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Shadows of Archon II (part 13) - First Strike
Posted By: Wado<wyamauchi@msn.com>
Date: 14 September 2002, 8:35 am
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For the last few days the Gundarians and Nomdians have been working busily to transform the Covenant scout ship Seeker 157 into the ship known as Fate's Reaper. It's a wonder they have even got as far as they have, the Nomdians are insanely careful not to give the Gundarians any insight on technology they don't already have. So extreme are the Nomdians in this cause that Fate's Reaper won't even have stargate capabilities -- perhaps the single most useful technology ever developed for intergalactic travel. Well then again, the Gundarians can copy nearly any technology -- Better safe than sorry. Not everything is a loss however; the ship will at least have one of the best jump drives ever built on a ship its size.
Speaking of ships having good engines, outside of the Gundarian star system of Namera, Cortana takes Destiny's Blade out for a joy ride. The ship is a wondrous combination of Terran, Archonian, and Old Ones technologies. Perhaps the most nimble ship in its size class since the days of the Old Ones.
Inside Destiny's Blade sit Cat and Val. To them all the maneuvering feels like a Sunday drive due to the ship's advanced inertia dampeners. The two have spent quite a lot of time together the last few days. A growing friendship has developed between them. They chat away like nothing else matters.
Val admires Cat while saying, "You are so beautiful, is that what all Archons look like?"
"Yes, there is not such a word as ugly to describe an Archon," replied Cat, "and you are beautiful too, for a human."
Val blushes as she says, "You really think so? It's been so long, since I even thought about it."
Cat smiles at Val saying, "You are being silly Val. Why is it that such things of beauty embarrass you. John was the same way. You think nothing of showing hate and violence but it is taboo to be intimate, to show beauty."
"I do miss John, a lot," said Val in a sad voice. "Will he ever come back?"
"Val, we will try to recover John's soul, to revive him," said Cat, "but we must be prepared for failure. We must be prepared to accept that John may not come back."
Sadness fills the heart of those that loved and remembered John. On this sad note we must leave, for other forces are at work in this universe. Here is but a glimpse of the wonders at work.
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First Strike
On the outskirts of the Sol system, a lone frigate dashes through slip space. The UNSC Zenith is on a critical mission, a suicide mission. Aboard the ship besides its crew of 70 is Daisy. Daisy is a prototype Slip-space Graviton Mine. It is one of just two that the Terrans have managed to construct after several years of research. A primitive Graviton Mine, it only has an effective range of 1 light second. However primitive it is, its effects in slip-space are still devastating. All ships caught in its area of effect will be violently ripped out of slip space, more often than not resulting in the destruction of the vessels.
Three Covenant destroyers are in hot pursuit of the Zenith; the destroyers are part of an advanced scout force sent to survey the Terran defenses. They fire upon the Zenith; a few shots hit their mark and the Zenith blasts out of slip space.
Aboard the Zenith, Captain Gabriel Tanaka addresses his crew. "I'd like to say that you're the best crew any commander could ever ask for. Know that we do not die in vain, our sacrifice gives humanity a fighting chance. We have our orders. God be with us!" Gabriel then turns to the ship's AI saying, "Herc, what is our status?"
Herc responds, "Captain, shields down, engines at 25%, weapons systems at 10%. Standing by, ready to launch the recorder and package."
"Hold on that, we have to wait, be absolutely sure," replied Gabriel. "Fire all weapons and send out a distress signal. Make it look good."
The Covenant destroyers attach grappling beams to the Zenith. Before they can board the vessel, the Zenith self-destructs.
In the debris after the battle are found many dead bodies, the wreckage of the ship, a data recorder, and an unknown package. The data recorder and package are retrieved. After the recorder data is unencrypted, a report is sent via slip-space communication to the Covenant Armada in route to earth.
Aboard the Covenant flagship Virtue and Reverence, the transmission is received.
"Angel Fire reporting. Sirs the Terran ship fought honorably to the end. There were no survivors. We retrieved a data recorder and an intact device. We've broken the Terran codes on their recording device. According to the data we've extracted from the recorder, the device found is a slip-space graviton mine. Our scientists have confirmed this to be true. A primitive version, a hundred years behind ours but still effective. The bad news is that the data indicates that the Terrans have mined much of their system with these during the last few years. The full report has been sent and received. Angel fire out." Transmission ends.
