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Chapter 10

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Part 1

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3 AIF (After Imperial Founding)/
15.08.2552 UNSC Military Calendar/

Bridge, UNSC Leviathan

high orbit above Reach

Epsilon Eridiani System

Milky Way Galaxy

The Imperial ships in orbit grew in numbers, forming two distinct battle groups. Three heavy frigate or light cruiser-sized ships – almost eight hundred meters long and broader than most of their counterparts arrived with light escorts. They paired with a bigger capital ship, forming a smaller battle group.

At that point, Stanforth got to see and talk with the first genuinely friendly alien from the Empire. It, well, she, was a woman, with a head-crest of what looked like large horns and two… tentacles that he could see growing from it like braids around the sides of her head, long enough to rest on her chest. They had a hypnotizing pattern of white and bright blue. Dark orange skin covered by white spots that might have been tattoos covered her forehead.

"Vice Admiral Stanforth, I am General Ahsoka Tano, the Commander of Thirty-First Assault division. My orders are to lead a quick reaction task force, ready to respond in case the Covenant finds and strikes another one of your colonies. I will need the relevant information to deploy if that happens." While the language she spoke was unfamiliar, her voice was surprisingly human.
"I will inform you of the location of any colony discovered and attacked by the Covenant General Tano. I will also arrange the deployment of a liaison team and communication equipment to your ships to facilitate contact with local UNSC forces," Stanforth didn't need to struggle with this decision. Like with Cygnus, if the Covenant found a system, there wasn't much point in concealing its location from the Imperials. They could do something about it and report back in real-time. The benefits from practical faster-than-light communications for the war effort alone were immeasurable. Suppose the UNSC had it a hundred years ago. In that case, it might have avoided the worst of the Insurrection, even if ship speeds remained historically unchanged.

That was how Stanforth knew the situation at New Jerusalem went from desperate to stabilizing, with the Covenant being hunted down across the planet mere hours after they nearly crushed the UNSC forces deployed there.

The connection flickered off, and the Vice Admiral sighed. He hoped the engineers could find a way for their respective systems to talk together soon. Relying on bringing UNSC personnel and equipment on board Imperial ships, or using Imperial communication units as the only way to contact them, was sub-optimal. On the bright side, finally, someone suggested something that should have been obvious in hindsight. There was another party of engineers ensuring both sides would soon have a way to translate each other's time and distance units into a practically useful format. After a few communications snags, they had a practical way for their respective systems to make the necessary calculations, and all that was left was distributing it.

At that point, an apparent weakness, or at least a double-edged sword among the Imperials, became obvious – their insanely paranoid cyber security meant that in many cases, such simple programs had to be entered manually in countless devices and computers instead of creating a simple and quick update to spread through a network. It appeared that too many Imperial devices were built with limited to no network access. The sheer inefficiency of it was mind-boggling. Then again, there were ever-increasing hints from conversations with Imperials that they had an AI uprising they had to put down mere years ago. By all accounts, it had been a particularly nasty one.

Only then it dawned on Stanforth that he had just had a polite and constructive conversation with an actual alien, which wasn't something he would have believed possible just a few days ago. The times were changing…

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It was the afternoon of the 16th of August when the Vice Admiral returned to the bridge feeling refreshed after a rest period, a quick shower, and a faster warm meal. He was almost feeling like a proper human being again. Massed air strikes took care of the Covenant frigates on Reach, if with heavy casualties due to their never sufficiently damned pulse lasers. That meant the allied forces had uncontested air and space superiority over the planet. The surviving Covenant forces on the ground have been laying low, hiding for hours now.

If Stanforth didn't know better, he would have voiced something like things finally looking up, taunting Murphy. Instead, he was busy making preliminary plans for the long-term defense on Reach. Despite the Imperial presence, it might be prudent to get as many of the civilians out just in case, especially those not employed in roles critical for the military. That would ensure he did all he could to reasonably mitigate the blow of losing Reach.

A significant improvement was now wide-spread translation packages – both text-to-text and real-time voice-to-voice. The latter had the issue that most UNSC military personnel lacked the equipment to utilize the translation software. That wasn't due to a lack of technical capability, of course. Instead, it was a nice feature good to have, sacrificed in the name of cheaper mass production and an increasing lack of resources. The same went about the capabilities of the typical data pads used by both sides. The Imperials had the feature to program their power armor with translation software, which was of great utility for the units still capturing the super carrier. Even with no coordinated Covenant resistance, the sheer size of the ship and the need to hunt down the crew slowed things down significantly. Even worse, before Veil used his space magic, it seemed the enemy commander had ordered critical databases purged, then the data storage slagged. Red Flag would be less successful than anticipated, even if the Covenant ship would still provide troves of valuable information.

