Aethyta low-crawled up to the edge of the ridge overlooking a dammed up river. The rest of Noble Team was already there. Below them, they could see a hydroelectric dam, as well as several prefabricated structures that were clearly not of UTSG make.
Kat whistled in appreciation. "I count three sentry pads, and what looks like a field repeater for a shield generator, but it's modified somehow."
"That's a lot of hardware for a scoutship to bring in," Aethyta frowned at the site below her. "If this were for a shield repeater, how many of these things would be deployed?"
Kat scooted back and rolled to face the Asari. "Given the size of the sensor and flight dead zone, four to five repeaters, maybe two klicks from the main generator." She pulled out a paper map of the river delta. "We'd be looking at this valley here: well protected by the mountains on three sides, big enough for an SVD to loiter and offload troops and equipment, and lots of iron ores so electromagnetic scans would be spotty at best."
Noble 6, Phillip-B312 slowly panned his anti-material rifle over the complex. "And with all the satellite images just giving 'hazy cloud cover', we can't drop a precision K-strike without risking the people that live in the valley. I'm seeing maybe a squad of Elites, another squad of Jackals, and about a platoon of Grunts." He set the rifle down and looked back at the rest of Noble Team. "No Brutes or Hunters that I could see."
Commander Carter nodded thoughtfully. "Hunters and Brutes aren't really 'forward scout' friendly forces, so we're probably still in the beach-head stage."
Emile chuckled darkly, "What, they don't want to bring the rest of their forces under the defensive guns of the 'Ring of Nibelung'?"
Kat shook her head and shimmied back up to the ledge. "It's more likely that they can't jump en masse near the Sentinel Towers."
Carter unlimbered his new HY/MARS, Hypergolic/Magnetic Accelerator Rifle System, and checked its digital omni printer, stock of hypergolic propellant, and ready projectiles. "That's FleetCom's problem, not ours-"
"Until Fleet screws the pooch and it becomes our problem," Emile grumbled under his breath.
"Our problem," Carter pressed on, "is whatever beach head the Covies have set up in the valley. We can bypass this site and-"
"Shit!" Kat rolled back to the team. "They have a dozen civilians: they're being herded across the auxiliary spillway by a squad of Grunts and an Elite."
Carter didn't hesitate. "New plan: Jorge, Emille, Echo, you assault across the spillway. Kat, Phillip, infiltrate and disable as many sentry platforms as possible. Jun and I are on overwatch. Go!"
The squad lept into action. The Matriarch Charged into the rear of the cluster of Grunts, scattering half a dozen of them like leaves in the wind. As the rest of the Grunts and the Elite turned to face the new threat, Jorge laid down suppressing fire. This distracted them from Emile, who casually wove his way up to the Elite, and slit its throat. The rest of the Grunts were Thrown off the spillway.
The comotion drew the attention of the crews of the nearest Sentry platform, as well as the mystery tower; but before any of the crew-served guns could be brought to bear, twin rifle cracks dropped the nearest Covenant troops. This drew attention to the snipers on the ridge, and away from the two Spartans sprinting through the shadows. Kat scaled the tower and swept it clear of opposition, while Phillip cleared the nearest Sentry platform. Both then turned the Covenant Plasma Cannons on the troops trying to rally along the dam control platform.
It took less than a minute for the rest of the squad to meet up, with Jun and Carter climbing the tower for better overwatch, while the assaulters charged into the compound. The chaos allowed Kat and Phillip to clear the remaining two platforms with relative ease.
All told, it took less than five minutes for Noble Team to secure the dam complex, to the awed adulation of the civilians who had been herded there. Even Aethyta was given some hesitant thanks.
"Thank god! I thought we were dead for sure," the apparent leader of the civilians sagged in relief. "They came out of nowhere two weeks ago, and started rounding everyone up."
Carter stood near the man, but didn't loom over him. "Any idea why?"
"Not really; first, they just kept us in the middle of their camp near Reston's Creek, but two days ago they started splitting us up. We don't know why, just that nobody's come back yet."
Jorge rumbled in thought. "Probably keeping you around to keep us from just flattening the valley."
"But why separate us now?" One of the other refugees paused in her scavenging of Covenant weapons.
"Because they know we're closing in," Kat all but spat. "Now that we control one of the towers, we could triangulate where the others are and blast them with an airstrike or artillery..."
"But not with civilians potentially in harm's way," Phillip finished everyone's thought.
Carter unlimbered his HY/MARS and began using its omni-printer to harvest some of the salvage. "We don't need artillery or airstrikes. We have a full company of Spartans, ready to deploy." He turned to Kat, once his rifle chirped that it was full. "Noble Two, you and Noble Six head up that tower and get those additional sites pinpointed. As soon as you're done, we rig this tower to blow and send the targets to the rest of the company."
