Part 6 is drafted, so uploading Part 3. Also added a new cover image a couple days ago.
Standard copyright disclaimer: I do not own Halo or any associated media, characters, or settings which are properties of 343 or Bungie. This is a work of fanfiction written purely for entertainment and not for monetary gain.
As always reviews and comments are appreciated.
21 June 2549
Ap'Ot Orbital Port, Y'Deio System
The spaceport was filled with hundreds of ships; merchants, pirates, and even a few Covenant military vessels. At the far end of one of the docking arms sat a group of two corvettes and two freighters.
Aboard the Phantom Chance, Chac Lon, Shim Vol, Mirr, and Brak were discussing the last details of the expedition to Erde-Tyrene. As far as they saw it, there were two major possibilities; the planet would be deserted and they could harvest Forerunner relics without resistance, or it would be very heavily defended by hostile forces. To account for the first possibility, the outfit had loaded up on cargo hauling and storage equipment. Maximizing their haul of Forerunner relics on the first trip would be important; not only was it best to make as much money as fast as possible, but rumor would travel fast once the relics started entering the market. Soon, everyone would be looking for the source of the relics, from rival kig-yar pirates to the Covenant itself.
The second possibility was the current topic of discussion. Chac Lon reiterated the contingency plans to the group;
"Remember, have an exit system entered and loaded into your nav computers before we jump in to Erde-Tyrene. If the system's hot priority is getting out of there as quick as possible. We can figure out what to do after that."
"If there are Forerunners, would we even have the chance to leave?" Brak asked. "I have heard that even their smallest constructs are quite powerful. If this is an important world to them, surely they would protect it well."
Shim Vol responded, "Well, in that case we'd damn well better hope they're friendly."
"Relax, we'll deal with that when it happens." Chac Lon said. "I'm more worried that we're going to run into a huge Covenant fleet that's not in the mood for being nice to a random bunch of kig-yar."
"I've heard that there's secret worlds that the Prophets keep hidden and unmarked. Every so often you hear about someone trying to score it big, slipspaces into some unmarked system and vanishes." Shim Vol added.
It was true; all kig-yar knew that there were some stars you just didn't go to. Not just places like Sanghelios where they hated pirates but would begrudgingly trade, but black marks on the starmaps. Rumors abounded about what those places were: planets where Prophets lived, secret military testing sites, quarantine zones for horrific pathogens, or even surviving Forerunners. But Chac Lon and his people had done a bit of discreet asking, and nobody had ever heard of Erde-Tyrene.
"I had Shaon Tol pull some strings to get astronomy data on the system." Chac Lon pushed a data pad to the center of the table. "Looks like there's at least three Chu'Ot sized planets in the outer system, outside the kig-yar habitable zone. Not much beyond that unfortunately, this says the system axis is almost face-on to us, so any smaller planets would be hard to see."
"I vote that we jump into the outer system, out around those gas giants. If there's an inhabited planet it's probably in the inner system, and we wouldn't want to slip in right on top of any defenses." Mirr spoke up.
"Good point, how about we enter the outer system, do some scans, and then if needed we can go into slipspace in-system to get close?" Everyone around the table gestured in agreement.
25 June 2549
System R-25509-A6
The kig-yar 'fleet' of four ships assembled within an asteroid belt around a small brown dwarf. This so-called 'failed star' was empty of habitable planets or valuable resources; while it appeared on Covenant star charts, it was currently deserted. There were dozens of systems like this scattered throughout Covenant space, used as havens by kig-yar pirates for centuries. Still, this system was on the fringe and remote compared to most. Likely it had only been visited a few times since the first survey ship passed through hundreds of years ago.
On the bridge of the Phantom Chance, the atmosphere was tense.
"How long until the calculations are finished?" Asked Chac Lon.
Teth replied "About half an hour. All the data's in the system, just running the numbers."
"Excellent, let the other ships know."
Erde-Tyrene was an unknown system, and even knowing it's exact location it was not a simple matter to travel there in slipspace. By the time Chac Lon bought the corvettes and freighters in his fleet, the Covenant computer programs running the ships had been stripped out, so the kig-yar were forced to make use of an inferior black-market version. Shaon Tol and Kvet had improved its functionality significantly, but it still took hours to run the data for a slipspace jump into an unfamiliar system.
