Alesha Naabal eyed the two alien artifacts from behind the safety of the thick observation windows that adorned the front of her lavishly decorated private quarters. The artifacts that hopefully would hold the technological breakthrough she'd been hunting for, a key that would allow Kiith Naabal a clear path back to power. Her desire to see her Kiith succeed in the Daiamid, to once again become one of the most powerful, influential Kiithid once more, had not been born because of a deep seated hatred for Kiith S'jet, or any of the other Kiithid for that matter, no, it had been born of pity, pity for her own Kiith. For years now, Kiith Naabal had consistantly failed in it's efforts to gain further support from the other Kiithid. New technologies, weapons and ships promised by Naabal were either never delivered or were faulty, unfinished and nowhere near as groundbreaking as promised. Thanks to this, coupled with Kiith S'jet's success in reverse engineering Progenitor shield technology, many of Naabals closest supporters had slowly switched sides; Manaan, Paktu, Kaalel... one by one they revoked their political support, gradually reducing Naabal to a meagre, lonesome voice in the Daiamid, a shadow of it's former self and mere background noise to the more powerful Kiithid.
Regrettably, much of this downfall had happened under her Father's reign as Kiith-sa, the leader of Kiith Naabal. Admiting something like that wouldn't exactly strengthen the bonds between Father and Daughter, but in the end, there wasn't much of a relationship between them anyway. She was the least favourite of his six children, and had openly been declared crazy or fanatical by her Father on more than one occasion. Being named a lunatic infront of the entire Daiamid wasn't something you could easily live down. He on the other hand was a shortsighted idiot who had no long term plans for Kiith Naabal, not to mention, being a terrible leader and planner to round it all off. That was why Alesha had took it upon herself to find a way to repair the shattered Naabali image, to make Naabal a powerful political voice once more.
Alesha let out an almost silent sigh. Sometimes it felt like she was carrying her entire Kiith on her shoulders...
Her eye's settled upon the bulky form of the carrier Farseer currently holding position a mere four kilometres from her ship. At 580 metres in length, the Naabali carrier, a member of the ancient Imperator-class line of carriers if her limited military knowledge was correct, appeared comically small against both the looming, silver hull of the larger alien construct and the sinister, black, curling shape of the smaller, damaged vessel.
The objects were odd, well, that was to be expected, they were alien after all, but having looked at the two of them together and having compared data collected from both of them, she was now fully convinced that they were not built by the same race.
The larger, almost key shaped vessel was tasteful and pleasing to look at thanks to it's sleek, curved frame, smooth, rounded edges and elegant, if odd, double hulled design. Coupled with it's eerie, glowing core and silver hull plating, Alesha could tell that the race that had built it had designed it with aesthetics in mind. She was still convinced it was a hyperspace gate of somekind, though she had no idea how to utilise it. She'd toyed with Captain Raan's idea of it being an oversized mass driver, but everything pointed against it. There was no target, no ammunition, no visible way of loading it, and the trajectory for the projectile was all wrong. If fired, the projectile would have headed out of the known galaxy.
Whatever it's purpose, it had been built to last. Her science teams had used cutting tool's and breaching charges usually used during the process of boarding warships, and yet they'd never even scratched the surface of the constructs silvery hull. The 'windows' of the construct were similarly impervious, leading many engineers to conclude that they weren't windows at all and were simply their to give the allusion of internal lighting. The resistant properties of the objects hull had to be off the scale. It was way beyond any material currently used during starship construction, even the materials utilised in Bentusi or Progenitor vessels. As a last, desperate, resort several kinetic rounds had been fired at the construct in the hopes that military grade weapons would pierce the hull and allow the science team access.
Instead, the rounds had bounced off the hull, soaring off into deep space, alongside any remaining hope of actually getting aboard the monstrosity.
Then, in comparison, there was the smaller object. That one... that one unsettled her. Just looking at it, a giant, ungainly form that resembled a monster from legend rather than a creation of an intelligent spacefaring species, gave her the shivers. She could think of no practical reason to build a warship in the image of an oversized sea creature, and make no mistake, the thing was a warship, an impressively tough one at that. Despite having been cut in two and having had it's hull pierced through in several area's, the vessel was still emitting very-weak power signatures in localized areas, powering what appeared to be somekind of energy field that was preventing the wreck from drifting apart. A spinally mounted mass driver ran the length of it's body, and each of it's tentacles were tipped with somekind of kinetic stream weapon that gave the allusion of being an energy weapon, firing a stream of molten metal at a fraction of the speed of light, a weapon that would, most likely, slice through unshielded cruisers like they were made of butter.
