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The Tour by Traumatised Marine
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The Tour (part 1)
Date: 16 March 2003, 3:01 PM
"Head Professor Zolkievich, the Supreme Chancellor has arrived at the surface of the facility, he'll be down in approximately two minutes!" Said Archimededes, the lab AI.
The Professor and his colleagues assembled in front of the airtight lift doors, awaiting the Supreme Chancellor's arrival.
He was a thin old man with slightly hunched shoulders, a last crown of white hair hung above his ears around his otherwise bald head. His arms were rather long, and the sleeves of his coat did not quite reach his wrists, which irritated him to no end. A pair of rounded spectacles pinched his nose. His face was surprisingly uncreased for someone of his age, perhaps it was because for the larger part of his lifetime he'd had little time to talk with others, therefore his face was unwrinkled by the wear of expressions and speech.
The past few decades had been tough, the Professor could remember a time in his youth when there had been no Covenant. A time when he had been a young Astrophysicist, ready to take his turn in humanity's history to unlock more of the universe's secrets.
However instead of having to go and look for the questions that needed to be answered, he'd had them thrust upon him. When the UNSC had started recovering the first bits of scavenged Covenant technology, he had been immediately under the unrelenting pressure of ONI to discover the answers that the technology held, and he'd given his life to this cause. Despite all the suffering the human race had endured and still was enduring, the Professors life was a fulfilling one. He had never been short of new things to understand, sometimes he would go for days without sleep, examining all that ONI sent down to him in his sterile-white labyrinth.
And now the Supreme Chancellor had requested to see all that had been discovered about the Covenant.
ONI had been very unwilling to allow this, but the Supreme Chancellor was the single most powerful individual in the human empire, and had bullied ONI into it.
The Professor could understand, ever since Earth had lost contact with Reach, things had been looking very grim, the Supreme Chancellor wanted to know some answers before it was too late.
Of course the Professor didn't mind in the slightest giving the Chancellor this little tour, he welcomed a reason to go and take another look at all of his specimens.
The lift was surely on it's way down, the Professor tried to pull down the sleeves of his white lab coat.
The damn things didn't come with long enough sleeves for someone of his physical structure.
He glanced over his shoulder.
On his right was Professor. Moulinaux. She was a short woman, very petite. Her hair was a tired black, tied back in a bun, the occasional frizzy, rogue hair was free of the restraint of her black hair-band, floating lazily in the sterile, recycled air of the lab. It was a striking contrast to her snow-pale face, a face that had likely rarely seen any light but that artificially created by the strong lamps of the laboratory for a good few years. She was quite young in comparison to other people who would have reached her scientific status, and she was exceptionally intelligent, even in terms of those who she worked with.
On the Professor's left was Dr. Hobson. He was a tall man with a rather lanky frame, his lab coat resembled a sail as it hung gaily from his shoulders. His ginger hair and thick beard were streaked with grey and white. His green eyes from below his thick fringe sparkled with sharp understanding. Though Professor Hobson was good-humoured, he was also objective, very candid and often cynical. His voice was a very neutral tone, but every so often it would be dashed with lashings of a British accent, betraying his origins.
There were, of course, others. However Hobson and Moulinaux were the two whom the Professor had known the longest, and for that matter, was the most fond of.
The lift chimed.
The group of scientists all stood silently as the Supreme Chancellor stepped through.
For a moment the Professor was surprised to see that she was alone, not even flanked by her usual company of Neanderthal-resembling, black-clad bodyguards. Then he realised it must have been because of ONI, they didn't want any individual learning the secrets of what was in these laboratories that they could possibly prevent from going in.
She was a very attractive woman. The Professor could of course, recognise this woman very well, she was only the most well known politician in the whole of SolCore, her face was known by every single self-aware human mind throughout all of the colonised planets.
Yet still, she seemed even more beautiful in person.
She was only an inch or so taller than Professor Moulinaux, and wore an ivory white satin blouse and skirt, with a simple sky blue coat upon her top. The simple clothes complimented her well-formed figure perfectly.
And hanging from her neck was a gold necklace, with an amulet about the size of a drinks coaster, bearing the symbol of the SolCore government.
She was a brunette, her hair brushed freely against her shoulders. Her skin was a sun-stroked tan, quite striking in comparison to the familiar, pale faces of those of his colleagues, even those of them who were black were missing a certain element in the tone of their skin that only sunlight could give.
However it was her eyes and mouth that drew the Professor's attention, and surely that of the other male scientists.
Her mouth had clearly smiled many times, it made her face look kind and compassionate. Her eyes were almond-shaped, large and a rich hazel colour. They were warm, focused in such away that her face had an aura.
And she was of course well known for her compassion, she was the overseer for the well being of trillions of people, so she would have to be compassionate.
Yet even her warm facial features had been scarred by the recent events that had befallen humanity. When she had come to power, the Covenant were a problem that ONI wanted to keep secret and the UNSC had insisted they could deal with, a top secret war happening on the most distant colonies.
Now, however, the dark, ugly presence of the Covenant was very real, and very close.
They had lost contact with Reach only a few days ago after a reported Covenant armada of titanic proportions had appeared in slipspace right by the military stronghold. Reach was a galactic step away from Earth, where the Professor's lab was based; on the moon, in orbit around the human homeworld.
The Chancellor fixed her disarming gaze upon Professor Zolkievich.
The Professor didn't falter, however.
"Welcome Supreme Chancellor."
The Chancellor smiled, exposing a delicate set of perfectly white teeth.
"Thank you Head Professor. I hope there were no problems preparing for my request to see your labs?"
