Disclaimer: I don't own either of the Halo or Star wars franchises. They belong to their respective creators and/or copyright owners. It is not for sale or rent.
Chapter 11
=RF=
Part 1
=RF=
3 AIF (After Imperial Founding)/
17.08.2552 UNSC Military Calendar/
High Command Facility Bravo-6, The 'Hive'
Sydney, Australia
Earth
Sol System
Milky Way Galaxy
Images from social media, emails, clips from news programs, and recordings from discussions all over Earth, and their not particularly slow spread throughout the whole system flashed in front of the UNSC Security Council members.
Monitors and holographic windows showed the faces of officers, politicians, and academics from all over the planet.
"Even trying to contain this would undermine any trust the citizens have left in our government," Paragonsky calmly pointed out, earning herself questioning looks. It wasn't exactly a secret that ONI and other government AIs had been massaging news and guiding discourse to keep morale up for a long time. The less said about the arcane magics done by the AIs keeping the economy from imploding. At the same time, the UNSC lost world after world, and the military spending had to constantly increase, the better.
"It's a good thing then we don't intend to hide the first piece of genuinely good news we've received in a long while," Strauss looked between Paragonsky and Hood.
"We will have to make an official statement soon to answer the obvious questions and calm people down," Hood nodded. "The only question is how much and how fast should we reveal information about the Federated Empire."
"How we present the news is going to matter. According to everything I've seen, the Federated Empire has many alien species in its ranks, even if they are apparently ruled by a human dynasty," Dr. Ruth Charet pointed out. "It is no secret that most people loath aliens and the thought of aliens even if they haven't seen one."
"Good, old-fashioned racism," Paragonsky noted. "That might be an issue," she kept her expression politely neutral at those words.
It wasn't exactly a deep dark secret that ONI had been trying to influence public opinion to keep morale from collapsing by stoking hatred towards the alien threat. At the time, no one thought that Humanity might have alien allies, and the Covenant had already proved themselves genocidal maniacs.
Now, decades of propaganda and not-so-subtle social engineering could prove troublesome. The last thing the UNSC needed or could afford, for that matter, was a stupid incident with their new allies.
"I will issue clear orders on how our personnel should interact with any Imperials they might encounter," Hood declared. "In the long run, we need a strategy to ensure the regular citizens, especially the refugees who've suffered from the Covenant, see our allies in a positive light instead of just damn aliens."
Paragonsky nodded sharply and made a few notes on a data pad beside her teacup. Many of the politicians and academics present for the ongoing conference followed suit.
"A dedicated campaign to show our prospective allies in the best possible light should help in that regard," Dr. Charet suggested.
"We'll see to it," Paragonsky agreed.
"Now that we are all on the same page, we might get to the task at hand. We are here to decide if we are going to accept the deals offered by the Mandalorian Leader, as well as the aims of any further negotiations with the Federated Empire and its member states. We will need to decide the acceptable parameters of the military and economic alliance we seek and the limits, if any, on technology exchange, sale, and joint development," Hood began. "At the very least, the latter will be focused on captured Covenant technology secured on Reach, including anything intact on the Super Carrier that is still being cleared in a joint effort by our and Imperial infantry."
"Ongoing and near future joint operations will not be the focus of this discussion. Those include the continued defense of Reach, securing New Jerusalem, and a potential joint operation to keep the industry in the Reef system intact for as long as feasible," Strauss noted. "We are here to decide what our long-term relationship with the Federated Empire will look like and the objectives we will pursue in negotiating treaties with them."
"The first point of discussion will be the offers we received from Mandalore, who, let me remind you, is still in orbit, awaiting our response," Hood continued.
"If he is being truthful, there is no option to accept at least one of the terms, and yesterday at that," Admiral Harper said. The Commander of Earth's Home Fleet looked gravely at Hood. They both knew that from the moment the Covenant discovered Reach, losing the planet, its population, and vital industry was only a matter of time. Given the reports he had seen, Harper was confident that without the Covenant bringing the Imperials into the war, Reach would have fallen no later than mid to late September, perhaps earlier. After that, it would have been all over but the screaming.
"For what's worth, AI analysis of Veil during your conversation supports the option that he hasn't been outright lying to us. However, there are certain artifacts that our AIs are not sure how to evaluate," Paragonsky grudgingly admitted.
Like the whole space magic bit, everyone was trying not to think about it, even if they had many recorded instances of Imperial forces doing what should have been impossible.
