One – The Dawn
In the Pegasus Galaxy the Atlantis Expedition had survived for a year since arriving at the Ancient City of Atlantis. The Atlantis Expedition was the cumilation of the Stargate Program for years the people of Earth had used the Stargates to travel to hundreds of worlds, engage alien overlords and they had taken back lots of technology but this expedition had taken them to another galaxy. In the Ancients long abandoned city they did not have enough power to dial the Stargate back to Earth. During their time in this new galaxy they had explored, forged alliances with the native populations of the galaxy and resisted the advances of a hostile alien race known as the Wraith. Unfortunately, their resistance, and success, against the Wraith had drawn the attention of the species and now they were coming for Atlantis intent on "culling" the population and feeding off the humans who lived there. The Wraith literally sucked the life out of their victims and the Atlantis Expedition had been a thorn in the side of the Wraith since their arrival, the Wraith also wanted to capture the City of Atlantis as it was the gateway to Earth and a plentiful food source, its population.
Now with an enemy fleet of ships heading for Atlantis the Expedition were doing everything they could to defend their home system from an all-out Wraith assault. Most of the Expedition would retreat from the city for their safety but the military personnel planned on remaining behind to defend Atlantis and resisting the Wraith attack. Deep within the system now a lone puddle jumper flew towards what they believed to be an Ancient Defence Satellite, they had already discovered one such structure and this could be a second, onboard the jumper were two human crewmembers Major John Sheppard and Lieutenant Aiden Ford officially they were scouting out the other planets of the system looking for places to take shelter from the incoming Wraith but they had detected something and now Sheppard wanted to investigate.
"Anything Lieutenant?" Sheppard asked looking over at Ford, John Sheppard was in his thirties, he had been a special forces pilot for the United States Air Force before joining the expedition. He had been a last-minute addition to the team due to his latent ability to use the Ancient Gene which allowed him to use the equipment left behind including the Jumper they were currently in. He had quickly inherited command following the death of the first commander during their first encounter with the Wraith. Aiden Ford was almost fifteen years younger than Sheppard and a First Lieutenant of the United States Marine Corps before joining the Stargate Program he had quickly accepted Major Sheppard as a commander and the two had bonded quickly becoming friends despite the rank difference.
"Actually, yes…" Ford said looking up from his data pad "it's a distress signal in English." He said astonished, so far, they had encountered only the Wraith who had spacecraft in the Pegasus Galaxy.
"Play it" Sheppard ordered Ford nodded and activated the pad's speakers:
"Mayday, mayday, mayday. This is UNSC FFG-201 Forward Unto Dawn, requesting immediate evac. Survivors aboard. Prioritization code: Victor 05-3-Sierra 0117." The female voice said before repeating again." The female voice said before beginning to repeat.
"What! Who is that?" Ford asked looking at the Major
"I don't know, but given that it could be a security issue for this system, it won't hurt to say hello don't you agree Lieutenant." Sheppard answered angling the ship to the left following the signal.
"Hell, yes Major" Ford said enthusiastically as Sheppard turned the small ship towards the signal's origin. Within a few minutes they could see the where the signal had come from "Wow!" Ford exclaimed looking out the Ancient ship's front viewport "what is that?"
"I have no idea" Sheppard responded looking at the ship "its huge, must be at least two hundred to two-fifty metres long" he said bringing the small Puddle-jumper around the larger vessel.
"Half a ship… but one that's heavily armed" Ford said pointing out several turrets along the hull, at the front of the broken hull there appeared to be missile tubes as well. "I count seven or eight decks. Who could have done this to a ship?"
"I've no idea Lieutenant and frankly I don't want to meet them, there! There's a way in!" he said pointing at the lower docking area.
"If I'm reading the sensors correctly there isn't an atmosphere inside that ship and we don't have EVA suits." Ford pointed out as Sheppard turned the ship towards the rear of the wreck's hanger.
"Well, If I've watched McKay enough then hopefully…" he said changing a few of the controls "I can extend the shields." He suggested bringing the small ship inside the larger wreck Sheppard brought the rounded hulled ship down onto the deck as it settled the engine pods on either side of the ship retracted into the hull. "And touchdown" Sheppard said triumphantly, he then began manipulating the ship's controls "and that should be the shields extended." He said after a couple of moments turning to look at the rear hatch.
