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Halo: First Contact

Redux

Prologue

Deep in the far reaches of unexplored space, an expansive portal suddenly popped into existence. The swirling whirlpool of rippling amethyst was kilometers in circumference, admitting the forms of forty-one gunmetal grey vessels. Each ship followed a similar design, bulky rectangular boxes of titanium with huge pulsing cerulean engines fabricated into their aft. Intimidating barrels running along the crests and visible indentations for missile silos along their hull stated their purpose to the universe. These were warships, pure and simple.

As the last few trailing vessels slipped out of the threshold, the main body of the emerged fleet began to orientate on the largest ship. More than 3 kilometers from bow to stern, it was the coordinator and heart of the armada. Inside its armored bowels, under ten meters of Titanium-A battleplate, thousands of crewman quickly scurried to and fro as they each did their specific task in the belly of the massive iron behemoth. Sprayed on its hull in blocky black was an insignia, an eagle with a shield afore it. The moniker UNSC could be seen on the shield and the words United Nations Space Command were scrawled under it in cursive script. Next to the emblem was the name of the colossal vessel, The Errant King.

The person in charge of this impressive flotilla sat aboard the titanic craft on his command throne. The balding, dark skinned East German was no stranger to the hectic pace of a well-coordinated bridge crew. And as he watched the men and women of his ship hurriedly organize the fleet he smiled proudly, sipping from the warm mug of Columbian brewed coffee. Giving off a contented sigh, he deliberately placed his mug slowly on the arm of his chair and lifted himself to his charcoal black boot clad feet, dusting off his stark white bleached uniform and making the sea of medals pinned to his chest jingle delicately. Marching purposely, he traveled to the center of the storm of activity and barked out a quick command.

"John, what is the status of my fleet?"

At the sound of his authoritative tone, a short pale man in a grey and black uniform and with a mop of unruly brown hair on his head stepped dutifully to the admiral's side, dataslate in hand. The XO fixed his rimmed glasses with one hand as he scrolled efficiently on the electronic board with the other.

"The fleet is in excellent condition admiral...considering we were using new drive technology." John informed with a slight wince as he read the influx of incoming reports.

"What does that mean exactly?" The admiral clarified, turning to his XO with an unamused gleam in his somber hazel eyes.

"Well..." The man began to gradually list off the condition of the fleet. "The stridents had their archer missile pods jostled as they reemerged from slipspace, due to unexpected turbulence. Our Marathon cruisers reported no side effects of the jump, although currently the corvettes are experiencing comms blackouts. The destroyers had their magnetic accelerator rails slip out of alignment and the Paris frigates have some fatigue in their superstructures. Thankfully, the prowlers reported no problems and have commenced scouting off the surrounding system and will report their findings within the hour."

The admiral nodded stiffly, lips pursed in displeasure. Such complications were to be expected when using previously untested technology. These new slipspace drives did cut travel time by an eighth of a fraction, but it looked like they still needed some tweaking before they could be implemented into the rest of the UNSC navy. This meant that he would have to write up a multi-paged report for the admiralty board and send the data packet back to Reach for review. That was unfortunate, he hated writing reports.

"What is our combat effectiveness? Can we repel an attack in this condition?"

The XO nodded confidently as he lowered the dataslate to his side. "Of course sir, our carrier sustained no damage and the repairs are already in affect for the rest of the fleet. In less than an hour we will be back to peak efficiency, Sir." John assured the admiral. "And I doubt there are any pirates or insurrectionists in this quadrant sir; we are months away from any inhabited world."

"Nonetheless, have the fleet enter formation gamma and launch a fighter screen." The admiral ordered. "We will not take any chances. If something untoward happens, we will be too far out to receive aid in time."

"Of course admiral, right away." John nodded and saluted before turning to carry out his orders.

Mathias Earhart watched as his young protégé determinedly strode away, keen to carry out his orders. The admiral remembered when he recruited the man. He had found him on a small colony world on the fringe of UNSC controlled space. He might have been a little young to be the XO of a fleet, but Mathias was confident he had made the right decision. The other admirals were hesitant of his...unorthodox methods of recruitment, but could not argue with his effectiveness. His crew was not exactly a picture perfect representation of a UNSC battle fleet. Many had...questionable pasts. But Mathias cared more for results then what you had been or done before you signed up, and so far he was not disappointed. His view had earned him the loyalty of his crew and the fleet as a whole. And he would need their loyalty for the daunting task ahead of them.

