A/N; MERRY CHRISTMAS! Now i would like to mention something about this chapter first, it's important; Right it is slightly shorter but it is informative, its 'good' but i'm not sure how realistic it is, i'll leave it up to you so read and enjoy.
Answers to some questions will be at the bottom,
Disclaimer- I OWN NOTHING! except OCs.
"Why do we bother to force unhappy colony worlds to stay in the UN fold? Because UNSC budgets and UNSC heavy lift enabled those colonies to exist. Because the UNSC needs as many supply bases in deep space as it can get and because they're Human- they're us. In a galaxy full of hostile aliens, you're either for us, or you're the enemy. –Admiral Margaret O. Parangosky, CINCONI
Medical bay-UNSC Marathon Heavy Cruiser Mk II-UNSC Ripper-Slip-Space en Route to Sol System-April 18th 2586
Beep, beep, beep, beep…
Philip Walters slowly came about; the humming of the Rippers engines could still be heard over the sounds of medical equipment he was plugged into, he started to move until a hand on his shoulder stopped him,
"Careful there laddie, we wouldn't want to go tearing all your stitches now would we?" a young man with short black hair and a large hooked nose said, a slight Irish brogue coming through,
"Stitches? What stitches?" Walters croaked out, he tried to move again but the medical officer held him down again,
"You took one nasty beating after that stunt you pulled; the cut above your eye had to be stitched along with several large lacerations caused by the debris in the bridge, we also had to replace several internal organs, you heart, liver, pancreas, kidneys and your left lung, we also had to reset a couple of bones, you're lucky the medical crew checked in on you after wards or you would have been another casualty."
"I should have died, it would probably have been better than what the brass is gonna do to me for doing that." Philip groaned,
"I don't know about that Lieutenant, look what happened to Cole when he did almost the exact same thing, now try not to move too much we'll be arriving at Earth in about a week, I'm going to tell the Admiral your awake, he'll want to debrief you himself before HIGHCOM get a hold of you, after all it was his men that were killed," the officer seemed to aim that last part at Walters, he had known the explosion would damage the ship and possibly injure some crew members but the reactors on that ship, something wasn't right… they shouldn't have gone up like that so, why did they?
"What about the Commander and Lieutenant Pangilinan?" Philip questioned and the Medical officer's eyes shifted to another bed, Philip followed his gaze and saw on a bed next him was the Commander, her neck secured in a brace and multiple tubes and wires stuck out of her,
"She's in a coma, she'll be lucky if she ever wakes up and Lieutenant Pangilinan didn't make it, he died before the Ripper arrived in system." Philip looked away and closed his eyes, his best friend was dead and his CO was in a coma and wasn't likely to wake up anytime soon, it was his fault, if he had been faster, if he hadn't been so stupid then AJ would have survived and so would have a lot of other people but no he had failed, if he had gotten those shields online none of that would have happened. Maybe he should have listened to his mother and he should have stayed in university, not drop out and join the Navy.
"Thanks Doc," Philip offered the small thank you with little meaning behind his words,
"Oh I'm not a Doctor, I'm a medical technician," the Medical tech replied,
"Whatever, same thing." Philip replied before shutting his eyes properly, ending the conversation.
Serpent Nebula-Citadel-Citadel Tower-Council meeting room-2153 Citadel Standard
Sparatus, the Turian representative on the council looked at the report, granted the writer of the report was stood before him but he would rather read the report first and then talk to the Asari Captain, Asri N'lorik. The file had been transmitted to him along with the rest of the council several days ago and he had read it so many times he had nearly memorised it. The report was… interesting, it stated that the wreck had been drifting in space for a little over eighty years, before the Verge wars, the main gun on the wreckage was predicted to fire a 300 ton slug but at what speed was still a mystery, the computer systems were highly advanced and took the team nearly a week of solid hacking to get at the data, only to find that petabytes of data had been corrupted beyond recovery.
Some of the data that had been recovered was either entirely composed of text or was a series of mathematical equations that were beyond even the Salarians, there had been a video and audio file but they couldn't understand what was being said, it was interesting though as it showed the final few hours of the ships operational life and the way it ended, with a bright light passing near the bridge, blocking everything with a thick white heat, when the lighted faded the ship shook and the feed cut after that.
"Captain," he began, "I'm sure you're wondering why exactly your expedition was pulled back, granted it was technically an illegal exploration mission but that isn't the reason, no the Salarian STG as well as several Spectre's had discovered some rather… disturbing evidence." Sparatus motioned for the Salarian representative, Valern, to take over,
"Several STG operations discovered a large influx of weapons and slaves to Omega, the weapons were not of any known design and fired actual bullets, not mass effect based, the slaves were your average Batarian that didn't follow the rules, when a Turian patrol raided a slaver ship, inside were a race of mammalian bipeds that had never been encountered before, it is the same race that operated the ship you found," Valern started listing out some of the details, "The slaves were freed and brought back here to the Citadel and are currently with C-sec for protection, when the Turian patrol hacked the ships system, they had located where the shipment came from… the Orion arm, unfortunately however the exact route used is still a mystery meaning we can't just send in a fleet and wipe the slavers out. " Valern finished and Ari was in shock, someone had been transporting slaves from a civilisation that was completely unknown to the Council not only that they were also selling off the species' weaponry, it was sickening.