Oddly, some faint radio signals had been detected from Erde-Tyrene. At a distance of nearly thirty light years they were far too faint and degraded to be deciphered into any meaningful information, but it was notably different from the natural emissions from such a system. Possibly, there could still be active Forerunner constructs in the system; more reason for the kig-yar to be wary. Though salvaging functional Forerunner equipment would be far more profitable than selling broken relics.
The conversation turned to lighter fare. "So, what are all you all planning on spending your profits from this job on?" Chac Lon asked, gesturing to the bridge crew.
"I was thinking of buying my own little asteroid out past Eayn, get it ready for whenever I decide to settle down and start a family. Been saving up for a while."
"Hah, we all know you're going to spend most of it in that brothel in Tilu City. How many credits have you spent on that girl now?"
"Eat my crap, Kaz, we get along good and she really likes me! She just doesn't want to go steady until my life is a bit more stable!" The discussion quickly devolving into bickering between the two kig-yar, not helped by several crude jokes contributed by other members of the crew.
After a minute or two, it quieted down. Teth turned to Chac Lon, "What about you?"
"I've got my eye on some parts for that old Model 98 racing skimmer I've got parked at my place on T'vao. Got a lead on some new repulsors and a wiring harness to make them compatible, plus some new aft fins."
"Now that thing is a money pit. You could have bought two new ones for the money you've put into that thing. Must be near 90 years old at this point."
"Yeah, but it looks better than the newer ones, and it's a lot more fun to drive."
"Is it true that they kept the reinforced frame on the 98s even though the Covenant officially banned weapon mounts on skimmers a couple years before?"
Chac Lon smirked. "If I say yes are you going to report me? Teth, you know I can't afford to have anything blemish my perfectly clean record."
"Imagine that; the great pirate Chac Lon brought low by a traffic violation. That's the kind of thing that gets a song written about it."
"By the gods, that would be one way to be remembered for eternity. Hundreds of years from now, hatchlings will hear the tale of Chac Lon's skimmer and that one kig-yar who couldn't keep his mouth shut."
Minutes later, four slipspace portals opened up, and Chac Lon's fleet was on its way to Erde-Tyrene.
26 June 2549
Outer Erde-Tyrene System
The four kig-yar ships exited slipspace, emerging into the Erde-Tyrene system in a burst of radiation. Before them was a large gas giant, encircled by a beautiful set of rings. Scans of the system quickly revealed the presence of four gas giant planets, and more importantly, four rocky planets in the inner system including two with breathable atmospheres. It was on those planets that the Forerunner relics would likely be found.
The excitement at the detection of habitable planets (and likely Forerunner presence) lasted not even a minute before the situation rapidly unraveled.
"Contacts, lots of them! We're being illuminated by multiple contacts in orbit of the ringed planet!" One of the Phantom Chance's bridge crew called out.
"Unconventional Devotion, Cheap Money, and Night Dancer are reporting them as well."
Chac Lon frowned. Finding the system already occupied was a known possibility, but still unfortunate.
"Can you identify the contacts?" The location of a system full of operational Forerunner constructs could still be sold for a lot of credits, either to one of the Big 6 pirate clans or (via intermediaries) to the Covenant itself. If they had stumbled into a secret Covenant military system, though, their only priority would be getting out alive.
"Boss, the computer's showing them as human. By the gods, there must be hundreds of them!"
The bridge was silent for a moment, aside from the sound of the Phantom Chance's computer identifying and cataloging even more contacts. This was not something that had been planned for.
"Did you just say human contacts? All of them? Civilian or military contacts?" Had they stumbled into the middle of a battle between the humans and Covenant?
"Both, lot of human freighters but dozens of military contacts. Corvette class, frigate class, destroyer class, and a bunch of bigger ones the computer can't identify." The kig-yar at the sensor console tapped the screen a few times. "Designating them cruiser class. Boss, I'm seeing hundreds of contacts around the third and fourth planets, never seen this many ships anywhere but High Charity."
The computer beeped again, this time with a louder, more shrill tone. On the screen, four contacts suddenly became highlighted in bright purple. "Captain, I think they've locked on to us. Four destroyer class contacts, coming up from below the rings."
Chac Lon had seen enough. "Helm, get us the hell out of here, now!"
"Boss, the slipspace drive is still recharging, need at least fifteen more minutes!"
