UNSC Technology demonstrator vessel, UNSC Infinity
Sol Star system, 2557, April, 30th
Floating above Chicago city.
Nearby an Airborne Aircraft carrier floated. Standing at attention on the flight deck of the carrier were the best and brightest that the UNSC had to offer four years after the Human-Covenant war. Among them was a captain standing at attention with his head held high. He felt a feeling of pride course through his being as he watched the commissioning of a starship that he and his crew had worked on for nearly four years. Even as he looked ahead, the dignitary from UNSC HighCom stepped on the podium and began speaking. "It's been four years since the end of the war. And today we send forth a vessel designed for battle, but now re-purposed. For peace."
There was a slight pause as the dignitary let the meaning of his word sink into the minds of the soldiers standing in front of him. "Home to seventeen thousand of our best. Our brightest." With a slight gesture at the Floating UNSC infinity, he continued. "This…. is the culmination of human achievement." With a slight bow of his head, "For the first time in a generation…. We commission a UNSC starship, meant not to wage war, but to peacefully advance the cause of mankind, through the discovery of new worlds. With that I'm proud to present the UNSC Infinity."
The gathered people began clapping their hands while a few whistles and cheers were heard from the crowd. The dignitary raised a hand for silence "Would the captain of the Infinity step forth and give a speech." said the dignitary as he gave a nod towards Andrew Del Rio before stepping back to his seat.
Captain Andrew looked stunned before his feet moved forward, slowly but surely taking him to the front of the podium. He cleared his throat as an attempt to clear away his nervousness. "The war has taken much from us, families, friends and fellow human lives… lost in untold number. But it was the determination and duty to protect the rest that push me on… push all of us to continue a fight that could have very well ended in tragedy." Even as he said it a trickle of a tear flowed down his cheek. "It is with great honour and pride that I accept the responsibility bestowed on me to captain this mighty vessel and I hope it shall indeed lead humanity away from the dark times."
With that the first mate shouted" Atten-hun" and the seventeen thousand sailors, marines and Spartan IV soldiers saluted the officials in front.
UNSC technology demonstrator warship Infinity
Alpha Ceti Star system, 2557, July, 25th
Responding to Forward Unto Dawn distress beacon
The massive human warship dropped out of slipspace with a fantastic display of Čerenkov radiation as the fissile materials carried by the warships and escorts emitted the radiation upon exiting slipspace. Even as the UNSC Infinity paused at its exit point to check its systems, the two Paris class Heavy frigates began scanning their surrounding space for any sign of the Charon class light frigate. Captain Andrew Del Rio stood on his ship's bridge looking out the view screen at the dark side of an uninteresting planet that astronomers had classified as an oddball. From the probes sent into the system before, the planet was close to the habitable zone but its erratic orbit resulted in very cold and hot temperatures throughout its period of 258 days per orbit.
"Captain!" Shouted his ops officer as he frantically tried to stabilize the system of the experimental warship. Suddenly the holo projector that was projecting the schematic of the Infinity flickered erratically, even as Captain Andrew leaned forward for a closer look. Sections of the Infinity's schematic glowed red before spreading to the other parts of the ship. "Power lost to all main systems. The AIs are not responding!" shouted the ops officer as he frantically pounded away at the system to isolate the cause.
"Comms, can we transmit a signal?" Asked Andrew as he watched the red spot on the holoprojector slowly move towards the prow of the ship.
The comm officer shook her head even as she tried to access the communication system to contact their escorts. "Something's wrong! We're being jammed!" replied the frustrated com officer as she tried to work around the problem.
Suddenly the sensor officer shouted, "Sir, there's a portal opening on the planet!" as he read through the data as fast as the remaining sensors could supply them. "We're being pulled in!"
Captain Andrew turned around even as an orange field passed through the bridge and exited the ship. Without delay he turned back to his bridge crew yelling, "All engines reverse thrust!" The Infinity shuddered as the engines fought valiantly against the pull of the planet but lost out when the power system to them was suddenly shut off.