"Of course not Supreme Chancellor," Replied the Professor graciously, "At your request we have prepared all the knowledge and material we have in the archives. If you'll follow me, I shall take you for the grand tour. We'll begin with Covenant field weapons, vehicles and warships, and finally the specimens. And of course, I shall be supplementing this with our knowledge of their culture and hypothesise on Covenant history and background."
"Excellent, Professor." Approved the Chancellor.
"Very well," Nodded the Professor, becoming more animated, "Let's begin."
The Tour (part 2)
Date: 16 March 2003, 3:04 PM
The group entered a chamber with a grey-marble floor, matte-white walls and a white tiled ceiling.
It was about 10 feet long and extended triple that distance lengthways away from the door from which the group had entered the room through. At the end of the room were a set of holographic targets; it appeared to be a shooting range.
About two metres into the firing range was a set of curved weapons lockers that came up to the waist.
"Archimedes." Said the Professor, seemingly addressing the derelict space of the room, "Open the weapons lockers please."
There was a pause, then there issued a loud hiss from each of the weapons lockers, and the curved locker hatches whined backwards like doors on breadboxes.
From the weapons lockers emerged several exotic-looking devices, all displayed in the delicate grips of mechanical clamps that held the devices.
Professor Zolkievich waited until the Covenant weapons had fully emerged from the weapons lockers before he walked slowly over to one of the displayed weapons.
The weapon was a Covenant plasma pistol.
The Professor reached forward and grasped the weapon carefully.
The mechanical clasps released their grip and retracted like tamed snakes upon sensing the Professor's hands on the pistol.
The Professor held the weapon lovingly, admiring it's design for a moment, before walking back to the Supreme Chancellor.
"Here we are, Supreme Chancellor, the Covenant equivalent of our own military's standard issue pistol." He said, holding forward the pistol. "I shall explain how it works, and what we understand and don't understand about it's mechanics and power source."
The Professor pressed a small red button on the top rear of the device.
Upon doing this a small, circular, holographic gauge appeared around the button, and the device gave off the slightest hissing sound.
"Alright, the gun is activated." Said the Professor, "Now this weapon and the plasma rifle over there," the Professor indicated absently at the displayed plasma rifle, "Operate with a concept possibly simpler than our own weapons, although the means to get such 'simple' weapons to function is far from simple. Plasma, as you know, is a huge amount of negative charge that is so powerful that the atoms superheat. These plasma weapons achieve this by sending a surge of electrons in between these two prongs here. This creates a supercharge of electrons in the air between the prongs which is held in stasis by the electrical flow until the current ceases, upon which the charge is released."
And with that the Professor levelled the pistol with surprising steadiness and fired the weapon at one of the distant holographic targets.
The Professor was dazzled by the brilliant green flash and felt the heat wash over him like a split second brush fire, followed by the smell of burnt ozone.
The Scientists' and the Chancellor's eyes followed the whistling bolt of plasma, seeing it streak through the center of one of the targets and splash with a hiss against the distant, pockmarked, armoured wall.
"Good shot." Remarked Professor Hobson under his breath.
Professor Zolkievich summarised.
"These weapons basically use a powerful electric current to superheat air and use it as ammunition, simple. However it doesn't rely on an atmosphere to function, these pistols come with a small supply of compressed gas; Bromine."
The Chancellor nodded.
"Professor Julian" Said the Professor, addressing a handsome black man with his woolly hair tied back, "The plasma rifle if you please."
Professor Julian walked up to the plasma rifle and took it, then came to stand with it in his arms by Professor Zolkievich.
"As you can see," Said Professor Zolkievich, "This plasma rifle works on the same basis, however unlike the pistol it's current flow is designed for multiple bursts, rather like one of our automatic weapons. Another note about this weapons design is that it also comes with it's own supply of compressed gas to act as ammunition if there is no atmosphere, however these weapons use Nitrogen.
We are unsure why, it might just be the different gases work better with the two different firing applications."
Professor Zolkievich took the rifle from Julian and offered it to the Chancellor.
The Chancellor was taken aback slightly by the fact that she was being offered an alien weapon, however the Professor did not withdraw, and continued to hold out the weapon intently until she took it.
The Chancellor seemed surprised, it clearly wasn't as heavy as she'd imagined. She began to examine the smooth iridescence of the weapons chromed back.
"Yes, they are incredibly light" Said the Professor, giving the pistol a small brandish in the air, "The alloy is, unsurprisingly, alien to us. Now, to talk about the power source. As you know it takes a phenomenal amount of energy to generate Plasma, and we ourselves would not have the energy devices both powerful enough to generate plasma and small enough to fit into weapons such as these.
Needless to say, these weapons do not run on any form of chemical energy cell.
We have analysed the suspect power source of these weapons, and although we are unsure how it is done, it seems the Covenant have an efficient means to produce antiprotons. They use these to counteract the protons in a small but dense material located in the battery core. This means that the atoms of this material are now capable of remaining a neutral charge without the presence of electrons. So as soon as these antiprotons have been induced, we have a huge, huge number of unneeded electrons in an instant. And this flow of redundant electrons allows them to generate the plasma. It is a phenomenal amount, about 33% of the atomic mass in the battery material is turned into pure, free-flowing negative energy!"
The Chancellor examined the weapon for a moment more, nodding to confirm she understood.
The Professor's tone turned slightly.
"Of course this design does have certain problems, like any power source, the electron flow will eventually run out. However we have had significant problems in attempting to 'reload' these guns. You see for there to be a steady flow of electron release there must also be a steady flow of antipron induction. And the problem is that there seems to be some sort of excess antiproton dump procedure that must be activated before the power cell is removed, and we are unsure how this is done. You see atoms without electrons acting as a sort of marginal field between them are unable to remain stable if there is even just a single atom among them that has a varying charge, ie extra antiprotons. And if this happens, which it almost indefinitely does when you're dealing with numbers as large as these, the core material becomes unstable and it is extremely damaging to the weapon."
