Chapter 1: New Space

Unknown System

Date: Unknown

Fleet Admiral James Becket

UNSC SOL

Throughout the corridors of the Command Carrier alarms are blaring accompanied by the flashes of red emergency lights lighting up the dark empty hallways. Meanwhile, the sound of military boots echoes throughout the ship as Marines and sailors are running to their stations to prepare for the possibility of combat.

Fleet Admiral James Becket awoke to the sound of groaning sailors and blaring alarms in the bridge of Sol. "Wha- what happened?" He asks but receives no answer. Quickly stands up to his feet and looks around as the chaos unfolds on the bridge with sailors knocked out at their consoles. While others are throwing up with the officers trying to regain control of the situation.

Moving to the Center of the room I find what I am looking for, the AI Pedestal. "Equalizer I need a status report right now and tell me what the fuck just happened!?" Groans as the Alarms continue blaring.

Appearing out of the Holographic Projector is the Ship's AI Equalizer, Equalizer has a very special place in my heart. The reason is that he is modeled after one of my ancestors from the 21st Century. Dressed in an ancient combat uniform with ancient blue body armor and a combat helmet with the words 'UN' on the front of the helmet.

The annoying blare of the alarms finally ends as Equalizer turns them off in an instant. "Yes Admiral sir, the situation is not looking good at all so far" The AI responds in its calm but almost threatening voice. After all, Equalizer isn't like all the other AI the UNSC and the UEG use. He was made to purely follow orders no matter how morally fucked up said orders are. 'I wonder if that is how my ancestor was, the one Equalizer is modeled after'

"Equalizer I know the situation is not looking good so far, half the damn bridge is unconscious, I need you to give me a full status report right this instant" Becket can't help but say to Equalizer in an exasperated tone.

"Of course, Admiral, First off Sol is currently running on Emergency Power because our main reactors are currently offline. Secondly, the entire ship is in Chaos, Security Chief Hammond and the Military Police that isn't unconscious are currently busy trying to restore order throughout the ship. My calculations predict that order will be restored in 30 minutes. And thirdly more than three-quarters of the ship's inhabitants are unconscious"

Becket nods his head to indicate he understands. "Got it, if possible, order the medical crew to tend to the wounded and contact Colonel Eckardt and tell him to send some of his marines to get this bloody chaos under control ASAP. Is there anything else to report?"

"Yes Admiral, unfortunately, this news is the worst of them all. I believe the moment we entered Slipspace we encountered a massive system error in the Slipspace drive" Explains Equalizer.

Upon hearing that Becket's face begins to pale. "Are you certain Equalizer?" Upon receiving a nod from the AI Becket can't help but scream. "FUCK! This is bad…we are in unknown space; hell are we still even in the Milky Way." Becket turns his attention back to Equalizer. "Equalizer do you know where we are? Are we close to UNSC-controlled space? Are we even still in the Milky Way?"

After being bombarded by questions the AI finally responds. "Admiral, I do not know where we are, I don't believe that we are close to UNSC-controlled space, and for the final question, I simply do not know. The only good news I have is so far there have been zero fatalities and we haven't exited slipspace inside a Celestial body nor a Black hole."

"I suppose that is good news. Equalizer I want you to scan the surrounding star system and find out where the hell are we and if there is a chance to return to UNSC space." Upon receiving the Ai's confirmation, Becket turns his attention to the bridge crew. "I want all wounded personnel to report to the sick bay right this instant and those of you who aren't wounded I need you to man your stations and run a full system check of the ship along with Equalizer".

As the wounded personnel begin to make their trek to the sick bay, Becket moves to man the intercom system. "All high-ranking UNSC and ONI personnel are to move to the bridge of the ship for immediate debriefing"

15 minutes later

15 minutes after the announcement was made, various officers and crew gathered in the ship's bridge around the command table ranging from the Colonel in charge of the Marine detachment to the various officers in charge of the various squadrons on board Sol to the 10 Captains of the 10 Strident Class Heavy frigates that are docked in the ships docking bay. And of course, the Spartan IV team leader, the ONI spook, and the head of engineering.

