DAEDALUS // TRANSITORY MISTS

The last couple of days had been trying. The Daedalus had seen a lot of work done to her, repairing shield relays that had been damaged during the battle and the sheer number of Hyperspace trips she had taken in and out of the mists. She was fast and small which made her a prime vessel for hit and runs into nearby space. That coupled with her beaming technology made her the best ship for raids. So far Caldwell had managed to convince Erthos to keep the existence of the beaming technology a secret, saving someone's life earned you a number of points as it turned out. McKay had spent most of his time aboard the Resurgence closely guarded by Ronon with Teyla closeby as the more diplomatic of the team. Meanwhile, as much as Caldwell had to admit it, being one of the best pilots he had on hand Sheppard was flying the joint CAP in a 302 with ships from the other fleet. Apparently he had even one a flight in one of the ARC-170s in a match of a game called 'Sabaac'. The newer ships of the fleet seemed slower to trust, but despite this, they had agreed to sit in on the next round of negotiations.

Caldwell would be there himself this time he had decided, all cards on the table. There was no indication that they were going to get out of this situation anytime soon. The only way they were going to survive long enough to find a way to get home, and then implement it was for them to all work together. That meant even letting some of the Daedalus' more secret technology be public knowledge. That meant virtually all the best Asgard upgrades they had been given. Beaming technology, holographic projection, their shield arrays. He hated to admit it but they were a primitive ship with the exception of one or two amazing upgrades. If they could find some form of common ground here, they could make some form of deal and upgrade their own ship. That would mean this entire endeavour had been worth it when they returned back to their own universe. Hermiod was already working on cracking the encryption on the robot they had brought back from the Imperial ship, or 'droid' as the Resurgences crew called it. From what they could gather there was some useful information on it the encryption was just far heavier than anything they were expecting to counter. He had contemplated having McKay working on it with the Asgard but they really needed to tackle both problems at once.

The ships intercom buzzed, Marks voice over the system as Caldwell started into the mists. "Colonel Caldwell on radio, Colonel Caldwell on radio." Sighing Caldwell picked up his earpiece, pushing it into his right ear he tapped it to activate it.

"This is Caldwell."

"Sir, Colonel Sheppard has just landed and he requests to speak to you before you depart for the Resurgence. He says it's urgent."

"Tell him to meet me on the bridge." This had to be important, it wasn't like Sheppard to follow protocol.

The bridge of the Solonis was a lot calmer than it had been on it's arrival to this new, unknown galaxy, but it was still quite tense. Captain Hayley Duncan believed that had to do with the bridge crew being the most experienced of the ship, and though there were many other experienced men and women aboard her ship, she knew there were a lot of inexperienced personnel, too. She already knew two individuals had both ended up in the brig for acting on their emotions, but she couldn't blame them. Hayley was as lost as the rest of them, but she couldn't act out on it, she needed to set an example.

Hayley made sure that the crew didn't have time to dwell on the fact that they were lost in space. Departmental heads were running drills, and a few sections of the ship often found themselves marked as locked down as the Marines ran drills. They had already ran two Rabbit drills, which often left the crew a little disgruntled or intrigued (or a mix of the two) as Marines ran the length of the ship in powered armour, searching for their hiding target. A pair of marines had made their way onto the bridge on one of the drills, only - to the amusement of the bridge crew - to be chased off by the Sergeant On Deck. "You really think I would let some sissy on this bridge?" He had roared, stomping after them. Holly knew that Major Stanforth was working the marines hard, but a few times had wondered if he should give them a break. She wasn't in any position to direct that, however - while she had the authority, she wasn't going to direct the marines. That was Stanforth's job.

Commander Furret and Lieutenant Clarke were both standing over the latter's station, planning out the next set of operations for the crewmen. With interest, but not to intrude upon their work, Hayley unfolded her screen and brought it in front of her to look at the current ship operations. External maintenance was on the list, and she navigated her way to the external cameras. Panning the camera and zooming in, she watched a pair of crewmen in zero-G using a tool that looked like a hair comb attached to a wrench on a panel. To her amusement, she also saw a fireteam of marines on security. The serious part of her thought that external security was a good idea when in unknown space like this, when who-knows-what could come crawling onto her hull. The non-serious part of her wondered what each and every member of that team did to get such a shitty job. The crewmen had firearms and were capable of using them, and their suits would send out an alert if something happened to them, so that in case they had a puncture or accidentally floated themselves off into space there was a chance for rescue. She knew the marines would rather be on board the ship or even helping the crewmen by moving some a hull plate instead of standing around.

A flash of light on the center of the bridge made Hayley turn to the central holotable, expecting a report. She found one wasn't needed, however; Lieutenant Allan and Second Lieutenant Knox were playing with holographic fighters. To anyone that wasn't a part of the crew it would look like they were playing games, but Hayley knew that whilst it may have been some fun for Lieutenant Allan, it was practise for Lieutenant Knox. Lilly Knox was new to her role as Flight Operations Director, and though she had experience directing shuttlecraft in her logistical role, directing fighter operations was new to her.

Hayley observed the table from the Captain's chair, watching the simulated versions of Fang and Apricot squadrons destroying a first wave of missiles headed for the Solonis and then getting into a knife-fight range dogfight with the opposing fighters. Fang and Apricot were marked as Aces with a single little dot next to each fighter, whereas the opposing fighters were novices. Hayley thought the fight was a little unbalanced; all enemy fighters were destroyed with just one damaged fighter in Apricot squadron that returned to the nest. There was a lull in the fight before more fighters came in, a couple of Aces this time in the mix. The fight was harder this time, but Hayley knew that Solonis' fighters were going to win. However, two enemy carriers then entered the fray, holographic beams stabbing out at targets and deploying fighters and bombers. There was no way Solonis' fighters would win that fight, and Lieutenant Knox looked a little upset. "That's not fair!"