"I see..." Said the Chancellor slowly.
The Professor also added with a hint of disapproval in his voice.
"Also, it has been difficult for us to obtain undamaged examples of these weapons. You see, after field encounters with the Covenant troops, the UNSC Marines have been known to 'toy' around with the weapon examples they have brought back. One of the less obscure things they have done is to over-fire these weapons. For instance, if you hold the trigger down with the plasma rifle for longer then a reasonable burst it will fire with increasing sporadicy, ultimately causing damage to the power cell. I'm sure the Covenant troops are well taught never to bring their weapons to this point when in battle."
With that the Professor handed the pistol to one of the other Professors and held out his hands to the Chancellor for the plasma rifle.
The Chancellor handed it to him and he replaced it in the displaying grip of the mechanical clasps of it's weapons locker.
"Now, the Covenant have other weapons other than those using plasma, and we have also found out how these weapons work, and they are fascinating also."
The Professor went to a pair of mechanical clasps that held in the air a peculiarly shaped weapon that had two lobes that branched from a pivot. What's more, from the pivot protruded what was undoubtedly the gun barrel. The top lobe was shaped like the back of a beetle, and dotted across the top of this lobe were several holes like spots on a chitinous shell.
The Professor removed this weapon with one arm and he pressed a small square panel on the weapons locker.
Upon doing this there came a small beep and from the side of the weapons locker there ejected a casket not much bigger than a thermos flask. The top of the casket slid back to reveal a large, glittering pink jewel.
The Professor picked up the jewel and walked over to the Chancellor.
"This," He said, eyeing the weapon with a mixture of fascination and detest, "Is a fascinating, yet horrific weapon."
The Professor then handed the gun to Professor Hobson and held the jewel forward for the Chancellor to see.
"And this is its raw ammunition. This mineral is also unknown to us, but it has most extreme properties. It, like a diamond, is composed of carbon, however this is possibly even more densely composed of carbon than a diamond. Despite this, the atomic structure of this jewel gives it a trait which makes it useable in the weapon Professor Hobson is holding."
Professor Zolkievich reached into the pocket of his lab coat and removed a small mineral hammer, used to chip away at things like sandstone. He placed the jewel on the floor and gave it a smart tap with the hammer.
Upon doing this a web of fracture lines issued all across the jewels surface.
The Professor gave it a second tap and the jewel fragmented, leaving three large pieces and several splinter-like fragments.
The Professor delicately picked up one of these fragments and stood up.
The group watched as he took the razor-sharp fragment and drew it gently by the top of his middle finger.
He held the hand up for them to see.
A small scarlet slit in his finger remained after he had touched it with the fragment, it glistened and a drop of blood bulged from it until finally it's own tension could not hold it and it slid in a shallow spiral around his finger and down his palm, leaving a small streak of glistening red.
"Incredibly easy to shatter." Said the Professor, withdrawing his hand and wrapping it with an antiseptic strip he drew from his pocket. "And into indescribably sharp fragments. It is placed into the weapon and cut into fireable 'magazines' of crystal, that protrude from these holes here."
The Professor pointed at the holes on the top lobe of the gun.
"Now, as to how it actually functions. You may know that carbon is a very 'greedy' element, it will gladly gain more electrons to become negatively charged. Which means for a carbon atom to even be neutral it will have a large number of electrons. And with a material as densely filled with carbon as this, if antiprotons are induced, the crystal shall become hyper-charged with negative energy, i.e. plasma. But unlike the plasma weapons, this energy is forced to remain isolated in the crystal. The weapons inner mechanics that will involve handling the crystal once a piece has been cut, drawn in and induced with neutrons, function using a weak energy field to manipulate the crystal and then propel it from the weapon. These supercharged needles are razor sharp and several thousand degrees centigrade, they can embed themselves in most things. Upon contact with an object the needles will attempt to dump the super-charge of electrons upon the rest of the atoms they have come into contact with. However due to the 'greedy' nature of carbon, upon this surge of electrons there is a destabilisation that causes the needle to shatter violently.
These needles do have a restrictive range, as they pass through the air, the atoms in the gases they pass through cause the same destabilisation, and if the needles fly through the air long enough they will shatter anyway.
As you can imagine, these weapons can cause horrific injuries, and for someone who is hit with several of these projectiles it will be a particularly messy and agonising end."
The Chancellor now looked at the weapon in Professor Hobson's hands with mild disgust.
"Horrible, a truly evil creation." She said.
"Hmm..." Said the Professor, "But then any weapon can be an evil creation, can it not Supreme Chancellor? Though I do concur this weapon is particularly sadistic."
The Chancellor nodded.
The Professor continued,
"The Covenant have also got the technology to somehow get these needles and even the plasma from their pistols to follow targets. Guided plasma! It is incredible the technological advances of these aliens. Of course we are far from understanding how they can achieve this..."
The Chancellor acknowledged and then her eyes scanned the row of displayed weapons, and spotted a particularly large one. It was the size of a small barrel. Glowing on a circular rack, exposed from it's shiny surface were several glowing green rods.
"Ah..." Said the Professor, knowing which gun the Chancellor was staring at, "Yes that weapon is rather 'exclusive.' There is a certain Covenant species that have these weapons surgically attached to their arms. They work on the same principle as the needle weapons, though the ammunition is designed using a different material, meaning it will simply shatter upon impact with something and unleash the heat energy that they are charged with."
The Professor proceeded to take from a different locker a black, circular object the size of a small mine. And a small blue orb with a single button on it's patterned surface. Around this button there projected a small circular hologram.
"This is a plasma grenade. Simple enough, instead of using combustible explosives it uses a heavy build up charge of plasma."
