Vice Admiral Margaret Parangosky leaned on her cane with a light smile, which looked more like a shark smiling at its prey than an actual human smile. Hood kept his face emotionless on seeing the rare display of emotion from the old woman; even in her seventies, CINCONI was a terrifying person to have in front of you. There were only three people in the entire UNSC and UEG space that had defied Admiral Parangosky, and lived to tell the tale.
One was the Speaker of the House of the UEG. Like Hood himself, Speaker Ivan Karensky was mostly untouchable to Parangosky due to his popularity amongst the civilian populace. His usefulness as a figurehead and administrator ensured no retaliation.
Hood himself was another, though unlike the Speaker the reason for his survival was because his own power surpassed Parangosky. The last was Doctor Catharine Halsey; the only reason for her survival was her usefulness to the war effort. Unlike the Speaker and Hood who would be untouchable even after this war was over, assuming they survived it, Halsey's usefulness was only ensured so long as the war was ongoing. There was little doubt amongst the people in the room that once Halsey's usefulness ran out, she would be found dead, the tragic victim of a cerebral brain hemorrhage.
Lord Admiral Terrance Hood eyed the ONI officer in front of him with skepticism. "I assume this is important? You know I have a war to fight."
"Of course," her tone was conciliatory; entirely at odds with the almost sneer she wore. "I just thought I'd inform you that our scientists have finally cracked jumping into and out of Black Systems." Ivan Karenskey looked up from a datapad and narrowed his eyes, but as usual he said nothing.
Hood glanced at him.
Karenskey was a hard man to read, but Hood had learned how over the years as a necessity; the slightest narrowing of his eyes told the Lord-Admiral that the man was uncertain, as was typical whenever they mentioned those particular systems. Using a Translight engine even one Parsec away from those anomalous systems could cause a ship to jump wildly off course, if it ever emerged again.
"I won't insult anyone's intelligence by asking if you can verify that. How certain are we that the Covenant can't do the same?" Terrance avoided licking his lips at the thought of being able to stage whole fleets in networks of systems the Covenant couldn't reach, or the nightmare of them lurking in such systems themselves.
"We have enough wreckage from the ongoing fighting over Harvest. Every ship has navigational programs built in to avoid Black Systems. The two we've visited so far have both been devoid of any sign of Covenant forces, and one is no more than five Parsecs from a known Covenant stronghold. That one in particular also has a Garden world; lush, untouched and untamed. A perfect world to act as a foundation for a new series of colonies."
Karenskey continued typing away on his own datapad, but he did speak up. "Then we have found Noah's Ark." His Russian accented English, clashing with Hoods London and Parangoskey's Indian accents.
Lord Hood nodded thoughtfully. "We don't have much we can spare at the moment but the Spirit of Fire's sister ship, Rite of Spring, is in the slips over Mars awaiting her Phoenix refit. If we take her out as is we have a ready made colony ship. Send her through with a Squadron of Gladius Corvettes and a Short Squadron of Stalwart Frigates. As long as the system is secure," he openly glared at Paragonsky, "then we could begin moving colonists away from the front in as little as a year."
Karenskey nodded and jotted down a quick note on a sheet of paper, "I will find some colonists who would be happy to take the trip. Refugees only, anyone from the inner colonies will likely still have families that will ask questions. As it stands, we have a quarter million colonists from Harvest to re-home." He noted absently, and Hood had no doubts that he would get the necessary people by the end of the week.
Karenskey had an almost superhuman ability to navigate through the bureaucracy like water running down hill, always finding and following the path of least resistance; which meant that whenever the Rite of Spring was ready to launch, it would launch with all the crew and colonists it needed.
Hood glanced over at Parangosky, and he could see that the Vice Admiral still had something else to say. His eyes flickered towards Ivan as he asked, "Is there something else Margaret?"
Her grin grew wider, which meant that she was only asking for formality's sake; she believed that the two of them would agree with her. "Yes, I would like to send some Prowlers through the system to see what else is out there-"
"No."
The two admirals blinked in surprise, and Parangosky's smile fell for a brief second before re-fixing itself to her face. "I'm sorry Ivan, but I do not think I heard you correctly."
Karensky looked up, and gave Admiral Parangoskey a cold glare, "No. We are not going to waste much needed resources for some expeditions into an unknown space only known for swallowing ships up whole. I am likely to barely be able to convince the Senate and House to provide the funds for this Noah's Ark project, and no more. We need those prowlers for hit and run strikes behind enemy lines; we can't waste them for something that will almost assuredly result in their destruction for no real gain." He explained coolly, "So no."
The expression on Parangosky's face almost made it worth it for Hood, but he managed to keep a straight face and simply inclined his head. "Agreed. Sorry Margaret, but those Prowlers are needed elsewhere."