Emile chuckled while rolling his shoulder. "Going loud are we?"
"Once we hit this site, stealth was off the table. Now, it's killing time."
...
"Fleet Master," Thel looked up at his Adjutant's call, "Report from the Night of Tears."
Thel accepted the data pad, and sighed at what he read. "I had not expected Blasphemers to respond this quickly," he noted a report from one of the Zealot/Stalker teams, "or this aggressively." He looked up at his aide. "Are we certain of the number of Demons reported on the field?"
The Adjutant frowned. "No, Fleetmaster. They seem to rotate from another location, but not from the orbital construct."
"So, more than a Company of Demons to protect this world, but they are stationed somewhere on the planet itself." Thel flexed his mandibles in thought. "If they are anywhere, I would imagine it would be at the artifact site; they know its value to us, and will heavily fortify it." He glanced at his aide. "Is there any word from our Scouts as to the nature and location of the local Forbiddance?"
"Yes Fleetmaster, but there is a complication. The source of the Forbiddance is a pair of stations, one at each pole, surrounded by battlestations. Our Scout Shipmasters do not believe they could destroy more than one."
"Alone," Thel grinned for the first time in months, "they cannot destroy them alone." He stood and strode purposefully into the bridge. "Give me the Fleet."
The central tactical holo-projector lit up with icons of the hundreds of ships at his command. "My brothers, the time has come to meet our enemy." He waited for the din of cheers to subside. "Our Scouts have identified the source of the Blasphemers' Forbiddance. We shall advance upon the system at sublight, to draw the humans away, so that our Scouts may clear the path."
He highlighted the icons of the two deployed SVD Shipmasters. "To you, my brothers, I burden you with glorious purpose. When the Humans move out of position in response to our advance, you will strike, and destroy the source of their protection. I expect you shall pass onto the Great Journey, so offload as many personnel as you can. While some must be sacrificed if all are to be saved, I will not squander experienced crews without need."
He refocused on the rest of the fleet. "Once the Forbiddance has fallen, we shall jump en masse, and begin the glorious task of liberating this world from the vile grip of the Unbelievers!"
The echoes of cheering had not even faded, as the more than three hundred ships of the Fleet of Particular Justice began accelerating towards Reach.
...
Admiral Rolland marched into the Combat Information Center of Orbital Station Reach, still buttoning his service jacket. "What have we got, Bit?"
A holographic pedestal lit up with a rotating polyhedron that spiked as it spoke. "Sir, thermal imaging just came in showing a fleet of 300 ships approaching from the region of Teller Station."
Bit was replaced with a system map, showing a group of inbound craft. "Almost as soon as we pointed a Hyper-Relativistic Scanner at the group, three more groups jumped in and began approach. Current count reads as 700 plus Covenant Capital and Super Capital ships."
The map was replaced by Bit's icon. "At their current rate of acceleration, they should arrive in two weeks. I'll be able to get you a more precise estimate in the next hour."
The Admiral pursed his lips; emotional outbursts would do nothing but undermine morale. "Alright, sound Alarm: Black throughout the system. All leave is canceled, all personnel are to return to their duty stations and prepare for immediate launch."
The various Humans and AI began transmitting orders as Rolland brought up the Reach planetary and system maps. "I want every Destroyer and Frigate we have ready to launch in one hour, and every Cruiser ready four hours after that. Once the Escorts are away, I want them to hold deployment until the Covenant reaches Max V, then begin lightning strike harassment by squadrons on the Covenant's flanks. Maybe we can whittle them down as they approach. We'll wait until they begin their deceleration to launch our proper counter attack.
"Meanwhile, I'm issuing a general evacuation order to the civilian population." He saw the hesitation in the posture of everyone in the CIC. "Our duty is to protect and safeguard the citizens of the UTSG, not to hold any one planet. Plus, it will help our ground forces if they don't have to worry about civilians caught in the crossfire.
"Speaking of," he turned back to Bit, "what's the status of forces in Szurdok Ridge."
Bit flared in apprehension. "To put it bluntly sir, stuck-in."
...
Aethyta strained as she lightened the Warthog, just before jumping the gap of a destroyed bridge. She reversed the mass just as they touched down. They all heard and felt the vehicle's frame snap, but they landed upright and nobody was thrown clear.
It was general chaos as units split and reformed in their pell-mell race across the open killing fields, while Covenant artillery and aircraft hammered the approach. Still, the Matriarch was getting the ideal chance to appraise the UNSC's military advancement in the last thirty years.