In practice, you needed an AI with the right equipment, an Imperial droid, or a soldier in power armor to have a proper conversation unless you were Veil, apparently. Every time Stanforth tried to wrap his head around that space magic the Imperials used, the innocently named 'Force,' he got a headache.

The Imperials were about to give him more reasons to want to break his stash open and take a drink or three. More of their ships came through the portal, though they were support vessels this time. Swept-winged freighters carried containers on both sides of their wings led the way, followed by big ships carrying three massive containers each. The latter looked like those two-wheeled contraptions Stanforth's grandchildren loved and did their best to break their necks racing on.

This time the Imperials had the courtesy to call first. They brought engineering support to establish orbital defenses above the portal. The reaction times of the Imperials have never failed to amaze. Until Stanforth remembered that they had both faster FTL methods of travel and FTL communications, which made him feel jealous. The more he saw, the more determined he was that the UNSC had to have those at all costs. Hell, Earth didn't even know about the opening of the portal yet, much less what followed. The first ship he dispatched to the cradle of humanity wouldn't arrive until tomorrow evening, with the next over twenty-four hours later.

The UNSC was wasting precious time while the Covenant was digesting the news of the Imperials' arrival and deciding how to respond.

The next piece of news really shouldn't have been surprising, and there was nothing Stanforth could do about it.

"Further, we will be deploying hyperspace probes to the nearby stars, beginning with everything within fifty light years radius and expanding to at least a hundred as more devices become available," Centurion translated this time. "They would serve as an early warning about Covenant incursions and allow us to respond to their actions better…."

Everyone on the bridge who heard the Imperial sucked a deep breath and paled. So much for the Cole Protocol and keeping Earth hidden.

"How long would that take?" Stanforth asked with a strained voice.

"For the probes to get there? Hours after entering hyperspace at worst. These are mostly the older models, with Class 3 hyperdrives," The Imperial Captain shrugged. "They're more than fast enough considering the short distance in question."

"And you will have real-time communication with them?" Stanforth needed to be sure.

"Given the distance? Yes," The pale man nodded. "Deployment of probes and defense platforms will begin momentarily. The Combat Engineers will begin a final check on their equipment and then start assembling the Gollan platforms within the hour."

After the comm channel closed, Stanforth groaned.

"At this rate, I might politely ask for a ride to Earth to report in person," The Admiral could imagine the chaos this piece of news or detecting the Imperial probes could cause. Yet, at the same time, their presence was the only thing that might warn them promptly about further Covenant incursions in UNSC space.

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Part 2

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3 AIF (After Imperial Founding)/
15.08.2552 UNSC Military Calendar/

Bridge, UNSC Vostok

Sol System

Milky Way Galaxy

After the news about the Covenant discovering and invading Reach broke two weeks ago, Earth's Home Fleet had been on high alert, with patrols flying all over the system looking for Covenant scouts. Considering the distance between Epsilon Eridiani and Sol was mere ten light years, it was a question of when the Covenant will come, not if.

There wasn't a person among the crew who wanted them to stumble upon something. The same was true about everyone across the fleet, Commander Duboa thought bleakly. He had friends and family on Reach, and he knew that barring a miracle, the best they could do was die, slowing down the Covenant and perhaps buying Earth precious time.

For weeks now, shifts on the bridge were uncommonly silent, with everyone keeping their thoughts to themselves and likely praying there was nothing to find during their patrol.

"Thermal spike! Bearing negative three-one-six! It just came out of nowhere!"

"Battle stations! Inform High Comm we've got an intruder! Focus sensors on the contact and identify it!" Duboa snapped to action.

Lidar and radar pulses focused on the unknown, betraying the Vostok's position if the other ship somehow missed her ignited engine.

"Unknown configuration. Size is about CCS cruiser!"

"The unknown contact is accelerating at a fast pace!"

"We're receiving a hail, UNSC frequencies. It's at low power, considering the distance and size of the unknown contact..."

"Put it up," Duboa ordered.

"This is Vice Admiral Hieronymus Michael Stanforth, CO Battle Group Leviathan. Identification codes…"

"Codes check. Deep IFF feed from the neural lace checks as well."