"Main engines are down!" shouted the Nav officer as she tried to reactivate the engines. "Switching to thrusters!" Thrusters flared all around the ship as their chemical propellant detonated in an attempt to slow down the massive ship, but to no avail. "Damn it," swore the Nav officer as her console died with a flicker.
"Comms, put every last bit of power we have into this transmission!" shouted Andrew as he grabbed hold of a railing to steady himself. "Mayday! Mayday! This is the captain of the UNSC Infinity. Requesting immediate assistance." But the transmission never reached the two escorting heavy frigate as the Infinity plunged into the planet and the captain of both ships could do nothing but watch helplessly as their race's most advanced ship was lost.
Down below on the planet, a lone green figure climbed up a mountain side before looking upwards towards the sky, the UNSC Infinity plowed through the cloud cover before crashing into a mountain a few klicks away.
UNSC Mk2 Marathon Cruiser Savannah
Traveling through slipspace, 2563, November 13th
Towing Asari Flagship, en route to Shanxi colony.
Captain Bella Forge sat quietly in her captain's chair as she fiddled with a locket that hung around her neck. She gave a small sigh before opening her locket. Inside was an antique photo taken with a camera that had been in the family for generations. Said camera belonged to her ancestor who had fought in one of Earth's most brutal war, World War II, as a marine on D-Day. Inside the locket was the picture of what supposed to be a happy family. There her father stood with his arm around his wife while she herself was barely taller than his waist. This photo was taken when she was barely six years old, one year later her father was reassigned on a ship to fight at Harvest….. A ship that was finally coming home.
Her mother was not happy with how sometimes her father was too engrossed in his military career. The fights they had three months before his reassignment to the Spirit of Fire nearly resulted in a divorce. Even after his reassignment, she kept contact with him before the Spirit of Fire dropped out of contact with the UNSC. However, as the Spirit of Fire did not have advanced slipspace communication equipment, she could not get into contact with the ship's crews. "I guess the reunion will have to wait," she muttered as she replaced the locket back behind her uniform. She knew it was a long shot, but her father was a hero and heroes always come back.
"All ships prepare to disengage slipspace drives," came Vice Admiral Cole's voice over the com channel as the fleet neared Shanxi. Bella Forge looked at her navigation officer who nodded in reply to her unasked question. "Drop out now!" came Cole's voice.
"Disengaging slipspace drive. Reentering normal space" reported the nav officer as he tapped the button to manually shut off the slipspace engine. The loud vibration that was normal for a ship in slipspace lowered in volume before stopping entirely. The space around the moon of Shanxi exploded with Čerenkov radiation as the human 4th fleet dropped out of slipspace along with the battered ships of the Asari fleet. Seconds later, the remnants of the sangheili fleet dropped out with the Relay tugs and the Spirit of Fire.
"Ma'am, receiving orders from the Vice Admiral's flagship. We are among the first slated for repair and refit," reported her communication officer as she tapped on the hologram representation of the consoles. "Transferring the docking nav points to the nav station."
"Lieutenant Jaggers, take us in. Release the docking clamps on the Destiny Ascension," ordered Bella Forge as she returned to viewing the damage reports cropping up. The Savannah suffered minor hull fractures along her length when the slugs of the Turians and Salarians slammed into her shield. While it was not enough to fatally compromise the vessel, it would mean that the shield emitters might have been knocked out of place thus reducing their overall efficiency. Such damage usually meant a few days in dry dock at least; a month at worst. Even as the cruiser disengaged its magnetic clamps holding the Asari flagship and slowly approached the docking bay of the refit station in orbit of Shanxi, the crew members stopped and stared at the viewscreen as the tugs towing the Forerunner Leviathan class battleship dropped into normal space with their haul. The massive 40 kilometer long vessel showed scorched hull plating where the slugs and laser of the Turians and Salarians had hit it in an attempt to disable the ancient vessel.
"That is one impressive ship," muttered the weapons officer as she stared at the image of the forerunner vessel. Captain Bella Forge didn't say anything but she certainly agreed. Fighting that vessel would be suicide. The Savannah's camera continues to track the Forerunner vessel as the tugs slowly pulled it towards the main refit station which was a meager 30 kilometers long.