"Okay now that we are all here I have some unfortunate news" Becket looks everyone in the eyes with a solemn expression. "We have suffered an extremely rare situation. According to Equalizer, our Slipspace drive malfunctioned the moment we entered the Slipspace stream. In other words ladies and gentlemen, we didn't arrive at Reach in fact we arrived at some random location in the Universe. We are far away from Human controlled space or we are close to Human controlled space. We need to work on a strategy right now."

The murmurs started spreading like wildfire among the gathered Officers and Crew. After about 6 minutes Becket interrupts them deciding it is enough panicking. "Okay, that is enough!" Quickly making everyone quiet down. Looking over at the Head of Engineering Becket decided to address him first. "Samuel, I need you to give me a quick status report of the current status of the ship."

Slightly panicking at being addressed first, the nervous Samuel thankfully quickly recovered. "Uh yes Admiral, so far I can confirm that the Structural Integrity of Sol's hull is at 100%. Sol's weapon systems as well are at 100% thankfully." After receiving a nod from Becket he continues. "But unfortunately, our main reactor is Critically damaged and would take 2 weeks to repair. So we are going to have to run on the small-scale backup reactors until the main reactor is repaired. The slipspace drive is also in excellent condition, but without the main reactor we cannot use it and I don't recommend we use it for the possibility we can enter another slipspace Anomaly."

"Good that is the best news I heard so far today Samual. I want you and the rest of the engineers to begin repairs on the reactor immediately.". Samual salutes Becket before leaving the room to start repairs on the reactor. Turning his attention to the 10 Strident Frigate Captains. "Captains I need you ten to return to your ships immediately in case you need to be rapidly deployed, understood?"

"Understood"

"Roger"

"Affirmative Admiral"

"Good, I will have someone fill you in on the details of the rest of the meeting immediately after we are done. Dismissed." Becket watches the ten Strident Captains leave to man their post on their Frigates before turning his attention to the logistics officer. "Lucy Status on all of our logistics."

Lucy stammers slightly before responding "A-Admiral we have enough food to last us about 2 months and if we ration them the food will last roughly 6 months. The hydroponics sector can grow more food but it will take a while. We are also green on MAC Ammunition, Point Defense Ammunition, and Archer Missiles are at maximum capacity as well as our Shiva Class nuclear missiles. If we run out of ammo Sol's onboard factory can always produce more granted we have enough resources to do so. And our one NOVA bomb is secure in its silo and is being guarded 24/7 by two Spartan IVs."

"That's good, I want you to make sure we never run out of ammo and food since we are practically stuck in this unknown star system."

Becket addresses the Flight Command officers next. "Correy how many fighters and troop transports do we have available and what are their current condition?"

"Admiral so far all our aircraft are in pristine condition, but I will have our crews run checks on them just to be certain. As for our Air Wing, we currently have 192 Katana Space and Air Superiority Fighters, total squadron is 16. Our Broadswords and Super Sabers are the same as the Katanas, bringing our Fighter wing to 576 Aircraft. For our Bomber wing, we have 24 Shortswords, 24 Glaives, 2 Gladii, and 2 Shadowswords Stealth Bombers bringing our Bomber wing to a total of 52 Aircraft."

The officer quickly catches his breath after speaking so quickly before continuing. "For our Recon Wing we have 8 Estocs Recon Jets and 4 Xiphos Stealth Recon Jets, total amount of Recon planes is 12. For our UAV Wing, we have 150 Scimitars Drone Fighters, and 24 Kilijes recon drones, which brings our Drone Armament to a total of 174 Aircraft. For our transport wing, we have 88 Pelicans, 25 Condors, and 10 Albatross Dropships, which is a total of 113 Transport Aircraft. And finally, for our CAS Air Wing, we have 200 Sparrowhawks, 150 Falcons, and 30 Vultures, a total of 380 CAS Aircraft. That is all Admiral."

