Captain Alex Harper

August 30th, 2552

17:00

Above the Planet Reach

The Fall of Reach

[}-{]

"Escape velocity confirmed, we will be clear of the planetary gravity well in two mikes." Said Mei, gripping the helm's arm rests.

"Have the Bosun take inventory, I want to know how much we're hauling. Navigation, ready the emergency jump protocol."

"You're not asking us to stay?" Came the tentative reply.

Alex shook his head. "It's been a long fight and we've gotten away somewhat cleanly. If we jump now, then no one can say we didn't do our duty."

"But… your sister,"

"Could be alive on the William Wallace, which is steaming for the planetary moon as we speak. Should we raise her on comms and reveal us and them? Should we stay and fight long after the fleet has been decimated? Any action we take now that isn't leaving will jeapoardise the safety of those who sought refuge aboard this ship."

Mei's eyes glistened with solemn respect. The ensign who had challenged the order stood, with his mouth agape as a new silence descended on the crew.

"Did you think I wouldn't do it, ensign?" Alex stood up from the chair for the first time in hours. "Our odds have been slim and we have been lucky but did you all make that demand of me, to abandon this planet, without believing we would survive the battle?"

"But with the Autumn gone, there's nothing left here that can save your friends if…"

The ensign trailed off.

"I know, ensign. I know."

The lone ensign gave voice to the thoughts of everyone present as the Bosun slipped away to carry out his task.

"I thought that when the covenant invaded, that I wouldn't see more war. I thought if we lost here… that would be the end."

"We all knew that our chances weren't great but we got through it, together." Alex said, approaching Mei. "our strength is in each other. Like sinew, a single fibre can be split in the wind; together, though, can weather any storm. Including this one. None of you has done any less than your best, nor have you betrayed your highest calling. We can, all of us, leave this place with our heads held high. Even in our moment of greatest defeat." Alex kissed Mei on the cheek and smiled before turning back to face his crew. "That is what the covenant, blind to our power, seems to forget! Upon first contact, we fought them to a standstill at Harvest. Above Actium, we fought the bastards to the bitter end! Upon Ballast, I watched their third largest fleet BURN in the sky! We have a right to be heard in the annals of history. Our rage and our beauty is scarred across the Orion arm of this galaxy and our legacy will be seared into the minds of each alien bastard that tried to wipe us out. We have been tenacious, we have been brave, and now, on the precipice of extinction you ask me to return to the fray? Never has a man been as lucky as I to fight alongside the embodiment of the human ideal."

Mei grinned, some of the crew seemed to smile, too. Hints of pride flashing at their faces.

"Mourn, friends. Mourn and be human. Today was not a victory but it was an event we can one day say we lived through. That we saw the best of each other and we made it out alive to tell the tale of the sacrifices we made here. Hold fast, cry Aegis! The shield in the sky and the bastion of humankind. Aboard this ship lives the spirit of Reach. Defiant. Ruthless. Pragmatic… loving." He looked at Mei who smiled. "Remember Reach." He concluded.

"So, do we have a heading, Sir?" Mei asked as her hands danced over the controls.

"You know the protocol. Get us out of here; random destination." He said before activating the shipwide tannoy. "All hands prepare for emergency slipspace transit. All essential staff report to your posts. Cryo bay is open for staff and medical purposes, if you lose your bunk, report to the Bosun for retasking."

"Slip drive ready to fire, Captain." Said the navigation officer.

"Fire it up and let's see where we go."

The portal expanded beyond them as the engine fired. A slip drive activates only for a second to tear open a hole in normal space and the process continued to awe Alex as he approached his tenth year in space.

An alarm sounded "Covenant?" Alex asked, jerking his head towards the staff at the intelligence table.

"No, Sir. Something is tampering with the slipspace navigation computer. It's a new course!" said the navigation officer.

"All hands, red alert. Malfunction detected in the slipspace drive. Remain calm, people. This might get bumpy."

Mei let go of the controls as the ship moved like a ghost through the purple portal. It looked gloopy, swallowing the ship like a pin stabbing jelly. They moved between realspace and slipspace as trepidation filled the room, its tendrils sapping the minds of those present like a siphon.

Together, they had fought. Together, they had survived.

Together, the crew of the Aegis Fate were dragged into the unknown.

Katya Volkovskaya

August 30th, 2552

17:20

Aboard the William Wallace

En Route to the UNSC Survivors.

The Fall of Reach

[}-{]

She watched as the Aegis Fate left the system. The Captain of the William Wallace was speaking but Katya could only think of Alex as he left the system with Maddie still on the planet.

