Hello again, everyone, and welcome back to my Halo/Star Wars crossover redux.
I deeply apologize for the delay. Yesterday was quite hectic, especially when I had to deal with a little pest problem. The good news is that the wait was worth it, and this chapter is ready to go.
As always, leave a review, and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Halo or Star Wars franchises. They are the respective properties and trademarks of Microsoft Studios, 343 Industries, Bungie, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox, Disney Films, etc. Any material original to the franchises belongs to their respective developers, producers and publishers. Any material not original to the franchises is of my own invention. I do not own any music listed in each chapter. Any music listed belongs to its original composers and/or artists.
UNSC Infinity
Shipboard Hospital
April 12th, 0 BBY, 9AM (October 27th, 2558, 9AM)
"Good morning. I'm Doctor Harold. How are we feeling today?"
Jyn felt a slight twinge of irritation. While the man was clearly being polite and reasonable, she still didn't like doctors too well, not after the last one she had encountered. "Fine," she gruffly replied. "Not that I wasn't feeling fine earlier."
"Good," Harold smiled. Looking at his data-pad, he said, "We've just finished doing your bloodwork. As far as we can tell, you don't appear to be carrying any contagious illnesses.", he soothed.
That elicited a light chuckle from Jyn. "So am I free to go?"
"You're free to go. If you feel any dizziness or general sickness, coughing, chills, the like, report back here. Understand?"
"Yes," Jyn replied.
"Good. You're free to go."
"Thank you," Jyn said. "Is Cassian ok?" she asked after a pause.
"Cassian?" Harold asked. "Ah. He's currently in the recovery ward, you'll have to speak with Chief Medical and fill out a form before you enter. He was in surgery, for his shoulder."
"Thank you. Where can I find the, CM?"
"CMO, Chief Medical Officer. Just query the terminal right of the door," Harold replied.
"Thank you again," Jyn said. Stepping outside of the room dressed and ready, Jyn got her bearings. She was in a long hallway, through which doctors and nurses milled about.
If there was a word she'd use to describe Infinity, it would be 'colossal.' From the frigates it had deployed, to the trams used to shuttle people and equipment through it. They certainly didn't skimp out on building the place, she thought.
She quickly found the terminal Harold had mentioned earlier. On its surface was a holo-map of the hospital, a red teardrop marking the terminal's location. The deck above me, she noted in her query session. Quickly entering a lift, she rose to the above floor, and made her way to the CMO office.
One of the sentries, spotting her, keyed his helmet COM and said a few words. She was about to ask what was going on when the man turned to her and said, "Ma'am, Captain Lasky would like to speak to you."
That brought her up short. Yesterday, she could recall the armored man that had recovered her and Cassian speaking to a Captain. "What?" she asked, confusion reigning on her face. "Why?"
"No idea," the Marine shrugged.
"Where is he?"
As if in response, Lasky came from her destination. Spotting Jyn, he said, "Jyn Erso. Glad to meet you."
"Er… the same here," Jyn replied uncertainly. "Why do you want to speak with me?"
"We'd best continue this in my quarters." Lasky cryptically replied.
"Sure," Jyn replied. When the Captain of a ship wanted to speak with you in his quarters, you did not flatly refuse him. Maybe he wants to recruit me, she thought sarcastically.
In a few minutes, they were in his private quarters. Looking around, Jyn found the space quite homey. Walking over to a table, Lasky pulled out a chair. Motioning with a hand, he said, "I'm certain all that walking's a bit tiring."
Taking the seat, Jyn asked, "Is this your way of flirting?" She regretted it as soon as she said it.
To his credit, Lasky smiled. "No. Just trying to help." Pouring two cups of coffee, he placed them on the table before sitting down. "Here you go."
Jyn picked the cup up and took a look inside. Is that recaf? she wondered, before hesitantly taking a sip. The drink was uncomfortably hot, but the aftertaste proved worth it. "Good recaf" she noted. "Still, you brought me here for more than just a drink."
Again, Lasky smiled. "You're quite perceptive." Clearing his throat, he continued. "Yes, I was wondering if you could be our guide."
Those words, again, brought her up short. "Why is that? Don't you have an AI or star maps?"