The situation really had gone completely to shit. Chac Lon watched on the bridge display as the four human destroyers changed vector, coming around toward the kig-yar fleet. His corvettes could outrun the human destroyers, but his freighters couldn't (even with their modified engines). For a few moments, he sat motionless, scenarios running through his mind.
"Helm, point us away from the planet and incoming human ships. We'll fall in behind the Cheap Money and Night Dancer, screen them until their drives are charged. Keep us evasive, this thing can't take too many hits from those destroyers."
Though the Phantom Chance (and Brak's ship, the Unconventional Devotion) both massed about the same as one of the human destroyers pursuing them and nominally outgunned them on an individual basis, they were outnumbered. More importantly, if they took any significant damage, they could end up stranded in Erde-Tyrene and run down by heavier ships, while the human ships were evidently operating on their own turf.
The corvette vibrated slightly as its plasma cannons started firing. At this extreme range, the chance of hitting anything was virtually zero, but hopefully it would force the human ships to evade and complicate their own firing solutions. Still, the human ships grew closer; a trio of human corvettes passed the four destroyers and accelerated ahead. The kig-yar ships had a big lead, but it looked like the human ships would be well within weapons range before their drives charged.
"New contacts! Fighters, boss! Launching from the surface of one of the moons! Another forty contacts appeared on the Phantom Chance's display and rapidly began to close the distance.
Teth, seated to the left of the captain's chair, turned to Chac Lon. "Don't think we can outrun them, Chac."
"I am aware." Chac Lon exhaled in frustration. Briefly, he regretted emptying his corvettes of fighters to make space for additional Phantoms and cargo. Though, a mere eleven Banshees would do little against four times their number of human fighters besides get themselves killed. "What is the status on the other ship's drives?"
"Unconventional Devotion is at 76%, Cheap Money and Midnight Dancer are both at about 70." The ship jerked under the impact of a burst of coilgun rounds from one of the human corvettes. Alarms sounded, as the Phantom Chance began streaming plasma from the punctures in her armor.
"Tell them to scatter and jump to the fallback as soon as they're ready. Tell Shim she's in charge if we don't make it."
Teth nodded. The corvette jerked again as the helm threw it into a sharp turn to avoid another burst of fire from the human ships. This time, it was the kig-yar who drew blood, as three of the plasma cannons connected with one of the trio of human corvettes that had raced ahead of the destroyers. The superheated plasma burned through the thin titanium plating of the Lancer-class corvette, vaporizing one of the engines and sending the crippled ship into a slow tumble. A cheer rose from the bridge of the Phantom Chance, but six more human ships and forty fighters were still approaching.
Titan Orbital Defense HQ, Sol System
"Sir, Hyacinthe is hit bad, they've lost propulsion and are venting atmosphere."
"Ignore them, we'll pick up survivors after the battle. Tell those damn destroyers to push their engines to a hundred and twenty percent! And where are those Marathons?"
"Door of Night and Montana are still at least five hours out, burning as hard as they can."
Captain Timo Korhonen swore under his breath. Commanding the Saturn Defense Fleet was supposed to be an easy assignment, a break after the hell he had gone through at Skopje. A chance to rest, show his organizational skills getting a backwater assignment into fighting shape, and avoid contact with the Covenant for a while. And then today, four Covenant ships suddenly popped into the system, somehow getting past Reach, Troy, Barrier, and all the other inner colonies. Korhonen again cursed whatever idiot had failed to follow the Cole Protocol.
He watched the main display screen, following the Saturn Defense Fleet as they chased down the fleeing Covenant ships. ("Fleet" was a bit grandiose for the ships under his command. He had five destroyers, of which only four could move and only two of those had operational MACs (the other two had been waiting for parts that kept being diverted to fleets fighting further out). Other than that all he had was a gaggle of corvettes, more useful for keeping civvies in line and playing traffic cop than duking it out with Covenant ships.) His ships were performing well, all things considered. But that didn't matter if any of the Covenant ships made it to slipspace to report Earth's location.
"Sir, contacts are breaking formation. They're scattering."
Korhonen's heart sank. Covenant slipspace drives were far superior to human drives, and they could be ready to go to slipspace at any time. Scattering meant that at least one of their ships would probably survive, even if it made it easier for some of them to die.