"Vice Admiral, this is Commander Dubua, CO USNC Vostok. Please explain your situation, sir," The Commander made a cutting gesture at the Communication officer. "Charge the MAC using power from the engines. Hot load Archer pods, I want passive targeting on that ship yesterday. Helm, line the MAC with the unknown."

"I am reporting a Latchkey event on Reach and bringing vital intelligence for the UNSC Security Council and High Command. Be advised the Cole Protocol has been compromised. The Covenant has found Reach and the Cygnus systems. Cole Protocol has been compromised across UNSC space at large but not by the Covenant. This relates to the Latchkey event. Stand by to receive data packages."

"Make sure to have the data in an isolated system, comms! I don't want the ship compromised if this is a trap!" the Commander ordered. "Keep High Command appraised of the ongoing situation."

That was easier said than done. Due to lightspeed lag, it would be minutes before they got a message to Earth. It was a good thing that there were patrol vessels that were closer and would know if the Vostok met an untimely end much faster.

"Receiving data package. High-level encryption, we don't have the key to read the data."

"That much makes sense," Duboa grumbled. "Vice Admiral, I request that your ship ceases acceleration and awaits further orders."

"Dully noted, Commander. Be advised that my hosts have orders to establish formal contact with the UNSC government and begin diplomatic talks. Their patience is not unlimited."

Duboa's thin eyebrows rose at those words.

"The unknown vessel is no longer accelerating. Heading remains unchanged."

"We have a long-range camera view of the ship. It doesn't appear to be a Covenant in origin."

That by itself wasn't saying much. If the UNSC wanted, for some reason, it could build ships similar in appearance to the Covenant vessels. Not in capability, sadly, but the point stood. The same should be true for the Covenant after nearly thirty years of war.

It took nearly an hour for the news to reach the right people and for orders to filter down to the Vostok. In the meantime, Duboa got a cliff-notes explanation of what had happened at Reach over the past couple of days, and needless to say, he found it hard to believe.

Sadly, that ship that still moved quite fast in the general direction of Earth, even with its engines at idle, wasn't proof enough. A second data package with more common encryption wasn't necessarily sufficient proof that Stanforth hadn't been compromised. At least, watching Covenant ships die was an excellent consolation prize.

A technologically superior opponent could, in theory, fake this kind of data, even if the Covenant tended to prefer blunt, deadly instruments to get the job done. This being an elaborate deception, didn't feel like them. Yet, that would make it that much more likely to work, wouldn't it? Some rumors about the odd competent Covenant commander didn't leave many survivors able to flee an encounter with them.

"Vice Admiral, please inform the Imperial Captain that Battle Group Dacota will arrive shortly and escort you to Earth. Any sign of a hostile action within Earth's defensive perimeter will be met with lethal force," Duboa relayed High Command's orders.

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High Command Facility Bravo-6, The 'Hive'
Sydney, Australia
Earth
Sol System
Milky Way Galaxy

"This is not a drill! I say again, Winter Contingency is provisionally declared within the Sol System! The presence of an unidentified alien ship within Sol is confirmed. All UNSC military personnel is to report to their duty stations…."

Terrence Hood ignored the looping message on his way to the heart of the Hive. Platoons of marines and army troopers ran all over the place, deploying to reinforce its usual security forces. Behind him, armored doors slowly closed, sealing the complex.

Despite his lofty titles, he had to answer a string of questions by Lysithea, an ONI AI charged with overseeing the security of the complex. She measured countless biometrics and compared them with records from previous visits and what was supposed to be a person's baseline recorded in their medical files. She also judged response patterns as an additional way to confirm a person's identity and potential intentions.

"You are not in a good mood, Admiral," Lysithea's playful voice was grating this time.

"You are aware of the situation, at least partially anyway," Hood had grumbled. "This is going to be either a great day or a tragic one for the whole of humanity. I don't feel fortunate after decades of war. What about you?"

"I don't need luck, Lord Hood," The AI blinked into existence on the small display of the elevator he would use to get to the Hive's hearth and winked at him.

"Right now, we all need as much luck as we can get our hands on," Hood scoffed.

"Relying on luck is unfit for the Commander of the whole navy!"

"Unless you have a few dozen fleets and the crews for them, you can magic out of nowhere. We'll have to rely on luck and long shots," Hood pointed out. The only Latchkey he could think of was a successful Launch of Operation Red Flag. Stanforth's presence in Sol on board an alien ship that didn't appear to be of a Covenant origin pointed at something different. Frankly, the Fleet Admiral didn't feel like speculating before seeing the data package Henry sent ahead.

