Disclaimer: I do not own Halo or BSG.
Trials of Reclamation
Chapter 1: Rescue
Day 421 of Genocide
Uncharted Territory
In orbit above Legendary Planet
Battlestar Galactica
CIC
They had been running for over a year; running from the things that destroyed their homeworlds. The Cylons were relentless in their attacks following the destruction of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and those that managed to escape were being hunted. A fleet of over sixty ships; mostly transports had set a course for uncharted space with its only protection being an forty-year old Columbia-Class Battlestar: Galactica.
They had recently returned to their birthplace; the world where they had came to the Twelve Colonies from. The planet Kobol was the key to finding their salvation: Earth. The supposed 'Thirteenth Colony of Kobol' which was said to be nothing more than a myth; the Galactica's commanding officer: Commander Adama had originally made up where Earth was located as a means to give the last of his civilization hope.
When he was on Kobol however...he began to actually believe that Earth existed.
The Tomb of Athena on Kobol's surface had given them a direction to follow...
He didn't expect what they would find on the way their however...
"What's the situation Mr Gaeta?" Adama asked though it was an order.
Gaeta looked up from his DRADIS console and said clearly, "sir. I'm not sure exactly what it is but it looks like it's taken some heavy damage; it looks like a small craft. About the size of Colonial One and is in a decaying orbit of the planet; ETA until re-entry is eight minutes".
"And Starbuck?" the Commander asked.
Gaeta answered a moment later, "she's already launched. She should be in visual range of the unknown in five seconds".
"Dee, get her on the line," Adama gave the order as he picked up the corded phone.
"Putting her through now sir," Dualla informed.
Adama held up the phone to his ear and spoke, "Starbuck. This is Galactica Actual; do you see the bogie yet?"
"Confirmed Galctica; the bogey looks like it's been through hell sir. From what I can see it looks like it's been sliced in half sir; I mean from what I can see it looks like someone took a drilling laser to its hull and didn't turn it off," Kara reported over the comm.
Adama narrowed his eyes at that, "is it Cylon?"
There was a few seconds before the ace pilot responded, "no sir. It sure as hell doesn't look like any ship I've ever seen; Colonial or Cylon".
The room fell silent at that...
"Starbuck; are you picking up anything?" Adama asked the question.
A second later Kara responded, "No sir. If she's carrying any nukes aboard then they aren't armed; sir".
Adama nodded at that, "very well. See if you can tow the ship into a more stable orbit".
"Aye sir," Kara acknowledged the order.
Adama put down the phone and looked around at the silent room...
"This has Cylon trap written all over it," the ship's XO: Colonel Tigh said plainly.
Adama nodded, "maybe...but I'm not too sure about that".
Tigh nodded at that, "so what do you want to do?"
Adama thought it over for a second, "have Apollo take a team over to the wreck. Find out what exactly is going on here and where this ship came from".
Unknown Timeframe
Uncharted Territory
In orbit above Legendary Planet
UNSC Forward Unto Dawn
Cryo Bay Two
Humanity had been fighting the Covenant Empire for the better part of twenty-five years and had been slowly losing against the seemingly unstoppable alien forces. That all changed however during the final months of the year 2552 where the Pillar of Autumn, a Halcyon-Class cruiser discovered an ancient superweapon created by an ancient civilization known as the Forerunners.
The covenant saw it as a way to become gods themselves since they thought of the Forerunners as gods. Its purpose however was far more sinister; the weapon was designed to eliminate the food supply of a parasitic race known as the Flood. In truth 'Halo' was so powerful it could wipe out all sentient life within twenty-five thousand light years.
A single Halo ring could wipe out all life in a quarter of a galaxy...
Seven of them were deployed in all and each of them had a 'Monitor' to keep the installations operational should they ever be needed for use. The rings had also served another purpose though...they were effectively research facilities as well. The covenant had been both reckless and foolish when they accidently released an army of Flood from where they had remained dormant in the 'Library' of the Halo ring.
They were stopped however by the leader of the Spartan-IIs: John-117 and his AI construct: Cortana
Together they destroyed Halo by overloading the Autumn's reactor core; the explosion was powerful enough to destroy the bulk of the covenant armada, the Flood and the ring itself. They had narrowly escaped the blast and after regrouping with some of the human survivors and some well placed manoeuvres they were able to secure a means to return to UNSC Space.
On the way they had managed to rescue a few of the other Spartans from the planet Reach and destroy a large covenant force of five hundred ships and a mobile refit station. With the covenant's frontline fleet having been soundly defeated in what was known as Operation: First Strike, one of the covenant leaders. The Prophet of Regret could only assemble a fleet of fifteen ships to proceed on to Earth and find the Forerunner treasures that lay beneath its surface.
However he was not expecting to find that the planet was in fact the human homeworld. No one in the covenant had thought that the planet even had a human presence never mind it being their homeworld. Thus when he encountered a massive array of defence platforms and ships his fleet was blown out of the sky. Only his flagship had managed to break through the human's almost impenetrable defences and settle over the location of the Forerunner structure.