"Not only that but recent evidence collected by one of our top agents had uncovered evidence that Edan Had'dah is not only alive but has been operating the entire operation from an unknown location, we are building up our forces to try and locate him but it will take some time to organise everything along with gathering the Intel on the whereabouts of the Mass Relay he used to escape," Counsellor Tevos, the Asari representative,
"What makes you think he used a Mass Relay? He might have done what we did and used conventional FTL travel to escape, if your intelligence is indeed correct," Asri replied, the knowledge that Edan could still be alive angered her, the bastard had lied and had manipulated her, made her feel guilty for anything he saw as wrong and when the time came he had left her to sift through the remains of their life,
"Our intelligence is of top quality, I assure you, some of the intelligence gathered pertains to a 'relay 314', that however it is all we know," Valern retorted, "full mobilisation for the fleet will take approximately seven months, how long it takes to find the Relay however is another matter, it could be just a matter of weeks or it could be over a year before we find the relay or any information on its whereabouts." Sparatus finished, Asri was dismissed soon after as she was not needed for the rest of the meeting, not that she cared, politics was not her idea of a fun time plus she at least now knew why her expedition had been called back.
As she walked through the Presidium towards her hotel she made a mental note to ask why the Council had made such revelations to her of all people, by the Goddess it was only two decades ago when she had stopped being asked about her time spent with Edan and she stopped being a suspect in the investigations which were still going.
Omega wing, UNSC Bravo-6, UNSC HIGHCOM, Sydney, Australia, 0900hrs, March 1, 2586
Dressed in his dress uniform 2nd Lieutenant Philip Walters waited, he sat in a chair in a large and empty waiting area, the drab grey walls left were so dull and boring they had somehow managed to make the black inkiness of Slip-space look incredibly attractive, he didn't know how just that they did.
His left arm was in a sling and caste; his forearm had been crushed as one of the heavy wall panels in the bridge was blasted free and hit him, he had several broken ribs and it hurt just breathing in and out but he kept the blank emotionless face he had kept for the last two weeks. His usually bright deep blue eyes were dull and had lost the spark that was in every Lieutenant who had never served in real combat, hell he hadn't really, but they had never committed an action that had saved the lives of nearly four hundred crewmen but at the cost of over six dozen lives including his best friends' life.
The room well dull and uninteresting did have two sets of double doors, one was the way had come in through, the other was a large wooden door with brass handles with gold plating, when it opened revealing Admiral Jack Newman in his pristine uniform, the two stars seemed to sparkle slightly and the campaign medals gave the black dress uniform a large variety of colour and the medals he had been awarded hung proudly on his chest, Philip went to get up and salute but the Admiral waved a hand and shook his head,
"No need Lieutenant, be warned the brass are looking for a head to stick on a pike for this, you should be in the clear seeing as though you followed protocol to the letter but a single cock up in there and chances are ONI will have you in some deep dark hole," the Admiral warned as he walked over to where Philip was sat and offering a dark skinned hand, Philip took the assistance,
"Thank you sir,"
"No problem Lieutenant, as I said, you should be fine, I mean Cole pulled nearly the exact same trick on an Insurrectionist vessel and they promoted him to Commander before the year was up, hell they nearly gave him the Legion of Honour, they also nearly court marshalled him so it could go either way but Lasky was supportive of your actions, so at least that's something." Jack finished as an MP came in and asked for Philip Walters, the Admiral patted him on his good shoulder and wished him luck.
Philip followed the MP through the door and down a long dark corridor; it was eerie, like he was walking to his own execution and as the Admiral put it if he cocked up than he was walking to his own execution.
He was led to a plain simple door and led inside the room, inside were the four most powerful people in the UNSC Navy; Fleet Admiral Lord Terrance hood, Fleet Admiral Keith Harper, Admiral Thomas Lasky and Rear Admiral Serin Osman, their faces were blank and didn't betray any thoughts of the current situation and Philip swallowed as he stood at attention in front of the large oak wood table they were sat behind.