His taskforce, originally The 3rd Defense Fleet, was recommissioned as the 1stExploratory Flotilla one year and two months ago. Their assignment was to explore the uncharted reaches of space and mark any systems viable for further colonization. Or at least that was the public explanation. The truth of the matter was that the Leaders of the United Earth Governments or UEG for short, and UNSC HIGHCOM wanted them to search for any more Forerunner artifacts. This motive arose after the discovery of the Forerunner reliquary underneath CASTLE Base on Reach which led to the summary discovery of the new slipspace tech they were testing.

Mathias waited until the prowlers reported back in before making his next move. And when he spied John hurriedly marching towards him with a strange expression, Mathias knew that things were about to be interesting. "Report." The admiral took in the slightly disheveled state of his XO and the sheen of nervous perspiration on his brow and knew his assumption had been right, only seeking to increase his curiosity.

"Admiral, the prowlers just picked up something on the long range scanners...something abnormal." John spoke quietly and looked around the bridge, making sure their conversation was private.

"Explain." Mathias demanded, feeling a pang of unease at his trusted officer's apparent discomfort.

The XO nodded and leaned in closer, speaking just above a whisper. "They picked up energy signatures, a lot of them. And not a single one matched known UNSC or even insurrectionist drives....they're alien in origin, Sir."

At the word he never expected to hear, Mathias felt a tumult of unreadable emotions.

Alien.

Disbelief was prevalent among his twisted thoughts, that simple word sounded ludicrous at best and terrifying at worst, but if it was true, it would change everything. Aliens, real living creatures, in all his years patrolling the stars, he had never thought to consider the possibility of discovering an alien species. It just seemed like a childish fantasy to him. As humanity expanded, they had never seen or heard a shred of evidence to support the fact. There were the Forerunner ruins of course, but they were long gone with only the building attesting to their existence. These however, were quite possibly alive and kicking. Mathias was unprepared for such a scenario.

"What do we do admiral? What do we tell the crew?" John whispered worriedly, looking to his leader for guidance.

"Nothing...there's no need riling up the crew until we know for sure what we are dealing with." The admiral replied sternly as he drummed his fingers on his throne's armrests. "Have the prowlers get as close as they safely can and get a better grasp on the situation, pictures, electronic readings, whatever they can get without blowing their cover."

John nodded as a slightly easier guise appeared on his face. "On your orders admiral..." He saluted and swiveled on his heels. But the admiral stopped him, making the man turn back.

"Have the Midsummer's Solace go to action stations and prepare to assist the prowler pack. And you might as well let their crew know what we are dealing with."

John nodded and saluted again, leaving in a rush.

Mathias turned his gaze away to the crew who sat at their consoles, oblivious to the brewing situation and the admiral's inner turmoil. And for once, he envied their low-slung place on the chain of command, the burdens they didn't have to bear. The admiral leaned forwards in his chair and steepled his hands, resting his chin on them as he began to ponder.

But his thoughts were interrupted as the small holotank on the arm of his chair began to glow as a small holographic blue figure materialized. He looked down at the visual representation of the ship's AI. She always took on the appearance of a young and beautiful women wrapped in a shawl dating back to the ancient days of Rome.

"So, why were you keeping me in the dark Mathias?" The AI demanded as her hologram flashed red in annoyance.

The admiral sighed sharply in exasperation. "I was not purposely keeping you out of the loop Ash...I just had a few things on my mind."

She rolled her digital eyes and scoffed, placing her soft azure electronic hands on her hips. "Yeah, aliens are a pretty big deal."

"I would appreciate it, if the crew remained unaware of that." The admiral said, eyeing the AI knowingly.

Ash let out a breath she didn't have and nodded. "I understand that, but I would also appreciate it if you let me know things before I had to dig them up...deal?"

The admiral reciprocated her nod with one of his own and smiled. "Deal, now can you review the ship's systems? I want to make sure its running at a hundred percent."

"Already did, I checked and rechecked. The Errant King is ready for anything the universe could throw at it." The AI replied with a smug grin as she folded her holographic arms.

"Thank you, glad to know I can always count on you." The admiral thanked her with a relived care-worn smile.

"Of course you can, it is my job after all." The AI explained with devious smirk as her form winked out of existence.

Mathias shook his head at the AI's antics and felt a little better about their impending situation. He just hoped that the prowlers would report in soon and he could know exactly what he was dealing with.

"The admiral has sent orders for your prowler pack to get closer and gather more information. But do whatever it takes to remain undiscovered. The Midsummer's Solace will be on station to assist."

Captain Thomas Ford, commander of the ONI stealth corvette pack, nodded grimly as the XO of the fleet gave him his orders. "Tell the admiral he can count on us." He replied confidently to the holo image.