The two men got up from the front seats and moved into the rear compartment. "There's no airlock…" Ford said Sheppard nodded and the young Lieutenant slapped the door controls, there was a moment of hesitation between the two of them but the atmosphere held as the door fully opened.
"Okay if I've done it right then the shields should extend two decks up let's have a look around" Sheppard said grabbing a P90 Personal Defence Weapon from a rack in the rear cabin clipping it to his vest he turned and handed Ford one as well before picking up a small ancient hand-held scanner. "We've got a distress call and life signs on this ship" he said glancing at the scanner stepping out onto its hull the extended shields had provided a light gravitational field as well.
Now in the carnivorous bay Sheppard had a look around switching on the flashlight which was attached to his P90 he scanned the area the hanger was split over two levels and there was six green four-by-four vehicles each with heavy weapons mounted on the back. There were also three large green multi-tracked tanks. "This some sort of troop cruiser?" Sheppard wondered seeing a weapon rack off to his right "Ford look at this" he said motioning to the other man. The two stepped over towards the weapon rack on it were assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles and pistols, all the weapons were made of a gun metal grey colour.
"Nice weapons" Ford said picking up one of the pistols while Sheppard picked up an assault rifle looking down the sights and looking at the LED marker which was marked with a "32" Sheppard guessed it was the number of rounds less than his P90 but it looked like these were hard hitting weapons. On the weapon rack were the letters "UNSC" stencilled in several places.
Sheppard removed the ammunition cartridge from one of the assault rifles, despite never holding the weapon before it felt perfectly natural "7.62mm" he said noticing the cartridge size and more of the same letters in English. "UNSC heard of them?" He asked Ford was more experienced with the Stargate Program than he despite being younger, the man shook his head. "English writing, standard ammunition sizes, this ship screams Earth but you've never heard of them and there's no sign of the crew?" Sheppard wondered he had not seen a single body in the hanger bay.
Deeper within the ship a hologram flickered to life sitting cross-legged on a pedestal after remaining dormant for four years waiting for rescue, her destress call had echoed through the ship and through the space beside the Forward Unto Dawn calling for help that had not come until now at least she hoped so, standing she turned and looked at the cryo-tube beside her. "Wake up Chief, I need you." She whispered activating the cryo-tube beginning the dethawing process as she monitored the two intruders who were moving through the cargo bay, she was impressed they had somehow created a bubble of air in the otherwise vacuumed ship. While both men looked human, she did not recognise the ship, their gear, or their weapons. She watched them carefully through the functioning sensors she had and those that were on the ship. Despite the damaged state of the Forward Unto Dawn a surprising number of systems were still functional, she had remotely shut down many of the systems to maintain the Master Chief's cryo pod for the last four years but some like internal sensors she had kept online and this included a couple of CCTV cameras.
Back in the cargo bay Sheppard and Ford continued to explore moving into one of the ship's "Major, take a look of this" Ford said activating a computer terminal everything was in English, "the system is locked but look at this…"
"It's laid out like we would lay out a ship, engineering sections, cargo bays, armouries, weapons." Sheppard said looking at the schematics "those weapons we saw on the outer hull still have magazines; this wreck could be useful." He noted. While the Wraith would soon arrive on Atlantis and anything they could muster up for resistance would be helpful.
The Cryo-tube opened and the air inside exited into the chamber moments later the Master Chief exited the pod moving into the zero-g he looked around and then at Cortana. "Status?" He asked the blue hologram.
"Good morning to you too" Cortana said as the Chief looked around grabbing an assault rifle from one of the racks, the grey weapon had a cartridge in it which he quickly checked. "We have two intruders, they arrived in the cargo bay on a ship I don't recognise." She explained quickly
"Covenant?" He asked looking at her
"Negative, human" she said the Chief moved his head to the side surprised for a moment then straightened up again. "I do not recognise their equipment, gear or ship." She explained
"Insurgents?" He asked before the Covenant threat the greatest threat to the UNSC was the human resistance to the rule of the core planets.
"Not likely these guys move like they are military, if it were not for their lack of UNSC gear I would think they were ODSTs." She explained having watched them move through two decks now they carried themselves like they were career military most likely special forces.