The ship had jolted about in the feed, as if assumed by some other mind, to be pulled against its own will towards another direction within slipspace. Katya chewed her lip as the threads of fate wound themselves tightly around them. Standing abreast from her were the highest ranking officials to leave Reach: two Sergeants, and a Lieutenant.

Katya had said her rank and the troopers had obeyed her direction without question as the ship pootled onwards through the void towards a rally point with the fleet remnant on the shadowy side of Reach's moon.

A covenant formation was heading eerily towards an unscorched section of the surface on the monitor behind the Captain as he spoke about how proud he was to escape Reach with those brave enough to stay until the last ship.

Unlike the bridge of a navy ship, the William Wallace had a much darker and cheaper build quality to it. Katya raised a brow at a loose maintenance panel in the corner and stress fractures along the inner bulkheads from nearly a century of slipspace travel. Old ships like the William Wallace had storied histories that stretched back to the colonial golden age. Once, the Wallace might have settled Reach itself.

Ignominiously, the Wallace was a shadow of that history, having been slated to act as the last coffin out of a dying planet. Katya hadn't seen a glassing this closely before, though she knew that Maddie had. She had seen, now, what might inspire a child of privilege to act so animalistically. Though Maddie had a fairer start, her journey from Skopje had been no less harrowing than her own experiences, and such experiences had melded her friend like steel into the woman she had come to call her most dear friend.

It was anger she felt as she considered Maddie's fate. She looked out the tiny windows of the old freighter and wondered how it had all gone so wrong. ONI meddling couldn't be blamed for it all. Their failure to make enough time for each other had, invariably, been the result of many decisions taken by both parties. The Wolf was the Queen of the hunt, the leader of the pack, and the Viper was a lone huntress, it was not a pairing conducive to friendship.

An odd camaraderie had emerged however, as the days turned to weeks and the Academy turned to Meridian, Ballast and beyond, the two women had come to rely on each other like no one else. Not even Jack, for all the love and companionship he offered, could understand Katya in the way that Maddie found so effortless.

It was that realisation that caused her to begin to mourn.

"Captain… Volkovskaya, was it?" The Captain asked, breaking the Wolf from its daydream.

"Yes, Captain?" She replied, hoping that she hadn't missed something important.

"We have something we need you to see. If you would follow me?"

Katya nodded and followed at a half step behind the Captain as he shuffled towards the small compartment hollowed out for the Captain aboard the old ship.

"Take a seat." He pulled a chair out for her and she sat as he placed a chip into the desk monitor and spun it around for her to see. "That covenant formation. Do you see it?"

Katya nodded, "heading for the unglassed- wait, they have moved?"

The Captain nodded. "This isn't my first rodeo, Captain and I appreciate your candor in providing me with your credentials."

"But?" She replied, expecting the worst.

"The covenant has been known, on occasion, to snatch individuals of importance as they flee systems like these. On Fumirole, I piloted this very ship out of dry-dock and was nearly home free when I got a message like this, pinged from a cruiser on my way out of dodge."

He hit play and Katya smiled as a familiar voice began to speak and wretch out of the microphone:

'Volkovskaya. Braeburn. Harper. Sorvad. Leave them for us and be spared. Volkovskaya. Braeburn. Harper. Sorvad. Leave them for us and be spared.'

The Captain raised a brow and cocked his head slightly. "Ma'am, usually folks don't grin when I'm telling them I'm dumping them in space to save the rest of the souls aboard my ship."

"I am freshly unemployed, Captain." Katya said with a shrug. "I will go and take the others with me and they will cover you and give you passage, if you leave quickly."

The Captain seemed confused.

"When ONI decided I was not an agent anymore they did not give me a chance to sign the NDA. That is a group of Covenant insiders that want to tear apart the covenant from inside. That is the voice of the rebel brute Ketarus, and we are the survivors of project ARC DREAM. Do not lose hope just yet, Captain." Katya said, reassuring him as best she could.

"You expect me to take that at face value?" he asked, watching her get up and walk towards the door. It opened and two armed guards stood there, flinching as they prepared to subdue her. The Captain waved his hand and they relaxed, though they kept both eyes trained on Katya for sudden movements.

"Maybe I am just easing your conscience, Captain. Maybe I am telling the truth. Either way, I will be leaving your ship with my comrades and you will be free to escape this wretched place."

Katya approached the comms table and sent the coordinates back to Ketarus, whose ships jerked immediately to an intercept vector. ONI would know they were aboard the William Wallace. When they boarded, the men and women of ARC DREAM would be long gone and they would remain as a thorn in the side of anyone who might oppose the revival of humanity.

It was time for them to leave and save themselves. She said a quiet 'thank you' to Maddie, and apologized to all the gods she could think of for leaving her, but she knew the Viper had made a choice…

Katya knew it was up to her to honour it.