"Will do." John replied and the communication closed abruptly with a faint pop.

Thomas briskly turned away from the holotank and to the crew of the Dark Heart. They were all experienced ONI operatives with years of faithful service, but this was something else entirely, they had never dealt with something of this caliber before, no one had. "You heard the XO, let's get this ship moving."

At the sound of his gruff voice, the stillness of the bridge was shattered and the crew set about their task with grim determination. The steady clatter of keys and soft chatter of ensigns filled the bridge, but not eclipsing the looming monumental significance of their upcoming task.

Thomas studied his crew from the upper section of the bridge as they began to coordinate with the other pair of prowlers. As he did so, he found himself running his palms repetitively across the cold steel rail in front of him. This would be a good test of their resolve and fortitude, and he would be lying to himself if he wasn't a little unnerved as well. Thomas had done a stint as an undercover operative, deep inside an insurrectionist cell. But even that did not stir the same sense of apprehension and fear as he was currently suppressing. What would they find once they reached the source of the signatures? Was it just a ghost in the machine? Or was it what he feared it to be, a first contact scenario, far from friendly space? Thomas prayed to all the gods he could think of that for once, his crew had made a mistake.

"Sir, we are approaching the location of the signals." His navigations officer called out from his station with a noticeable fluctuation his tone.

Thomas silently took a deep breath and nodded as confidently as he could. "Very well, bring it up on the holotank and get me a visual. Cordallas, I want thermal and physical imagery loaded and ready for a data transfer." Thomas ordered his crew about firmly and watched as the holotank in the center of the upper bridge dimly lit up and the hollow thrumming of the energized particles filled the air.

The gentle crystal blue background materialized and rapidly began to fill up with hundreds of red symbols orbiting a large world. "Captain...there are hundreds of contacts, many nearly the size of an Orion-class Battlecruiser." His sensors officer shouted out worriedly.

Cold piercing dread struck the prowler captain's heart. If something went wrong, the UNSC fleet would be terribly outnumbered and quite possibly outgunned. He cursed the fact that the admiral had turned down the inclusion of an Athens carrier and a pack of Halcyons.

"Captain, it looks like the contacts are split into two groups. And I am picking up heavy concentrations of burst energy. It looks like they are currently fighting." The sensors officer added uncertainly.

Thomas held in a groan. Energy weapons, they were still in the dreaming stage for the UNSC navy, and it looked like these aliens were one step ahead of them in that regard. But at least they were not working together, whoever they were. But that also meant that there was more than one faction of aliens they were dealing with here. And they still didn't have any information on their capabilities and numbers. Or in fact what they were or what they were doing. Thomas didn't want to risk any of his prowlers in trying to get a closer look. But a raven should be able to accomplish that without being discovered, assuming that these alien's would be fooled by their stealth technology. But it was a risk he had to take. The admiral wanted more information, and he knew ONI would be desperate for it as well.

He turned to his commander quickly, time was off the essence. There was no telling how long the battle would last and it would be the perfect opportune distraction. "Load the raven and have it launch."

The woman nodded and saluted, exiting the bridge to carry out his orders.

Down below in the small hanger of the prowler, a pair of pilots with their security team was in the process of preparing to launch. They had just received word of what their mission was and were all understandably a great deal nervous.

The leader of the security team, a short and frail man that looked more at home behind a desk then shedding blood, was standing by the raven as it was prepped by the hanger crew. "You have got to be shitting me." He griped to his four other comrades as he cleaned off the barrel of his MA5B assault rifle tenderly with a ragged oiled cloth. "We find goddamn aliens, and instead of hoofing ass back to the fleet, they want us, US, to get a better look."

The giant bear of a man standing beside him chuckled and slugged him on the arm, causing him to almost fall to the ground. "Lock it down sarge, no's ever detected a raven before. All we gotta do is sit tight and let the pilots do all the work, think of it as a nice Sunday drive...with aliens." The large man added hesitantly.

"Rico's right Alphonse, we'll be okay. After all, we've always made it before. Remember the rebellion on Andromeda? We made it then, even after trudging through hordes of pissed of civvies and insurrectionist sympathizers. This'll be a walk in the park compared to that." The red haired woman off to the left said with an air of confidence as she loaded a clip of HP rounds for her BR55.

"Yeah, listen to Jane." The youngest and most recent addition to their team added. Harry was clad in the bright white and red lined armor of a combat medic. His first mission had been on Andromeda and he had been baptized by blood and fire.