"Hey, I didn't do that!" Lieutenant Allan replied. As the two battled it out not just on the table but now with words, Hayley scanned the bridge. She had a sneaking suspicion that someone on the bridge had done that. As she had seen everyone else of the senior crew was busy apart from Lieutenants McEwan and Jameson, she looked over to the pair's stations. Jameson's station had been having some trouble, and there was currently a tech buried in cable spaghetti underneath it, so that ruled her out. Hayley didn't need to see that a two-dimensional representation of the holotable was on McEwan's table to know it was him, nor the fact that he was sat backwards on his chair facing the holotable; his grin alone told the story. Olivia and Lilly figured that out quickly.

"Can you not interrupt, please?" Olivia asked, folding her arms. Lilly was glaring at Toby, clearly wanting to say something but holding herself back. Olivia entered with some more words of her own. "We don't exactly interrupt your simulations or fuck them up, do we?" She asked. Hayley knew that much was true, but only because Toby's simulations were done on his own station and two-dimensional; he only watched the results on the holotable if he had to.

"Battle isn't simple. Anything can change, and sometimes you don't win," Toby responded with a smirk. He then turned back to his own station, leaving the pair of women glancing at eachother, and then looking back at Toby with a face of disgust. Hayley was never a fan of these situations, because technically both were right. Toby was the weakest link on her bridge - he was great at his job, but he was someone who took jokes too far, and perhaps sometimes at inappropriate times. He was a bit of a troublemaker.

"Lieutenant McEwan, please don't mess with simulations in future without permission from those running them or my own permission," Captain Duncan states. That seemed to ease the expressions of the ladies, and they went back to their training. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Commander Furret turning back to whatever he was doing with Lieutenant Clarke. Commander Elliot Furret was her other problem. He was older than her, which was not surprising with Hayley being a touch young for her own position but not too uncommon. The surprising part was Furret's age gap between her being a little large, and his experience too being much broader and further than her own. Some would have thought that Commander Furret would be commanding his own cruiser by now, or perhaps the Commodore of a small flotilla if they wanted to stretch it a little. Hayley knew Furret's position was by fault of his own but by political connections, and she understand his frustration. Fortunately, he never second-guessed her, and followed orders. She knew he was watching her, however. He always was, and it worried her a little. Turning her head over to Kayla Jameson's station, Hayley addressed the technician there. "Mister Roberts, how long until the Lieutenant's station is running again?"

"About five minutes, Captain," Technician Roberts responded, not taking his eyes off of his work. Hayley was disappointed, but not by Roberts. If it took that long to fix, it took that long to fix. She didn't need to communicate with anyone in particular, and communications was being run by a junior crewman on the bridge in the meanwhile, but it still didn't make her happy. The only person she wanted to keep tabs on presently was Lieutenant-Commander Sinclair, who was presently off-ship and on board one of the other ships, the Resurgence, but she didn't want to be too nosey, either.

---

Lieutenant-Commander Sinclair was in the makeshift labs of the Resurgence. As an engineer, people most likely expected him to go to Engineering and look around there rather than in the labs, but Sinclair knew that whatever was there was possibly beyond what the Solonis had or could do without a major overhaul. Plus, there was no way he'd be allowed to look into the depths of the engineering specifications, as that was a great risk - at least, he would class it as that, and any other engineer from his own galaxy would. He had know idea what those of this one thought of that in regards to security. Therefore, the labs were the best place for him to learn something new, something small that could help increase the sustainability of the ship.

The battle had been something great, and the group had learned quite a great deal about their enemy in combat. But when the time came to leave, Travis couldn't help but feel that if they had more time to fight off the enemy, they might be able to scavenge the battlefield but these new enemies were more than enough trouble. So when the Daedalus made it's jump, The Glasgow was right on her ass. When they exit the mists, and the rest of the fleet caught up at their various speeds. With Sarah, and the rest of her team who had helped the assault on the bridge, returned the crew had felt a wave of relief, and for the first time in a while things felt normal again, if you ignored the numerous ships from different universes that was.

For days the other vessels had come, and gone doing various chores, and assignments. The Glasgow could really only watch them go, as it had no way to travel this galaxy without the aid of others. So it had contented itself with patrolling the edge of the system, and staying alert. The command crew spent this time planning on their next moves, the military portion of this crew spent it's time training. They had lost only a minimal amount of marines on the raid, but this instilled in them the need to keep fighting. The tech crews had spent their time pouring over the data their infiltrators had gotten from the imperial vessel, and their engine room. As the days wore on, they were approached several times to pay taxes to the coalition in the area, but The Glasgow refused. Until the day came where they got their hyper drive.

The installation had been rough, and interfacing two different techs had been difficult, even with help from the engineering crews of The Resurgence. But with a little bit of intelligence, and some grit they had even gotten their omni-tools to interface with the technology of this universe. With their new hyperdrive in, and their omni-tools able to interface. The Glasgow left the mists for the first time, dropping off their best infiltrators, and operatives in plain clothes. Their mission would be to find out whatever they could not only about this universe, but about the big players in it. With that mission underway, The Glasgow would return to the mists, and wait.

Jerus sighed before nodding, pulling his blade and top half of his armored robe to him with the Force. “Suppose we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Speculating could lead to a more awkwards situation than we need right now.” Putting the top half of his robe back on and hooking the lightsaber to his belt, Jerus looked at the Sangheili. “Anything else? Gotta go change into my armor before the next meeting, Samus and I are heading out on a couple of bounties soon.”

Eri gave a sound that may have been close to a laugh. “Hmph, I suppose if they draw their weapons on me, then we shall know from which time they were taken from. I will be sure my energy shields are active when I enter the room.”

It was still going to be some time before the meeting between their fleet’s delegates was set to begin, and there was little else that Eri could do beyond give her warning. At the very least, it would not come as a surprise to her allies if these Humans had a hostile reaction to her. It did leave time for Eri to prepare, though she also took note of the abilities that Jerus had displayed yet again. She could not see the device that was causing it, yet he could obviously make use of it freely, even casually. It reminded her of the battle, and the proficiency he had shown. Eri might have taken the time she had now to prepare further for their upcoming meeting, but she felt that she had the opportunity to satisfy her curiosity. How capable was he, really?