The two major changes she could note from previous reports, were the effectiveness of personnel shields, and the widespread deployment of VI augmentation. She noted that, even on vehicles, the shields would be switched on and off as threats were detected. Aside from the unfortunates who were caught out in the open by artillery or air strikes, many more soldiers and vehicles were making it to the relative safety of the many gorges that fed into the valley below.
She was brought back to the here-&-now, when the ruined Warthog shook as Jorge ripped the truck's shield generator and one battery stack free.
"Kat, Echo, let's move!"
She shouldered the HY/MARS she had been given before deploying, and stalked after the massive super-Human. She thought it an interesting middle ground between a Citadel Mass Accelerator, and a UNSC chemical propellant. The integration of an Omnitool, to process salvage into new propellant and projectiles, was an interesting take on the more familiar Weapons Mods she was accustomed to.
It remained to be seen how the weapon fared under combat conditions.
They ran up to the leeside of a rock face, where Jorge set up the vehicle shield to create a safe rally point. Within minutes, the safe bubble had become an impromptu Command Post and Aid Station. Once he arrived, Commander Carter flagged the rest of Noble over to him.
"Alright, new objectives as follows," he ignored the grumbling from Emile and Kat, "there are two heavy plasma cannons set up as anti-air batteries; we're going to bring those down to open a flight corridor. Once that's done, we push in towards what looks like a gravity lift..."
"Which we will also blow up," Kat snarked from the side.
"Negative, Noble Two." Aethyta could almost see the smug on the Commander under his helmet at surprising the normally very well informed Spartan. "Fire Team Osiris and Blue Team were HALO dropped over the valley last night. They ID'd the tower, and a holding camp for the rest of the valley's citizens: all two thousand of them."
Phillip/Noble Six huffed, "It'd take a month of Sundays to try and evac them with Pelicans, so..."
Kat nodded in understanding. "So we get them to the Gee-Lift, then bring in a heavy transport. What are we using?" She looked pointedly at Carter. "HiCom went on full alert last night, and every Frigate in the system is forming up for Wolfpack attacks."
"We have a flight of Mulzac Transports waiting to come in and pick them up. Before that happens," Carter nodded towards the sound of Covenant heavy plasma ordnance, "we need to clear the approach."
Everyone turned towards the sound of several low flying Pelicans, which dropped off more Warthogs. The team rolled out to the first target, which proved, surprisingly, lightly defended for such an important objective; or maybe it was just the weight of a full Spartan fireteam and an Asari Matriarch. Aethyta recorded everything she could before the weapon was spiked.
She glanced back at the wreckage as they drove on. "That seems like an awfully big piece of hardware for a scout ship to be carrying."
Phillip slalomed around a switchback. "Probably a heavy plasma mortar or cannon off of a Corvette. Those are pretty self-contained, and we've seen that before. It's the troop numbers that are really concerning." They both paused as they rushed through a squad of Covenant dismounts, blasting their vehicles as they went. "Covie Corvettes only carry a couple of platoons worth of troops, but this looks like a full Brigade or more."
"So they have more than just the Corvettes here?"
Phillip shook his head as the next gun came into sight. "Covenant stealth is good, but not that good. I think all the towers we blew last night were to create a local stealth field for their Corvettes to jump in and out of."
Aethyta choked her grip down on the Jesus Handle. "FTL Jumps, in atmosphere?!"
"It's possible...Theoretically."
Aethyta filed away yet another Doomsday fact about possible Covenant attacks against Citadel Space.
The second gun turned out to be significantly better defended, with the Matriarch genuinely surprised by the Hunters.
-BLAM-
"Dammit! Your Hymen-guns are fucking useless!"
"Those are Hunters," Jun yelled from behind a wide tree stump. "You don't kill them with small arms!"
"Then what do we use!"
Emile power-slid behind her. "Tanks, and if you don't have those," he lofted a pair of metallic cylinders of clearly Covenant design, "grenades; the EM containment in plasma grenades means they stick to whatever they hit."
Aethyta nodded as she pocketed one grenade, then primed the second as she activated her loaner energy Pavise. She could see and feel the sickly green plasma bolts, which she swatted aside with a hint of Biotic reinforcement, then wound up and Threw her grenade.
There was a telltale crack as the handheld explosive broke the sound barrier. It struck the closest of the two Hunters in the center of its chest, and completely blew through the alien before burying itself in the dirt. Then the grenade exploded, launching a column of loam and the stunned Hunter down the hill. Jorge popped up from cover and poured heavy machine gun fire into the creature, until he had pulped enough worms to effectively kill the colony.
Emile barked out a laugh. "Maybe put a little less English on the next one?"