The last member of their marine squad remained silent sitting on an ammo crate, slowly and deliberately loading his M90 CAWS combat shotgun with shells painted black and red with flames. He was mute, courtesy of an insurrectionist prison encampment, and the only member of the team with a fully concealing helmet. They had not been pleased when he refused to give up the location of his team and sought to make sure he never talked again, sawing of the troopers tongue. Marcus had been the team joker, but after that traumatic event, he changed. He was now the squad's sniper and CQC specialist, a role he took to heart. Dangling on a chain with his dog-tags were thirty-five shellcasings, each had been ripped out of the prison guards' corpses after he had escaped. Marcus pumped the action for his shotgun and grabbed the SRS-99C Series-2 sniper rifle from its perch beside him and strode aboard the raven without a backwards glance as the hanger crew disengaged the fueling hose clamped to the ship and began to clear out.

"Marcus is done waiting." Alphonse notified his team and joined the mute sniper aboard the raven.

'Right, let's move sarge." Jane barked and marched up the raven's ramp along with the remaining squad.

As they squad buckled in and bantered with each other in the usual pre-deployment manner, the two pilots walked up the incline. The tags on their armor labeled them Mack and Bess. "Please enjoy your time aboard Raven-1, courtesy of Alien Safari." Mack announced cheerfully as he headed towards the cockpit.

Bess followed after him shaking her head in irritation as she climbed the dwarfish steps to the cockpit and began to assist with the pre-flight checklist.

Raven-1 was a matte black dropship, similar in appearance to a pelican. But the raven series of VTOL dropships was smaller and sleeker with reflective paneling and sensor suits. The wings on its side were stubby, but slightly more elongated compared to its cousin. Once the checklist was complete and they were green for launch, the raven slowly lifted off the deck and retracted its landing struts before shooting out of the opening hanger doors.

In the troop bay of the raven, the security team fingered the triggers of their weapons and nervously talked with each other, the only one who wasn't showing any mission jitters was Marcus, who sat silently staring intently at the combat knife strapped to his chest rig with serious intent underneath his helmet.

In the cockpit, the pilots boosted away from the hidden prowlers and towards the still raging alien warzone.

"Jeeeezzus, would ya look at that! That's more intense then the battle over Ageist VII!" Mack muttered as he saw what looked like some sort of silver and blue wedged shape battleship crumple under a barrage of lasers shot out from a pack of black and red fighter sized craft.

As he watched the battle, Bess ran passive systems and began to extrapolate any information and store it on the onboard computer, things like hull sizes and weapon power. While the system was running, she looked up from her console and saw something that worried her. "What in the hell are you doing?!" She demanded anxiously from her seat behind the man as the raven slowly began to draw closer to the battle.

"The captain wanted us to get nice and close. This is the way to do it." Mack replied casually as he studied the intense raging voidwar. He was too preoccupied to hear the mounting trepidation in his co-pilot's worried tone. "Whoa, look at that!" He exclaimed and pointed as another ship detonated in a blinding flash of light. As they got closer, Mack noticed that what he perceived as swarms of missiles were in actuality clouds of small fighter craft. In fact they were in amazing high concentrations. The UNSC committed maybe half as many fighters during a battle. But it looked like these aliens preferred to duke it out with everything they had.

Mack's feeling of wonder was drowned by gut-wrenching fear as a pair of the red and black colored fighters peeled off from their dogfight and zoomed towards them. "Oh, shit, of fuck!" He squeaked, voice cracking slightly as he flipped the raven and gunned the engines, heading back towards the prowlers.

"Look what you did now Mack, goddamnit!" Bess shrieked as she watched her friend try to outrun the approaching fighters. But judging from the readout on the screen in front of her seat, they would never be able to do that. "Shake them off!" She shouted.

"I'm trying!" Mack chided as he rolled the raven to the left and took a steep dive, the force of the maneuver pushing them roughly into their seats and throwing their stomachs for a ride. First contact could be made by someone else.

Without warning, a streak of red light flashed millimeters from the raven's canopy and the cockpit's heat warning lights began to flicker all across the console.

"We weren't paid to dodge fucking lasers!" Mack hissed as he turned the pelican sharply to the left, a pair of red beams skimming of the hull and peeling back half of the armor's protective coating.

"Well we wouldn't be in this damn position if you hadn't felt the need to stick your noise were it doesn't belong!" Bess retorted as she flipped a brace of switches and activating the Raven's counter measures.

The door to the cockpit suddenly slid open and Harry poked his head in. "What the hell is going on up here?" He demanded as he fought to keep his balance.