"I don't mix well with ODSTs" he warned, the Chief had previous bad experiences with ODSTs who were where they should not be. "Or invaders"
"They have created a bubble of atmosphere around their ship which has some sort of shield technology" she explained when the Chief remained silent, she continued "why yes Chief that is surprising" she said sarcastically.
"Time to go introduce myself" he said
"Yank me" she said her hologram disappearing moments later the Chief pulled a data chip out of the computer and inserted it into the data port in the back of his armour. Moments later he felt the cool presence of her entering his brain "of I've missed that feeling" she said checking the suit's systems "everything looks like it held up well during your time as a popsicle. You really need out of that armour and to have it serviced though it is far too long between maintenance cycles Spartan." She joked his armour had been shot, sliced, slammed into, dropped, crushed, exposed to vacuum, and shot a bit more during their time since he last put it on, the armour was like a second skin but he could feel the wear in the suit.
"How long was I out?" The Chief asked floating towards the exit of the Cryo chamber he did not need the suit to look perfect just operate correctly.
"Four years, seven months, ten days" she answered
"Cortana…" the Chief said for a moment he knew as well as she that a Smart AI like her was only supposed to be online for seven years before rampancy took over.
"I know Chief, it's fine, I put my program in a dormant state when you were out it slowed my aging process." She explained as he moved through the hull.
"Slowed?" He asked searching for the human invaders
"You can't stop the aging process of an AI Chief; I would have to be decompiled to stop that happening. I took my higher functions offline during my dormant state but on some level my program continued to process information."
"Rampancy?"
"Not yet" she almost whispered he could feel a shift in her as she thought of it. "I've modified your shield harmonics Chief you should be able to pass straight through their shield."
"Good." He answered for both questions as he detected two life signs on his detector.
Nearby Sheppard and Ford were nearly at the limit of the small atmosphere bubble the puddle jumper's shields had created for them, there was no sign of life on the ship, and no bodies. They had found personal weapons, vehicles, ammunition for both, meals ready to eat (MRE), survival gear and what looked like cryo chambers but no sign of the crew, "Perhaps they all got away?" Ford wondered scanning another room, many of the rooms they had accessed were open but others were secured including one of the auxiliary fire control rooms.
"Maybe, but it doesn't explain what happened or where this ship came from?" He said looking at for "and everything is in English" he said seeing Ford away to answer. "I know the answer to that is the Ancients spoke English as their base language to humanity and that translated across the galaxy as the language of trade." He said one of the first jokes he had made had been that almost every planet they visited at least understood English, it did not make sense to him considering how many languages were on Earth there should be a different language everywhere. "But no-one other than the Ancients and the Wraith have been able to build something like this" he stated looking around "and 7.62mm rounds for weapons? One of the standard munition sizes on Earth" he pointed out, their P90s did not use that size but most combat rifles and many civilian models did. "More importantly UNSC" he repeated the letters they had seen "United Nations Space Command, who exactly would come up with that other than someone from Earth?" He asked out loud mostly rhetorically there was an obvious link to the United Nations of Earth.
"No-one would" Ford replied "you think this ship is somehow from Earth? It doesn't look like anything we have built and it's way too big."
"Maybe we just haven't built it yet." Sheppard suggested, it was really the only thing that made sense. He had read plenty of SG Team logs to suggest there were many ways that time travel was possible.
"Time-travel?" He asked excited "you think this is a timeship"
"No" another voice said suddenly out of the darkness a massive green and black figure landed on the deck in a crouched position, he was outside their reach just "this is a Warship and you are trespassing." It said in its hand was one of the large assault rifles they had seen earlier. Both Sheppard and jumped backwards both aiming their P90s at the huge suit but neither fired.
Inside the MJOLNIR suit the Chief could see both men in front of them and he also saw his currently depleted shields which were not immediately recharging. "Cortana" he said internally.
"Yes… Chief…" Cortana said seemingly distracted "sorry, Chief passing through the shield barrier took more than I expected I'll need thirty seconds to recycle the emitters."
"A lot can happen in thirty seconds" he said but she was gone, his mind was racing for years she had supported him in their battles against the Covenant and now, now he was losing her. He switched over his suit's receivers to the room around them.
"Okay big guy, we mean you no harm" the lighter skinned male said he looked older than the other male both were dressed in all black uniforms with body armour and they carried strange black coloured boxy guns.
