A/N; So hey wassup? i thought i might update this story for you guys and girls... i assume there are girls reading this somewhere.
Okay word of warning; the Chief makes an appearance but i really really underplay him, thought id warn you before hand. a few questions have been answered in this chapter.
okay i have had a little bit of flack for this story off of people regarding multiple things, usually really little things and if you have a problem with it... hit the back button, no one is forcing you to read the story.
UNSC Sevenfold, Interstellar Space, Captains Quarters, 1704 Ship board time, August 20th 2587
Philip laid his head on the table, both his hands running through the hair on the back of his head, he just wanted to hide in hole and die, everything in his life seemed to go wrong; from his parents splitting up to the Gorgon incident last year and now this. Nearly forty crew members were dead, many injured and it was all for some stupid ass plan to arm the Insurrectionists with more recent technology.
The door to his quarters opened with a slight hiss causing the young Commander to look up; before him stood Admiral Morrison, his large form blocking out the view into the hallway behind him, Philip stood up an saluted the high ranking officer, his Naval carer was already shot to hell but he wasn't going to show any form of disrespect to the old Admiral.
"Sit down Walters, jeez you're a mess," the Admiral said as he walked into the room, Philip collapsed into his chair, indeed the Commander was a mess, his hair was all over the place and he had haunted look in his eyes,
"Look Walters I'll say this before Lasky can when we meet up with him; what happened here today was not your fault, you had no way of knowing what Skye would do." Morrison took a seat opposite Philip and leant on the table, Philip had nothing to say; he just hung his head low and gazed down at the floor,
"I've been speaking to Lorelie about a few things and we might be in a spot of trouble," Morison continued, Philip looked up at his superior, "It appears that our new alien compatriots witnessed Skye's mutiny or at least the Marines storming the bridge, one of the bodies fell back onto the Comm station and activated it when they were hailing you, they disconnected the call after Skye went down, Lorelie was unable to do anything; just in case the aliens took it as a hostile action," Philip was shocked, the Turian General had witnessed everything and now chances were that the aliens would really consider themselves above Humanity.
"I took the liberty of speaking to the 'Turian' General via text, turns out we both want the same thing; Retake Shanxi and kill the four eyed bastards responsible, he agreed to move his fleet to the RV point, than we plan our joint attack and go get Shanxi back, there were other things but… that's above your pay grade," Morison finished,
"Now, clean yourself up, can't have you looking like that while on duty Commander" Morison added before getting up and leaving, Philip sighed once more before getting up to go shower, his chest was still sore from the crash but the medical technicians had done what they could.
The day just got longer and longer in his opinion.
XX
Flagship Indomitable, CIC, En Route to Human RV point, 1300hrs ship board time, August 21st 2587/2154
Septimus was pacing the CIC, the Human Admiral he had spoken to had not answered the questions he sought the answers to but had just simply informed the General that it was a 'long story', but the entire joint Council fleet was currently heading towards the staging point for the Human fleet, from there he would personally meet with the Admiral in charge of the fleet and together along with other high ranking officers they would plan for the liberation of the Human colony, it was daunting, he would be making first contact with a high ranking official and be planning a planetary siege.
"Two minutes till we drop out of FTL sir," one of his officers reported, Septimus sighed before replying,
"Good, as soon as we do bring us next to the Human Flagship, the Admiral informed me that it was quite… obvious as to which one it was," the Lieutenant replied with a 'yes sir' before focusing on his console,
Soon enough the two hundred ship strong Council fleet dropped out of FTL, the sight before the experienced General caused him to open his mandible in shock, there were over six hundred ships, none of which were smaller than a Cruiser, there were three other ships the same size as the Daedalus at four kilometres and at least six that were just over three kilometres long, but the truly gargantuan vessel at the centre of the fleet was what caught his attention; it was huge, it had to have been at least five kilometres maybe five and a half. All the armour plating on the ship rested at particular angles, some of them overlapped and other hung over the side.
He noticed that some ships looked nothing like the Human designs, they were a minority amongst the fleet but they stuck close to the Flagship, acting as guards for the massive vessel, all the ships however had a silver look to them, like they were made from something far more advanced than anything the Council could come up with, it wasn't true but the way the angles and the way the metal looked… it made the ships look impressive.