"We do," Lasky said, "but maps tell us little about how dangerous a part of space really is, which brings me to the point I wish to bring up. We're from outside the galaxy, as you likely already know, which means we're in unfamiliar territory. We need someone that knows where the best places to go to are, and where to generally avoid."
Jyn understood. "Which is why you need me," she stated. "You have a general map of the galaxy, but unless you get in contact with the Bureau of Ships and Services, you'll be running blind."
"Yes," Lasky replied. "Would you be willing to be our guide? All you need to do is give us your context on wherever we go."
"I see," Jyn noted. Thinking for a few seconds, she asked, "What's the catch?"
"Standard security protocol adherence. Checks and so on, the usual." Lasky said, mentally reminding himself to introduce Jyn to the rigors of ONI standards.
Jyn thought over the proposal. "All right," she slowly decided. "It's certainly going to be more interesting than sitting around, doing nothing. Speaking of which, I was wondering if I could talk to you about something."
"Sure."
"I was wondering if I could become a civilian specialist of your crew."
That statement, more than anything, caught Lasky off guard. "I don't mean to be rude, but why?" he asked. "This is new for us."
"To be honest, I never really liked the Rebel Alliance," Jyn replied. "Sure, I understand why they're doing what they're doing, but they're not for me."
"Why is that?"
"Because it wasn't even a Rebel attack on the Imperial facility there to begin with," Jyn explained. "Three days ago, I told them about the Death Star, and the threat that it posed to the galaxy. I even told them about the flaw in the design, but instead of thanking me, they chose to bury their heads in the sand and pretend like nothing had changed. Some even suggested scattering the Alliance because they thought fighting back was futile! The only other person that agreed with me was Cassian Andor and his crew! Everyone else was simply too afraid to do the job! And I wouldn't be surprised if I was thrown back into prison too!"
Lasky listened through her angry, heartfelt, rant. Internal issues, another ONI field day it seems. He noted to himself. If Jyn's words were true, then the Rebel Alliance, or maybe the cell they made contact with, was a recent formation. I wonder what she meant in the second part, he further thought.
"If what you say's true, I can see why you may leave the Rebel Alliance. This ship is crewed by our best and brightest, if you want to be among them, you'll need to prove whatever abilities you have; more than the rest as this isn't through proper channels."
Reaching into his desk, Lasky pulled out a datapad. "Here. A basic description of who we are and what we do. After that, ask for Roland to guide you through the rest from one of the terminals."
Jyn took the pamphlet. "Thank you."
"You're welcome."
Jyn nodded. "Thank you. Also, about Baze and Chirrut? Are they all right? Could they join me if they wanted to? The Empire drove them away from their home."
"They're fine," Lasky replied. "Yes, you may share this with them. If they also want to join, they can with you. Before that, I wanted to speak to you about your father. One of our retrieval personnel said he helped build the Death Star, and that you might know something about it?" he asked.
"Yes," Jyn replied, " My father never wanted to help build the Death Star. So Krennic abducted him, and ended up killing my mother Lyra while doing so."
"That's horrible, my sympathies to you." Lasky soothed. "Do you know anything about the Death Star outside the schematics we retrieved?"
"Not really, no. I wasn't involved in the project itself." Jyn answered.
"In that case, I would like you to meet one of our top scientists.", Lasky concluded, as the entrance opened to admit said person.
Jyn turned around to see who Lasky was referring to. Here was an elderly woman, though she walked like a much younger person. With silver-gray hair and blue irises that held a scathing intensity, Jyn noted that the revealed scientist was missing her left arm.
Two Spartans stood as her apparent escort.
A cold feeling ran through Jyn's gut. The woman reminded her of Krennic. Smiling, Lasky said, "Jyn Erso, this is Doctor Catherine Halsey. Dr. Halsey, Jyn Erso."
"I see," Halsey noted. Extending her only hand, she said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Jyn Erso."
Jyn didn't take her offered hand. Halsey frowned but said nothing. "So captain, why am I here and not in a lab?" Halsey asked.
Putting down his coffee, he began, "I need your opinion on specific details during our last battle."
"Do tell," Halsey said. "I am curious as to what would have you take us into slipspace without a map."