"This is my ship; you don't look like UNSC." The Chief said remaining in his crouched position, he did not need to startle them with his shields still not recharged.
"I'm Major John Sheppard, United States Air Force, this is Lieutenant Aiden Ford, US Marines." The man replied "we came here to offer assistance after seeing the state of your wreck." He explained the weapon not wavering from the Chief. "It's what good folks like us do, but we'll be leaving if you want us to. Who are you?"
"I'm Master Chief Petty Officer Sierra-117, you can call me Chief, the United States military hasn't existed for centuries." The Chief stated as his shields finally recharged, he stood up to his full seven-foot height assault rifle in hand but not aimed at the two men. "Try again…" he offered them
"Chief, we're serious" the younger one said "what kind of name is Sierra-117, who do you work for?"
"It's mine, the UNSC" He stated simply
"What year is this?" Sheppard said pursuing his theory of this ship being from a different time this figure was a mystery including his name it seemed, Sheppard had been around people like him all his adult life.
"2552" he responded immediately he had added the time Cortana had said he had been in stasis to the last time he was on the Ark.
"It's 2004 buddy" Sheppard responded lowering his P90 Ford did the same following his commander's lead, the Chief could respect that.
'2004…' he thought "Cortana…" he asked the AI inside his suit.
"The weapons they are both holding are P90 Personal Defence Weapons and Beretta M92FS pistols." She replied after a moment, "I can't explain their ship but their personal equipment all of it would have been available in the early 2000s." She said keeping their conversation internal to his armour. "Chief, I've been powering us some of the external sensors, the stars don't match up with the Milky Way, where are we?" She asked him, she sounded vulnerable they needed help.
"What happened to you?" Sheppard asked looking at the armoured giant, he had no idea who he or what he was looking at but the giant suddenly did not look as imposing.
"A lot." The Chief admitted
"Look…" Sheppard said "we have a base not far from here, you can rest up and recuperate maybe catch your bearings." He suggested the Chief simply nodded "I'll warn you we're under threat from an enemy who could kill us all by the end of the week…"
"Perhaps I can help with that." The Chief suggested slinging his assault rifle over his shoulder attaching it to the back of his armour, he was a soldier having an enemy could help right now.
The three headed through the Forward Unto Dawn back to the landing bay entering the Chief could see multiple vehicles but he lacked a Pelican to get them down onto a planet's surface as well as weapon racks. "You said you're under threat?" The Chief asked stopping beside a rack of guns.
"Yeah" Sheppard said with a smirk, he had been surprised at just how quiet the huge soldier could be. "We've got plenty guns."
"I like my own" the Chief said pushing the whole rack of guns towards the puddle jumper both Sheppard and Ford stood and watched mouth open as he walked past stopping short of the ship. "I'll be back." He said walking off Sheppard and Ford exchanged looks before Sheppard shrugged his shoulders and picked up a pair of the assault rifles loading them into the puddle jumper. Moments later the Chief returned with a heavy machine gun under one arm and a large rocket launcher on the other arm.
"Wow" Ford said seeing the Chief return "we found a one-man army." He said smirking towards Sheppard who nodded.
"There's more where I got these." He said "if you have the personnel? I can show them how this works." He suggested.
"What about the wreck? Can we use any of the other equipment onboard?" Sheppard asked thinking about the armoured vehicles and the weapons on the ship.
"Cortana" The Chief asked internally, she did not reply straight away "Cortana"
"Yes Chief?" She answered, he wondered where she had been "I don't think we'll be able to get the armoured vehicles to the planet without a Pelican, the weapons remaining on the ship are operation but have limited ammunition as well as three Hyperion missiles with nuclear warheads."
"I don't think we should be handing these folks those just yet." The Chief noted switching back to his external speakers "unfortunately Major we don't have transport for the vehicles and while a couple of the ship's weapons are online, they have limited weapons and the ship's engines are offline." The Chief explained, there was plenty of technology onboard the Forward Unto Dawn that could come in useful in time but not today.
"Fine, we'll take the personal weapons." Sheppard said "I'd power down anything onboard this ship that's still on once we leave, you don't want the Wraith to see it."
"Cortana, shut everything down." He said inside the suite moments later she confirmed that everything was in motion. "Done"
"Great, let's get back to Atlantis." Sheppard said leading the Chief onboard the puddle jumper.