By the time the Supreme Commander of the UNSC Navy reached the meeting room that could act as a command center for Earth's defense, only two other UNSC Security Council members had made it before the complex was sealed shut.

Parangosky, of course, and General Strauss – the Director of ONI and Commanding General of the UNSC Army, respectively. As the Commanding Admiral of the Navy, the senior service, Hood was also in charge of the marines and ODST, making his position that of first among equals on the Security Council.

To Hood's utter lack of surprise, he found Margaret sitting in the meeting room, staring down the resident AI, which was poking a data package locked with it into a system air-gaped from the rest of the facility. Strauss didn't look particularly happy to be there, but that was likely due to Parangosky's company. The two of them got along like fire and oil, even though Nicholas tended to be more receptive to the Director's ideas than most flag officers the UNSC had left.

"The data inside appears genuine," The AI reported. "I see the right digital markers from multiple UNSC ships stationed as part of the Reach Defensive Fleet or Battle Group Leviathan. The same is true for the attached camera recordings from ODST and Spartan commandos. There is no malware in the data I can find."

A holoprojector came to life, highlighting part of written reports, showing recordings of verbal reports from Stanforth, combat footage, and sensor logs from the past two days. The latter was most concerning, considering Stanforth had just arrived in Sol a couple of hours ago.

"Summarize the situation," Parangosky ordered.

"It appears the Vice Admiral is right," The ONI AI continued in its bored-sounding emotionless voice, which had more in common with older dumb AIs than modern Smart ones.

A quick breakdown of the two operations aimed at destroying a Covenant Super Carrier on the 14th of August followed, concluding with the unexpected and likely impossible happening. The timeline was clear – the anomaly forming, the Covenant moving in to investigate and assault the shielded building that appeared on Reach and replaced their forward bases, the ensuing battle… Stanforth's decision to declare the situation a Latchkey event and engage the Covenant outside the reach of the Super MACs and the enemy's tactical blunder that led to one of the most spectacular naval victories in favor of the UNSC since the war began.

Hood watched with satisfaction Covenant shops die, shattered by MAC rounds and crippled by nuclear missiles. He also watched alien squadrons emerge from the anomaly, not confirmed to be a slipspace portal, engage the Covenant in knife range, and emerge victorious.

He saw eighty Covenant ships die in the skies above reach, followed by first Contact with a potentially friendly alien policy, which somehow had humans among its numbers, and at a leading role at that.

The AI brought up a recorded conversation between Stanforth and the Commander of the Destroyer Elbe, digesting the news that New Jerusalem would have fallen by now, along with the rest of the Cygnus system. That would have been bad enough. Losing reinforcements better spent on Earth was worse.

"I don't know if I might kiss the bastard or have him court-martialed for treason," Paragonksy muttered after watching Stanforth formally request Imperial aid in relieving New Jerusalem and everything that followed, culminating with the Vice Admiral's arrival home.

"If true, then that's a Latchkey event right here!" Strauss was the first to react when they got all the cliff notes. "If it isn't, I don't know what can qualify!"

"A friendly alien nation, somehow led by a human dynasty…." Parangosky shook her head though there was a dangerous sparkle in her eyes. "I see possibilities there."

"They have space magic too, allegedly," Hood groaned. He was too old for this shit.

"That too. It's most fascinating!" Somehow Margaret looked at least a decade younger than when the meeting began.

"Let me make something absolutely clear, Margaret. ONI will do nothing that might antagonize this Federated Empire. We don't need another enemy when the Covenant is close to ending us!" Hood pointedly raised his voice.

"I don't feel particularly suicidal today, Terrence," Parangosky scoffed at him. "I am well aware of our strategic situation."

Said situation went beyond fucked. It went without saying, though that wasn't something Hood would ever admit aloud, much less in such a crass manner.

"Options?" Hood asked.

"Ger Stanforth on one of the ODPS, and checked by medical just in case, then get him in contact with us. Do we even have a diplomatic corps to have talks with the Imperials?" Strauss inquired.

"Our Diplomatic Corps had been defunct since before the Insurrection became a proper headache," Parangosky pointed out. "We, as the UNSC? It's not like the Covenant are talkative…."

"That's going to be a problem," Hood grimaced. "We aren't exactly qualified for the job even if we've been de-facto the government for years now."