"Cortana, are you there?", Lasky responded.
"I'm here," Cortana replied. "What do you need?"
"Show us the battle station firing at Scarif"
"Sure," Cortana replied. After a pause, she added. "Beginning playback."
Once more, Lasky felt his gut tighten as he watched the particle weapon fire on the planet. Jyn watched in shock and rising anger, with Halsey's skin flushing. Taking a breath to settle her nerves, Halsey began. "I hope that was a joke."
"I wish it was," Lasky added. "Labs says it's a planet killer."
"What would you have me do then?", Halsey intoned, composure regained.
"Find an effective way to destroy the entire station without resorting to rare armaments." Lasky replied.
"My father, Galen, built a flaw into the design, a thermal exhaust port at the end of the trench deck. It leads to one of the heat exchange stations surrounding the main reactor, if it's hit as the weapon is charging, there'll be too much feedback and the reactor will go critical." Jyn added.
"I know," Lasky replied, "that's a rather small target, two to three meters wide. And the tunnel angles slightly towards the heat exchanger. Delivery's the problem." With Jyn's silence, he added, "I thought as much."
"Which is why you need me," Halsey finished.
"Yes. Given our unfortunate first encounter, escalation is inevitable for the moment."
"I see."
"Good," Lasky said. "E-Lab 9 has been cleared for your use, Roland will help with the rest. Let me know when you have answers."
Turning back towards the door, Halsey said. "I'll inform you when I have a solution captain", as she strode out of the room.
"Do you have anything else to add?" Lasky asked.
Jyn shook her head. "No. I've shared my reasons for wanting to help. I'll think over your offer. Mind if I head to the crew quarters?"
"Sure," Lasky said.
"Thanks. I hope this works out, for both of our sakes." Jyn stood, then sauntered out after Halsey.
"That I do," Lasky agreed as the door closed.
. . .
Lying on a bed inside the hospital's recovery ward, Cassian Andor went over what had happened in his head. He wasn't too happy with how things had turned out. If I hadn't gone with Jyn to Scarif, I wouldn't be able to live with myself, he mused quietly.
A nagging pain in his shoulder prompted him to take a look at it. The wound was no longer visible, buried under bandages. One of the doctors said they had to suture the wound after removing the cauterized tissue. At least It'll heal, he noted. Can't believe they've never heard of Bacta.
A noise drew his attention to the ward's entrance, where an old woman entered.
Two armed guards escorted her.
Accompanying her was a recognizable face. "Jyn?" he asked.
"Cassian!" Jyn exclaimed, running over to him. "Are you OK?"
"I'm fine," Cassian replied. "Are you OK? Where were you led off to?"
"Yes," Jyn reassured him. "They've been cordial so far. The captain called for me." She paused for a moment, "Cassian, this is Dr. Halsey, one of the ship's scientists."
"Hello," Halsey intoned. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine," Cassian grunted. "Shoulder hurts a lot."
"I would think so," Halsey agreed. Sitting in a nearby chair, she continued, "You were lucky though."
"I understand," Cassian said at length.
"Still, I'm surprised that none of you have ever heard about Bacta before." He added.
"Yes well, given your prior descriptions of its uses and effects, we would do well to grab some samples and production equipment."
"Good luck with that," Cassian said with a slight shrug. "Bacta's made only at Thyferra, on the Rimma route, and the cartel likes its monopoly."
"Interesting," Halsey noted after a long pause.
"That it is," Cassian agreed. "Speaking of which, who are your friends?" he added, jutting at Halsey's escort.
"Let's simply say that my reputation precedes me."
"I see," Cassian noted. "So, why are you down here?"
"Simple curiosity," Halsey admitted. "I wanted to see firsthand what injuries the weapons of your galaxy inflict."
"Well, now you know."
"Indeed." Glancing around, Halsey said, "Well, now that my curiosity is satisfied, I'll take my leave. Take care Cassian." Halsey and her entourage left a moment later.
"Get well soon, Cassian," Jyn said to him. "I'm going to help Halsey out, apparently I'm of some use to her."
Halsey nodded. While I would appreciate her help, I want to hear her stories as well. They might contain some useful information, information we might not find elsewhere.