She ducked back into cover as the second Hunter cried out in defiance and rained fire on them. "Or I could just hand you the grenade, and Throw you instead!"
"No need," Jorge noted, as the last Hunter was blasted off the hill by twin explosions. The smoke cleared to reveal Kat and Carter.
"Noble Team, standby for pickup and new tasking," the Commander jumped down, followed by Kat and Phillip. The base of the battery was rocked by an internal explosion. "FT Osiris tagged a high value target: a Zealot Commander. It's been spotted at a nearby mining complex by a squad of ODSTs, and we're the nearest Spartan team to deal with it."
They were airlifted to a gorge where a squad of UNSC soldiers were pinned down on a bridge by a pair of heavy weapons emplacements. When not contending with the absurd biology and sheer bulk of a Hunter, the HY/MARS was a more than adequate weapon; though Aethyta found herself wishing she could program the rifle with the more familiar Mods.
After the fifth Jackal with a Covenant energy shield, she decided to sacrifice her Acolyte for just that purpose.
They finally caught up with the gold armored Elite above a garage. Aethyta trapped the creature in a Biotic Stasis, as the rest of the team came up. They could both see Emile closing in for the kill, but the Matriarch got the distinct impression that it was far less concerned with its imminent demise, than by her proximity.
"Hold it, Four." Emile looked back to Carter, who nodded, so he sheathed his knife. "No, I mean Hold It: I want to try something, and I can't do it when it's dead."
He seemed about to snark, but then shrugged and grabbed the Elite. "If you're going to try a field interrogation, I could save you the trouble. He won't tell you anything."
She stalked forward, watching the Covenant Commander thrash helplessly as she came within arms reach. "On the contrary, Spartan," she grabbed the Elite by the head as her eyes shifted to black, "he's going to tell me EVERYTHING!"
A Maiden, or even a Matron would not have been able to force a meld on an unwilling subject; but Aethyta was neither of those. She poured her years of experience contacting alien minds to tear her way through the Elite's memories, always following the stream of consciousness that touched upon her.
When she was done, she stepped back and let go. The once mighty warrior hung limply from Emile's grasp, gurgling and drooling on itself.
Commander Carter looked between the apparently brain dead Elite, and the scowling Asari. "What exactly was that?"
"A method of extracting information." Aethyta pinched her eyes shut as she began filtering through a lifetime's worth of experience, and purging everything she didn't need. "Asari can interact with a living mind in the same way you might a computer file: we can Biotically feel the neuron's firing, and map it like you would for a cognitive upload.
"When consensual, it can be quite euphoric. When not..." she nodded to the Elite, whom Emile simply dropped where he stood.
"Okay," Kat cautiously approached, "so what did you upload?"
Aethyta shouldered her HY/MARS and put a single bullet into the Zealot's head. "His mission."
They all looked up as a trio of Human ships rumbled overhead. "You can debrief me back at Sword Base; I should have most of his memories sorted out by then."
...
Gallun squatted on the ridge, looking down at the Demons and the Demoness. He held no kinship or love for his now former commander, but there was something visceral about how he died that tore at the Stalker. From the moment she glowed the sickly purple, to when Zealot Hurlamee began wailing, gibbering madly as if trying to speak every word he had ever spoken all at once, until he simply went slack, as if emptied of all that he was.
Had the Demoness devoured his mind, his soul? While not as pious as some, Gallun still believed in the Great Journey, and the thought, the fear that these Blasphemers might in any way be able to prevent his soul from ascending, caused a shiver to run up his back.
Still, he was a Stalker, a Hunter born and bred. He now knew more about his prey than he did before. For the time being, he would continue to observe; to see if he could find where she came from, or at least where she camped.
...
"Understood, Admiral. Keyes out." Captain Keyes stepped away from the communications terminal, and activated the holographic pedestal next to his chair. "Po, open file 'Scroll of Ultimate Truth'; Captains authorization code: 1-1A-2B."
The image of a giant panda was replaced by a scrolling menagerie of Covenant warships.
"Good, now filter for ships equipped with Glassing Beams."
"Okay, but-oohh are we gonna take out just the big guns and leave the little ships all alone, cause that would be awesome!" Po cackled through its speakers.
"Almost, but not quite. Identify the Tertiary Power Transfer node for the Glasser on every ship, then forward that data to our escorting Anlace and Mulsane Frigates."
"Alright," came the less enthusiastic response from the young AI, "data's away."
Jacob Keyes let a grin slip as he thought of his own daughter's exuberance for 'the family business'. "Don't worry, we'll get our pound of flesh; but first, the Fleet is going to pull the biggest teeth out of those damned hinge-headed mouths."