“Perhaps so. I recall from the battle that you prefer that blade on your belt, even against the enemy. The Humans of my universe are capable warriors, but small and frail as they are, they always prefer their ranged weapons. My people...find honor in swordsmanship. Do the Humans of your universe have a similar tradition, or are you an exception to them?” Eri asked.

Jerus chuckled as he looked down at the lightsaber on his belt before pulling the length of metal from his belt. “I suppose once upon a time, when there were more Jedi and Sith in the galaxy, some members of the Order probably found great honor in crossing blades with a Sith Lord. But that was long before I was born. In this day and age? I’m a rarity, even amongst the various beings that still partake in swordplay, being Force Sensitive as I am.”

He lead the Sangheili female over to a nearby viewport, where a mixed flight of V-wings and ARCs flew by on their patrol. “The Jedi Order was the paragon of good before Order 66, leading the charge in the Clone Wars against the CIS and before that, against the forces of the Sith, the anti-thesis to their own order. History says that during the Jedi Civil War, the military made training with melee weapons far more widespread and, ultimately, required in order to counter the sword wielding soldiers of the Sith Empire.” Jerus had an inkling of why she was asking, but he decided to push forward with his question anyways. “Any particular reason you’re interested?”

Eri struggled to keep track of all the names and events that Jerus was mentioning. She had been given data files with historical information about this universe, but that had not been the focus of what she had been committing to memory. He mentioned Jedi and Sith, words that she had seen, but that she did not understand fully, particularly in regards to this “force sensitivity” he mentioned. Whatever it was, Eri was not one to learn just by talking away for hours. She preferred to learn through action. “If this Jedi tradition of yours values skill with a blade, I would test it against my own. No other technology or devices, just one warrior’s skill against another. That...lightsaber, you call it? Do you have versions with low enough power for training?”

Jerus shakes his head as he deactivates the blade, approaching a workbench and opening up the weapon. “I’ve never found an intact training saber in my years of bounty hunting, only lightsabers, but I can adjust the power on mine to match the output of a training saber.” A couple of minutes of tinkering and he closes up the casing and walks back to the training area, igniting the blade again. The two blades were less brilliant in their glow, but still very present.

“I accept your challenge, Eri’Moram, and give the first strike to you.”

Eri was curious to observe the inner workings of Jerus’ weapon, though she did not draw her blade right away after he activated the weapon. “A usefully versatile weapon, it seems, but I will need a few minutes yet. My blade is still quite lethal, and cannot be modified so easily. I do, however, have a low-powered training blade in my quarters, and aside from that, I would not fight you in my combat harness. I wish to compare our skill, not our technology. I will return in a few minutes.”

---

Just as she had promised, it did not take Eri any more than ten minutes to make her way back to her quarters and gather what she needed. She now carried two energy swords hanging from loops on a cloth belt, rather than magnetically attached to a set of armor. Her training attire consisted of a pair of pants made from a surprisingly soft-looking material, perhaps silk or something similar, and a somewhat darker brown belt. She was shirtless with no shoes, which made her thick, leather-like saurian hide easier to see than when in armor. Also apparent was the fact that her kind were more muscular, and stronger than even other species of their size, with a double set of pectoral muscles and high muscle density aside from that. A Sangheili combat harness did give some enhancements to the wearer’s speed and strength, but those were minor improvements. The vast majority of their physical capability was, evidently, biological.

Eri placed down one of her energy swords on the workbench Jerus had used before, then drew and activated the other. The blade was stable, though far dimmer than the energy blades he had seen on her energy lance in the past. She lifted up the weapon and pressed the blade against her bare arm. “To show you that I have no ill intent, as you can see, this energy sword is of a lower power and will not harm you…” She began, lifting up the sword to reveal only minor, surface burns on her scales. “...much.”

When Eri returned, Jerus would be found missing the top half of his robe again and levitating in the air, his legs crossed and the unignited lightsaber levitating in front of him. At the sound of the Sangheili entering, he stood up from his levitation and grabbed his lightsaber from the air, watching her set down the other energy sword, as she’d called it, and then ignite her other one before putting it to her arm, proving no ill intent.

Nodding, Jerus likewise did the same with his on his arm, though when he removed it, it left a welt instead of a burn. “So, with our honesty proven, let’s begin. As I said, the first strike is yours.” Jerus slid into what was clearly a familiar stance as the twin lightsaber blades ignited once more, humming quietly, almost in anticipation.

As headstrong as Eri tended to be overall, she was not quite so reckless when it came to battle itself. Her primary mentor was, after all, Vael. She approached slowly, keeping her blade held at a mid-to-low guard in front of herself. Her energy sword was over a foot longer than one of the blades of his weapon, which, especially combined with her height and the length of her arms, would give her a considerable advantage in reach. She could threaten him from out of his range, so the impetus would be on him to aggress onto her, as the fight developed. To start, Eri opened with a simple thrust towards his shoulder to test his defenses and reactions, and from which she could easily retreat.

With practiced ease, Jerus spun away from the thrust, deflecting it with the least amount of the rear facing blade as was required before countering it with a thrust of his own aimed at her left thigh, allowing the hilt to slide forwards to provide him extra reach. This would allow him to, in turn, test the Sangheili’s own reflexes and defenses, letting him better flow with the fight rather than trying to bludgeon his way through it.

While surprised with his speed, Eri herself was far from a novice. She had not initially expected him to be able to reach her at all, but he was able to get more reach, more quickly out of his blade than she had anticipated. Still, it only required a short backwards step for her to be out of even his extended range, and she was easily quick enough to react. Leaning in as he was, Eri had the opportunity to swing for his head, and she did so with enough force that it would be difficult for a Human to parry, and impossible to block directly.

Jerus didn’t hesitate, spinning his twin blades so that he might intercept her blade with the front blade on his own, matching her strength and locking them briefly into place. Holding for only a moment, Jerus can’t help but to bring himself to grin briefly and give the Sangheili a wink before breaking away and coming in for a series of quick jabs, aimed at different parts of her body.