"Go ahead," Cassian replied, smirking. Once Jyn left, Cassian lay back on his bed drifting into a nap.
. . .
Halsey ruminated on what she'd learned from Cassian. This bacta must be quite a virile agent. As her thought spiraled onto disparaging thoughts of her situation and spartans, she took a deep breath. Get a grip. Focus on destroying a moon-sized battle station and finding a way home. Another challenge.
Spiraling once more, about Jyn. Wary, direct, passionate, predisposed to going rouge. Clearing her head once more, she asked instead, "Do you know anything useful about Bacta?"
"Not much really, just that it's a miracle medicine." Jyn replied.
Arriving in the Science Deck, she quickly strode to her assigned lab, finding two of her lessers standing by. "Jordan, Glassman.", she greeted, reserved.
"We need to talk," Jordan replied tiredly, dark bangs sagging under his eyes. The gleam in them said otherwise.
"Who are these two?" Jyn asked.
"Jordan, Glassman, this is Jyn Erso, a guest. Jyn, Jordan MacCallum and Henry Glassman, ship engineers." Halsey replied, hand pointing as she introduced them.
"Pleased to meet you," Jyn said.
"The pleasure is ours," Jordan replied.
"Jyn, remain here until I return." Halsey instructed.
"Sure," Jyn replied. Halsey, Jordan and Glassman proceeded into the lab, with the marines taking point at the entrance.
Once inside, Glassman began, "We may have a way of re-establishing contact with our galaxy."
Halsey's eyes narrowed. "So why drag me into this?"
"We want your opinion on it."
"I see," Halsey said softly. Pulling up a chair, she sat down and directed, "Go ahead then."
"I got this from Slightly Too Heavy." Jordan started.
Pulling up schematics for the Tantive IV's Hyperdrive, he went on.
"After hearing about the enigmatic hyperspace anomaly at the galaxy's edge from the ship's captain, I thought of a way around it using one of our telemetry probes."
"I take it you want to refit it with a hyperdrive?" Halsey asked.
Pulling up a schematic of one said probe, he said, "Essentially. After conversing with Glassman, the general idea is to get past the anomaly using slipspace, then go the rest of the way using a modified hyperdrive. We'd attach a comm buoy and other relevant modifications to allow long distance travel. A similar probe would need to be placed at the galaxy's edge as a comm and navigation node for the one going home. Travel would take 4 months to three years depending on the hyperdrive class we get, much faster than our current drives. Once set up, we can start relaying information on wavecom and studying delay times."
Halsey rested her chin on her sole hand, deep in thought. Sensible, if obvious, she thought.
"Interesting," she noted. " How do you plan on acquiring a hyperdrive?"
"We'll advise the captain once we have a list of what we need, we're currently talking with Tantive's engineers on the general specifics of hyperdrives."
"We also need to consider future hyperdrive viability for Infinity, if they're as capable as you say." Halsey added.
"Definitely," Glassman agreed. Turning to Jordan, he asked, "How's the drive doing?"
Jordan shrugged. "It's working OK so far. Traced the malfunction to one of the navigation modules we got from Eternity. Initial tests show that the drive can go about two and a half times faster than before. Roughly five kilo lightyears a day."
"Interesting" Halsey mused.
"As far as I can tell the plan has merit. Now would you two leave? I have things to take care of. Please send Jyn in as well."
"Very well," Jordan replied. Without a word, he and Dr. Glassman left, while Jyn walked inside.
"Are you ready for work?" Halsey asked.
"Sure," Jyn answered.
. . .
While Halsey conversed with Jordan and Glassman, Lasky arrived on the Science Deck, intending to speak to the ship's Weapon's Engineer: Lieutenant Borodin Mikhailovich.
He had a guest with him, one of those picked up from Scarif. "And I thought I was a big for a human. Your spartans are Wookie sized, or is that the armor?"
"What's a Wookie?" Lasky deflected.
"They're a fur-covered species from Kashyyk, a death world to most. Strong too.", Baze explained.
"Shame that the Empire slaves them away in mines." He added.
"How common is that?" Lasky asked.