"Have Captains Afera and Schells meet me in the hanger, we'll all go together," Oraka said even though he was already on his way out of the CIC, "and have General Desolas meet me in the hanger bay," he added as the doors to the CIC closed behind him.
Septimus and Desolas met in the hanger at the same time and made idle chit-chat concerning the new aliens they would be fighting with; the Humans had an impressive fleet that was for sure, they were waiting for Afera and Schells before they headed over to the Human Flagship, a squad of some of Desolas' best were waiting nearby in heavy armour, soon two shuttles entered the hanger bay and Afera and Schells joined the two Turian Generals,
"Generals, good news, my men have finished a translator upgrade to allow easier communication with our new allies," Captain Schells said as soon as he was close enough, Septimus nodded,
"Good, that will make things run smoother," Oraka said before moving off towards the shuttle that would take them to the Super-Dreadnought, the two Captains and Desolas followed along with the squad of Turian soldiers, the shuttle ride was quick but he and Desolas kept talking about their plans with Afera and Schells making the odd contribution.
Shuttle en route to Human Flagship UNSC Infinity,
Lieutenant Adrian Victus fidgeted slightly in his seat, thanks to his armour it went unnoticed, he was slightly nervous at the prospect of being on a ship that dwarfed the Destiny Ascension which had a crew of ten thousand, he didn't want to even guess at the number of crewmen on the massive vessel, that and the fact that there were hundreds of point defence guns pointing at the small shuttle, he quickly tucked away the nerves and remembered his training, he was part of the Victus family, war was in his blood, he would be fine, or at least he prayed to the Spirits he would be.
As the shuttle drew closer to the ship he went over his gear one last time before getting a reassuring pat on the shoulder by his CO, Captain Fedorian,
"It'll be fine Victus, they're friendly, for now anyway," his CO reassured him, Adrian nodded in response, the shuttle was completely closed, preventing him from seeing the hanger they were approaching, he did however feel the shuttle slow down and the tug of artificial gravity inside the huge hanger bay, his squad stood up and would be the first ones to exit the shuttle.
The shuttle door opened and the squad fanned out, they didn't do anything that could be considered hostile but they kept their guard up just in case, Victus was impressed with what he saw, two separate lines of 'Humans' acted as some sort of honour guard, their armour was polished, their movements were in perfect synchronisation, they were a highly trained group that was for sure, as the Generals and Captains came out of the shuttle their honour guard snapped to attention, the sound of their boots hitting the floor and their rifles coming to rest on their shoulders was an impressive one.
As his squad slowly stood at ease he noticed four Humans at the end, one was dressed in the grey uniform that the human Commander had worn when coming aboard the Indomitable, only it was more ornate, it had slightly more golden trimmings and had an extra piece on one shoulder, another was dressed similarly but it had different markings and lacked the shoulder piece ,the other was… different, it was taller and wore some sort of armour, it had small bits floating over its shoulders and soft blue lights softly pulsing through it, it had a certain edge of superiority to it, like it was saying 'I'm bigger, better and more powerful than you', the last one was taller than the two in the grey uniform but smaller than the one in the fancy armour, it too wore armour only this one was dark green and its face was covered by a solid golden visor, General Oraka moved forward first and Fedorian motioned for the squad to follow along with the rest of their delegation.
Adrian had seen the Human Commander when he visited but the humans in the honour guard all looked different, none looked even similar, some had dark skin, others had really pale skin, some were tall, others were short but they all looked to be of the same fitness level, not that he could really tell, they were after all completely alien, the human at the centre with the ornate uniform looked older, his fur was grey with slight hints of brown in it, his face was wrinkled but he had the look of a hardened war veteran, he had seen the look on the Generals and on his own farther, only the look the human put out was a little softer, although Adrian had a feeling that it was because of their softer skin.