Fleet Commander Jarcou turns to the council saying, "This is very disturbing news, but I suspect it to be false information, the Terrans do not have the resources to mine their entire system."
"We cannot take that chance with this Armada especially after the loss four years ago at Halo," replied Supreme Fleet Commander Tarkon, "and Jarcou, it is not your place to decide. Besides, the Terrans are known cowards; they would sell their soul if it meant saving their skins. They would not fight so hard just to deceive us. To be safe we will exit the armada out of slip space well outside the Sol system."
Years from now if humanity survives, it will be known that the sacrifice of the Zenith was not in vain. Through their death, humanity gained a few more months to prepare the defenses of the Sol system -- The extra time that it will take the Covenant Armada to reach earth travelling through normal space instead of slip space. This might just be enough time to get the production lines going on building slip-space graviton mines and other newly developed weapons and ships.
For now though, the sacrifice will not be known. The Zenith and crew will just be another casualty of a war, a losing war for humanity.
Humanity has many threats in this war, the Covenant are only one of them. On earth at that very moment is another threat -- An android assassin from the days of the forerunners. The assassin was known originally as Android 042, but like all forerunner assassins of this type, it has taken on the names of all the most prominent figures it has killed. Android 042 has a name consisting of several hundred names, including John the Spartan. The names are not in any particular order but would go something like Hawkeye Sureshot Spartan Zeus... followed by 271 other names. We'll just refer to him has Hawkeye Sureshot for short.
Hawkeye Sureshot arrived on earth only about 3000 years ago, after spending over 50,000 years looking for earth. By the time Hawkeye Sureshot arrived on earth, the forerunners that sent him were long dead. Nevertheless, Hawkeye Sureshot still followed the 50,000 year-old orders to kill all forerunners on earth.
These orders were given because the only forerunners on earth would have to be enemies to the forerunners that built Hawkeye Sureshot. This includes Archonian sleepers that were in the process of waking, thus explaining why John was killed by Hawkeye Sureshot.
The Nomdians know this all. The Nomdians have plans of their own. Secretly landing on earth is a team of twelve Nomdian Death Stalkers. They could be called Special Forces, but all Nomdians are Special Forces. They are called Death Stalkers not for their training and abilities, but for their mission. Their mission is to eliminate forerunners, in this case the forerunner assassin Hawkeye Sureshot.
Two of the Nomdian Death Stalkers choose to reveal themselves in Siberia, in the middle of nowhere. The rest wait by teleporters inside their ship.
Within a minute Hawkeye Sureshot arrives 5 kilometers from the two Nomdians and blasts at the first Nomdian Death Stalker with no effect. Unlike John's shields, the shields of the Nomdian are hardened to resist the tachyon weapon of the assassin. But the tachyon weapon causes its user to slip back in time briefly and so it is just as if no time has passed when Hawkeye Sureshot changes weapons and fires again.
The new weapon fires a small particle of anti-matter encased in a magnetic force field.
The Nomdians, expecting the dual attack from Hawkeye Sureshot, activate the energy dampener field that they previously set up over the entire area except where the two Nomdians stand.
As the anti-matter bolt flies at the two Nomdians, the magnetic force field around the anti-matter fails and the anti-matter reacts with particles in the air. An exploding trail of energy burns through the air on a path to the targets. By the time it reaches them, however, the energy has dissipated enough that it doesn't penetrate the Nomdian shields.
Seeing that his attacks have no effect, Hawkeye Sureshot teleports away to safety. It must think of a new strategy to handle the Nomdians.
However, instead of ending up in the safety of its underground base in Antarctica, Hawkeye Sureshot finds that it is somewhere else. The Nomdians have managed to hijack Hawkeye Sureshot's teleport carrier wave and redirected it into a capsule in the dead of space.
Inside this capsule, besides Hawkeye Sureshot is one class C Neutronium bomb. It explodes, instantly destroying the android assassin from the gravitic implosion effects and the resulting explosive decompression of the neutronium itself. If this bomb had gone off on earth, most of humanity would have been destroyed instantly, but in the dead of space, it explodes silently and unobserved by humans.
The Nomdian Death Stalkers have some cleanup work to do on earth, then they will leave as unseen as they arrived. They have more forerunners to hunt down and destroy. This is only the first strike.
-- Next, Divine Retribution --
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