it?"

"I haven't gotten to the good news yet." Keyes cracked a smile. "Also hidden in those transmissions was the time and location that both diplomatic parties are to meet to hammer out the truce conditions. I believe your little project investment finally paid off."

Ackerson couldn't help but smile. "I was saving it just for this occasion, Sir. When do we leave?"

"The meeting is scheduled to begin in four days. You've got that long to get it operational and reach the objective." Keyes said. "All the relevant information is being transferred to your personal account."

"Good to hear." Ackerson smiled. To have his new project finally being put to use in the field was more than enough to take Ackerson's mind off his failure to reign in Lynn. It provided a nice distraction and would also result in a bunch of Covenant eating vacuum. Everybody won. "I 

would also like to make a special request."

"Oh?" Keyes raised an eyebrow curiously. "What would that be?"

"Since I have to admit that I'm not in prime condition to run a ship by myself, and because poor Captain Aheb's ship is currently in the repair dock, I'd like to request that he and his crew come along for this mission."

"Request granted." Keyes nodded. "Captain Aheb, I hope you enjoy your new assignment."

Captain Aheb could only salute and sigh. It looked like he'd have to go on yet another mission babysitting Ackerson for Keyes. "Yes sir."

Covenant Neutral Zone
Four days later

Right on schedule, two massive Covenant battlefleets jumped out of Slipspace and faced each other along some invisible, imaginary line drawn up between them. Each of the fleets consisted of around hundred capital ships, with many more smaller support ships darting about. Between the two fleets stood a tiny space station. Armistice Point was traditionally the area where the Covenant Imperium and Republic tried to resolve their differences diplomatically (so far, unsuccessfully). The flagships from both respective fleets then boosted forward, locking their docking collars with the station in order to offload their diplomatic personnel.

Meanwhile, both fleets continued on with their normal duties. Fighter patrols swiftly darted about, picket ships held the line, while fleet tenders scuttled about to make sure every ship was in peak condition. However, nobody noticed that there was one extra fleet tender working in the Imperial fleet.

Its holographic projectors working at full capacity, the Phantom flew casually through the thick swarm of Covenant ships. The Phantom was a heavily modified prowler. Instead of its normal stealth functions, the Phantom instead had banks of external holographic projectors that could create a rather convincing façade around itself, making it look like just about anything the controller desired. The ship also had special equipment to let it give off signals and energy signatures that could match almost any ship, be it human or Covenant. However these stealth functions weren't even close to Phantom's greatest asset.

"I have to admit, sir." Aheb grunted, looking at the Covenant fleet surrounding him somewhat nervously. "You certainly put a lot of work into this craft."

"I've always wanted to use this." Ackerson said gleefully. "Bring her up to the underside of the 

Imperial flagship. Once you've confirmed a secure lock to the hull, you can deliver the package."

As the Phantom slowly scuttled over to Imperial Pride, Ackerson silently reviewed the mission objectives Keyes had given to him. He was to derail the truce talks between the Covenant Imperium and Republic by any means necessary. It would have been almost impossible to pull this off conventionally with the massive fleets protecting the area, but fortunately, Ackerson had thought of that eventuality and had prepared accordingly.

The moment Phantom locked onto Imperial Pride's hull, the Ship Intrusion and Subversion Package automatically began its work. It began with a large tube that extended out of the Phantom and drilled through the Covenant ship's hull. Once it pierced the hull, thousands of stored AI-controlled utility robots swarmed out of it like a colony of angry ants. They immediately went to work, scuttling throughout the interior of the ship, splicing cable, hacking data systems, intercepting damage reports, and placing themselves in vital portions of the ship. Ackerson beamed as he watched the SISP progress. In several minutes, without the Covenant's knowledge, Ackerson would have complete control over the Imperial Pride. He would be able to hijack any of its systems, and if necessary, Ackerson could command the robot drones infecting it to destroy the ship from within, like a colony of termites inside a wooden house.

"Sir, the drones have gain full control over both propulsion and weapons and are working on sabotaging the shield systems. Overall progress in complete control and subversion of the target is at sixty percent." One of the bridge technicians announced.

Ackerson briefly considered waiting to have the drones take full control of Imperial Pride, but decided not to. All he really needed was to have control of the Covenant ship's weaponry.

"We don't need full control. Hijack the weapon systems and give me firing solutions on the nearest Republican ships."

Phantom's main tactical display, which was now directly hooked into Imperial Pride's systems via the SISP, projected the image of the Republican fleet from the Covenant ship's point of view. Data, text, and symbols, all in an alien language, filled the screen. Then, red boxes began appearing over five of the Republican vessels, signifying that one of the plasma turrets had been locked on to that target. Normally, the fire control crew would be noticing something odd and be doing everything in their power to fix the issue, but the drones had control the ship and were feeding the crew false data, leaving them completely unaware of what was happening. Ackerson briefly considered just annihilating the Republican flagship, but then thought against it. Keyes had told him to just disrupt the negotiations. He wouldn't be too happy if he found out that Ackerson purposely destroyed Republican ships. Instead, Ackerson divided the Imperial flagship's weaponry to fire at as many targets as possible.



"Sir, targets are locked and weapons are ready to fire." The technician announced.