"Ooohhh," Po's avatar reappeared while nodding sagely, before shaking its head. "Nope, don't get it."
Keyes chuckled. "Get Master Gunners Tom and Lynn up here, then bring up a CCS Cruiser with the data I requested." Once the two bridge fire directors were beside Keyes, he pointed at the glowing icon under the Cruiser's stern. "Eggheads back on Earth have been pouring over intel gathered a while back, and have determined that this power node, present on every ship with a Glassing Beam, powers a critical part of the focusing assembly. Destroy that, and the Glasser won't fire."
Master Gunner Lynn hissed through her teeth. "That's a hell of a shot to try to make with a MAC."
Keyes nodded. "That's why Fleet handed that job off to our light Frigate escorts. The new Helios and Brightlance systems are precision enough, and long ranged enough to hit those pinpoint targets. We'll be firing to force the fleet to break formation, so the Frigates can hit all their ships."
Gunner Tom raised an eyebrow. "At those speeds sir, while a hit may be a guaranteed kill, there's no guarantee of a hit unless-"
"Unless we're inside their Plasma Lance range, I know. As I said, we're just there to force them to react. If you score a hit, fantastic. But if not, no sweat. We'll get ours after we've de-fanged them, and they enter Reach orbit.
"Right now, every Captain is having this talk with their crews, so we know what the plan is, and what it's really about."
The two gunners looked puzzled for a moment, when Po huffed. "Reach," he looked around, "we're sparing Reach."
Captain Keyes stared fiercely at his two gunners. "We have the chance, finally, to spare a world from Glassing by a Covenant attack force; and with God as my witness, we will succeed!"
...
"Fleetmaster," Thel's aide came up to him, "all ships have reached cruising speed, and the Augury shows the Blasphemers have deployed most ships from their station."
Thel continued looking at the holographic map of their target world. "But they remain in orbit of the planet. If the Ardent Prayer and the Pure Supplication attempt to attack the Forbiddance stations now, they will only draw fire."
"But there is still the possibility of-"
Thel fixed his subordinate with a baleful eye. "The possibility of success comes with an equal possibility of failure!" He returned his attention to the hologram. "Where the Great Journey is concerned, there must never be the possibility of failure; so we will wait for the Humans to move out of position, then strike when victory is assured."
The Aide bowed his head. "Yes, Fleetmaster. What shall I tell the other Shipmasters? They grow impatient."
Thel snorted. "Tell them to remember the lesson of Jul' Mdama: if we act without prudence, we will surely lose the very prize we seek."
He paced around the central hologram. "Also, tell them to disperse the Fleet formation, and deploy our Zanar squadrons in a screening force. Rotate them back for resupply as needed." He noted the curious look from his aide. "I fully expect the Humans to harass us until we are in whatever position they think best. At our current speed, even a glancing blow from one of their weapons would cripple, if not destroy the mightiest of warships. I will not suffer the shame of losing a whole squadron to a single well placed fusion warhead."
Once his aide headed off to relay his orders, he returned to the central hologram, pondering how he would counter the massive ring station.
...
Aethyta slumped in the high backed chair in Dean's office. "So there are two other sites like the one in Vierey, though they are lightly manned due to jump limitations. The Zealot didn't know what the various Captains or Admirals had planned, only that he expected reinforcements in the next week or so."
Commandant Norris nodded, then frowned at the look on the Matriarch's face. "Something else?"
She shook her head slowly. "Maybe; I'm still filtering through his memories, and getting used to his thought processes, but I feel like there's one more thing."
Dean snorted. "Probably trying to find the artifact we're sitting on."
Her frown deepened as she leaned forward. "No, I got the impression he was disappointed that someone else had that job... no, honor. It is a search mission, whatever it is, but I just can't remember for what."
Dean huffed and levered himself up. "Whelp, whatever it is can wait. Second Company is rotating out of the field for Bivouac and R&R. I'm sending First and Third out to deal with these two other sites, and I'm sending you to quarters; you look like shit."
Aethyta snorted back. "Is that anyway to speak to a lady that can kill you with her brain?"
"Maybe, but I'm not speaking to a lady; I'm speaking to a fellow soldier. Get some real chow and rack time. Maybe this stray memory will jolt loose in your sleep. If not," he shrugged and walked her to the door, "it can't have been that important. Plus, R&D thinks they've worked out a fix for armoring you without you blowing the armor up, but that's an all-day affair."
After a hearty meal of fried something in gravy, and a quick shower, the Matriarch crashed in her billet.
"SHIT!" Aethyta bolted upright in her bunk and began scrambling for a pair of coveralls. "Dot! Dottie, wake up!"