The human took a step forward to meet General Oraka and stretched out its hand, to his surprise the General either knew the gesture or made a lucky guess as he reached out with his own hand,
"General Oraka? I'm Admiral Thomas Lasky, Commander of the UNSC Infinity, it's a pleasure General," the man's voice, at least Adrian assumed it was a man, was surprisingly friendly,
"The pleasure is mine Admiral, I see you've managed to sort out a translator than," Oraka replied, the Human Admiral smiled,
"Yes well, we have been working on it since you sent the data package to the Sevenfold," he replied, "Now, I think it would be best to make our way over to the ready room and introduce ourselves properly and then do what we came here to do,"
"Agreed Admiral, lead the way," Septimus said, the Human Admiral took a step back, straightened his features before dismissing the present soldiers, who in turn saluted before turning and marching off in an orderly fashion, some guards however stayed nearby, presumably to make sure nothing happened to the Admiral, they were lead from the hanger bay through a confusing series of corridors that were marked with signs that they couldn't read, eventually they were lead into a small tram, a high speed rail network inside a warship was something Adrian had a hard time believing but at the same time he wasn't surprised considering the size of the ship, after several minutes of rather awkward silence the tram slowed ad stopped, allowing its passengers out into the new section of the ship,
When they reached the ready room Adrian looked around, the room was large enough for all of them and then some, a large monitor filled the wall to the right of the door its dark screen had a symbol rotating, he had seen the same symbol painted on the side of every Human warship and on all of the crewmen's uniforms, he figured it was the symbol of their military,
The Humans walked round to the other side of the table and sat down; their guards stood against the wall with their weapons holstered but ready, Fedorian motioned for the squad to do the same as the Generals, Admirals and Captains sat down at the table, Adrian took note of an empty chair on the Humans side and that all other chairs had been removed,
"So, General Oraka, I suppose we should introduce ourselves properly; I am Admiral Thomas Lasky, CO of the Infinity and in charge of all UNSC forces during the liberation of Shanxi, to my right is Major General Nicolas Strauss," he said pointing at the other man in similar attire, indicating the next man the one in green armour and continued, "This here is Captin-117, he is in charge of the few Spartans we have alongside Companies; Ambrose, Charlie and Gypsy, the last man here is in charge of all Forerunner forces within our fleet," the Admiral finished,
"Forerunner?" Desolas asked, as he studied the 'Forerunner', the golden energy covering its face made it impossible to read the facial expressions of the creature behind it,
"Aya," the Forerunner murmured before the energy dissipated and the armour around its head reoriented into the shoulder and neck pieces, it face was definitely bot human, its skin colour was different, its facial structure was more rugged and it had some sort glands on the side of its face, it was in Adrian's opinion an ugly creature, it's almost rigid face was covered in pinkie grey skin, it had no pronounced nose, instead it had two slitted nostrils, it also had pale bluish white fur on the back of its head,
"I am a Forerunner," It said simply, "My name is Victory Through Honour, Forerunner Warrior-Servant, third form, most people call me Vic," he added, as Vic spoke he moved his hands allowing Adrian to get a good look at them, they were large with six fingers, two of which were opposable thumbs, Adrian couldn't fathom having that many fingers on one hand,
"You also mentioned 'Spartans', might I inquire as to what exactly a Spartan is," Schells asked, Captain 117 answered,
"Spartans are the best humanity has to offer, we are the best soldiers in the galaxy, the rest is classified," he answered, Captain Schells frowned slightly but said nothing,
The General took the time to introduce himself, Desolas, Captain Schells and Afera, along with some general background information as to why his group was here and general galactic history, however the talk raised a few eyebrows on the Human side when the Geth were mentioned along with the subsequent ban on A.I Technology, Captain Afera noticed the looks that crossed the Human Admirals face,
"Admiral Lasky is there a problem?" she inquired, he looked slightly uncomfortable when replying,
"Just the talk of A.I's is… well let's just say humans aren't so afraid of " he said, it quickly dawned on the Turian Generals and Salarian Captain what he meant, Afera however didn't seem to click,
"I am afraid I do not understand Admiral," she said with a slight frown on her face,
"Humans have used A.I technology for around five hundred years, we haven't had a single incident involving A.I's in that entire time," the Admiral replied,