"Proceed." Ackerson said.

With that single word, all hell broke loose as Imperial Pride's weapons fired all at once. Its opposing ship, the Republican Glory, suffered damage as two plasma torpedoes gouged their way through its unshielded nose and starboard flank. The three cruisers and destroyers surrounding her didn't fare any better, all of them evaporating in clouds of metal vapor and plasma. The Republican fleet, though taken by surprise, was prepared for such a move. The Republican fleet immediately returned fire, blowing similarly confused Imperial ships into oblivion. The Imperials, thinking that they were the ones being ambushed, responded several seconds later and the entire area was soon lit up with thousands of plasma torpedoes and explosions.

Meanwhile, a plasma torpedo struck Imperial Pride causing the entire ship, and by extension, Phantom, to shudder violently, reminding Ackerson, Aheb, and the rest of the crew that they were in the midst of this apocalyptic battle as well.

"Erm, maybe we should disengage the locks and get an exit vector." Ackerson suggested to Aheb.

"Good idea." Aheb hastily agreed. "Disengage the locks! Once we're free, head out to the nearest exit and prep the Slipspace drive!"

With that, Phantom released its hold on the quickly disintegrating Imperial Pride like a flea and furiously powered its way out of the battle area as fast as its engines could carry it. In the midst of the chaotic battle, neither side was concerned with a lone fleet tender. Besides a pair of Republican Seraph pilots trying to look for an easy kill, Phantom found no problems getting clear of the battle and making the jump to Slipspace.

Astral Wind
Covenant Republic Space

It had taken about four days for Halaan to finally respond to Kyle's message. He arrived as fast as he could, though only half believing the story that Kyle had told him. Even though he was skeptical at first, Halaan had agreed to send an unmanned scout drone to explore the set of coordinates he was given. It took another two days for the drone to travel to its destination, reconnoiter the area, and then return to the Astral Wind. For Lynn, the wait was as excruciating as any Covenant torture session. It wasn't surprising that she was the first one out the door when news of the drone's return was finally reported.

"Can we see it yet?" Lynn asked anxiously.

"Patience." Halaan sighed. "We still need to inspect the drone and confirm that the data it recorded is authentic."

Finally, the visual data the drone recorded finally uploaded itself onto Astral Wind's main visual display. As everybody watched, a fuzzy picture of space appeared. The drone then panned around, seeing nothing except for a few planets that couldn't support life. There were several gas giants, like one with large rings around it, and another with a distinctive red spot. The picture then froze briefly as the drone made a Slipspace micro-jump. This time, it was at a crimson red planet, which showed some signs of habitation, but nobody thought at first glance that it could have been the fabled planet Earth.

"So far, things don't look too promising." Kay sighed.

"Patience. We have barely reviewed a fraction of the footage." Halaan said, cautiously optimistic.

The drone then panned around, trying to look for anything else of interest. As it passed over the star system's yellow sun, its sensitive equipment picked up an anomaly. The drone interpreted the data and hypothesized that it was yet another planet and automatically plotted a course. The picture froze as the drone made another micro-jump.

Finally, it looked as if the drone finally found what it was looking for. There, directly in front of it, was what Lynn thought was the most beautiful thing in the entire universe. Though it looked like any other habitable planet, with green continents and blue oceans, there was just kind of feeling that sight of that planet created in those who gazed upon it. Two hundred years of separation had done little to quell that unconscious yearning for home.

"Is that what I think it is…?" Kyle asked.

"No doubt about it." Lynn smiled. "It's Earth!"

"That's not all." Halaan pointed to the screen. "The drone also detected a large fleet of Covenant ships here."

The image zoomed in to a massive fleet of Covenant worships, easily at least several hundred of them. However, they all seemed to be keeping their distance from Earth. They were all in a straggled ring around the planet, skirting the edge of its gravitational pull.

"Why are the all spread out like that?" Sanah wondered. "It's like they're avoiding the planet 

like the plague."

"I think we're about to find out." John said.

Farther back in the fleet formation, one of the Covenant ships broke off from the main fleet and started to inch closer to Earth.

"It's at this point the drone detected some kind of data transmission between the ship and some facility on the surface of the planet." Halaan pointed out.

Suddenly, a large black cloud suddenly appeared and engulfed the Covenant ship. The ship fired several plasma torpedoes in an attempt to defend itself, but it was a pointless measure. In a flash, dozens of golden beams punctured the Covenant ship and blew it to pieces, sending its remains crashing into Earth's atmosphere below.

"What the hell was that?" Kay gasped.

"We have no idea." Halaan said. "The only thing we know is that cloud consisted of multiple constructs that were barely a meter in length."

"A meter?" Sanah exclaimed. "At that distance, and with a cloud that size, there must have been millions of them!"

"Yes, we're unsure of the exact nature of what destroyed that ship." Halaan shrugged. "There's really no other way of finding out. The drone could not get any closer."

"There is one way." Lynn said, standing up.

"What are you talking about?" Kyle asked.

"Just like the old times." Lynn said simply.

"Oh no, don't tell me you're thinking about-"

"We're going there, in person." Lynn declared. "I think it's time for humans to set foot on Earth again."