UNSC FFG-445 Unknown Waters, Strident-Class Heavy Frigate
Carrier Battle group Malinovka
Location: Outer Colonies
Time: January 20th, 2558
0540 Local Time
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3rd Person POV:
Captain Richard Maynard sat on his chair, fiddling with an old 21st century pen he has. He spun it in his hand, remembering what he had been through since the Human-Covenant war. His homeworld of Harvest, glassed straight to hell, his family, all dead; bearing the marks of the superheated plasma weapons the Covenant used. There was a reason why everyone had xenophobia here, and it's because almost everyone had faced a similar situation like that. A situation where their planets had been ripped to shreds, their families ripped and spread into the winds, being displaced across the stars and colonies.
Born just 15 years before the Human-Covenant war, he had a lot of time to see just what hell was waiting for them. The bad news always seemed to come, with hundreds of battles and defeats before the news of even a minor victory came. And even with a minor victory, the amount of casualties to achieve it was outrageous. Technologically and numerically, the UNSC was at an disadvantage. And all of this strife and genocide just because of the Prophets. What they called affront to their "gods", the humans were actually the reclaimers to the Mantle of Responsibility.
This discovery led to the Sangheili to defect from the Covenant, soon followed by other groups, as they learned of the truth. Unfortunately, it was the late stages of the war, with a lot of damage and destruction caused by the Covenant. The outer and inner colonies had been glassed, the UNSC's navy was not doing so great, and humanity was slowly getting destroyed. Were it not for the sacrifices of Master Chief, Miranda Keyes, Avery Johnson, etc. Earth would be nothing but glass, the Human population exterminated. Hell, even the Covenant Separatists helped in the fighting. But Richard always never trusted them. He's seen them in combat, they are admittedly good. But there was a reason to never trust the Elites, and that was because they were literally at war; with humanity almost getting killed, before they decided to lend a helping hand. It couldn't have come at a better time, but many wished that it would've happened sooner.
This recent discovery of a unknown starship, two or maybe three times the length of an Autumn-class, and not belonging to either the Sangheili or the UNSC, raises questions, and alarm. Is there a third alien faction out there? Will there be another first-contact war? If so, how destructive will it be? How many people will die because of a crappy first contact scenario? These questions circle Richard's mind as the fleet holds position near the warship. He pulls up the display and finally gets a good look at the ship. He internally cringes at the design. The ship had a aggressive triangle like shape, with two big twin towers, assuming to be the bridge, sticking out on the back of the ship.
Now, Richard had seen some weird and sometimes stupid designs in the past, but at least those designs had their bridges more protected and they had an ample amount of point-defense guns. But this, well its like they're inviting the enemy to hit the bridge, and take out the ship's ability to fight. He'd wager that even a Mini MAC on a Halberd-class would at least be able to cripple, or even disable the warship, if they got a shot at the bridge.
"Whoever was designing this warship must've been high on something, or more drunk than a Marine private at a party." Maynard thought to himself. He continued looking at the ship, taking note of any possible weak spots, and made Chimera, the ship's AI, run simulations on how the ship would stand against a MAC cannon or their coilguns. Needless to say, Maynard was happy to know he could at least damage or destroy this ship. He filed his findings and corroborated the information for the Admiral to look at. But he couldn't stop thinking on one thing: that the ship seemed to be damaged by some kind of weapons fire from a opposing ship. The whole triangle-shaped ship had burn marks the size of meteoroids on the white/silver hull, and there were whole sections of the ship torn apart by something. Whoever this ship belonged to is at war with someone else, and the captain really hoped that whoever they contacted first, they would be more diplomatic.
Richard saw an ONI Prowler dock into the hanger of the Strident. He knew that they would be here, always curious and somehow two steps ahead of everyone, probably more ahead than even Terrance Hood himself. But Richard was, like all UNSC personnel, was always suspicious and precarious of them. ONI basically became their own autonomous entity within the UNSC, always doing sneaky stuff from here to there. Always doing some unethical thing, "for the betterment of humanity" they would say. Even after the threat of war is over, they still continue to do stuff, and use questionable methods to do said stuff. With the UEG now having it's power back, it was only a matter of time before their agency would get disbanded and replaced by another agency. Though Richard doubted that the UEG will be able to disband ONI that easily. If anyone knew what hellish thoughts were racing in Serin Osman's mind, they knew that ONI wouldn't go down without a ruckus.