"Perfect we have quite the Air Wing available. Any alien scum would think twice about attacking us. Next Colonel Eckardt Status on our Ground Pounders?"

"All 1200 Marines are accounted for and half of them are currently in the Med-Bay recovering from their wounds. They will be combat-ready in about a week. All our Combat Vehicles are in good condition. To sum it up Admiral we will be combat-ready next week."

"Affirmative." Becket turns his attention to the Spartan IV Leader. "Spartan I know for a fact you and the other Spartans are unaffected. Thus I want every Spartan save for the two guarding the Nova Bomb to be our QRF force in case something happens around the ship." The Admiral only receives a nod of confirmation from the Spartans.

"Equalizer do you have a status report as to where we are and if it is possible to get back to the UNSC?" At Becket's question, Equalizer appears on the command table in his holographic form. "Admiral sir, I have some bad news and good news. The bad news is that we are no longer in the Milky Way." Upon saying that everyone in the command room voiced their disappointment and frustration which included the sailors, the gathered officers, and Becket.

"Fuck, okay, and the good news?" Becket asks. "The good news is that the star system we are in is almost identical to the Sol system. The planet in the Goldey Locks zone is a Continental World that is 1.6 times larger than Earth and has a supercontinent similar to Pangea. It is habitable and would be a perfect place to set up base while we figure out what to do. Although I detected strange energy reading in the planet Stratosphere and on the surface."

"Would these strange energy readings affect us in any way possible, our electronics?" Becket quickly asks Equalizer. "Negative Admiral I am certain it won't affect us negatively, but I do recommend we investigate them."

"Noted, is there a chance the planet is inhabited?" asks Becket. "Affirmative Admiral. I am picking up primitive radio signals on the planet through the ship's sensory module."

Upon hearing this the entire bridge froze and immediately hate emerged from everyone. "Great more alien." "God dammit, more covenant just what we needed." "They are probably going to be like the damn Covenant, we should just use the Nova bomb on them."

Upon hearing the last statement Becket interrupted. "Using a Nova bomb on these aliens and wiping them out is tempting but we are still under UNSC and UEG directive, so when we descend to the surface standard first contact protocol will be in effect."

After hearing this everyone seemed to calm down before the ONI officer gave her piece of mind. "Admiral permission to send a recon team planetside to see if the Xenos are a threat and to find a location to set up a Forward Operating Base?"

"Sorry Dawson, as tempting as that sounds we have to wait for the ship's reactor to be repaired and we need to wait for our troopers to heal up, plus we need to give the crew time to adjust to the fact that we are currently MIA. So for the moment we will only launch satellites and map the surface of the planet."

"Understood Admiral." Dawson immediately replies.

"Good, everyone back to their stations."

Unknown to the inhabitants of Terra, a new force, a new superpower casts their shadow over their planet. Will the UNSC help them advance and evolve as a society, or will the UNSC become like the aliens they hate and just cause senseless violence and kill everyone? Only time will tell…

Like gluttony or drunkenness, hatred seems an agreeable vice when you practice it yourself, but disgusting when observed by others.

Author Notes

Phew that is the first official chapter finished in under 4 hours. Same as last time PM if you have some suggestions for the story or writing advice for me. Or just put it in the comments.

If you haven't noticed this version of the UNSC is filled with hatred. After all, having more than 60% of your species wiped out not by a single race of aliens but a COLLECTIVE GROUP of aliens will make humanity hate and despise any Sapient species that isn't theirs out of fear. Which will make the interaction between Mankind and the species of Terra more suspenseful and fun.

By the way, the UNSC aren't the good guys here, they also aren't the bad guys. They are just morally Grey and do whatever it takes to protect their specie, no matter how morally questionable it is.

The next chapter will be in the following week. It can be tomorrow, the middle of the week, or the end of the week.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter 😊.

Just corrected all the Grammar issues from the first two chapter.