"Sate your name and rank for record please," Lord Hood started, his old wrinkled face still gave away nothing and neither did his voice,
"2nd Lieutenant Philip Michael Walters UNSC service number-00932-2093-PW, Sir!" he called out with as much professionalism as he could muster,
"Good, now Lieutenant we've all read the report and what we saw was the actions of a hero who saved his ship and the crew of that ship," Admiral Lasky stated with a tiny hint of a smile,
"Yes at the cost of seventy two people and you nearly destroyed the Gorgon with your reckless actions," Osman retorted as she glared at Philip with murderous eyes,
"Serin, we've already discussed this, he followed protocol to the letter, saved the majority of the crew and he prevented the Gorgon from falling into enemy hands," Harper snapped, if Philip were to guess then he would have said that the brass had had several long winded arguments over his actions it didn't settle his nerves at all to see at least two Admirals support his actions,
"What do you have to say about what happened Lieutenant?" Hood asked, Philip swallowed again before answering,
"Sir, I already gave my view on what happened in the report," Philip said, he was starting to sweat from his nervousness,
"I know that Lieutenant, I just want you to tell me face to face what you did," Hood replied,
"Y-yes sir, after regaining consciousness I quickly called out the status of the weapons systems, after getting no orders I turned round to see Commander Jones limp in her chair, I also looked at the rest of the bridge crew and saw that they were all hunched over their stations, I checked on the bridge crew to find that only Commander Jones and Lieutenant Pangilinan were still alive, I called for any available fire teams and any available crewman to report to the bridge. Afterwards I looked to see one of the enemy vessels had taken up a position in front of the Gorgon's MAC, I told the crew to brace and fired the MAC, the resulting explosion shifted the Gorgon and I could see another enemy vessel that had tried to get into position next to the Gorgon, I then used the Captains log to make a basic report of what happened, after that I checked to see what hard point docking stations had survived the initial attack, only the port docking point was intact so I called for several crewman to take one of the Archer missiles out of its pod and line it up with the docking point," Philip took a deep breath before continuing, " when the doors opened I waited to make sure the missile would fly into the enemy vessel unobstructed, than I fired the missile, the explosion from the enemy ships reactors knocked me out sir, the next thing I know I was in the Med bay of the Ripper already heading back to Earth." Philip finished and his throat was dry and sore, his uniform was damp from sweat and his knees were shaking, the Admirals looked at him for a moment and then Admiral Lasky asked,
"Why did you active the Cole protocol Lieutenant? After all it's now moot seeing as the URF and the Covenant know the location of Earth," his tone was a mixture of condescending and curiosity,
"I didn't believe that the URF or any Covenant species were attacking us sir," Philip answered, defending his actions,
"Well who else could it have been Lieutenant? Do you think that it was first contact with a new race that decided it liked you ship?" Admiral Osman sneered, her voice filled with doubt and distaste,
"I don't know who it was sir, but I didn't recognise the ship design and assumed that they were neither part of the URF or the Covenant," Philip replied,
"You assumed? Assumed?" Osman was nearly yelling, "So you enacted a protocol that hasn't been needed in over thirty years because you assumed?"
"Admiral that is enough, Lieutenant Walters followed the correct course of action in the situation, if anything he deserves a medal for his actions not to be told that he was at fault," Hood glared at the younger woman
The debriefing carried on for at least another hour if not more before he was dismissed and made his way out of the HIGHCOM underground complex, he stood there in the Australian sun, the small breeze had a slightly bitter feel to it after all it was coming up to the Australian winter. He ended up in a hotel not far from the Bravo-6 compound where he spent the day and then night, until further notice he was to stay near Bravo-6, ready to head there at the drop of a hat, he had no idea what to do with himself, maybe he'd go see Liam, he lived around here somewhere, didn't he?
Today people are in mourning as even more civilians are killed throughout UNSC and UEG space by Insurrectionist bombings and attacks, bombs were detonated in several cities on Earth, Mars and Circumstance. Major attacks on embassy's, Shopping centres and other densely populated areas, Insurrectionist forces have so far killed hundreds of thousands to get free of a government they have abandoned them. Riots all around UNSC space have broken out to 'End the bloodshed against ourselves once and for all,' as the attacks grow more violent.
Also a UNSC scouting group consisting of two Corvettes, the Jericho and Petra, along with a light Frigate, the Gorgon, led by Naval Commander Katlin Jones was attacked and nearly destroyed by unknown forces that are presumed to be old United Rebel Front personnel, if it weren't for the quick thinking and actions of a 2bd Lieutenant Philip Walters, the Gorgon would have been boarded and presumably killed. A UNSC Naval Spokesperson had this to say,
"The Navy is truly sorry for the families of those that had lost their lives, but if it wasn't for the actions of 2nd Lieutenant Walters than many more families would be grieving and the UNSC would have lost one of their most historic vessels."
(WAYPOINT NINE NEWS UPDATE, MARCH 6th 2586)
A/N- Right so some of the questions that have been asked and there answers;
'What is the status of the former Covenant Species?' byScottusa1;
Answer; Well as we all know the Covenant split, the Brutes have disappeared from known space, the Grunts are staying to their home planet, trying to rebuild the ecosystem and to advance into space on their own terms-with some help from the Reclaimers, The Jackals tend to stay in their own space but its not uncommon to find them on human worlds that are part of the Insurrection or have been glassed, the Hunters tend to stick their own world but some have joined the Sangheili in combat. now the Sangheili as you know they made an alliance with Humanity, some split off and formed the Storm, others supported the alliance, but when they find out what ONI did they were too weakened to go to war but they cut off nearly all contact with Humanity, the Arbiter and his closest friends/allies still keep in touch but only on important issues.
'Please tell me that the Asari will not become Reclaimers alongside the Humans' by ferduran
Answer-God NO! thats OUR title and responsibility, fuck them.
Also- guest- I know a UNSC Destroyer has two MAC guns but only the 'newer' ones, some Destroyer classes only hd one back in the day.
Right so than here you go, Merry Christmas and if i don't update by Thursday wish me a Happy Birthday as i turn 18 so i can legally go out and drink! :)