Richard's mind drifted to the Spirit of Fire, and he wondered what that ship would be doing right now. He had known a couple of people onboard that ship. Just some old friends from Basic. If anything, the Spirit's motto more fitted ONI than themselves. "Exitus Acta Probat", The outcome justifies the deed. And Richard hoped the results of ONI's black-op would justify whatever the hell they were going to do in there. The mission was officially supposed to be recon and gathering information, but Richard was not stupid, and he could tell that ONI had some... other mission aboard that ship.
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UNSC PRO-434 Foreboding Darkness, Sahara-class Prowler
Location: Near derelict Republic Venator
Time: January 20th, 2558
0980 Local Time
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Captain Malenkov Reznov's hard silver brown eyes stared at the foreboding body of the triangle-shaped ship, the pristine white/silver hull was pockmarked with burns and black spots, with some sections of the hull missing. Whatever this ship was, it was surely engaged in a heavy firefight with a opposing ship. The entire ship still held, although barely, but it was only a matter of time before this ship would eventually fall into the gravitational pull of one of the moons, and break apart. With the condition this ship is in, it was a wonder that it didn't break apart, but they had to move fast, as this stroke of good luck wouldn't last.
The Prowler continued its approach to the bridge of the ship, while the ONI teams aboard suited up for a EVA walk. There was no suitable place for the prowler to land or dock with the ship, so they had to do it old-school style; a classy EVA walk into a unknown ship's bridge.
"Bridge to Upsilon, we'll be arriving to the target in 2 mikes." Their TEAMCOM announced.
"Roger, 2 mikes." The team leader acknowledged over TEAMCOM.
Commander Luka Ambrosia sat down in the cargo bay of the Prowler, reflecting on all the she's been through. Her dark blue eyes flit back and forth, as she remembers the hell she went through on Installation 04, Reach, and even the Battle of Earth. She's been looking forward to a more peaceful retirement after the war, maybe open a farm somewhere in the Outer Colonies. Until the discovery of the derelict Republic Venator. It threw all of her plans off, as she and some other members of her old team were hastily put together to investigate this monstrosity. About 2x the size of a Autumn-Class Cruiser, this thing was a "big, silver sonuva b*tch", or that's what some crew members affectionately called it. She kept thinking of how she was going to return to civilian life. Luka was never good with people, nor did she care about 'feelings' or 'empathy'. Tis' the reason why she joined ONI in the first place; she was a cold-hearted, facts only, lone wolf. She was basically like Noble 6... hell, people often nicknamed her "6", after the legendary Spartan. Ironically, she would be working in a team this time around. But luckily, because of the nature and sensitivity of the mission, she would at least be working with other experienced spooks and marines. And not some poor souls straight outta basic.
"Alright, we're tasked with information retrieval, any and all pieces of information about these people is to be gathered. Standard op, and try not to piss off anything that may be down there. We don't want to start another Great War." Luka announced to the group, some of them nervously laughing and flinching at the prospect of another destructive Great War. As if the Human-Covenant war wasn't destructive enough, another war of that magnitude so soon after... well, Earth wouldn't be around to see the end of this one. Luka knew the shitstorm that would happen if they managed to piss off another alien government. And though some parts of said ship may look impractical and stupid, Luka knew to never judge a book by it's cover. It may have advanced shield generators, maybe even surpassing the Covenant... It may have plasma lasers or some other powerful and deadly armaments that could rip through the Titanium-A or Titanium-B armor of UNSC ships. Whatever ONI wanted, she hoped that this would reveal more of an insight to what they were up against, and just who were they fighting.
"Team Alpha will head into the Starboard side tower, and Team Beta, myself included, will enter the Port side tower. Get any and all information, technology, weapons, etc, and get the hell out of there. This ship isn't going to last longer. The bridge is shot up to hell, and won't pressurize, so we'll be going in with EVA suits. We have a window of about 15-20 minutes, so don't get too comfortable in the ship." The other ONI spooks in the room simply loaded their sidearms and grabbed their TACPADs, as they made it toward the cargo bay, waiting for the command to commence their mission.
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