"If there's a world with military resources, the population becomes miners." Baze replied. The conversation ended with them arriving at the Weapons Engineering room.
As its name implied, the room was a workshop, research, and testing area for infantry weapons, with a firing range in the back, though room was a slight misinterpretation for its stadium size interior. Weapons salvaged from Scarif were broken down, tested, studied, measured and compared.
All in the room saluted upon acknowledgment of Lasky's arrival. "At ease," he assuaged. "Where's your boss?"
"Borodin! Captain's here for you." one of the supervising engineers exclaimed.
Saluting from where he sat, Borodin greeted, "How can I help you today sir?"
"Wanted to check on your progress." Noticing the weapon on the table being worked on, he asked, "What's that?"
"E-11 BlasTech Carbine sir. Standard long arm. Light, effectively infinite ammo capacity and easily customizable, but the Stormtroopers didn't use it well if the marines' scuttlebutt is true."
"What's he saying?" Baze asked.
"That the Empire's soldiers are undertrained," Lasky explained.
"Of course, they are," Baze added with a short laugh.
"Hey, gun guru, what would you say about my gun?" With that, Baze hefted his staccato onto the table.
"What is it?" Borodin asked.
"That," Baze explained, "is the MWC-35 Heavy Repeating Cannon. Thirty kilos, and over thirty thousand rounds of pissed off."
"Sounds great, hoping most of that weight is in the ammo pack," Borodin remarked.
"It is. Why do you guys use slugthrowers? Your logistics must be horribly tight to sustain that." Baze asked.
As the two conversed, Lasky's COM chimed. Answering it, he spoke, "Lasky" A short while later, he affirmed "So Krennic's sharing…All right. I'm on my way."
He looked to Borodin. "I've got to go. Send your updates to my terminal."
"Yes sir," Borodin said.
. . .
Walking up to the mirror, Krennic gazed at his reflection. He was about to rinse his face when he heard a loud buzzer, accompanied by his cell door opening. "Orson Krennic, come with us." The short man at the center of the apparent posse said.
Kennic sighed. Walking forwards, he extended his hands towards the escorting marines, was cuffed and led out shortly after. Eventually, they came to an overly bright room, with a table and two chairs. Once secured in one of the chairs, cuffs locked to the high, metal table, the short man sat down in the other, before pulling out a data pad. Guards no doubt guarding the room past the entrance.
The man began, "Commander Ian MacGuire, conducting interview thirty-five dash B. Subject is an adult human male." He turned to Krennic. "State your rank, name and age."
Krennic sighed. " Former Director of Imperial Advanced Weapons Research Orson Callan Krennic, fifty-eight years old."
"Were you responsible for the development of the Death Star?"
"Yes," Krennic replied.
"What is the purpose of such a project?"
"To fearmonger dissidents.", he replied simply. "I'm willing to make a deal." He added shortly after.
"Unexpected, we haven't even started." Ian replied nonchalantly. "Ok, go on," he added after noting Krennic's growing unease.
"My assistance for asylum." Krennic stated.
"What assistance can you provide? And why propose this?"
"The Emperor doesn't broker failure. My death is assured. By now you likely found the exhaust port weakness, quite an obvious and easy deduction if you ask me. Almost as if everyone involved in designing and building the station had one eye closed, or someone put it there to entrap some unfortunate small craft-employing attackers." He explained with a slight smirk. Good time to find out if Isard's interrogation talk was actually worthwhile. "There are things you must know if you want to destroy or cripple that thing." He added confidently.
"Your offer will be taken under consideration," Ian replied with a smirk of his own. "Interrogation session complete", he intoned into the datapad, as the door opened to admit his escort in.
With the door closed and Krennic away, Ian keyed his COM, "Captain, Alert seven for you."
"Coming." The voice at the other end replied. Ian nodded and went to the adjacent observation room. Taking a seat, he awaited his captain's arrival. A few minutes later, Captain Dare entered, her blue eyes meeting his green. "Update" she ordered.
"Subject wants asylum," Ian informed. "The Empire's officer corps runs on fear of their superiors, ma'am. Emperor doesn't tolerate failure, possible micromanager."
"Value?"
"Information. The station's flaw's likely a rebel trap."