Parangosky gave a slow and curt nod, and Hood knew that they had not heard the end of this, but for the time being they could worry about other things. "Of course sirs. Onto other matters, the Spartan-III Program…"
X
UNSC Brigadoon slipped past the assigned patrol of the newly named Shanxi system. In the last year, the old Phoenix Class Colony Ship had been cannibalized to construct the surface colony, as well as the mining infrastructure deeper in the system. None of that concerned Lieutenant Commander Hislop; he had his orders from regional Deputy Director Harper to go through the device and tap out the UNSC Laputa. The device was currently in the ideal position, with the local star and one outer Gas Giant blocking the device from view by the inner system; the Lord Admiral and Speaker Kerensky still hadn't released authorization for more complete reconnaissance.
Not that it mattered. Director Harper hadn't authorised the release of any of the intel they had gathered, so it was simply tit-for-tat. That intelligence had included some choice tidbits that hadn't even made it to Paragonsky's desk, like the ongoing operation to make contact with the self-styled "Bitch-Queen of Omega". Jack's hatchet man Kai Leng was heading that operation through the so-called 'Arcturus Gate Hub'.
Paragonsky was at least aware that they were poised on the edge of yet another vast interstellar, interspecies alliance. But where the Covenant were religious zealots bent on genocide, this Citadel Council seemed more interested in temporal power and hegemony.
That was something the ONI understood well, and plans were in the works to exploit them.
That plan required the latest intelligence from observers like himself and Commander Eva Core'. As soon as the Brigadoon was on the dark side of Shanxi's satellite, Ben fired the engines for a hard burn before making the two week coasting journey to the system's edge, and the strange alien device that was there.
X
Captain Atteth Varn looked at the central holographic monitor with anticipation.
"Captain, another burst of unknown radiation." the sensory officer reported, pointing excitedly at the new reading. Varn normally disapproved of such overt displays of excitement while on a mission, but in this case he was willing to make an exception. The STG had been tracking reports of anomalous radiation spikes and 'sensor ghosts' for more than a year now.
"Show me." The technician brought up the quadrant in question. What it showed was a fading, swirling discharge of high energy particles. Backlit by the luminescence was a black shape. It's profile was avian like a Turian Frigate, but with sweeping curves like an Asari Cruiser. As they were watching, there was a rippling in space before the ship vanished from all passive scanners.
"Incredible! Full ship cloak making it invisible to naked eye!" The sensors officer exclaimed, rapidly inputting and recording all the data they were getting while jotting down notes.
"Indeed," Varn absently rubbed his horns, "but where are they coming from, where are they going, and what are they doing." He looked at another technician. "What can you tell me about that ship?"
A list of information sprung up on the main monitor. "While we can detect Mass-Effect fields analogous to artificial gravity, I can't detect any signs of particle decay or Dark-Matter emissions consistent with an energized Eezo core. They have low electromagnetic emissions, but significant waste heat; though that may be a result of their FTL system. I'm still detecting radioactive decay consistent with a number of particles theorized to only exist in non-linear spatial topographies."
Varn frowned. "That seems a rather brute-force method compared to a Mass-Effect core."
"Perhaps," the first technician glanced at his commander, "but a brute-force method that isn't limited by needing to discharge capacitors could allow them to travel beyond the current limits of FTL ranges."
Varn leaned back and looked at the monitor. "Supposition won't answer these questions. Hyun," the second technician looked up, "how persistent are those particles?"
"At their current rate of decay, maybe fifteen minutes; but they are activating the interstellar medium in a... novel fashion. I should be able to identify previous emergence locations based on dispersion and emission type."
Atteth gave a shar nod. "Good. We know they transit this system, and we know what to look for now. We will drop a monitoring satellite here, then move to the nearest system with a relay. We will either eliminate the system as a point of ingress, or identify their route into our space."
The crew began performing their tasks with the speed and efficiency only a veteran STG team could display, while Captain Varn prepared his report to Sur'Kesh.
X
"It's coming through again."
Varn blinked and tilted his head. "Were you able to find where it came from?" He asked, standing in his chair.
"Negative, but I did pick up where it's going." The Sensors officer replied.
"Persistent radiation trail, I take it?"
"No sir," the technician shook his head in dismay, "they didn't bother cloaking before they started a hard burn for the Relay."
Varn tempered the urge to report his findings immediately. It was a shortcoming all Salarians had to learn to deal with. "Maintain passive observation until we can confirm they transited Relay 314. If that happens, then we transmit our findings to the local Citadel Patrol group." He glanced over to his XO. "Who's currently assigned this sector?"
There were a few seconds of keys tapping. "General Desolas Arterius. He's former Hastatim."
Varn grimaced; the Turians who served in the Pacification Legions were not known for their restraint. Still, if Arterius had risen to Staff level then he had to at least have some skill in politics and diplomacy.
"Ready the communications for Comm Buoy transmission to the Sector Command. If these--"
"Sir," Hyun piped up, "they just made the Relay transit."
Varn huffed. "Right, because of course they would. XO, comms. I have a report to file."