As calculating as she had been in her approach, even Eri could not have expected Jerus to be able to even resist the force of the blow she gave, let alone to match it. Even half her strength should have been more than a match for him. To her credit, she did react quickly to Jerus’ lightning fast counter attacks, far moreso than any average opponent. She blocked the first, the second, then the third jab he made, but the fourth with the reverse blade found its mark on her chest. She growled, though not from the mere fact that she had lost the round. There had to be something more to him than she could see. “What is the meaning of this? Is your body enhanced in some way, like the Spartans of my universe?”

Spinning away and resuming his ready position, he shrugs. “In a way, I suppose. Remember that Force Sensitivity I mentioned? It has the natural ability to increase the strength, speed, and reactions of those who can wield it. When my parents were training me, they taught me how to increase those natural boosts. It’s why Jedi were so powerful, among other things. They were faster and stronger than any opponent without the Force could be naturally.”

While Eri did resume her guard, she did not yet make any motion to continue with their next bout. “Natural ability? I do not understand. Mere physics would not allow one as small as you to be able to resist my blows so directly. Humans are not too much stronger than Unggoy, not without their technology enhancing them. What is this ‘force sensitivity’? There would have to be something much more than just muscle under your skin.”

This draws a chuckle from Jerus, but instead of speaking, he closes his eyes and reaches out towards Eri, who finds herself levitating off the ground post-haste. After a moment, he sets her down and opens his eyes, replacing his hand on his saber. “The best I can give you is that there are beings, human and alien, in this universe who can control and use the cosmic energy that flows through and around them. To quote my father, ‘The Force is all around us, flowing in all things and binding us together.’ It’s...rather hard to explain.”

Upon finding herself with her feet no longer on the ground, Eri was, quite understandably, alarmed. Her first instinct was to take a swing at Jerus, though he was out of her reach. However, he was met with a snarl even after he released her. “Cosmic energy? You expect me to believe that is natural? I have seen such before in my own universe, among the technology of the Forerunners. Their devices move even the largest of objects with no discernable force acting upon them, but that is still technology. You would have me believe that there is some Force in this universe that a living being can manipulate with only their mind? Then why did none of our opponents on the enemy ship use it? Why have you not taught your own men to use it?”

Jerus found himself unsurprised by her disbelief and waited until her tirade was at an end before answering her questions, in order they were asked. “Alright, so, in order of the questions asked, yes, I do. This isn’t your universe, nor, based on the name change of those who call the Mists home, is it entirely mine, but I can still feel the Force. There is no technology here or in my own home universe that allows for that power. Question two, the enemy didn’t use it because the Jedi are dead or scattered, just like in my home universe. Order 66 was used to wipe out the Order and send the survivors into the far reaches of the Galaxy, to be forgotten or hunted down at the Emperor's leisure. Nor was the genetic template used for the Phase 1 and 2 clones Force Sensitive, or any of the non-clone officers. Which leads into my third answer, which is that to use the Force, you have to have a certain attunement for it, an aptitude if you will. And as much as I wish that the men and women who enlisted with the Republic Remnant had contained at least one Force Sensitive being, they didn’t, and the genetic Template for our Phase Three clones, Damian Wren of the Mandalorian Clan Wren, wasn’t Force Sensitive either.”

However, Jerus knew this wouldn’t necessarily placate the frustrated Sangheili, so he did the next best thing. Pulling a practice blaster to his hand, he tossed it to her and resumed his stance. “Shoot that at me. Aim wherever you want, but shoot.”

Eri was starting to calm from Jerus’ initial display of power. His explanations were reasonable, though it was still difficult for her to accept that this kind of power could exist. Regardless, the evidence was starting to seem rather clear. Contrary to how a more...concerned individual might have reacted, there was no hesitation in the slightest for Eri to do exactly as Jerus asked, not even to confirm that the blaster was not dangerous. If he was telling her to shoot him, then the risks were his business. Even with as small and awkward as the blaster felt in her hand, she was able to fire at him twice in rapid succession, first at his lower leg, then at his shoulder.

Time seemed to slow for the young Force User as his lightsaber spun around in his hands, the blades moving to intercept the twin blaster bolts moving for his person. The first, aimed at his lower leg, went soaring off into the wall to the left, scorching it where it had impacted. The second, aimed at his shoulder, passed mere centimeters away from Eri’s head, scorching the wall behind her. All the Sangheili would have seen was the twirl of his blades and the only sounds she would have heard was the distinct sound of two opposing energy forces meeting before the bolts flew away from him. “My father called it precognition, the ability for a trained Force User to see just far enough into the future that they could pull off feats like deflecting blaster bolts. Could your Forerunner technology do that?”

“I do not know. Much of their technology is still a mystery to us.” Eri answered, more with honesty than any agitation on her part. As unbelievable as these abilities seemed, Eri could not deny them without simply denying the reality in front of her face. She could see no manner of technology on him, and he had displayed these abilities before in battle. She would have to accept that there was something inherent to this universe that went beyond her understanding. Between his ability to enhance his own strength and speed, and to quite literally see into the future itself, Jerus was an opponent far beyond anything she had anticipated. His capabilities went beyond anything she had faced before...but she was not one to be dissuaded by a challenge. Even one that seemed insurmountable.

Rather than concede the fight, Eri once again took up a low guard. “Well do not think I will merely accept defeat, no matter what “Force” you have. Most of my opponents are physically stronger than me; I am far from reliant on that advantage. And with precognition or not, I shall not be scared away so easily.”

Jerus resumed his stance and nodded, his blades still humming. “I wouldn’t expect you to, given your performance on that Venator a few days ago. Once more, first strike is yours.” The pair continued to go at it, exchanging blows over and over again for several minutes before Jerus finally held up his hand to stop the pair, indicating he had to go. “This has been enlightening, Eri’Moram. I appreciate your willingness to hear me out as well. But, I really need to go. That suit of Bes’kar armor doesn’t go on quickly.”

