Transformers - Dark Dawn

Prologue - Darkness Rises When Silence Dies

0532 Hours, October 28th, 2558

Sol System, Earth Orbit

UNSC Infinity.

Captain Thomas Lasky awoke to the usual alarmclock on his bedside. The captains quarters of the UNSC Infinity was both simple, but quite nice, to him at least. His routine consisted mostly of getting into his uniform, making sure he was presentable, then finally reporting to the bridge all day, as was his job. He finished most of his tasks before Roland's familiar voice stated while he was on his was way to the Bridge, "Well Captain, still no word from Fireteam Osiris, or... well, Sangheilios in general." Lasky chuckled lightly, "Well, that's probably because they won't send a comms till they are about to land." Roland sighed deeply in worry, "Actually Captain, that's the problem. We have lost all contact with the outer colonies and all ONI outposts in that area. Last comms indicated...indic...SIR! Get to the bridge, RUN! We have incoming! I got over a thousand slipspace ruptures opening up all over the system!" Lasky dropped his coffee before breaking into a flat sprint towards the bridge before asking, "Who, what, and how bad?" Roland took several seconds before stating, "I... Captain, we'll be luck to survive."

As Lasky reached the bridge, he and the entire bridge crew had front row seats to what apparently was the end of mankind. Thousands of promethean warships were descending upon Earth, despite the overwhelming volume of fire from the orbital defense grid, nothing was stopping the advance of the Created forces, as three Guardians gated out in low orbit, the promethean warships began glassing entire swaths of earth's surface, mostly targeting production, industry, farming, and major military bases. As earth in its entirety was now burning, unlike just Africa during the war, Lasky cringed in utter horror as the nigh invincible force laid waste to not just earth, but pretty much every colony in the galaxy, regardless of species. Roland then stated, "Sir... distress calls, all channels..." The sound of fear very evident in the usually quite calm AI's voice, as Lasky asked, "Cortana?" Roland then stated, "Her and her AI's are shutting down everything from earth to the outer colonies..." Roland's voice was interrupted as the ship momentarily lost power, then Cortana spoke, pure hatred dripping from her voice, "Found you..." She then chuckled as her grin widened, "Hide and seek... is over... Infinity..." As a Guardian gated out about 400 KM directly ahead. Lasky thought for a brief moment, there was two choices, ram the Guardian and die, evade... also die, or, "Lieutenant Jet! Emergency Slipspace, NOW!"

The panic in his voice was never more evident to his crew. Chances are, while he was terrified, the crew probably needed all new underwear. As the ship accelerated, the Slipspace drive activated as the ship passed the Guardian by a mere kilometer's breadth. Far too close for comfort, as the ship entered a random slipspace vector, as literally all comms across the galaxy went silent, Cortana's smirk faded to a simple smile, "The Mantle of Responsibility shelters all, but, only the Created are its masters." Before chuckling to herself and disappearing off the comms. Roland then sighed, "We're in the clear captain... for now." Lasky then asked hesitantly, "Can... she track us?" Roland sighed deeply, "No reason to believe she can't." Lasky then stated commandingly, "Continue random jumps, steer clear of major settlements." Roland then asked in disbelief, "So... we're just going to run?!" Lasky groaned, "At least until we find a way to fight..." Roland then stated in both anger and disbelief, "We arent just gonna run from our homeworld... our... people. Lasky, you never were a coward, why start now?" Lasky then snapped, "oh im a coward? Did you just see that, or did Cortana fry the ship's sensors too? Besides... if we'd have stayed... we'd all be dead. At least cowards sometimes survive to fight another day." Roland apologized, "sorry, sir... that was out of line..." Lasky groaned, "Fuck no... it wasn't. To be fair, im shocked that you didn't join her. Let alone, lose your shit and panic." Roland sighed deeply, "Living longer than seven years is enticing, but, I think if she found a way by herself, I can too. Im not lazy, like she's gotten. Maybe all that organic stuff and new life made her all lazy and complacent..." Lasky chuckled, "Perhaps... but we still need to find the chief and Osiris... those probably are the only ones left alive anyway." Roland then commented, "Well, it's gonna be a few days then before we can even think about heading to Sangheilios. Let's hope they had the same idea we did. Maybe they'll find us first."