"There is no need to yell, Matriarch Aethyta," the base's administrative AI replied tartly.
"The hell there isn't a need! Like a fucking Maiden on her first date, missing the obvious. You need to run a full perimeter scan, out to two kilometers. Look for any large animals in an elevated, well protected area, then send a Spartan Team to flush them out."
"What exactly am I sending them out after?"
Aethyta finally wrangled the utility coveralls and boots on and headed out the door. "The Covenant reconnaissance team sent to find me!"
...
Gallun tensed in his hide. There was the subtlest shift in the air; a tension that wasn't there a moment ago.
The vehicle doors to the base he had tracked his prey to raised, and two of the human gun trucks bounced their way out.
They had found him.
He didn't know how, and in that moment it was less important than making sure they didn't capture him.
Besides, he had found where the Demons and Demoness came from. It was enough to report the location, as well as the fact that, for the moment, there was only one Demoness.
There would be time enough for a glorious hunt later.
...
Fire Team Osiris stood in the Commandant's office, with Aethyta pacing and swearing to herself.
"There was a shallow nest in the hills overlooking the base, and biotech say the spoor we found was definitely from a Brute." He noted the Matriarch tense up more.
"With respect ma'am, Brute Stalker teams are some of the best trackers in the known galaxy. I should know, I've had to hunt, and been hunted by my fair share."
"So what do we do now," Spartan Dutch asked from the back wall. "They know where Sword Base is, they likely know this is where we stage our Spartan Teams from, and that we only have one Matriarch." He flinched slightly at almost saying Enhanced, as there were still so few Biotic Spartan Specialists, and HighCom wanted to keep them as an Ace-in-the-Hole.
Dean pressed on, noting Aethyta's distraction, and hoping she missed Dutch's gaff. "For now, nothing beyond additional patrols around the base. First and Third companies are already on their way to the other two sites that have been confirmed: identical sensor shrouding, and flight restricting EM interference." He turned to look out the panoramic window. "Our mission priorities are to maintain the security of the base, while denying the enemy their beachheads. Everything else, we play it by ear. Dismissed."
As they filed out, Dutch hung back until he was parallel with Aethyta.
"Hey," he said without looking over, "something's still bugging you, and it ain't our impending 'Brawl for it All'."
The Matriarch spared him the faintest of glances. "It may just be these alien memories, but the way the Zealot reacted to my Biotics was almost primal fear. Everything is tinged in religious overtones: The Dark Matter, The Dark Energy, complete with spooky choir going 'Ooh-Ooh- Ooh' in the background."
They arrived at the elevator just after the doors closed.
"This is way more than a soldier's caution at encountering a new weapon. It's more like superstition, except-"
"Except the Covenant have never encountered Eezo before, or they'd have fixes for our tricks already," Dutch completed as the doors opened again. "I'll let Locke know your concerns, and he'll make sure they get up-channeled."
...
Thel watched the sensor feed showing the string of Human ships watching him from just outside of strike range. He chafed under the same desire as his Shipmasters to hunt the Blasphemers down, but the last day had seen three separate attacks, where ships would slipjump as a unit, launch a combined missile and kinetic attack, then slipjump away before his ships could accurately target them.
So far, thanks to the crews of the light Cruiser pickets, he'd only lost three Zanar light Cruisers, one Sinaris Destroyer, and had one Ket Cruiser severely damaged to the point the crew had to evacuate to nearby ships. If he spread his forces any thinner than they were now, he risked the Humans destroying them piecemeal.
These attacks were a tiresome nuisance, nothing more.
"Fleetmaster!" He faced the excited aide. "A message from one of the Stalker Teams!"
He reviewed the message, then strode over to the control station for the Kelguid loaned to his fleet. He directed the sacred device towards the planet, and to the region indicated by the Brute. Within moments, he had confirmation.
He spared a tense smile. "So, it is as I thought."
"Fleetmaster?"
Thel paced over to his personal planning area. "The humans have stationed their Demons, as well as this Demoness at the site of the Holy Relic."
He held up a hand to forestall the pius diatribe he knew was coming. "They will not risk their mightiest warriors on a site they intend to draw us into, only to demolish us in nuclear fire. They prize this site, and that gives us time."
Both glanced at the hologram when an alarm sounded, indicating the Humans were making another strafing attack.
"And we know where to concentrate our force-"
"No," the Aide started at Thel's statement. "If we concentrate our forces, then so will they. We must thin them out on several fronts, then our mightiest warriors, filled with righteous zeal, will storm this base, and wrest from the Blasphemers that to which they have no right."
Whatever the aide was about to say, was drowned out as the Seeker of Truth shook and alarms sounded.