The ops officer glanced back at her terminal before reporting "Approaching dry dock. Station Mag clamps are moving towards our dock points. Estimate one minute before docking procedure completes." Even as she reported this, multiple thumps echoed along the Savannah's hull as the clamps latched on, guiding the 2.38 kilometer long Cruiser into the specially made dry dock. There was a reverberating clank as the ship was finally docked into the mobile repair station.
"Alright, as of now I'm declaring shore leave at least until the next Covie fleet arrives," declared Bella Forge before she got up and left the Bridge. Even as the bridge doors slid shut, cheers and laughter could still be heard from the bridge crew. Bella stepped into the command elevator before punching the codes for the Hanger bay. The time had finally come for her to meet her father face to face.
Asari Dreadnought Destiny Ascension
Unknown star system,
Approaching UNSC and Sangheili joint colony Shanxi.
Asari Matriarch Lidanya watched the breath taking view as the Asari flagship slowly approached the massive mobile repair station that was currently in orbit of the human and sangheili joint colony. "Sensors, how long is that station?"
The sensor officer initiated a scan of the space station. Her scanners quickly provided the data "The sensors indicate the station has a length of around 30 kilometers, we can't get accurate data until we are closer," reported the officer as she quickly forwarded a copy to the Matriarch's personal console. "Thermals are indicating massive amount of heat being put out by the station and still no hints of eezo."
"Amazing….." breathed Lidanya as she examine the data the scans could provide. "Even with the Prothean data we would never have managed to construct a station of this size." She muttered as she pulled up a comparison between the station and the Citadel. On the hologram, while it was clear that the Citadel dwarfed the human and Sangheili made station, it wasn't as much as one might think as the station itself was nearly three quarters the length of the Citadel.
"Matriarch! We are receiving instructions from the human flagship. They request that we dock with the station so that their engineers may begin to assess the damage," reported the communication officer as she listened intently to the translated message from the UNSC Field of Hope.
"Nav, set course for the station," ordered the matriarch absentmindedly as she continued to study the scale of the stations. Even as the Destiny Ascension moved towards the repair station, its sensors began to pick up even more artificial objects in orbit of the planet. The Matriarch noticed them and asked the sensors to do a detailed scan of those objects.
On screen the objects appeared to be a stick with a small ring around it. "What could those be?" wondered the Matriarch out loud even as her flagship began docking procedures with the UNSC... she rechecked the name forwarded by her com officer… Pearl Harbor. Multiple thumps could be heard along the Asari Flagship's hull as Magnetic clamps slowly attached themselves to the semi melted hull before locking the damaged vessel in position.
"Matriarch we are docked with the station and the commander requests that we prepare an envoy for diplomatic discussions," reported the com officer. Matriarch Lidanya nodded before activating her omnitool and selecting a delegation. She decided to lead the envoy herself. Forwarding her selection to the com officer, she got out of the CIC and met up with the group she had selected in the inner airlock.
"Matriarch Lidanya, I understand that you brought me along so that I may study the possibly new cultures, but I fear I may not have the experience on hand to provide much insight into these new species," started a young maiden Asari as she looked slightly nervously at the older Asari.
"Liara, a maiden will not gain the wisdom to become a matriarch without experiencing something new first hand rather than relying on reading material," replied Matriarch Lidanya as she slowly donned her armored suit with her supply of air. She briefly checked her air tanks' gauges before looking at her envoy. Aside from Liara, the rest were already nearing the age where they could be viewed as matrons. After the rest of them finished donning their suits, the VI opened the outer airlock, revealing the human and sangheili envoy waiting for them.
"Welcome to the Pearl Harbor, Matriarch. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Anita Goyle, representing humanity in this diplomatic talk. And this is Kaidon Levu 'Mdama representing the sangheili," began the leader of the human envoy as Matriarch Lidanya and her team stepped aboard the station. The sangheili representative gave a slight bow of acknowledgment.
Matriarch Lidanya was unsure how to proceed. She returned the bow to Levu 'Mdama and said "I'm Matriarch Lidanya representing the Asari Republic and possibly the Citadel council in this talk." Behind her Liara watched the exchange with fascination as she noticed the slight delay of speech before realizing that it was through a translator.
