With a satisfied smile, Rear Admiral Richard Shearton watched the alien destroyer analogue drift dead in space halfway between his battle group and Vice Admiral Chitose's, the only matter left now was how to make hard contact with the ship, but he didn't plan to do that till he had a few things sorted out first.

"Nimitz, how's the translation vector going?" Richard barked out, not bothering to turn away from the view of the stricken ship.

"Quite well sir, with help from the AI Alexandria aboard the Temerity, we've made much faster progress than we expected to. So far though we've established that the race we are in contact with are known as the 'Turians' but there are at least thre or more races as well known to them going by their language and the broadcasts they were making before, which were surrender signals." The AI replied.

"Good, anything else we should know?" Richard asked back.

"Yes sir," Nimitz replied, a touch if superiority entering his voice as he answered, "These aliens don't seem to have any sense of classifying data, sir. One if the primary items we've been using as Rosetta Stone so to speak translates as a codex and contains among other things, a complete star chart of their known space along with coordinates for more of those constructs."

For a moment, Nimitz paused, apparently gathering a bulk of new information from his fellow AI's as they continued the translation. A few seconds later he continued speaking saying, "Yes, the star chart contains a total list of all known planets and which races they belong to along with the location of their seat of government which appears to reside upon a large space station."

"And we know where all of these planets and stations are?"

"Yes sir."

"Very well, notify me when the translation program is done so we can pick a group for boarding," Shearton responded.

"Admiral, if I may suggest, the Thermopylae, a Spartan vessel accompanied Admiral Chitose to our current location and is now on station. If you need a group for boarding, I believe the Spartans would be most willing." Nimitz supplied.

For a brief moment, Richard was quiet before he nodded and spoke up. "Very well, get their commander on the horn, tell them they'll have a ship to board in a few minutes."

"Yes sir,"

OoOoO

For Captain Ammen Dorrell and his crew, things had only gone from bad to worse since they had followed his decision to break away from the fleet and avoid the complete destruction that had befallen their fellows by surrendering. First their former comrades at arms had begun during on them, then they'd watched in muted silence as the entirety of the fleet, nearly two thirds of all the turian's dreadnoughts in fact, had been erased from existence without so much as scratching the hull of their destroyer, and finally they had gotten a reply from the first alien fleet to appear in system only for everything aboard the Pride of the Ancestors besides gravity and life support to shut down.

Now he and his crew waited for the inevitable shot that would bring about their sudden painful deaths in the harshness of vacuum, except something rather interesting decided to happen. As they waited for destruction, they were shocked to suddenly hear the intra-ship com lines crackle to life followed by a hard turian voice speaking out of them through the entirety of the ship as someone declared their intentions.

"CREW OF THE PRIDE OF THE ANCESTORS," the voice ordered loudly, "WE WILL BE BOARDING YOUR VESSEL IN SHORT ORDER. PROVIDED YOU LAY DOWN YOUR ARMS AND COMPLY YOU WILL NOT BE HARMED. RESISTANCE WILL BE MET WITH LETHAL FORCE."

As the com lines shut back down, Dorrell sighed, the aliens had certainly made themselves clear, though how they had learned to speak turian was a question for another time if he lived long enough.

OoOoO

Deep within the belly of the heavily armored stealth destroyer Thermopylae, seventy-one figures sat in a large auditorium around an enormous floor-to-ceiling holo projector that was currently displaying a static three dimensional image of the disabled turian ship, Pride of the Ancestors as they had been informed it was called.

Despite their curiosity about the ship hanging in midair, the figures seated in the auditorium kept their gave focused on the seventy-second person in the room, a tall imposing woman, easily over seven feet tall with short cropped white-blonde hair and hard silver eyes who was reading over the contents of a data pad in her hands at the moment. When she reached the end of it, she moved the device to her side before calling out into the audience around her, her voice booming without any amplification.

"SPARTANS, ATTEN-HUT!"

Instantly all seventy-two of the Spartans had shot to attention as a holographic figure faded into view before them. Though time had certainly taken its toll on her and she even carried a cane, her face was unmistakably that of Dr. Catherine Halsey, second in command of ONI and mother of the spartan program.

"At ease Spartans," she said calmly, waving her free hand before continuing to speak, watching as the seventy-two Spartans around her, including their commander instantly took a seat as one.

With a small smile, Dr. Halsey began to speak saying, "Very well, as you understand it, your mission for the time being will be to board and secure the turian cruiser, Pride of the Ancestors. You are to secure the crew and preserve them if at all possible, however if they resist, lethal force is authorized against those resisting and no one else. Once you have secured the ship and the personnel, we will have Nimitz, Rear Admiral Shearton's AI restore power at which point you will dock the ship in the Temerity's fore docking bay for continued examination. Are there any questions Spartans?"

"Do we have a method for communication, Vice Admiral Halsey?" One of the Spartans asked, his hand raised in question.

"Yes," she quickly replied, "It was completed only a few minutes ago and according to Alexandria from the Temerity it is as correct as it can be. Use it as needed. Any other questions?"

When none were forth coming, Dr. Halsey nodded and spoke again saying, "Very well, I'll be on my way then. Lt. Commander Adrianna will continue your briefing."

With that, Halsey's hologram vanished from view and the planning began.

OoOoO

Aboard the Pride of the Ancestors, a blissful, if tenuous peace had settled over the entirety of the ship as the crew waited for the inevitable boarding that was to come. Only that peace was suddenly shattered as a wave of orange light suddenly illuminated the ship from the inside like the scanning beams in a security checkpoint. They started at the bow and passed all the way aft through what Dorrell guessed was engineering before sweeping back up the length of the ship and repeating the process twice more till everyone understood the light wasn't hostile, but it did not prevent them from being thoroughly on edge.

Feeling the stress acutely himself, Dorrell activated his omni-tool to call into the com link one last time before they were boarded.

"All crew, remember to offer no resistance. This is our best chance at survival and possibly even ending this fight without anymore losses," he called.

For the moment it seemed to be working as he saw nods among the bridge crew before a series of metallic clangs echoed through the hull. There were at least three he counted, but there might have been as many as six, Dorrell was sure of that.

His omni-tool sparked to life suddenly as a series of comm lines suddenly flooded with chatter, all of them saying the same thing:

"We have a hull breach."

Then Dorrell knew it was over.

OoOoOoOoO

Apologies for the short chapter, I fly out to Florida in a few hours so I decided to end with the cliff hanger and just get this posted, hope you all can accept that.