The Professor handed the orb to Professor Moulinaux, who replaced it in the weapons locker.
Professor Zolkievich went on,
"And this," He held up the mine-like object, "Is a wrist-mounted shield projector. Used by a particular species..." He pressed a button on the surface of the device. With a sudden thrumming resonance, a translucent orange, circular shield projected, "...these devices provide defence. There are two kinds of shield technology we have discovered the Covenant to have implemented. This kind requires a far greater amount of energy than the other shield form, as well as a shield projector, and we have been unable to devise a power source that would make constructing these practical. These shields project a field of near absolute resilience, deflecting the kinetic energy of an object with about 97% reaction force. The projectors are elaborate and precision made, and easily damaged. If the power source is overloaded then even the spike of particle activity from the energy cell is enough to permanently damage them. The other shield type I will describe to you further on in our tour."
He deactivated the shield and handed it to Professor Moulinaux to put away.
"Of course there are other weapons that have been reported that we simply haven't been able to get our hands on, for instance plasma swords have been spoken of by Marines who have seen them being used by Covenant in the field. Maybe, in time, we shall receive one from ONI."
There was a pause in which the Professor surveyed the Chancellor.
She seemed satisfied.
"Well then, let's proceed to the vehicles and warships and then finally the specimens." Said the Professor.
And with that the group left the firing range.
The Tour (part 3)
Date: 17 March 2003, 7:21 PM
They entered a pitch-dark room. Despite this one could tell it was of colossal size for the echoing sounds of their footsteps upon the cold, hard floor.
The group stopped.
There was a five second pause of utter silence.
Finally the silence was broken by the Professor's angry voice.
"I shouldn't have to tell you to turn on the blasted lights, Archimedes!"
"I apologise, Professor Zolkievich." Came the AI's simulated voice.
Suddenly the room was brilliantly lit, by a set of floodlights that hung from it's distant ceiling.
The group squirmed slightly as their eyes adjusted to the brilliance.
After a few moments they could see what filled the room.
Arranged on the floor of the great hangar-like room were several Ghosts, Shadows and a single Wraith tank, all shone in the brilliant light with purple iridescence. The craft resembled a stampede of rhinos come insects.
There were also a good number of Shade gun turrets and many shield projectors.
Hanging from the ceiling from taught Titachord pylons were several Banshees, a Bandit dropship and most impressive, dominating the chamber- a Seraph Covenant fighter craft.
"These are examples of the Covenant craft, I shan't go into great detail over each one, because as you can see, certain ones follow the same basic principles."
Said the Professor, glancing at the ground vehicles.
"Well, I shall explain the highlights of the ground-based vehicles first."
Said the Professor, leading the group to the assortment of Covenant vehicles.
"The small one there has come to be known as a 'Ghost.' It is a recon vehicle. The two cannons at the front are of similar design to the plasma rifles, however they are, understandably, more powerful, about one hundred to two hundred and fifty kilowatts. The only new point of interest in these vehicles is how they move.
The Professor addressed Doctor Wardmen, whom was particularly practised at driving the hoverbike-like Ghost.
"Doctor Wardmen, if you could give us a demonstration."
"Gladly Professor." Replied the slightly unshaven doctor, promptly sitting down in the craft and activating it.
From beneath the craft it began to issue an ongoing wailing, whistling, whirring sound. And with this the craft rose to a good three feet from the ground.
"DRIVE IT TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE HANGAR, DOCTOR!" Professor Zolkievich yelled over the sound of the Ghost.
Doctor Wardmen nodded and pressed his foot on the pedal, sending him flying down the other end of the corridor, his lab coat flapping crazily.
"Well," Said the Professor, "As you can see it hovers, and although the Covenant do know how to manipulate gravitational fields, it is not anti-gravity you are seeing there. You are no doubt aware that one of the first discoveries we were able to yield from the Covenant technology was artificial gravity, we discovered this from salvaged craft such as the Bandit dropships.
Well these craft do not use anti-grav, they are able to levitate with the aid of an unknown material core. We are truly clueless as to how they manage to hover using this material, hence we have been unable to incorporate hover technology into any new UNSC applications.
The Ghost began to make an oiled arc across the other end of the hangar and back to the group.
The Professor indicated to the Shadows and the single Wraith tank.
"Those two seater vehicles with the tri-plasma gun emplacements are infantry suppression vehicles, with a similar seating configuration to a UNSC 'Warthog.' As for the larger one, that is a Wraith, the heavy ground vehicle of the Covenant. Of some interest, the Wraith uses plasma mortars, velocity-propelled shells that act in a similar fashion to plasma grenades, however they are impact detonated.
These mortars come with their own gas and power supply."
The Ghost had now come to a stop and Doctor Wardmen had rejoined them.
The Professor continued.
"There is little of particular interest in these vehicles, but perhaps you would like to see the inside of one of the Covenant craft? Perhaps the dropship?"
"Thank you Professor, yes, I was hoping I could see the inside of one." The Chancellor replied.
"Follow me please, Supreme Chancellor." Said the Professor, who walked to an 8 square metre platform with rails along it's perimeter and a rather botched looking assortment of devices bolted to it's underside.
The Professor helped the Chancellor onto the platform.
"Professor Hobson took the liberty of taking a few pieces of excess Covenant hover technology and creating this hover platform." The Professor called to Professor Hobson, "I trust you were able to work out the stabilisation quirks?"
"It should be a smooth ride Professor." Replied Professor Hobson.
"Very well," Said Professor Zolkievich, "Archimedes, bring us up to be level with the Covenant dropships left hatch and open it when we get there."
"Yes Professor Zolkievich."
The platform shuddered, the engines beneath it whirred to life, and it made a steady, level rise up towards the ceiling.
"This is incredible..." Gasped the Chacellor, gingerly peering over one of the rails.