"If you would, we shall take this discussion to a more appropriate setting," replied Anita Goyle with a smile as she led them towards a specially prepared conference room.
UNSC Modified Phoenix class colony ship Spirit of Fire
Epsilon alpha system, 2563 November 15th
Docking with Station Pearl Habor.
"Serina, status report," asked Cutter as his eyes ran over the station that dominated the view screen. It had been thirty-two long years since any of the surviving crew onboard the Spirit of Fire had any contact with other humans. Their return had brought the crew hope as well as sadness, the war was over and humanity was rebuilding, rising once more to the stars. However, the cost of victory had also placed a cost on a more personal level as most if not all the crew members had no home or family to return to. The few lucky ones able to reestablish contact with their family tried their best to console their grieving crewmates. Captain Cutter in particular shed a single tear once he found out that his wife, Mary Cutter, despite having survived both the fall of Reach and the battle of Earth, died a few years ago from old age, having passed away peacefully in her sleep. Currently things were already underway to locate his daughter who now had a PHD in forerunner language.
"Ship status nominal, or as close as it can get. The station master estimates at least three months in dock to repair and refit the Spirit of Fire." Replied Serina. She continued after a slight pause to check the list "It seems new equipment for both the marines and this ship will take time to prepare. They are preparing to refit the Spirit of Fire from the ground up with all the new technologies."
"So they're still going to keep her in service?" asked Cutter as he stepped away from the view screen to his command chair. The Spirit of Fire was old even when it served during the Human Covenant war. To retain such an aging vessel meant that FleetCOM had something in mind that only the Spirit of Fire could achieve. Suddenly the console at the sensor station blared out a warning.
"Hmmm detecting energy spike… Source identified," reported Serina as she zoomed in on the object in question… It was the mass relay. "Incoming vessel, tonnage suggests frigate class…..Wait, detecting more on approach." As the AI isolated the individual signatures, the scans revealed multiple contacts.
"Forward the data to the command ODP and begin launching procedures," ordered Cutter as he buried his grief with the determination to do his job. Serina nodded as she sent the data to the ODP Jersey. Seconds later the defending ODPs shifted their orbits pointing their SMAC at the estimated approach vector of the incoming vessels. There was a slight flash as a heavily damaged vessel exited the mass relay and begun to broadcast a transmission.
"Hmmm interesting." Replied Serina as she attempted to translate the transmission using the information from the codex she had 'liberated' from the Turian Flagship. "Playing the transmission on speakers. It seems to be a race known as the quarians."
"Mayday! Mayday! This is the quarian vessel Honorata, requesting assistance. We have been ambushed by slavers!" came a male sounding voice, though Cutter couldn't be sure with the slight distortion from the translators. Before any of the UNSC vessels could respond a pursuing group of ships exited the mass relay and opened fire on the Honorata. The vessel's kinetic barriers flickered wildly before failing, allowing the remaining rounds to puncture the ship's armor. One lucky shot punched into the ship's eezo core, destabilizing the ship's power grid. The Honorata spun wildly from the impact before a single lone escape pod ejected from the dying vessel. Seconds later the Honorata detonated in a blue tinged explosion.
Over the com, Commander James could be heard yelling orders as the orbital stations targeted the Slaver's ships which was comprised of one cruiser and five frigates. The batarian slaver leading from the cruiser could only blink his four eyes in surprise at the view before him before six three thousand ton slugs obliterated his fleet in a fantastic display of overkill. Even as the slaver fleet was turning into a debris field of shattered glittering fragments, a UNSC frigate was already moving into position to recover the lone escape pod.
"This day just keeps getting better and better," said Cutter sarcastically even as Serina looked on.
Author's note: Well that was a hell of a chapter. Sorry for the long delay I needed to look up on as much details as I can get unfortunately Mass effect wiki is not being very helpful. Since Horonata was not mention to be what class I decided to go along with a ME cruiser vessel which is to say a Halo frigate sized vessel and Btw slaver is illegal by UNSC laws with the death penalty. Hmmm though I think I might have overdid it though… Anyway Enjoy and Review.