"Report!"
A sensor Menial glanced away from its monitor. "We, and several other ships were struck by primitive Plasma Lances; all craft report minor damage, and shields are recovering."
"How many other ships?"
"Sixty shipmasters are reporting-"
"Second strike wave detected," another Menial barked out.
Thel activated his personal communications link to the Fleet. "All damaged ships, reposition deeper into the fleet. Undamaged ships will move to screen."
He watched as the fleet shuffled, and the second strike wave emerged from slipspace. Before any of his ships could accurately target the Humans, they fired a barrage of rudimentary Nuclear Plasma Lances.
He had expected his already damaged ships to be the targets, but instead the screening force was struck.
"Another seventy-two ships sir!"
"How bad is the damage?"
The Menials scrambled to collate the data, when another attack wave struck, this time with fifty- five new ships struck.
"Report!"
"Fleetmaster, negligible damage to all ships that have been attacked, no losses."
Thel frowned at that; this was a great deal of effort for so little gain. He brought up the attack vectors, and saw they all came from below the orbital plane, striking the ventral surfaces of his ship. Another alarm rang out as a fourth attack wave was detected.
"All craft commence lateral roll maneuvers, Shipmasters discretion."
He watched as every ship in the fleet began barrel rolling in random directions. When the attack was launched, only twelve ships reported any damage, all others being superficially scarred.
"All Shipmasters are to continue roll maneuvers." He looked to his Aide. "I need a detailed report of which ships have been damaged, and how."
It was another hour as the data was compiled, with three more attacks leading to another thirty ships reporting damage.
By the time the report was brought to him, there had been no attacks in twenty minutes. He felt that this was not a good sign.
This feeling only deepened as he read the ship list. No Ceudar or Zanar Class ships reported being targeted. He was puzzled by the specificity of the targets, as while the location of the damage varied by ship type, the system damaged was always the same: a tertiary power transfer bus.
They could not know, they could not possibly know...
"What does the Huragok report of this damage, and how will it affect our mission?" The Menials all looked uncertainly between each other, until Thel growled out, "The Humans have gone to great lengths to commit this very precise attack. I will know what they have accomplished before we arrive in orbit; now bring the Engineer here!"
It was the work of another hour to bring the Huragok up from where it was trying to repair the damaged ship section.
Thel pointed at the holographic image of the Seeker. "The Humans have damaged this ship, as well as nearly a third of the rest of the fleet, while conspicuously avoiding the remaining two thirds. What system will not work due to this damage?"
The sole Engineer assigned to the fleet pointed to a prominent depression on the Carrier's underside, then switched to a Ket Class and pointed at the same feature, then to a Sinaris Destroyer, then another Ket. Over and over the Engineer indicated the same system, as alarm grew on the bridge.
Thel maintained his composure, though internally he raged. Every single ship with an Excavation Beam had been struck, and every single Excavation Beam was now disabled.
He had much planning to do; the coming battle promised to be much more evenly matched than the Covenant was accustomed to, and no General ever won a war by fighting fairly.
...
Admiral Holland had been walking on Cloud Nine for days since the successful completion of Operation: Old Hound. Now, as the approaching Covenant force began the roll-over for deceleration into Reach orbit, the fleet was poised to deliver a true victory.
"Dot, give me system wide."
The AI linked the communications in the Command Post of Nibelungen Station to every UNSC terminal.
"You have the system, Admiral."
"Sapients of the United Nations Space Command, the past thirty years have tested us in the most brutal and unimaginable ways. There is not a man, woman, or synthetic intelligence that has not felt the biter sting of loss. That changes today. For the first time since our first encounter with the Covenant, we are in a position to deliver a decisive blow, and drive them back before they could even set foot on our world! I expect every Enlisted and Officer, no matter your origin or history, to serve in this, our greatest hour.
He grandly gestured in the general direction of the oncoming fleet. "All ships, execute Operation: TKO!"
He looked on in satisfaction as more than two hundred of the most advanced warships in the UNSC entered slipspace, on their way to intercept the now blinded Covenant forces.
"Admiral," Dot's avatar emerged from her pedestal, "I am concerned at the continued elusiveness of the Covenant Pathfinder Corvettes."
Holland scoffed. "They're meaningless now. Our Aerospace Corps alone could deal with a few Corvettes, to say nothing of the weapons of this station, and the Battle Clusters surrounding the Sentinel Towers." He shook his head and took a seat near one of the Superluminal Tracking monitors. "With the various beacheads eliminated, and the Sentinel Stations online, those Corvettes are nothing more than Paper Tigers waiting to be torn up."
...