Eventually though he was forced to flee as the human's warrior; the man who destroyed the first Halo ring took down their most powerful surface vehicle. Regret knew that even he was no match for the Demon and chose to open a slipspace rupture inside the atmosphere in order to escape. The frigate: In Amber Clad wouldn't let him get away however and her captain: Commander Miranda Keyes ordered the ship to follow it into the rupture.
After a short jump across several star systems they arrived in orbit of a blue gas giant planet. It took a few minutes before the In Amber Clad got her bearings and found that they were within sensor range of yet another Halo ring which orbited the planet. Regret's Assault Carrier had landed near one of a temple of some kind on the surface and John had pursued him.
He was successful in killing the Prophet of Regret but a huge covenant fleet had arrived just moments prior along with what appeared to be large asteroid which was in fact a mobile covenant city. Because Regret died however the covenant fell into a civil war between the Sangheili and the rest of the covenant, most notably the Prophets and the Jiralhanae.
The Sangheili allied themselves with the humans after they worked together to stop the Jiralhanae from activating the Halo installation. While this happened the Flood presence on the Halo ring had managed to get aboard the Covenant city-ship of High Charity at the cost of In Amber Clad and began to turn it into a Flood Hive.
The Flood's 'leader' managed to kill the Prophet of Mercy and the last of the Prophets: Truth had fled to Earth aboard a massive Forerunner Key-Class Dreadnought with John in pursuit of him. He was forced to leave Cortana behind on High Charity since someone needed to stay behind and stop Halo should it fire.
Once back on Earth the Spartan had regrouped with Commander Keyes and Sergeant Avery Johnson. With the help of the Arbiter he was able to open a hole in the defence perimeter of Truth's ship just long enough for Lord Hood to bring everything he could muster to bear on the monstrous vessel. It wasn't effective however as the Forerunner installation on Earth activated and created a slipspace portal to the Ark where all of the Halos could be remotely fired from.
After a small incursion by the Flood on Earth it was discovered that the way to stop the Flood was on the other side of the portal. Humanity and the Sangheili took everything they could use and entered the portal to get to the Ark. When they arrived they discovered that it was larger than the Halo rings and Truth's ship had landed on its surface.
While the two fleets battled it out in orbit John went down to the Ark hunting for Truth and managed to discover his location with the aid of the Forerunner AI: 343 Guilty Spark. They quickly mopped up the Jiralhanae fleet in orbit and closed in on Truth's position. Just then however the Flood arrived aboard the hive-ship High Charity and managed to disable to the Sangheili flagship Shadow of Intent.
During the ensuing battle Miranda Keyes died at Truth's hands and it took the combined forces of Spartan 117, the Arbiter and an army of Flood to stop him from activating the Halo rings across the galaxy. The Arbiter killed Truth and thus the covenant was defeated and dissolved. The Flood 'leader': Gravemind however attacked them with 'his' army intent on consuming them.
After narrowly escaping from the Gravemind's forces the two warriors found that the Ark was in fact capable of building Halo superweapons. Guilty Spark explained that the he had hoped that that was indeed the case and was glad that John had wanted the use the weapon to kill the Flood. Since they were outside the galaxy the weapon would only kill the Flood on the Ark and that's it.
While the Arbiter and Sergeant Johnson managed to round up the survivors of their respective species, John delved into the flood hive: High Charity in search of Cortana. She appeared to be damaged and in 'pain' but she was still the same nevertheless. After he rescued her and overloaded the hive's engine core they escaped High Charity with the aid of the Arbiter and set a course for the unfinished Halo installation just as High Charity was destroyed.
After fighting passed an army of Flood and arriving at Halo's control room John, Sergeant Johnson and the Arbiter were betrayed by Guilty Spark who had fell into complete rampancy. Johnson died right after the monitor identified the Spartan as a Forerunner and knocked the Arbiter out of the room. Spark was defeated shortly after however by John who then proceeded to activate the ring. He and the Arbiter narrowly escaped aboard the Forward Unto Dawn just as the ring fired and destroyed both itself and the Ark.
The forward section of the ship made it back to Earth along with the Arbiter...however the aft section, which contained Spartan 117 was dropped off in the middle of deep space. After finding out what happened the Spartan entered a cryo pod to sleep until he was need again and Cortana dropped a beacon before she entered her standby mode.
That brings us to the current situation...
"Chief wake up! John wake up now!" a woman's voice called out to him as his vision began to clear.
"What happened?" he asked as he took note that he was still inside of the pod.
The pedestal in front of the pod flickered and a hologram of his AI appeared on it, "we were in a decaying orbit of some planet. I can't get a positive reading on where we are exactly but...we need to get out of here now. The sensors also picked up over sixty ships in orbit and I can't get a reading on them. One of their fighters managed to grapple onto the hull and brings us into stationary orbit of the planet".