Again, Eri’s low growl did show some degree of agitation, but as Jerus might have picked up on by this point, the Sangheili did tend to show even mild anger freely. It did not sit well with her that Jerus could best her, and the fact that he had some cosmic force to assist him was not sufficient to calm her on that matter. If he could best her, then she needed to keep training, keep working to improve herself beyond him. To end their sparring now was...dissatisfying, but despite her own desires, she did understand that duties came first. “Very well...but I am not done with this. I will return later, and we will continue our training.”

Jerus nodded as he once more pulled the top half of his robe to him and put it on. "That's fine. How about for an hour a day though, instead of at random? I do have to run the Clones and Enlisted personnel through their drills after all. That agreeable for you?"

McKay sat at his terminal in the makeshift lab aboard the Resurgence. He wasn’t too fond of it, but it was deemed as a kind of ‘neutral’ space where individuals from the different ships could come together to do work. The problem was that most of these ships had engineers and technicians and not actual scientists. Sure there was the Blathriin-Va, and it’s race of highly evolved egotistical maniacs however they didn’t seem as willing to play ball as everyone else was. Even they seemed to be relatively stupified with their current predicament. Typically when he had a problem to face like this, as much as he hated to admit it he had a team of people.

It helped to have people to bounce his ideas off after all. He looked between the monitors he had set up, why this station had been assigned was ridiculous. The computer systems in this universe were shocking, convincing a Goa’uld Mothership to play Call of Duty would have been easier than convincing the ship to run simulations on their predicament. In the end he had determined with very little doubt that they had been brought here by an outside force, the lack of any form of consistency in their respective departures supported that theory, as did the energy signatures that each vessel radiated. Even now it could still be faintly detected on their Asgard Sensors. Right now Rodney was the only scientist in the lab, all the others had returned back to their ships or their quarters. Ronon yawned loudly in the corner, while Rodney merely shot him a look of distaste Teyla actually threw something at him, jolting him awake.

“Perhaps if you are bored, you can find something better to do with your time?”

“Like what? There’s nothing to do here. There’s no raid planned, no drills, no training. Besides-” He gave a sideglance at McKay who just scoffed.

“We’ve been here seven days Ronon. They even let us put some of our computers into their ship-” He indicated the terminal he was currently sat at. “-If they were bad guys, they would have acted by now.

Teyla put a hand on Ronons shoulder as he was about to retort. “Perhaps I can remain behind to guard Rodney and his work, and you can go spar with some of the local troopers or try out their weapons, which would be a valuable use of our time in order to gather information. Which would also give you something to do.” Ronon grunted as he stood up.

“Call me if you need me.”

The door opened as he left, and he squeezed past the engineer from the Solonis. McKay looked up at the man. He had to guess he was from either of the newcomers, as he was human and wearing a uniform he didn’t recognise. “Scientist?”

Sinclair barely turned in response to McKay’s question. It took him a few moments to realise that McKay was actually talking to him, as he was no scientist. “Oh, me?” Sinclair responds as he finally turned himself away from the screen he was examining. The way he spoke made him sound offended, but that was not the case - he was taking being called a scientist as a joke. He planted his back against the wall now behind him, barely missing the display. His eyes examined McKay with some interest. “I’m no Scientist. I think up the solution and then get my hands dirty making it work, not sit on my butt on a chair and let other people do the dirty work for me. Lieutenant-Commander Robert Sinclair, at your service.”

McKay scoffed. “Doctor Rodney McKay, expert in wormhole physics, Asgard and Ancient technology. Member of an away team and responsible for saving, oh. I don’t know how many lives as I am thrust into situations where I need to save the day with very little time to do so.” He turned away from the ‘Commander’. He was so typical military, didn’t care about the scientists until he needed them. How did he think his engines were developed? By a scientist. Now he had to admit he had taken on a more active role since joining Atlantis, but even then there was no element of a scientist doing nothing while someone else did the work for them. “If I may be so bold then Robert, what are you doing here in the lab if you don’t hold high regards to scientists? After all, I’m trying to figure out a way to get back to where we’re supposed to be, which requires an understanding of theoretical physics.” He offered the engineer a smug look as Teyla just rolled her eyes.

Sinclair gave a hearty chuckle at that. Doctor McKay was a feisty one, he’d give him that. “Alright, my good doctor, why do you think I’m here?” It was a rhetorical question, and Sinclair was asking it purely because he had already answered it. The doctor was clearly so high and mighty in his head that he had missed out on the easy answer. “I think up solutions, not just make them. And to make them, I need to be at the place where the solutions are thought up. Let’s say you think yourself up a little, I don’t know, atomic-powered Asgardian dooda, who do you think is going to have to build that for you? This man right here, and others like him.” The engineer thumped a fist against his chest to emphasise his point.

McKay laughed again, Teyla rising to keep an eye between the two men. “Yes, I suppose once I’ve built it there would need to be someone able to maintain it, after all I’m not able to always be on call. Without a solid understanding of theoretical physics, wormhole theory and a number of other sciences too long to list I don’t see why you need too-”

Teyla at this point stood up. “Perhaps you both have use, and merit.” She turned to Robert. “Though, should you be seated at the negotiations later then I recommend your first move be not to insult someone-”

Rodney chimed in. “Exactly, what gives-” She then turned her attention back to Rodney.

“-Though you of all people Rodney know the value of others in helping solve these problems. After all, we have Engineers on Atlantis.”

“Yes, we have Engineers but a lot of the scientists, myself included, know how to build the things we’re designing. It’s the whole point in having us there. I’d like to see mister engineer over there build technology able to harness energy from our own spacetime, stop a nano-virus from killing everyone, figure out how to create an artificial wormhole without the unstable vortex or a myriad of things we’re expected to do on a daily basis.” McKay was staring daggers at the man by now. “After all, the moment you have a problem who is it you go to? A scientist. Scientists may be useless in your universe buddy, but you’re not in your universe anymore.”