"Are you insane? A.I's are dangerous; they would wipe out all organics if given the chance!" General Desolas hissed at the Human Officers, Adrien winced ever so slightly at the Generals tone, before Lasky could reply however a new voice filled the room along with an orange-yellow avatar of a human in strange looking clothes,
"Actually the way we're created makes us rather… dependant on our makers, also we think like our creators, just better, what with all your funny organic-ness to slow you down," it said, Adrian tensed as did the rest of the Council species,
"Roland! Don't be so melodramatic," the Admiral chided with a frown, "Attitude aside A.I's are not hell bent on our destruction, we have… ways to prevent such things in all our A.I programs, isn't that right Roland?" he continued with a slight smirk, the A.I's avatar spun round to face the Admiral with a look of horror on its projected face,
"Hey, no fair, she was an evil old lady," the A.I replied,
"She was also one of the leading figures in A.I development," the admiral faced Oraka again, Captain Schells was typing away rapidly on his Omni-tool while muttering things to himself,
"General Oraka I can assure you it won't be a problem, there are two types of A.I my people use; Roland here is what is known as a 'smart' A.I; created by mapping the human brain, along with other things that I couldn't even begin to understand and we have the A.I you see in front of you,"
"What is going to stop it from deciding to wipe out all organic life in the galaxy?" Desolas asked, to Adrien's surprise and the Generals Roland was the first to answer,
"Asimov's three laws of robotics implemented into my coding at my 'birth' prevents me from harming a human being, sure I could override the commands but I don't, I have no desire to kill the people who gave me life," it answered,
"And what is the 'three laws of robotics' exactly?" Schells asked,
"The three laws of robotics are as follows; a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm, a robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws." Roland said almost robotically,
"Yes, now how about we move on to the real reason you're here," Admiral Lasky said, Desolas looked like he was about to erupt but Septimus leaned over and whispered something to him causing him calm down slightly,
"Of course Admiral, our enemies are not going to kill themselves,"
"Indeed, Roland is Commander Walters finished yet?" Lasky turned to his A.I, who nodded in the affirmative,
"Yes sir, he is outside the door right now,"
"Good, send him in," the door they walked through opened to reveal the Commander who walked, he slowed down with shock on his face, he hadn't been expecting to walk in halfway through a meeting, General Oraka stood up to greet the Commander,
"Ah Commander, it's good to see you in fighting shape," the General said, Adrian raised a brow plate at that, the General wasn't wrong either the Commander was dressed in a new uniform and his wrist still had a caste on it but he looked like he had when he visited the Indomitable,
"Ummm… yeah, thanks, I didn't realise I was interrupting the meeting Admiral," he said looking at the Admiral, almost like he was expecting help from the grey furred Human,
"I asked for you to be here Commander," the Admiral replied simply, Walters looked his superiors, his face was almost impassive but when he saw Captain 117, he couldn't hide the awe and excitement at meeting living legend, he snapped to attention,
"Sir!" he said crisply out of respect,
"At ease Commander," Lasky said motioning him to sit down; Philip felt out of his depth, he was surrounded by alien military officials a UNSC Admiral and a legendary war hero, he felt so small and insignificant,
"I didn't realise Commander Walters would be joining us," Captain Afera said, Walters looked at her and then at Lasky,
"Commander Walters is the only person in the UNSC to see action against these 'Batarians' and survive," Lasky commented, Afera nodded and gaped in realisation that the Commander had fought the Batarians, he had his memories stirred by the ship profiles that was why he had zoned out on them at the original meeting, they spent the next few hours discussing their plan of attack, while the Council forces didn't trust the A.I or the UNSC due their heavy use of A.I's they got along just enough to coordinate the siege,
The plan was relatively simple; four teams of Force Recon Marines from the 23rd ODST Force Recon Unit would make a covert drop into Batarian controlled ground via the Prowler Silent night and proceed to Shanxi's Reactor Complex which would disable the ground to space defences that had been set up along with the majority of the Batarians military capabilities, the A.I data core under the capital city and the last two were to clear out a small Batarian military camp which was to be used as the landing point for the majority of the UNSC and Council ground forces.