After a moment, Captain Dare asked, "What's your opinion?"
"To take it."
"Agreed. Permanent escort. Bring him back at 0300 tomorrow."
"Yes ma'am," Ian replied.
"Good." she curtly replied and left.
. . .
Software Engineer Gerald Lancaster knew the importance of his job: maintaining the servers aboard Infinity. Without people like him, the entire ship would grind to a halt. And so he went back to work on the object of attention before him immediately after his lunch break.
Yesterday he had the pleasure of Fireteam Majestic visiting his work station on the captain's orders, to hand him a salvaged droid brain that he was to apparently mine. Simple, no? he sarcastically thought. This is slavery, I don't even know what these parts do, he went on as he opened his tool kit. Illuminating the brain's interior, he monologued, "Looks like someone took about forty different components and duck taped them into a working processor. Need to test these outlets to plug that blue AI in. Why do I keep forgetting the name?"
"Gerald you ok, did you remember my name this time?" a voice asked.
He whipped his head up. "I'm fine, Katana. Get ready to interface."
"All right," Cortana said, holding back a laugh.
Minutes later, Gerald grabbed a substrate-filament connector cable and plugged it into the possible memory drive port. Three attempts later, he was assured the current port serviced the actual memory drive. "Firewalls ready." Gerald informed...
Much later Cortana said "That's odd," awakening Gerald from his hours-long nap.
"What is, what's happening?" he asked, sitting up and wiping the drool off his face.
"Let me see... oh, you clever bastard."
"What's going on?" Gerald asked again.
Another voice responded. "Finally. You can't imagine how utterly maddening it is to be stuffed in here, oh, hello... who are you, where am I?"
"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Cortana", she informed, staring at a flushed Gerald.
"Who might you be?" she asked.
"I am K-2S0," the other AI replied. "You are quite the exquisite data construct Cortana."
Cortana laughed nervously, avatar turning light blue. "I'm quite flattered. Yes, I am quite capable, a lot more than droids such as yourself.", she added with renewed confidence.
"What's going on?" Gerald incessantly asked a third time.
"Apparently our resident droid entered hibernation before full system shut down."
"That's peachy," Gerald harrumphed. "Is he a threat?"
"Not at the moment." K-2S0 supplied.
"Ok," Gerald agreed, with Cortana's thumbs-up. "You two going to be ok?"
"We'll be fine," Cortana replied.
"Ok," Gerald remarked with a shrug as he left the room as fast as his lead-bound legs could carry him before any complications arose needing his attention.
. . .
"You idiots!" Tynnra Palmo, Imperial Senator from Taaris, and member of Rebel High Command, snarled at the two. "Don't you realize what you have done?! You directly attacked imperial ships. You've escalated this to Vader's attention!".
Mon Mothma sighed. It had only been a day after the Battle of Scarif, and already things were intense. When she heard of a battlecruiser arriving in the middle of the battle from Admiral Raddus, she initially assumed that he was being dramatic. Now with the live feed of Leia's speech, she knew things would change expediently.
That speech was the reason for the present discourse. "They have not!" Vasp Vaspar, Imperial Senator for the Taldot Sector, growled at her. "Vader's arrival was inevitable, and the operation's goals were achieved. We have the Death Star plans!"
"Really?" Nower Jebel, Senator for the agricultural planet of Utyer, questioned him. "If it wasn't for this brazen attack, we would not be looking at a possible war! Millions will die to future skirmishes and overreactions!" he exclaimed.
"The war was coming anyway!" Vasp retorted. "It was merely a matter of time, and that time has come and gone! We must fight because it is the only option available. We all knew this farce of a gorilla campaign wouldn't last without a provoking incident."
Before further squabbling, Mon Mothma raised a hand, abating all present.
"I know how we all feel about the recent battle, but what's done is done. We cannot undo the attack. All we can do is determine how to proceed to continue our goal of liberating the galaxy."
"I agree with Vasp. Eventually, war will happen, whether we wish it or not. As I once said to Leia, there comes a time when refusing to stop violence can no longer be called nonviolence. We cease to be objectors and become bystanders. At one point, morality must be wedded to action, or else it's no more than vanity. That is what we are facing right now, and we cannot avoid it."