John shrugged off the aches in his arms and legs and climbed out of the pod. He grabbed the weapon at the side of the pod and shouldered it while turning on the flashlight to illuminate the darkened room.
"Any idea who they are?" he asked as he took her data chip out of the pedestal and slotted it into his helmet.
She answered as her presence stretched throughout the suit, "the sensors are too badly damaged to give me a decent reading".
"Then we'll just have to do this the old fashioned way," he said as he cocked the Assault Rifle he wielded.
"I'm picking up some kind of dropship landing in bay three," Cortana told him.
He nodded, "I'll head for the weapons locker down the hall then we'll find out what they want".
"Is anyone else finding this just a bit weird?" Fischer asked as he lowered his rifle. The squad of five marines plus Apollo stood in front of the Raptor they had used; thankfully they were wearing EVA suits so they weren't exposed to vacuum.
"This thing is a wreck," Apollo heard one of the marines behind him say.
"Alright let's see if we can find some kind of control room," the CAG said and loaded his sidearm.
The squad made their way through the silent ship, noticing the strange and yet familiar designs around them.
"Are you sure this isn't one of ours sir? I swear it feels like were walking on one of our Valkyrie-Class Battlestars," Fischer asked as they rounded another corner.
"...I don't know; there's never been a record of—holy frak!" Apollo exclaimed and the others turned to what had spooked him.
On the bulkhead in front of them was the ship's name, flag and registration number...
FFG-201, UNSC Forward Unto Dawn
"Erm sir...is that in plain Caprican?" asked Fischer.
Apollo nodded, "yes it is...what the hell is going on here?"
"I could ask you the same question," a voice said front he darkness. The marines in the corridor turned swiftly and levelled their weapons but found nothing, "who are you?"
"Who are you?" Apollo repeated the question.
"Sierra-117," the voice replied. "So answer the question; who are you?"
The marines looked at each other nervously as Apollo hesitantly replied, "Major Lee Adama of Colonial Fleet".
"Colonial? Are you human?" they were surprised at the question.
Apollo looked a little confused at the question, "yes we are...are you?"
"...Yes," the marines let out sighs of relief but didn't lower their weapons.
"Where are you?" Apollo asked.
"...Right in front of you," the answer came.
Apollo looked even more confused now, "why can't we see you?"
"...Active Camouflage generator; a gift from an ally of mine," the unknown replied.
Fischer didn't buy it, "come out Cylon".
"...What's a Cylon?" the question surprised the Colonials.
"You...don't know what a Cylon is? A toaster? Skin-job?" Apollo asked unable to grasp the prospect of not knowing.
"Is that a new member of the Covenant? Are we still at war with them?" the unknown asked confusing them further.
"Covenant?" Apollo inquired.
"...You've never heard of the Covenant...how long have I been in cryo?" the unknown sounded...tired.
"Erm...look are you one of this ship's original crew?" Apollo asked trying to make sense of everything.
The unknown replied instantly, "yes. I was assigned to the Dawn at the Battle of the Ark; the forward section of the ship managed to make it through the slipspace portal at the Ark while I was dropped out at one of the failsafe locations".
"...Portal?" Apollo asked confused.
"...Where are you from?" the question surprised the Colonials.
"We're from the Colonies...where are you from?" the Major asked.
The unknown paused before answering, "...a planet called Reach in the Epsilon Eridani System".
The Colonials' eyes widened in surprise, "you're an alien?"
"Depends on your definition of human," the unknown responded.
"...Can we talk face-to-face?" Apollo asked nervously.
"...Very well; I'm powering down my suit's stealth mode," the hallway shimmered as a seven-foot tall figure clad in green armour seemed to materialize in the corridor.
The Colonial's weapons were instantly on him...
"Frak!" Fischer shouted as he fired.
The explosive round seemed to bounce off of some kind of barrier just as the figure raised his own weapon and returned fire. The weapon he used didn't look like anything they'd ever seen; blue bolts of...whatever spat from its 'muzzle' and hit Fischer's rifle.
The rifle melted before their eyes...
The Unknown took cover behind the nearby junction as Apollo called out, "frak hold your fire marines! I repeat hold your fire!"
Nobody moved...
"I don't like it when people shoot at me," the unknown told them coldly.
"Holy frak; what is this...thing?' one of the marines asked.
"Steady...we're not going to hurt you; we just want answers," Apollo said trying to reason.
The unknown peeked his head out from around the corner, "so do I".
"Then let's talk; we have a ship out there. Galactica; if you come with us I promise you will not be harmed," Apollo said calmly.
The unknown remained motionless for a few moments before it, he walked out of cover. His...weapons now magnetically attached to his sides and he nodded.
"Alright I'll play along...but if you cross me...you will regret it".
Author's Notes:
I've been reading Halo/BSG fics for about a month now and this was my take on things; I know it's not the best but I found it fun to write so I did it anyways.
Please Read and Review.
See Ya Later…