Bess was about to order him to get his dumb ass buckled in when there was a sickening crunch of twisted steel and a harsh metallic groan as the cockpit began to spin recklessly sending the marine flying back into the hold as everything flashed white.

Mack didn't need to read the text scrolling across the console to know what happened. He could see that the left side engine had been completely totaled, sheared off the raven when they had been struck by some sort of energy torpedo.

"I've lost all system control!" Bess cried out fearfully.

"Well I can't control the damn bird!" Mack shouted as it began to spiral haphazardly towards the planet. Somewhere during the chase, they had begun to near the planet and now its gravity was dragging them in. "Fuck, we're going down, Raven-1 to Dark Heart, we've sustained critical damage and our heading towards the planet in an uncontrolled dive. Mayday! Mayday"

The distress call blared on the Dark Heart's bridge and the crew looked towards the captain. Thomas grimaced and held back a snarl as he turned to his commander. "Contact the captain of the Solace. I want a RODST planetside on the double. We need to recover that team and their information." The captain shifted away from his commander and towards the bridge as a whole. "Get me the admiral..."

Mathias listened as Thomas informed him of what happened, and the frown on his face only grew. "That raven has all the information?"

"Yes admiral, if we want that information, we are going to have to retrieve it. And I rather not risk another raven." The holo image of the ONI prowler captain added.

Mathias nodded and stroked his chin. "I agree, but I don't want more of my people in trouble if I can help it. We need to send an RODST, but how will we get him close enough without alerting these aliens to our presence any further? I don't want to start a fight I can avoid. Hopefully there's a way we can end all of this peacefully."

Thomas nodded and fixed his medals. "Already gave the order Admiral. The RODST aboard the Midsummer's Solace is preparing for drop as we speak. And we can create a window to drop him, Sir. If we can get the Solace to approach lateral from underneath the battle, we should be able to deploy the asset and have it return from the predetermined path without gaining any notice. And I will have the pack and Solace refrain from engaging in combat. But I must warn you admiral...there are two sides here. We must choose which one to ally ourselves with. If we show our hand and assist whoever we select, we will have gained an advantage for any negations afterwards. You should make your choice soon, as always, I and the other prowler captains will abide by it."

Mathias felt unease at using the RODST aboard the Solace, as that was his nephew, but it was already the closest vessel with a recon trooper. And to delay further for personal reasons would be unacceptable. "Very well..." The admiral conceded with a sigh. "If you can assure me that this deployment will be successful, you have the green light. And as for that....I will consider what you have told me."

Thomas saluted and nodded in confirmation. "I understand."

Mathias turned away from the holo as it shut off and towards his crew who were all staring at him with uncertain looks. It looked like the cat was out of the bag. It was time to be straight with them all.

Clearing his throat, Mathias prepared to speak. "Today, we have discovered that we are not alone in this universe. There are two choices left to us. We can either enter this fray, perhaps finding a race to call friend in this expansive universe. Or we can stand by and watch. Leaving is not an option, not as long as there is a chance that some of our people are alive. I personally, would like to see that we show ourselves as a just and moral front of humanity and see if any of these aliens are deserving of our help. But as always, I hold this up as a communal vote." His ultimatum was broadcasted across the fleet and every person was given a chance to cast a vote.

The expressions of his crew ranged a variety of emotions as he spoke, but after a while most of them nodded in agreement to the first. And the comms operator voiced that a majority of the fleet had elected to follow the admiral's plan.

Mathias smiled softly and nodded. It looked like his faith in his fleet had been vindicated. "Very well, the choice has been made." He looked to his crew. "Have the fleet prepare for battle.

Inside the marathon cruiser, Midsummer's Solace, a sole occupant sat inside the HEV bay, loading up for a drop. The stenciled name on his bulky obsidian breastplate read Lieutenant Liam Callahan. He finished fixing his plated gloves onto his hands and reached for the black angular helmet sitting on a crate alongside his weapons. He slowly picked up the skull case and slapped it onto his head, watching as the visor flashed opaque and began to light up with bright blue text and symbols as it connected to his armor. Once his HUD was completely online and synced, he grabbed the weapons and walked towards the tall rectangular pod hanging on a rack.

He opened the hatch and reached inside, shoving the sniper rifle into its cradle and mag-locking his M7S SMG and his pair of M6C/SOCOM magnums. Just before he stepped inside, he grabbed a MA5B rifle from the rack beside the pod and slapped it on his back as he checked over his suit one last time. Once he was confident that it was ready, he crawled in and attached the multi-layer harness system and signaled the HEV bay crew.

Less than a minute later, the bay slowly opened and the HEV dropped, screaming down to the atmosphere.