"That is a risk we must take. Due to the unpredictability of Slipspace at the best of times, simply sending a small ship might not be wise. At the very least, a round trip of four hundred light-years in the abyss between galaxies is not something to underestimate. Even with our newest drives, it might take months, if not a year or more, depending on the local topography," Hood decided.
"The Pillar of Autumn is on Reach, should be intact, and she is outfitted with our newest reactor and drive designs. She has more than enough space for additional supplies and any useful equipment the Imperials might want to offer for this exercise," Paragonsky suggested. "The primary issue there is her size. However, one of their large capitals might be able to carry her."
"She also has upgraded sensors with much more power and reach than those of the newest prowlers," Harper snorted.
"It would be nice to have an independent confirmation about the relative size and capabilities of our allies," Paragonsky calmly answered.
"That is an option, and we will speak with our guests to see if the Pillar of Autumn can get the job done," Hood agreed. "Next, Mandalore's offer for upgrading our industry, technological transfers, and the price we must pay for it."
"On the face of it, the terms seem generous. Then again, we haven't been negotiating as a peer since long before anyone living has been born," Dr. Charet grimaced. "I want to know what the Federated Empire or the Mandalorian Freehold wants to achieve. What do they want from an alliance with us? Are we just to be their shield against the Covenant?"
"To be devil's advocate here," Stratuss interjected, "Mandalore is right about the portal. The damn thing might close tomorrow, next century, or it might be permanent. Until there is an alternative, if a slow way, for them to get people and material to us, the Imperials are right to be conservative in what they deploy or the extent of their dedication to fighting the Covenant on this side of the portal. In that regard, how much they want to or not to fight this war is a secondary concern to having everything they deploy end up cut off on our side," It was Stratuss' turn to grimace. "That also means that we need to get as many assets and technology transfers as possible, as fast as possible, no matter the price, because we might not get another chance. At the end of the day, we can live with the Imperials even if they turn out to be expansionist conquerors. We know for a fact we can't live with the Covenant."
=RF=
Part 2
=RF=
3 AIF (After Imperial Founding)/
17.08.2552 UNSC Military Calendar/
High Command Facility Bravo-6, The 'Hive'
Sydney, Australia
Earth
Sol System
Milky Way Galaxy
After a brief debate, Admiral Hood ordered the Pillar of Autumn to prepare for a long-term independent deployment. At the same time, AIs scoured all available data for a smaller ship with the fastest slip space drive that could replace her if the Halcyon Class cruiser was too large for the Imperials to carry through their FTL. In that regard, as far as the UNSC security was concerned, there was no point in hiding or obfuscating the capabilities of their slip space drives. Recent events confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that the new faction had an absolute advantage in that regard anyway.
Another matter was discussing Mandalore's other offers and what the UNSC would be best served to offer in joint research efforts.
Specialists in slip space physics and engineers from Reach would be the first people working jointly with the Imperials. They would provide FTL drives as examples and know-how while hopefully learning as much about the novel way to breach the lightspeed barrier the newcomers used.
Joint research on captured Covenant technology, especially their beam weaponry and shields the Imperials were interested in, was no issue for the UNSC. The mass deployment of shields by the Imperial military on the infantry and warship scale demonstrated that the UNSC had more to earn from any such project. That was especially true considering that all their practical shields were costly and exclusively on an infantry scale. So far, humanity's best minds could not crack the issue of larger shields needing exponentially more energy to provide the same protection, which meant no practical shields beyond infantry level until that problem was solved.
Sharing AI research was different. That was potentially one of the few advantages the UNSC had compared to the Imperials, and even that wasn't certain. So far, no one knew for sure how intelligent exactly were the Imperial droids, especially considering the admission that those things were heavily restricted to avoid rebelling. That the Imperial AIs could effectively rebel in a way that would be a credible military threat was both concerning and telling about their capabilities.
There was a reason why the UNSC didn't build their Smart AIs robot bodies, and it wasn't due to the lack of capability or even the price. Then again, when plugged into a warship's systems, the warship was more or less the AI's body. Needless to say, that was a thorny topic at the best of days.
In contrast, sharing bio foam to earn goodwill from the Imperials was a brainer, especially if they could be persuaded to share some of their own medical technology in exchange.
What surprised Hood was that Paragonsky and her allies were highly accommodating and supportive of working with the Imperials. He expected that ONI and their ceaseless pursuit of humanity's supremacy across the stars would cause trouble. Instead, the most dissent about sharing technology came from a few of the scientists and politicians offering their expertise.
Hood didn't take long to notice a trend among their arguments, and the conclusions soon followed.