Sinclair was starting to get frustrated with McKay. He was no longer leaning on the wall, instead stood upright with his arms folded, a scolding glare focused on the doctor. Slipping an arm out from it’s folded position, he waved it at the room around them. “You see all this, doctor? Maybe a long, long time ago, some monkey came up with the composition of metals for the deck plating, the hull plating, even the screens on the wall, but you know who built a ship like this? An engineer with his cold, hard hands. Maybe you designed a wormhole container, a magnet to suck in energy from space, or thought up the tech for some incubator that artificially generates chicken for us to feed on, but you know who shoved the hull plates together, who made the plating by pouring some hot metals together in a shitty smeltery, and who formed the ship we stand in now? An engineer. I’d like to see your big-headed ass try to make a ship. Not design it, not sit on some cushy chair with a display in front of you tapping away at some plans, but getting a set of tools and trying to figure out where the hell you start assembling the gigantic jigsaw before you. If it weren’t for someone like me, you’d be standing in the emptiness of space, not a nice, warm room.”

Teyla rolled her eyes as she sat down. Neither was really better than the other in this scenario. McKay stood up now, leaning on the table infront of him. “Have you listened I’ve just said? I’ve had a hand in building ships. I’ve built life support systems, weapons arrays, scanners. Without scientists like me you wouldn’t have a nice warm room aboard a spaceship. You’d be standing on the ground looking up at the stars wondering how you would get there.” He gritted his teeth. “I appreciate the work of an engineer, I do but the fact that you come in here with accusations of me doing nothing but sitting on my backside while other people do the work is ridiculous. As soon as I come up with a working theory to get us home you can be sure you won’t be building it. I will. Now is there something you need? Or are you just here to test my patience? Because frankly I have more important things to be doing. If you want to insult someones skills and intelligence go back to your own ship.”

“Oh really?” Sinclair says, taking a step closer to McKay. “First off, you’re the one that wanted to speak to me, not the other way around. Second off, you’re the one that first started blabbering about how you needed an understanding of theoretical physics to be in this lab, and how you save oh so many lives. You instigated this whole argument, and you’re going to pin it on me? Oh no, you don’t get away with that. You’re the one in the wrong here, and I ain’t going home with my tail tucked between my legs,” Sinclair growls. In an impressive bout of self control, the engineer spun with great speed back to the display he had been looking at before, and went back to examining what was on the screen, though noticeable more furious than he had been before.

Rodney stood up and picked up his tablet to storm out however Teyla stood directly in front of him. Rodney rolled his eyes at her but she continued to speak. “Rodney, sit down.” She walked over to Sinclair and tapped him on the shoulder. “While it is true that Doctor McKay was out of line, you yourself are not without blame for you insulted his profession first. Perhaps it is best to concede your differences should you be looking to create a solution to this problem?” She looked between the two of them. “If you are both as smart as you say you are then you should have no problem doing so.”

Rodney sighed as he sent something to the screen Sinclair was working at from his tablet. “I’ve actually been working on this. It’s a, well. I guess you could consider it a probe. I’m working on miniaturising an Asgard hyperdrive in order to make it hyperspace capable as well as dialling the sensors up to eleven. My hope is to make it strong enough to detect any energy signatures that match our own. Frankly, I don’t know how to get us back, but if all suspicions are correct and something dragged us here then that technology has to be out in the Galaxy somewhere and we simply need to find it.”

Sinclair remained staring at his screen for a few moments after Teyla had tapped him on the shoulder, but finally, he nodded his head. “Fine. We’re both wrong for fighting eachother. Things got as heated as a reactor without proper coolant, but if we can at least work with eachother. Yes, fine.” He offered a nod of his head in thanks to Teyla, but only a shrug of his shoulders at Rodney. Spinning back around to his screen and bringing up the file that was sent from Rodney, he studied it for a few moments before yet again having to turn around. He noted to himself that perhaps he should bring a tablet of his own next time he came to the labs.

“In my eyes, whatever dragged us here, because I’m certain that something did, may not even be in this galaxy, or heck, in this universe. Whatever it was could be intergalactic or interuniversal, and reside in-between even the void and existence,” Sinclair explains. He tapped his chin with a finger.

McKay shook his head. “No no, that doesn’t make any sense.” He threw up the data of the various ships arrival. “Look. With the exception of yourself, the ‘Egg Carrier’ and UNSC ship whatever its name is. We all ended up in the same region of space going from not being in space. The deviation of our arrival points could be justified by your vessels travelling via FTL means during the moment of transfer. We weren’t randomly thrown here, we were placed and that indicates an intelligence behind it, intergalactic doesn’t make sense as from what we gather from the crew here while this universe has some differences to their own there aren’t extra-galactic threats. They don’t exist, and if that was the cause why would we be placed near the middle of the Galaxy?” He brought up a galactic map. “From what we’ve been able to determine there is a faint reading similar to that radiating from our vessels here-” He highlighted a planet labelled Coruscant. “-So far we’ve been unable to determine what it is, but for all we know it’s another ship or person. Sending probes near that system could provide us valuable information on our position here.”

“That doesn’t mean whatever dragged us here isn’t both inside and outside of the galaxy. Think of a ship entering a warp gate, if that makes sense to you. If a ship is halfway inside the warp gate and halfway outside, is the ship truly inside or outside of where the warp gate is? Do you say that the ship has left, or the ship is still there?” Sinclair says, tilting his head. “Now, an intelligence being behind dragging us here I can agree with. But it’s how it dragged us here that I’m concerned with. Not just because it managed to pull us all from so far away, but because, if the data I’ve been provided with is correct, it pulls us from different timelines. I believe that happened with the ‘Zerg’ ship and the ‘Terran’ ship, if I’m recalling those names correctly. It pulls us from a far distance away, or, or perhaps as well as, from different timelines, or perhaps alternative timelines. Here’s another question for you: What happens if we leave? Will we get pulled back here? If so, then that supports the fact there may be an intelligence behind it, but it also means that we’re targets. If it’s intelligent, then it knows it’s pulling us here, to a place we don’t belong. And that means that someone knows we’re here, and someone planned this.”