"Here we are." Announced the Professor.
The platform levelled with the hatch of the Covenant dropship, and Archimedes opened it.
The Professor and the Chancellor stepped awkwardly into the tusk of the craft.
"Interesting design," Said the Chancellor, "So this is how they drop off their troops?"
"Indeed," Replied the Professor, "I'll show you the cockpit, Supreme Chancellor."
The Professor lead her across the narrow tusk around a small corner and into the cramped cockpit.
Inside there were two seats, the one behind elevated about a foot above the one in front.
"The Pilot sits in the front seat, a holographic flight computer is projected in front of them. These craft also have a rear-mounted plasma canon, controlled by a gunner in the rear seat. This gunner will have a holographic targeting set up projected before him. I should like to give you a demonstration, but this hanger is too small, and obviously we are not permitted to fire the vehicle weapons in here."
The Chancellor asked,
"Do these craft use artificial gravity? Can they function in space?"
The Professor nodded,
"Yes of course, they have artificial gravity. And yes, they function perfectly well in space. When in an atmosphere they use the same hover systems as the ground vehicles, albeit far more powerful. In space they use plasma engine systems like the Covenant warships.
Another interesting function of these craft that we ourselves have been able to yield is the stasis field between the two tusks. We know how this works and it has been used to great effect in some aspects. One of these being Dr. Halsey's Spartan II project. You see, although the Covenant have created deflection energy shields (such as the one I showed you in the firing range,) these shields do require an amount of energy that is 'not to be sneezed at.' They also require a projection system.
Meanwhile these stasis fields can actually be used as shields also. They take much less energy to produce and don't require extensive projectors, as long as they have a field surface to follow. Hence they have been used in the MJOLINER project, as we are able to create enough energy from a fusion cell to make one of these 'stasis shields' function, and the fusion cell may be mounted on the MJOLINER armour backpack. We are not the first to think of this, the Covenant themselves also use these shields on a certain species of their own military. So while these shields require less energy, don't require an extensive projection system and can fully surround the form of an object, they do also have certain drawbacks."
"Such as?" Asked the Chancellor.
"Well, these 'stasis shields' function in a very different way to the other type of energy shield. The shields act more like a field of extremely intense friction, absorbing shots instead of using a 'rebound' effect and deflecting shots or dissipating them. This means that they are less powerful, and can be punctured if the shot is powerful enough. Particularly if the shot has an extremely small calibre, such as a sniper round or to a greater extent; needles from a Covenant needler. Do you understand?"
"Of course I do." Replied the Chancellor briskly, "May I see some of the other craft?"
"Of course Supreme Chancellor."
The Chancellor and the Professor got back onto the hover platform and Archimedes directed it to one of the Banshees.
The Professor gave a brief summary of the points of interest of the craft.
"These appear to be strictly atmosphere-based air craft. You can see that the pilot lies forward on it's front to pilot it. The craft is armed with a pair of plasma cannons of the same power ranges as those on the Ghost, and a fuel rod cannon similar to the large weapon you saw in the firing range."
The Chancellor pointed at the two pods, one on the edge of each wing.
"Are those how the craft flies?"
"Yes, correct, they are the same material as found in the ground vehicles, but each is at least double the size of any of the ground vehicle hover cores, they must be spaced so far apart to allow maximum manoeuvrability. As I said before, we are utterly clueless as to how these pods work."
The Chancellor turned to look at the Seraph.
"I should like to see the cockpit of that craft."
"Ah, yes well I'm afraid that won't be possible, you see it is a rather large craft for the size of this hangar, and half of the whole front of the ship lifts up to allow entrance to the cockpit, and we had to attach it to the ceiling in such a way that entrance is now obstructed."
"Oh." Said the Chancellor, tinged with slight disappointment.
"It is a dual seater craft, although it appears the craft could be piloted by a single Covenant. This is the smallest craft we have seen that has pulse lasers. We do know how these weapons work, in fact the UNSC had created prototype pulse lasers even before we met the Covenant, however they haven't been used in the field as we are unable to generate enough power to make them practical weapons.
It has two large pulse lasers that fire from those grooves you can see in the hull just behind on either side of the cockpit. It also has plasma weapons, namely a small supply of plasma torpedoes, projectiles that work in similar fashion to the plasma mortars of a tank, however with much greater speed and power. The craft does not have pulse plasma weapons, such weapons would probably just be deemed a waste of time in vaccum combat, to create plasma blasts strong enough to be significant enough when employed against warships one would require a very large amount of compressed gas to act as ammunition. The strength of it's weapons are quite impressive, particularly the pulse lasers, I would love to demonstrate to you, but as I said, we are in a hangar."
The Professor told Archimedes to bring the hover platform down.
"Well then, I believe that's the vehicles covered, now we'll go over what we know about the Covenant warships."
The group entered a dim room, there was a circular table built into the floor in the center with ten seats around it.
Set into this table were several holo projector crystals.
They all took their seats and the Professor called to Archimedes.
"Start the Covenant warship display program Archimedes!"
The AI replied,
"Yes Professor Zolkievich."
The holo projectors warmed and lit up, projecting into the center of the table three Covenant warships.
A cruiser, destroyer and a frigate, all rotating slowly, semi-transparent, a foot from the surface of the table.
The Professor indicated,
"A Covenant cruiser, destroyer and frigate. Firstly I shall tell you about the typical armament of these warships. They all will carry plasma torpedoes and pulse lasers emplacements in varying numbers.
We know about pulse lasers already, and the Plasma torpedoes describe themselves. There have also been reports of huge charges of guided plasma, and even of light-speed propelled energy lances that can pierce right through a fully enforced cruiser. As we have never been able to examine even a half intact Covenant warship, there is very little we know.