Shipmaster 'Raboree watched as the last Human ship made its slipjump. He had no doubt as to their ultimate destination, though the primitive Human slipdrives ensured it would be ten minutes or more before they emerged in the projected path of the Fleet of Particular Justice.
More than enough time to complete his and his fellow Shipmaster's glorious mission: the elimination of the Human stations which projected the Forbiddance. The vagaries of the vile Dark Energy they wielded meant that Fleetmaster 'Vadamee would know instantly that they had succeeded.
"Helm, ahead slow; they have not noticed us yet," he watched as the towering station grew on his Augury, "no need to risk it now."
They closed the last few hundred kilometers to the Human battle cluster in five minutes. Once on their terminal attack profile, he turned to the navigator. "Disable the Shroud of Passing." A ping and flashing icon on his station told him that his slipdrive was no longer safe to use near the Station.
"My brothers, may the Forerunners sped us upon the Great Journey, and may we know true peace in the Glory of the Domain. Helmsman," he waited for, and moments later saw, the signal from his fellow Shipmaster at the South Pole, "Jump!"
...
Aethyta's head snapped up as she felt a ripple pass through her biotic nodes. She saw a particularly vibrant aurora to the north, though the normally beautiful display filled her with dread.
...
Alarms blared from every direction in Nibelungen's command center.
"Dot," Admiral Holland yelled over the din, "what the hell just happened!?"
"Sir," the normally unflappable AI was visibly distressed, "both the North and South Polar Battle Clusters have been destroyed!"
The Admiral half stood from his seat and looked around, as if he could see the event. "How!? Those stations had the strongest shields in the system!"
Dot flickered as information flashed across all his monitors, as well as his Neural Lace. "I'm detecting radiation consistent with unstable Slipspace events at both locations."
Holland snarled. "Sound condition one! Order the ground stations to launch the Ready Five, and stand up all Aerospace assets to Launch for Survival." He gave the AI an almost pleading look. "Is there any chance to send a recall Slip-Packet to the Fleet?"
She sadly shook her head, as wave after wave of Longsword, Broadsword, and Saber fighters swarmed away from the station.
...
Thel watched as the icon of the cursed Forbiddance winked out. "Journey safely, brothers."
He turned to his command staff as one of the Menials looked back. "Fleetmaster, Augury shows a force of two hundred ships approaching through Slipspace!"
Thel sneered. "Too little, too late. Send to the fleet: all shipmasters are to execute Slipjumps to their assigned sectors on my mark. Ceudar and Zanar squadrons will advance and assault the ring stations, while all other ships will descend into the atmosphere to begin troop deployment."
He waited as all the ships replied. With a minute to spare. "All ships, JUMP!"
...
Saren paced inside Sovereign's command deck. He was not pleased. Sovereign was not pleased.
Not only had the attack on the Human colony not succeeded as completely as he'd hoped, it seemed that the son of his old Corporal Castis had been assigned as his replacement and executioner.
While he had no real fear that the boy could best him, the rumors that Garrus had interacted with the New Eden Beacon meant that his advantage was no longer certain.
Then there were the various reports from around Citadel space; the Volus and Elcor were assisting in the cleanup of New Eden. He was less concerned with the colony's use, as what it symbolized: a union between Citadel and the UTSG, the perfection of the Reapers and the Abomination of the Progenitors.
Then there was the disaster on Therum. By all accounts, Benezia's daughter Liara had been taken by the UNSC force that tore through the combined Hanar and Batarian fleets. Without her expertise in Protheans, he would have to seek an alternative method of interpreting the jumbled missive that the New Eden and Virmire Beacons had implanted in his brain.
He pinched his mandibles as a headache washed over him; Sovereign was growing impatient.
He linked into the alien machine and accessed its communications system.
"Benezia, the attempt to retrieve your daughter has failed. I am departing for Ferros. Meet me there."
He broke the link, not bothering to confirm she had even heard. She was a tool, little better than the various Husks that populated Sovereign's outer shell. They would do as told: no more, no less.
She, he clenched his teeth, she will do as told!
He worried that he was beginning to lose himself. For the time being, he would travel using one of the Hanar ships.
Perhaps some time away from Sovereign, to help me re-exert control over myself. I always feel a little more clear-headed after a trip to Ferros.
Once they arrived on Ferros, he intended to send a message to the research team on Virmire that they were to redouble their efforts to find a counter to Sovereign's control.
When Sovereign's kin came through the Citadel to finish their ancient war, he, not some mindless puppet, would be there to see the final destruction of the Progenitors and their servants, Humanity!
First, he would need to find his way back to the Citadel. The twin visions seemed to imply there was a way; he just needed to understand the message to find it.