“Well, considering I’m not familiar with whatever warp gate you’re referencing, as would the ship be existent on the other side at all until it had all passed through? If not that seems like a potential failure on the technology.” Rodney noticed Teylas raised eyebrow and shook his head in order to focus on the more pressing issues. “That’s why I’m trying to design this probe to detect energy signatures that indicate interuniversal travel. Once we find the source of the intelligence that dragged us here we can figure out what it wants, and find a way back.” He pointed at all the work that had been done throughout the lab. “This is all a moot point-” He brought up the image of the probe again. “-This is a way of tracking down the disturbance so we can talk to it. Figure out what we’re supposed to do, either do it or find a way out of doing it and head home. I’m not a subscriber to this whole ‘we’re here to topple the Empire’ methodology that’s going around. From what I’ve gathered from this ship and it’s database the Empire gets toppled anyway, and they don’t have the technology to bring us here on their ship I doubt anything else flying around as a predecessor does.”

He sighed as his watch beeped. He looked at it and sighed. “Well, the meetings starting soon. Guess we better get ready to talk some more about what we’re going to do as a group.”

“Us being here might even change the Empire being toppled. Maybe with us being here, it doesn’t get toppled because we’ve interrupted something. Either way, I’m with you, I don’t care. I want to get back to my own home universe, not muddle around in this one’s issues. My home is at war, and I want to fight my war, not theirs. I can’t speak for the rest of my ship’s crew, though. Particularly not those higher in rank than me,” Sinclair explains. He wasn’t too happy about a meeting starting soon, he would rather step out of it and work on something practical rather than debate for the rest of the day on their next action. He could probably get out of it by just being quiet the whole time. “You’re right about the meeting. Let’s hope something worthwhile is discussed, yeah?”

McKay shrugged. “I’ve got a stronger feeling we’re not going to be called on until they have a problem they need to be solved, only for them to be annoyed when we don’t have an instant answer to all the problems they have going on.”

Sinclair laughed at that, turning back to his screen. “At least we can both agree on that.”

The squad's pilot had been a little annoyed at the notification that rendezvous would be further from Kuat Drive Yards, but he couldn't argue with the Resurgence's command crew. During the course of the hyperspace trip, Niner, who not only specialized as the squad's mid-range fighter, but was also their technical expert and decryption master. As the squad had quickly discovered while onboard this universe's version of Kuat, finding the information they had wanted from the Drive Yard's database hadn't been difficult at all, it had been accessing that information, which the Clone Commando team wasn't of high enough clearance to do.

There was a brief argument as to the best way forward before their slicer, the squad lead himself, went to work pulling all the relevant files from the databank, encryption and all. The process had only taken a few minutes, but it had been a dangerous few minutes. Every second that they lingered in the datacore of the drive yards, the team had risked being discovered by an Imperial scientist or clone or even engineer. But the Force was with them as they finished their retrieval of the information and left the datacore, heading back to their shuttle.

No one stopped them or called for their attention, as most of the other teams moving about in the spec force wing of the station were either other commando squads and ARC troopers, all of whom were going to or from their mission briefings. Winter wasn't sure if it was because of some unspoken rule or if they were all too busy to bother, but no one questioned when they returned to the hangar they had landed in and left again, their shuttle launching into hyperspace without any problems.

Over the course of the trip, Niner set to decrypting it, but the process took far longer than he would have liked and by the time the shuttle had touched down on the Resurgence after it's arrival inside the mists, he had only gotten through about a third of the decryption process and none of the technical specifics were helpful. In fact, based on Niner's understanding of the technology he was seeing, it was more advanced than anything the Remnant had ever fielded and after they disembarked, and the disgruntled mid-range expect had spoken with a deck hand, he approached Winter as Eighty and Sharp headed for debrief. "Sir, permission to visit the scientist near engineering? Seems he's the only one currently still working on things before the Supreme Commander calls another meeting of the fleet."

"Granted. Find some answers, Niner, otherwise we'll keep taking shots in the dark and we can't afford to do that forever." Saluting, the clone heads down to the makeshift lab where, as he was told, the McKay guy from the first meeting was working away on a design for a probe of some kind and one of his companions, who's name the Commando didn't know, stood nearby, watching.

"Hey you, McKay." Niner didn't really wait for a response, instead shoving the datapad into the man's vision with a read out of several of the more advanced tech pieces most prominent. "I trained to be able to tinker with, sabotage, repair, and build some of the most advanced weaponry and technology I've ever seen, but that? That takes the cake, and I GET tech. You have any ideas?" The read out would show several advanced pieces and components that obviously didn't originate in the universe they'd been pulled to along with the specs on their purpose, though that was hidden behind parts of the decryption process that hadn't finished, along with what seemed to be more technical specs in general. "Oh, and this is on that Assimilator-Class Star Destroyer we heard about shortly after we all got here, in case the ship in question wasn't clear."

INTERUNIVERSAL LAB // RESURGENCE // TRANSITORY MISTS

McKay grunted as the tablet was thrust at him by one of the Clone, Commandos? He thought that's what this specific set of armour meant. He wasn't entirely sure what armour meant what despite trying to recognise the variance in colours or designs to determine what was what. Yet the only one he could easily recognise as of yet was the difference between the Clones and everyone else. Hermiod had taken an interest in their cloning techniques, so McKay had tried to mine as much data as he possibly could. It always helped to have the Asgard owing you a favour and if they could figure out the cloning problem the Asgard would be able to help them in a myriad of conflicts throughout the Milkyway and Pegasus. It was the real reason they hadn't been as active galactically even with the fall of the Replicators.

McKay scoffed at the clone as he held the datapad looking over the specs. These looked almost identical to those from ships in this universe, except they seemed to be more efficient. He panned in on a key component of the weapon system. That looked, no it couldn't be. That technology wasn't native to this universe. He tapped his earpiece. "Daedalus beam me to engineering right now." They had kept a limit to the beaming while in the fleet, as it had been a secret to everyone except the Resurgence so far.