From particle readings picked up from scanners it seems they use some form of plasma engine drive in normal space. Effective though this might be, it would require a large amount of coolant to prevent critical overload of their reactors. They are able to travel faster and far more accurately in Fujikawa Shaw space than we can. You'll also no doubt be aware that these craft have force fields. They are of the 'stasis' variety, similar to the ones on the MJOLINER armour."
The Chancellor put her hand up to silence the Professor, then she asked.
"I don't understand, you know how these 'stasis' shields function, you've even used them in our own technology. So why was there no attempt to install them on our own warships, could they not generate enough power?"
The Professor gave a small smile.
"Supreme Chancellor it has been our priority one objective to be able to install these shields on our own warships. The problem is not power, indeed we have created new reactor systems that could easily cope with powering 'stasis' shields, however there is a problem we are yet to overcome. You see, we have learnt to manipulate these shields to a very high degree, we can increase field strength in some places, while reducing it in others. The problem encountered is when we try to create a temporary hole in the field, we can't do it, the field destabilises and overloads the field generators. These stasis shields work both ways, Supreme Chancellor, from outside in and inside out. It would be pointless for our ships to have shields if we were unable to create temporary breaches in the field to allow ourselves to actually fire our weapons, wouldn't it?"
"Oh, I see..." Said the Chancellor with a deep nod of understanding.
"ONI has been constantly urging us to discover how to do this, but we have not been able to find the way to overcome the problem. And now, with the loss of Reach, our major shipyard, it may be that even if we do find out how we will not be able to create enough new ships to turn the tide of this war, Earth's shipyards are not large enough to create a number of warships that we could truly turn Covenant encounters the other way."
At being reminded of how close humanity was to extinction, the Chancellor fell silent for a moment.
The Professor waited.
Finally he spoke up,
"I'm afraid there is little more we know of the Covenant ships that I can tell you, we should move on to the specimens."
The Chancellor sat up, the spark returning to her face.
"Thank you Professor."
The Tour (1st half of Final Chapter)
Date: 29 March 2003, 11:10 AM
"I'm afraid we have never been able to keep specimens alive very long, they tended to be badly injured when we received them, and those that were conscious tended to be very difficult to examine..."
Said the Professor as they entered a new room.
It was very long, more like a corridor.
The lights came on, revealing a row of blast doors along the left wall.
"...but I'm sure these will be enlightening enough." The Professor added.
He walked to the first blast door, on it there was a brass plaque, surprisingly ornate for such an ugly door.
On this plaque it was inscribed,
'Gibbaedorsum'
and below it in brackets,
'(Grunt)'
The Professor put his eye to a retinal scanner.
Archimedes voice came.
"Access granted, unlocking security safeguards. Identity confirmed as Piotri Dimitri Arkus Zolkievich, Head Professor of the Covenant Technological Research Laboratories for the Office of Naval Intelligence."
The door hissed up efficiently, revealing a squat little creature encased in what looked like solid glass.
It was a little more than a metre tall, it's little head was covered with downy blue fur and it bore a chunky gasmask, from above the mask were a pair of wide, black eyes. It was hunched over, and it's fore-arms came down to it's knees. The Forearms were really quite muscular, while the upper arm was rather skinny. The legs were of a similar structure. Protruding from each elbow was a large horn-like growth, and also from each knee. The legs were short and stubby, ending in three-toed paw-like feet.
It wore a red little suit of armour upon it's torso, and from the back of the armour there was built a thick dorsal-like fin.
The Professor observed the Chancellor's expression curiously, but was slightly surprised to see she seemed to accept the appearance of the creature without any outward reaction.
The Chancellor commented.
"So, that little thing is one of the creatures responsible for giving us so much grief? I dare say even I could be a match for one of those creatures in a fight."
The Professor rubbed the ridge of his nose.
"Uh, well they are actually quite tough and resiliant little 'creatures' physically, they potentially could give human combatants real difficulty fighting. The problem is the development of their brains. The very central part of the brain is devoted to reactions, and in ratio to a human mind, the Gibbaedorsum has a far bigger ratio of this to the rest of it's mind. This doesn't mean it has better reactions, (although it's olfactory senses are better than ours.) What it means is that the creature can't control it's 'fight or flight' instincts very competently. So if one of these creatures gets frightened- they're going to run. It's also interesting to note that despite this, the rear lobes of this creature's brain are probably the most similar to our own out of all the Covenant races.
They breath methane, and seem to be adapted to a very cold environment. Their metabolic rate is very high, and we would estimate their lifespans as about twenty years. They have vocal chords similar to that of a dog. One of the noticeably different aspects of these creatures is how they feed. Though they have their windpipes in their necks, opening from their mouths, they do not feed from their mouths. It seems the environment they are native to meant any food they consumed was frozen so solid that peristalsis would be difficult through a neck. So these creatures actually feed from a sort of socket-like mouth on the left side of their chests, which has a more direct route to their thick-lined stomachs. In fact, you can see the feeding socket exposed in the chestplate. You should also note that these creature's stomachs have very powerful juices, I dare say they could digest some of the most unpalatable things.
From what we've been told these creatures are the foot soldiers, the canon fodder. They're sent in hundreds to overwhelm enemies."
The Chancellor, stared intently at the little alien, the Professor wasn't sure if it was contempt or fascination that sparked in her pupils.
"Well, on to the next one then?" Probed the Professor.
The Chancellor startled slightly, then nodded.
"Oh! Yes of course Professor."
The next door had engraved upon it,
"Cristacalvus"
Below it in brackets was written,
"(Jackal)"
The Professor had his eye scanned again, and once again, Archimedes began.