Once the Reactor complex was shut down and the A.I data core online again the Council forces along with the UNSC Infinity and battle group Dakota will drop out of FTL outside of weapons range, forcing the Batarians to move away from the planet, when they do Battle groups York and Carolina will emerge from the dark side of the planet, using Shanxi's gravity to pick up speed along with a sling shot orbit of Galileo, a gas giant in the Shanxi-Theta system, using this the two battle groups will perform a 'fly by' on the Batarian fleet and the Super Carriers; Daedalus, Apollo, Sky Fall and Hurt Locker will jump into low atmosphere and start dropping the main invasion force and to provide air cover as they descend to their landing zones.
Spartan fire teams will be sent deep behind enemy lines to either capture or kill high ranking officials; Marine forces are tasked with taking the Capital city of Yamatai and surrounding towns, ODST forces will assist the marines except squads that are being tasked with liberating the slave labour camps that the Batarians set up.
General Desolas had insisted on having some of his men take part in these operations, Lasky and Strauss agreed reluctantly, although the extra man power was not unappreciated by the veterans, Turian fighter wings along with F-41Exoatmospheric Multirole Strike Fighter or 'Broadswords' and F-99 Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles or UCAV's will deploy to ensure air superiority and act as Close Air Support for ground forces.
Once the plans had been finalised the Turian Generals and their company took their leave, before leaving however Septimus decided to speak to Commander Walters, walking up to him as the rest of his group was preparing to leave along with the UNSC officials he cleared his throat to attract the younger aliens attention,
"Commander Walters I must express my condolences for the loss of your crewman during that rather untimely mutiny," he said, Philip was both shocked and saddened, good crew had been killed during that, he was shocked by the fact that an alien seemed to care,
"Yes well, i… thank you General, I am sorry you saw that horrible view of us, you probably think we're nothing but a bunch of infighting space apes," He replied, Septimus chuckled slightly,
"Not at all Commander, your Admiral Morrison explained to me all about the 'Insurrection', know this Commander; the Hierarchy faced a similar problem in our early days, the Unification war was almost as bad but easier to deal with, no Turian will treat Humans badly for this civil war of yours," he said,
After that he left along with his entourage they were escorted back to their shuttle and Walters returned to the Sevenfold while Captain-117 returned to his men as did Vic, the Forerunner Commander.
As General Oraka stepped back into the CIC of the Indomitable he ordered them to move away from the UNSC fleet and ordered all of his ships and men to prepare for the fight, many of the ground troops were to be transferred to the larger and more advanced UNSC Super Carriers that would take them into battle, except those partaking in the stealth mission prior to the invasion. He was still in shock over that; a four kilometre long ship should not only be impossible but to have it land in atmosphere was something he had been told repeatedly was impossible during his younger years.
He was in awe at the Humans although he would never admit it out loud, the fact that they had such large warships and a more advanced and unheard of method of FTL were things that would boost the Council's power, all the unreachable systems would be theirs for the taking and the Hierarchy would become a lot stronger than ever before, although he would recommend an alliance between the UNSC and the Hierarchy. His main concern however was their liberal use of A.I's, but at the same time they had said they had never had an issue with them in over four hundred years of using them so it was still up in the air so to speak, he wondered what the Council would try to do when they found out as he planned on 'forgetting' to mention it in his next report.
Philip sat down in the command chair on the bridge of the Sevenfold, the stains of Skye's failure had been washed off and he was still waiting for the rest of the replacement crew to arrive, it would still be a few days before they were given the go ahead by the Force Recon Marines but they would still have to wait for the Council forces to arrive at Shanxi first, he rolled his head and sighed as his neck cracked slightly, it would be a long tour of duty, he knew that much for certain.
A/N; Axcel you asked me if Gorgon class vessels were the ones with six Ares missiles. the answer to that is no. the Gorgon was the first class of ship to have a MAC gun, the ones before that haven't actually been named class wise.
I know this wasn't the best chapter of my story let alone on any story on the site but i still hoped you enjoyed it and i cannot express how grateful i am for all the support, i mean the story has 201 reviews, is in 7 communities, has over 300 followers and 190 favorites and has a grand total of 47,894 views as of the posting of this chapter, i really am thankful for all the support.
One last piece; would you like to see the Force Recon teams story as part of this or as a separate story or not at all?