"Focus on Bandit 2 and 4, the freighters." Korhonen guessed that they would jump first, with the corvettes staying back to protect them. Deep in his subconscious, something told him the situation was wrong. The Covenant showing up to the homeworld of humanity with only a pair of corvettes and two freighters? It could be a scouting group, but still something didn't feel right to him.
"Antigua reports lead fighters engaging, sir." One of the lieutenants manning a console reported. Eight F-29s out of Enceladus began their attack runs on the trailing corvette. Three of them were vaporized by pulse laser fire before making it into weapons range. Two more died after launching their missiles. Though the pilots reported that the corvette was venting atmosphere and trailing plasma, it still hadn't slowed. Thankfully it hadn't deployed any Banshees or Seraphs at least. Another oddity; Korhonen had fought these corvettes before and they usually carried a decent fighter complement, sometimes up to two dozen fighters.
"Sir, Ketchikan and Napoli still can't get good firing solutions for their main guns. That corvette is damn slippery."
"God willing the fighters will slow it down." Korhonen said, as another pair of F-29s ceased to exist. If only he had nuclear weapons; a single Shiva would have vaporized any one of those Covenant ships. Instead he was just chipping pieces off their armor.
Despite their difficulty with their MAC guns, the destroyers kept closing the distance. Fire from their secondary coilguns and the surviving corvettes peppered one of the freighters, opening the cargo hold to vacuum and damaging one of the engines. But the Covenant ships were hitting back; both enemy corvettes hit the Ketchikan with plasma rounds, boiling away hundreds of tons of armor and disabling the MAC along with a cluster of Archer pods.
"Aspect change, Bandit 1! It's turning back at us!"
The more damaged of the two Covenant corvettes broke into a sharp right turn, its comrades leaving it behind as they continued to flee. Korhonen's suspicions were confirmed; Bandit 1 was going to sacrifice itself so the other ships could get out. While the front armor plating on the corvette was less damaged, it quickly began to wear away. Missile and coilgun fire quickly opened another breach in the hull, exposing another compartment to vacuum. But then;
"Slipspace rupture, Bandit 3!"
"Fuck! Damn it!" Korhonen swore as one of the Covenant corvettes jumped to slipspace. It was over. The Covenant knew about Earth.
Corvette Phantom Chance, Erde-Tyrene System
"Unconventional Devotion is away!"
"Hull breach, section 7! Engine four fuel line fire! Hull breach section 18!"
The human ships were hammering Phantom Chance to pieces. Two of the heavy plasma cannons were offline, and she was bleeding atmosphere and plasma from nearly a dozen holes in the hull. Amazingly, the bridge was mostly intact, but Chac Lon knew there would be a lot of dead and injured in other parts of the ship.
"Keep that engine going! Teth, status on Cheap Money and Midnight Dancer slipspace drives?"
"Going in less than 15 seconds boss! We're at 94%!"
"Come on girl, hold together a little longer." Chac Lon mumbled, barely audible under the sound of alarms and yelling crew. "Just get us out of here alive." At least the helm was doing a damn good job keeping them from getting hit. Without her they'd have probably been dead five times over already.
"Drive 96% charged! Midnight Dancer and Cheap Money are jumping!"
"Thank the gods for that! Hold on, we aren't dead yet!"
The Phantom Chance shuddered again as another group of missiles made it through the defensive fire and impacted the hull. Luckily, it hit an undamaged section, and the shock didn't damage the slipspace drive.
Another human fighter swooped in for an attack run, foolishly coming within the firing arc of one of the undamaged pulse lasers. A well-aimed shot vaporized the left wing, sending it tumbling into space. His wingmen hesitated briefly, breaking off their attacks for a moment to reorient themselves and move into position outside the range of Phantom Chance's operational weapons.
"Drive is charged, we're ready to jump captain!"
"Go! Go! Go!" Chac Lon screamed. A void opened in front of the ship, and the damaged corvette slid into it, leaving the Erde-Tyrene system behind.
The bridge went silent for a moment. Chac Lon slid back in his chair, exhausted. "Shut down engine four, start damage control on the breached compartment. Gods willing we haven't lost too many." He waved his hand at the bridge crew. "Some of you all go get some sleep, we all need rest after that show of crap. Let me know when we come out of slipspace, I want to talk to the officers and the other captains." What in HELL did we just step into?