She knew all this because, unlike the larger construct, her science teams had had no problem gaining entry to the vessel through the numerous hull breaches that pockmarked it's surface. They'd quickly found and secured one of the kinetic stream weapons, complete with severed tentacle housing, for transport to the Paalan, where it was currently being picked apart by several weapons specialists in her ships spacious, well equipped laboratory. She herself had looked at it a few hours earlier and whilst it was definitely an intresting and exotic design for a ship-to-ship weapon, it wasn't exactly the groundbreaking tech she'd been looking for. The weapon would be examined for a few more hours and then transported back to Hiigara where the theory and mechanism behind it could be fully understood.
There was something odd about that ship though. Science team members who'd been picking through it's remains over the course of the day, had begun to feel... strange. Almost every member of the science team had began to complain of headaches, nausea or double vision. Many of them were jittery and tense, constantly looking over their shoulders, as though they were being followed. Two of the most extreme cases, two engineer's who'd been investigating what they'd assumed to be the vessels still active reactor, were now under temporary supervision in the Farseer's medical bay after being found huddled in a corner aboard the alien ship after reportedly seeing groups of shadowy figures shambling around the alien craft and hearing voices whispering their names. She'd made a mental note to inquire on their progress in a few hours.
Whilst Alesha wasn't usually one to get annoyed by what she would have usually considered superstitious nonsense or ghost stories, the implications of what the two engineers had seen, not to mention the complaints from the rest of the science team, chilled her to the bone and reinforced the growing part of her that wanted to get her science teams off of the Sajuuk-damned thing immediately. As a compromise, she'd deployed armed security officers alongside the science team, prohibited them from entering the reactor area and had begun rotating personnel every six hours to avoid exposure to whatever it was that was damaging their minds. The measures would slowdown the mission, but she'd rather that than risk the remainder of her men becoming like the two engineers.
Her eye's settled back upon the bulky form of the Farseer as it carefully positioned itself beside the larger construct, executing a quick roll so that it's belly mounted hangar bays were facing the constructs large glowing core. Though it wasn't the only Imperator-class carrier in service, the Farseer was certainly the oldest carrier employed by Kiith Naabal, infact, it was probably the oldest carrier in the entire navy. It had seen the rise and fall of the Beast virus, had protected vital Hiigaran convoy's during the Vaygr War and had participated in the final battle over Hiigara. Despite her age, the Farseer had remained in-service due to three main reasons. It was compact, being only slightly larger than a destroyer, possessed as much armour as a Heavy cruiser, and was cheaper to run and maintain than the newer line of Hiigaran carriers.
And yet, none of that intrested Alesha, instead she was focused on the tiny, barely visible object streaking away from the Farseer's largest, central hangar, a probe drone modified by her engineer's to accomodate several small mineral scoops in order to gain a sample of the element that made up the constructs core. There were two problems that had had to be overcome during the programming of the drones flight path. First of all, the drone's flight pattern had to be timed so that it avoided the two large, concentric rings that were constantly spinning around the core. Secondly, the drone had to be programmed to resist the constructs gravitational field. The field was unusually strong, even for a construct of that scale, and had an unnaturally far reach, attempting to draw in the two naval cruisers that were holding position almost two thousand kilometres away. She had a hunch that the element the constructs core was made from was responsible, though she couldn't be sure until she had a sample she could test.
The probe raced away from it's carrier at speeds fighter pilot could only dream of. Utilising the data Alesha and the engineers had programmed it with, It sped through the gap between the constructs two rings, entered the core, emerged from the other side and... exploded.
Alesha glared at the fading, orange tinged fireball that marked the end of the modified probe. So... this would be the latest addition to a day filled with problems, setbacks and dangers? The unknown element must have fried the probes systems, triggering it's emergency failsafe's which inturn caused it to self-destruct. It was ironic that a system designed to prevent Hiigara's enemies from getting their hands on any information, was preventing her from gathering information on the potentially useful element that made up the alien core.
Alesha stepped back from the observation windows and began to retreat deeper into her quarters, her already sour mood dampened even further by the lose of the probe. Setback after setback, sometimes it felt like Sajuuk himself was against her, infact, she wouldn't be surprised if he was. What she'd undertaken, trying to fix her shattered Kiith not to mention the politics and research needed to accomplish it... sometimes... sometimes it felt a little too much for just one person to handle...
"Ah!"
Alesha recoiled away from her desk. She'd been so wrapped up in her thoughts she'd stumbled right into it. The desk was the oldest thing on the Paalan. Crafted from the finest Kharakan wood, the desk had travelled with her ancestors during their return from Exile. It was a piece of Hiigaran history itself, and most likely the last of it's kind. That didn't stop her from cursing it fiercly, before damning the thing to hell as she slowly hobbled around it, clutching her wounded thigh. She collapsed into her chair and sighed, willing her anger and annoyance away, though the pain remained. She brought up her personal console, which she'd had embedded in the desks wooden frame, and began sifting through messages, sorting the important from the unimportant.