"Access granted, unlocking security safeguards. Identity confirmed as Piotri Dimitri Arkus Zolkievich, Head Prof-"
The Professor cut in,
"Thank you Archimedes, but the aural procedure protocol is not required more than once, just open the door."
"Yes, Professor Zolkievich."
The door retracted to reveal a second creature, more hideous than the first, though hardly much taller. It was skinny and frail in appearance, with a mottled-looking skin and a vulture-like head. Two bulbous gold eyes protruded from it's narrow skull, and it's beak-like mouth was lined with many fibrous, razor-sharp teeth. It had a crest of scaly 'feathers' along it's scalp and peculiar hooves on it's feet. In comparison to this unpleasant creature, the previous one looked rather 'cuddly.'
"These creatures have an interesting brain structure also. Apart from it's more developed sense recognition and obviously general superiorities in terms of sentience, this creature's mind is surprisingly similar to that of a crocodile. The eyes have retina with an extremely diverse set of rods and cones, these creatures are able to see in infra-red, and have near-panoramic vision, with about a 30 degree blind spot directly behind the skull. It too, like the Gibbaedorsum, is a very reaction based-creature, it shows excellent reactions, while it seems to lack the ability to 'improvise' in a battlefield situation. The lack of the ability to adapt well to new situations is a particularly lizard-like trait. From what we have been told, these creatures almost always have the round shield devices I showed you in the firing range, and a Covenant plasma pistol. Also they have been known to hold their ground when badly outnumbered, (in a similar fashion to a crocodile I might add.) Despite this, their muscle contractions and overall appearance are very bird-like, jerky and quick. They also have very thick blood, possibly as these creature's skin is surprisingly tough but does not heal easily, and therefore thick blood would be a plus. You can see that these creatures are pure carnivores, I would assume scavengers, as they do not appear to have evolved any particular physical attributes that would make them very competent predators.
They seem to be an assassin or scout race, also perhaps serving as frontline defence."
The Chancellor nodded, and the Professor saw her eyes flicker briefly on to the next door. It was not every day you saw an alien, let alone several kinds, she was eager to see them all.
"On to the next, I suppose." Said the Professor.
On this doors plaque there was engraved,
"Torusconstatum"
and below it in brackets,
"(Hunter)"
The scientists glanced at one another knowingly, this was certainly the most physically impressive creature.
When the door retracted and revealed the behemoth inside it the Chancellor stepped back in shock.
This was a huge size jump from the previous two creatures.
The Professor allowed himself a brief smirk, he too had been surprised when this creature had arrived at his labs, ONI had had to make a custom cryo container to send it to them in.
It was an armoured monster, like a melding of a medieval knight with some kind of exotic artillery.
Most of it's body was covered in it's steely blue armour, in some places you could see exposed parts of the creature's contrasting orange body. It's head was small in comparison to it's body, hardly exposed, the whole top of it's head was shielded by a cap of armour, from beneath the rim of it there was merely a small patch of orange, and a pair of enraged, electric blue eyes.
On one arm it sported a large canon like the one that had been on display in the firing range. On the other there was a daunting plate of what might as well have been part of a warship's bulkhead, it was huge. It was shaped like a cross between a shield and a weighty broadsword, and looked designed to plough it's way through ranks of soldiers.
The Chancellor said slowly, horrified.
"So these are what we send our soldiers to fight?"
The Professor didn't answer, the Chancellor didn't need an answer to that question. Instead he began to talk about the interesting points of the creature's physiology.
"These creatures are not quite as bulky as they appear under their armour, but they are still incredibly muscle-bound. Their thick skeletons have fascinating joints that allow them to extend and contract, and with the addition of their armour this means that in combat they can retract their armour to reduce vulnerability. What baffled us for quite a while was their digestive system, it seemed insufficient to be able to draw enough nutrients to allow them to sustain such muscles, much less actually grow them in the first place. However upon examining the antennae they sport on their backs, we found the answer. These antennae appear to be 'roots' of a description. They have extremely elastic and dense pores to intake nutrients, and tracts similar to those in the small intestine inside them to draw nutrients into the body. Perhaps on these creature's homeworld, when there was a lack of animals or plants to feed on, they simply lied on their backs and plunge these antennae into the soil. Their metabolism is perfectly attuned to this form of sustenance intake, and is capable of creating complex amino acids from simple acids found in the soil, thus allowing the phenomenal muscle growth. Their eyesight is notably poor, as the retina appear to be incredibly sensitive, and a film across the exposed eye filters out most UV light. These creature's brains are nearly as small as that of the Cristacalvus,. However the Torusconstatum brain seems to have developed not in the characteristic fashion of a predator, but actually more like a grazing animal. It seems all that muscle bulk is environmentally required if perhaps not to overpower prey then maybe to uproot trees or compete for mates, we aren't entirely sure. However it is certainly the armour that makes these creatures so powerful, without it they would be simple enough to defeat. You see with all of that muscular tissue, they have an awful amount of capillaries flowing through every part of their bodies. If you were to puncture one of these creatures it would certainly bleed to death soon enough, with such a high blood pressure going to supply it's muscles with oxygen. From what we have been told from field reports, these creatures always come in pairs. I believe that each of the pairs are actually mates, who will stay together for most of their lives. Perhaps mating requires an extensive prologue of companionship to assure compatibility.
I don't think we really have a military term for the role these creatures play in the Covenant army, I would probably call them an assault race, able to mash their way through swarms of soldiers."
The Professor finished, and paused for a moment to admire the powerful appearance of the creature. Finally he said,
"Let's move on to the final specimen."
The Chancellor looked upon the final door with wary anticipation, it was obvious to her that these doors were ordered in terms of the specimens' physical size and therefore probable importance within the Covenant caste. Whatever was beyond the door before must be the most impressive.