They were afraid. The Covenant was a clear military threat, an existential one. The Federated Empire was a different kind of beast that the UNSC had never had to tackle before. Yet, in that regard, Hood agreed with Strauss and Stanforth. They could live with the Empire; the same couldn't be said about the Covenant. The Empire had many apparent advantages, and sharing much of the UNSC's technological wonders would ensure that fact wouldn't change in the medium to long term… So what? Earth and countless billions would have a greater chance of surviving the war. Compared to that? Would the UNSC become a junior partner to the Empire in the long run? That was a price for survival that Hood would gladly pay.
Besides, if the full implications of what the Imperials shared so far, corroborated to be reasonably truthful by many AIs, was true, due to size alone, it was inevitable that the Empire would overshadow the UNSC. Hood concluded that there was no point in worrying about something he couldn't change.
The Fleet Admiral kept his impassive facade and typed notes to his political allies, then bit the bullet and sent a message to Paragonsky. Margaret didn't visibly acknowledge receiving his missive. However, as soon as the latest politician cautioning against unequal exchanges shut up, an ONI AI appeared in a window in front of everyone attending the conference.
"Ongoing analysis of all strategic data gained from the observed capabilities of Imperial personnel and hardware and direct statements strongly points at the Federal Empire being a technologically advanced power that is at least a peer of the Covenant. All calculations point at us dealing with a large interstellar polity that, at the very least, rivals the resources the UEG was able to muster before the war began. We should also account for the vast advantages a much faster FTL and practical faster than light communications allow for," The AI announced. "While we would be able to better understand the scope of the Federated Empire only after sending a delegation through the portal to observe the reality on the other side and report their findings, all available data points at simple conclusions. The UNSC has more to gain from full cooperation with the Federated Empire than we would by withholding key technologies that might offer short-term advantages. You are all receiving a condensed report on our findings so far, including the major data points used to reach the conclusions highlighted in the summary," The AI finished.
That was a rather heavy-handed attempt to remind everyone of the situation they found themselves in, Hood decided. It would hopefully work. He glanced at the message that reached his terminal containing the report and opened the summary. There was nothing substantially different from the preliminary report everyone present should have read but not necessarily digested before the meeting began. What was different was the presence of better-analyzed data and expanded evidence backing each conclusion. That was especially true in the last part of the document. 'Observed phenomena that currently can not be explained confirmed Imperial technological capabilities.'
In other words, space magic. At least so far, the Covenant didn't display any hint of possessing such abilities. Otherwise, ground forces engagements would have been even deadlier for the UNSC. More importantly, the impact of the Spartan Program on the war effort might have been lesser, and that was another thing Hood didn't want to think about yet had to.
Paragonsky's stunt worked, and the discussion shifted to the details of how to best utilize Mandalorian know-how to upgrade UNSC industries. While due to the portal's presence, Reach appeared to be an ideal site for such a project, the fact the Covenant knew of the place and its defenses were compromised were marks against using the planet or the system. Earth and the Solar System as a whole were what many suggested, with the apparent desire to bind Mandalorian assets in protecting the cradle of humanity if for no other reasons, so they could defend their people and investments.
That was especially important if the portal closed. Then Reach would almost certainly become an untenable position. At the same time, the UNSC and any stranded Imperial assets might be able to hold Earth and Sol's industries long enough for new technologies and the ships built with them to come online and make a difference.
It was a cold-blooded calculation, yet the only sane one considering the state of the UNSC as a whole.
For all the bluster, warnings that sharing too much too fast would weaken their negotiating position, there was an odd undercurrent marking the meeting, Hood mussed. He decided it was a mixture of uncertain hope and fear, and that painted every statement he paid attention to in a different light.
"We should suggest that any major joint projects take place in the relative safety of this system," Harper spoke aloud, in a tone that betrayed his patience. "However, if the Imperials push for focusing all efforts at Reach, we will realistically have to accept. We simply lack the secure position or time to push for more favorable concessions."
That was the elephant in the room that everyone danced around but didn't quite admit aloud, even if they knew it. Even before the Covenant found Reach, the UNSC had been losing the war, with Red Flag being the last, realistic, desperate shot at changing the tide. That was still the case, yet now, the Hood could openly admit that the odds of the Covenant fanatics coming to the negotiating table over captured leaders were not very high in the first place.
That only made securing Imperial backing much more critical while not appearing too desperate.
Ultimately, they would agree to most, if not all, Imperial' requests' as long as doing so increased humanity's odds of survival. Anything else would be madness. The trick would be treading the needle between doing it in a way that benefited the UNSC the most.