There was a message from the Paalan's head engineer regarding the vessels underpowered drive systems, a problem that had plagued her vessel ever since she'd acquired it. The Paalan, original being designed as a civilian passenger liner, had weak engines for a vessel the size of a frigate and limited room for improvement. Even with the latest in military ion drive systems, the Paalan could scarcely keep up with a cruiser, nevermind an agile frigate. The Head engineer had come up with a solution, in his eyes. By sacrificing the laboratory on the deck above the current engineering section in order to gain further space, he reckoned he could install a military standard frigate drive, though it would have to be mounted vertically and in a different housing to accomodate the Paalan's narrow frame. He'd even included a sketch (For an engineer, he was a talented artist) of what her ship would look like with the new upgrades. Sadly, the Paalan was dedicated to research and science, so sacrificing a laboratory wasn't really an option, as she detailed in her reply. Besides, the Paalan boasted enough pulsar lasers and concussion missile pods to scare of a couple of frigates and always travelled with escorts of somekind, it wasn't as if she needed the speed.
The next message was from the Baal-Tiel, from Captain Tillus, regarding lack of orders. She'd already explained why she'd relieved the two cruisers of patrol duty, frigates were far less conspicuous than bulky cruisers, and how were of more use guarding the alien constructs. She deliberately ignored that one...
A quick look revealed the remainder of her messages to be just as intresting, causing her to screw her face up in disgust. One of the disadvantages of being in a position of high power was that people often asked her easily solved, trivial or even pointless questions. Sifting through this mess of electronic drivel, some of which bordered on complete idiocy, almost made her wish she wasn't the one in command.
She glared out into the depths of space. She'd chosen to setup her private quarters in the Paalan's spacious observation deck for one simple reason, she liked to stare into space, literally. To her space was an unsolvable mystery, something that would never be fully understood. It was wonderfully vast and held an array of breathtaking spectacles. From the golden depths of a vast, unexplored nebula, to the unclouded, untainted area's of dark space where one could see literally billions of stars, space never ceased to amaze her. Right now, outside the Paalan, space was orange, reminding her that they were currently deep inside a vast dustcloud, hidden and cut off from everyone else in the galaxy.
Silently, she hoped todays setbacks and delays would be the last hurdle in her path and that things would go more smoothly thereafter. Silently, she cursed herself for thinking that, knowing her luck, and how Sajuuk always seemed to be against her, it would get worse...
She was about to return her gaze to her consoles holographic display when here eye caught sight of one of her assualt frigate's (commonly nicknamed a 'flak-frigate' due to their ability to fire proximity activated anti-fighter burst rounds as well as solid kinetic slugs) as it suddenly began... glowing. The ship, which had been cruising alongside the largest of the alien constructs, quickly began to accelerate, the blue glow growing around it's hull as it sped the length of the alien behemoth at speeds faster than it was capable of, missing the Farseer's bulky form by what must have been metres, before smoothing out and blurring as it warped and darted off into space at mindboggling speeds, as though it was... catapulted by the construct.
Alesha blinked once, twice, her mind frozen as she tried to decipher what had just happened, her mind screaming as it tried to comprehend what had just happened.
The frigate... it just... gone!
She came to sudden, abrupt decision. Darting to her feet quicker than she realised she could move, she turned and headed towards the door, half tripping over her chair in the process. She had to reach the bridge and... do something! Anything! She had to try and workout what just happened, why one of her frigates had suddenly been launched into deep space.
As her mind buzzed as it jumped from worry, to theory, then back to worrying as it tried to make sense of the situation, there was one thing that stood out in her mind, one thing she was absolutely, undeniably sure about as she hurried through her ships empty corridors as she dashed for the bridge.
Things had gotten worse... a lot worse.
And thus, I summon forth a third chapter from the depths of the ME crossover archive...
Sorry for the delay, a mixture of school, homework, sickness, and having no idea what to write for about three weeks prevented me from getting this out as quick as I would have liked. (Though I got it out exactly a month after I first posted the story) It's not as long as I would have liked (It's half the size of the last chapter) but it's long enough, hopefully.
Anyhow, review or PM and tell me your opinion on this chapter, or my fic on the whole. At the moment, I have no idea whether this fic is better than the last one. (In my opinion it is, but I'm the author, so that doesn't really count...)
Anyway, the next chapter hopefully won't take so long, but then again, I can't promise anything, but whatever.