All remained silent. Turning to Admiral Raddus' hologram, Mon Mothma asked, "Were you able to contact the battlecruiser's commanding officer?"
"Yes," Raddus replied. "Shortly after I had the fleet encircle it. Initial contact was with an envoy named Melody Azikiwe."
"An envoy?" Tynnra asked.
"Yes," Raddus replied. "I directed her speak to Princess Leia to work out a non-hostile agreement. Details in my report."
Scrolling through her data pad, Mon said, "Shortly after her speech, Leia contacted me and gave me more details. The United Earth Government is their body, centered on their home world. The UEG is, according to Envoy Azikiwe, a representative democracy."
"The question is, what do we do now?" Vaspar asked. "Attacking the Empire again will provoke them to start using that station more frequently. Captain Lasky made his neutrality clear, and live."
"We must convince Captain Lasky to side with us, or at least gain access to his galaxy. Thanks to Raddus, this Lasky already knows where our main base is." Tyrrna added derisively, pointing at said Admiral.
"I share your thoughts," Mon Mothma agreed. "After this meeting, I will request an audience with Captain Lasky through Leia. Once he arrives, he and his crew shall be our guests. We should also do what we can to render aid."
The other members of Rebel High Command quietly pondered this proposal. "Standard ass kissing. I hope the fuel we give out will prove worth it," Vaspar grumbled.
"So do I. Let's reconvene later today." Hearing no counters, Mon Mothma ended the meeting. The members dispersed as the holograms faded into nothingness.
Mon Mothma pondered. I hope the UNSC is as militaristic as they imply. That should make working with us easier, even unofficially. We must exploit the Empire's every mistake, she resolved, recalling the words of Luthen Rael in her gritty past.
. . .
In another galaxy far far away, another dramatic session went on. Once the Council members gathered, the Chairman began, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. Let's begin.", taking a breath, he resumed, "At 2017 hours standard time yesterday, we lost contact with Infinity, during an occurring test on its Slipspace Drive. NAVCOM is working to find out what happened. Admiral Osman, do you have anything on this?"
"Not yet," Osman, current CINCONI, replied. "We lost contact with all our personnel on the ship at the same time. Section One's made a division to investigate this. We'll have preliminary reports before week's end."
"The sooner the better," General Hogan, representing the Marine Corp, remarked. "Otherwise I have a missing division to fill with our abysmal recruiting numbers."
Hood nodded in agreement. Things are already escalating. Carrow, Atriox's disappearance. Quite a success with Section Two if Infinity was the only thing keeping them contained. he thought.
"We're looking for a five-kilometer-long needle in a galaxy-sized haystack, no miracles." Osman replied.
"Now you see why I believed making nonexistent fleets would bite us in the ass. If the Storm Covenant learns about this, it's your head!" Major General Strauss, representative of the UNSC Army, exclaimed.
Taking a breath, CNO Admiral Hood continued, "We're accelerating Eternity's completion and commissioning, I'll work on slotting your troop ships, Hogan. We still can't rotate the Sparta and Look at Me; Osman's predictions and Section One's shadowing of Jul's command ships revealed intrusion corvettes regularly skirting their system edges. Timbuktu is still being worked on over Tribute. They're watching our big guns."
Turning to the individual members, Hood directed, "Osman, Section One is all yours until we get a lead. Dellert, your new wings will be delayed. We'll cover it after this. Hogan, Strauss, we need the 311th ready for possible hostile recovery. Jun, Osman, we need a finished network in the Joint Zone by week's end. Can you do it?"
"It'll be bare bones," Osman replied.
"The fourth class will have to train on the job, but it's doable." Jun, Chief of Staff of Spartan Ops, informed.
"As long as we finish it. We need more eyes behind us for possible flanking. Final remarks?" None answered. "This meeting is adjourned," Hood declared.
Hood rubbed the bridge of his nose again. Damnit, Lasky, he grumbled. I'm getting you a desk job if you return. Your luck's abysmal.
He sighed as he got his thoughts back in order. More disasters to deal with. If only I was born a century earlier. Hood ruefully lamented his recent burdens.