The Tour (2nd part of Final Chapter)
Date: 29 March 2003, 11:21 AM
Upon the doors plaque there was engraved:
"Quadrefeacium"
And below it in brackets:
"(Elite)"
The door retracted, and the Chancellor held her breath.
However the creature within was rather an anticlimax.
It was at least eight feet tall, beneath it's iridescent blue armour there was a tough scaly hide. It's legs had an extra joint towards the bottom, giving the creature an aloof, authoritarian stance. The frame of the creature was gangling yet powerful, and it's rib cage was oversized in comparison to it's waste. Most peculiar however was it's face. The Chancellor realised what the Latin name of this creature meant; Four Jaws. The Jaws were slightly open, revealing rows of white shark teeth. And from below the ridge of the helmet she could make out two chilling eyes, like chips of ice. It was physically impressive, certainly, yet it did not look as physically powerful as the previous one.
The Professor looked at the Chancellor's expression knowingly.
"Yes, it may be only second largest, but it does have the largest brain, and from what we have been told, these impressive creatures seem to be the commander race. Therefore, this creature has been decided as the highest ranking of the four specimens we have."
Then the Professors eyes twinkled.
"And it's also my favourite. These creature bodies are designed for a strong level of gravity, there planet, I would calculate, must be about 1.6 times the size of Earth, that's about as big as a rocky planet can be stably. They are the only cold-blooded of the creatures, yet they seem to have an emergency ability to nearly triple their metabolisms to generate heat in cold climates. Their brains are developed differently from ours, while they are lacking in the brain areas that control, say; social interaction, they excel in things such as foot coordination or judging distances. Small differences really, their brains are essentially incredibly similar to our own. They speak a guttural language, due to the design of their vocal chords. Their teeth contain a powerful alkali, while their saliva is acidic, very similar to acetic acid, in fact. They are certainly carnivores, I would assume once they have killed prey the acid in their saliva neutralises any alkali they injected into prey while trying to immobilise it. If you look at their jaws you can see they are impressive predatory tools, you can imagine these creatures galloping on their biped hooves after herds of animals, then latching on to their pray with those mandibles and immobilising it through blood-loss and alkali-induced pain. They have incredibly efficient digestive and respiratory systems. I would assume they would only need to excrete once every week or so, and in a relaxed state they could do on just two breathfuls of air a minute. These creatures also breath oxygen. They are incredibly versatile, tough and hardy creatures, high pain thresholds and difficult to immobilise. Oh, these are also the race that have been the stasis shield technology, similar to that of the Spartans, making them harder still to neutralise in the field.
These are the military leaders, the backbone of the Covenant army."
The Chancellor turned to the Professor.
"But there are other races in the Covenant? Other than these four species?"
The Professor was slightly surprised.
"Why do you ask that?"
Although both he and the Chancellor knew what he really meant was how did you manage to discover that classified intelligence.
"I just think that it would seem logical to assume there could be other Covenant races." The Chancellor replied evasively.
Professor Zolkievich nodded.
"Yes, we have video footage showing a Scientist/Engineer race, would I be right in assuming you've seen it?"
The Chancellor gave a small smile and a brief wink, then said rather audibly; so the ONI spooks who were surely monitoring her somehow would hear,
"You'd be wrong, Professor, I wouldn't be able to freely get access to ONI information like that."
Professor Zolkievich acknowledged what she was doing and continued.
"We also believe from intercepted Covenant transmissions, that there have been references to a sort of 'Prophet' race, so we know there are at least two other races in the Covenant that we don't have specimens of.
And, Chancellor, one last note, if you think about the similarities that these creatures have, not just with each other, but us also. Skulls, eyes, spines, digestive systems, respiratory systems, circulatory systems, skeletal structures, four limbs, the list is endless! I think there is something very deep in all this that we are completly unaware of, something that links all our races at some point in a forgotten and unimaginably distant past. I'm almost certain of it."
Professor Zolkievich and his fellows stood, facing the Chancellor, opposite the shaft lift she had entered the labs in.
"I hope our little tour was enlightening, Supreme Chancellor."
The Chancellor smiled falsely and replied.
"It was very much so, Professor, I am grateful you found the time."
There was an awkward pause, and suddenly, as if the Chancellor had been desperate to ask from the very start, she burst out,
"Professor! Truthfully, what do you think humanity's chances are? Is there anything we can do?"
Professor Zolkievich looked deeply and thoughtfully into the Chancellor's eyes. Those eyes were desperate, pleading. Unknown to the Chancellor, he was pondering something very important, considering if it was worth revealing a monumentous secret for the sake of her sanity.
He decided against it.
"Supreme Chancellor, humanity is over-powered in every aspect; in numbers, in technology, in strength. We have no allies to turn to, and seem on an inevitable path. Countless times in history, civilisations have been faced with more powerful ones, faced with the same dilemma as us, and they fell. I am afraid unless humanity can find a new factor that would grant us an advantage, we are doomed to join those fallen parties, just another forgotten chapter, only this time in alien history books."
At hearing this, so blunt and free of the self-indulgent delusions that everyone else gave to convince themselves that life was worth living another day, the Chancellor seemed ready to break into tears. She managed a weak,
"Thank you, Professor," and hurriedly retreated into the lift.
The doors began to close, and the Professor watched as her sorrowful face disappeared behind the great sheets of cold metal.
Doctor Hobson spoke rather fierily,
"You could have told her! For Christ's sake, she's just one person, you should have told her!"
Professor Zolkievich turned and stared blankly at Doctor Hobson, then said, as if quoting from a protocol article,
"We must keep the persons who are aware of Brutus to an absolute minimum, his being secret is pivotal to the project being a success, we must rule out every possible risk. Every person who knows, is a potential factor for the Covenant finding out. We must make sure Brutus is not discovered until the time comes!"
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