He heard Marks voice return over the line. "Sir, you know the..."

"I don't care. Beam me now, this is important. Trust me Caldwell would make an exception."

MEETING ROOM // DAEDALUS // TRANSITORY MISTS

Sheppard and Caldwell sat one across from another in the briefing room. Sheppard was still wearing his 302 flight suit. Really he should have been getting changed for the meeting, this was a formal occasion after all. "So what's this all about Sheppard?"

Sheppard sighed as he leaned back. "Sir. We're going to have to fight the Empire."

Caldwell raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

Sheppard sighed leaning forward again. "It came to me while I was out there-" he indicated the outside of the ship. Flying the CAP with the vessels of the other ships. "-as much as I don't want to get involved in this fight I think we're going to have too. Whatever dragged us here can always drag us back if we leave and I don't think it's any mistake that our ships are the ones that are here. Between us, we have a wealth of military technology and knowledge, a vast array of different skills that all complement each other and even look at the assortment of ships. It's almost as if it was designed to be made into a fleet. We need to find who pulled us here, or do what they brought us here to do-"

Caldwell held up a hand to stop him. "I know Sheppard. In fact, as off yesterday, McKay hasn't been working on a theory to get us back to our universe. He's designing a probe that uses Asgard Sensors and Subspace communications to seek out energies consistent with interuniversal travel so we can find out how we got here, and talk to whatever did this and find out why."

"Oh." Sheppard leaned back in his chair again, more relaxed. Hands-on the table, stunned into silence. A rare occurrence. "Okay good. So we're going to fight?"

Caldwell sighed. "Yes, we're going to fight."

In the last few days, The Egg Carrier had been to 10 different worlds. Most either under Imperial control, in the process of being brought under Imperial control, or completely barren. In any case, their search for the hiding Prince of Mobius was baring no fruit. They had finally come across a shimmering cloud that their sensors couldn't penetrate and decided to investigate. Upon arriving, they found another fleet of strange ships. A quick discourse with them had found that they had found much the same enemy with the Empire. They had been forced to pay docking fee's by giving them Egg-Pawns.

"I still don't believe it." Eggman shook his head. "Alternative Dimensions are one thing, but completely different time-lines are another..." He groaned.

"YOU LITERALLY HAVE TEAMED UP WITH YOURSELF FROM AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE!!!" Oglivie yelled.

"Don't you take that tone with me, mister." He grunted. "But it doesn't make sense. How's the Chaos Emerald doing?" He asked. Sonia looked at it.

"Seems fine, why do you ask?"

"If this is an alternate dimension, then the Chaos Emerald would be reacting to the presence of the same Chaos Emerald from this dimension.

"Unless they are too far away?" She retorted.

"They have damn near infinite power, if they sensed each other, they would be reacting badly, as in "Blow up and take half the universe with it" badly." He replied. "Unless they don't have Chaos Emeralds here, which is preposterous, because the Chaos Emeralds are needed to break the dimensional barriers like this." He rubbed his eyes. "Dimensional travel makes my head hurt..." He replied.

"What if it's Time Travel?" Asked Jack.

"DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THAT!!!" He cried as he grabbed his baggy eye-lids and pulled them down, his glasses not moving. "Look, the other ships seem to want to get the scientists together for a big think-tank to try and sort this out. I think it's safe to say that i qualify."

"I will go as well." K'Tari replied. "I imagine that my magics will be very useful in-" Eggman put up a hand.

"Look, don't want to burst the bubble, but they're ALL Overlanders on those ships. We don't know what kinds of relations they have with the Mobians on their world are."

"Did you ask them?" Oglivie asked.

"Of course not. When you're trying to make friends, you hardly lead with "By the way, my people failed to genocide the native mobian population. How did your extermination go? Baby steps. Soon, they'll be eating out of the palm of my hand." He grinned. "Unless you want to come as my slave or something?" He asked. K'Tari's hand waved, before Eggman slapped himself across the face, hard. "I deserved that one..." He then looked at the data that had been sent to them regarding the Empire. "It's at times like this that i miss Kodos. That guy knew how to kill Overlanders, he'd have loved this."

[Reason for deletion: Early post.]

---

After parting ways with Jerus, Eri returned to the quarters her team had been given. The meeting was coming up soon enough, though she momentarily found her mind occupied by her dissatisfaction at the result of her duel with the Jedi. Provided she accepted his explanation of the "Force" being a natural ability, that meant that he had a power beyond anything she could naturally attain. She was still not convinced he was a more skilled swordsman, but she still could not match him. Regardless of the reason for it, that was not something she could accept. She wondered, briefly, if this Force was something unique to this universe, or some sort of cosmic force that her own universe had not discovered. Perhaps it was something that the Forerunners knew of, but had given a different name? Was he correct that it was something that one had to be born with, or was it something she could learn? Regardless, even without that power, she would just have to grow her skills even farther to compensate.

Eri donned her combat harness once again, with the exception of her helmet. She was not on her own ship and did not feel comfortable being without her armor for extended periods, but she at least felt that showing a bare head served as some compromise between combat-readiness and being "diplomatic." Serving as a delegate for the Aegis was far from her preferred role, but she was expected to be able to take on irregular missions for the benefit of the Swords of Sanghelios. Usually, that involved infiltration, assassination, or sabotage, but if her mission required talking, then she would talk.

Eventually, it was time for their meeting. Delegates from every ship in their fleet would be gathering in the Resurgence's briefing room. Eri was not exactly hurrying, but as she was already on the ship, she expected to be one of the earlier arrivals. Somewhat annoyingly, Supreme Commander Erthos himself was not going to be leading the meeting, at least not at first. Evidently, he had another matter to deal with that he deemed more important. In his place, the head engineer Kham Rho, a Cathar, would be representing the Resurgence. Eri had been surprised to learn that there were more species than Humans that crewed the ship, considering she had not seen any among their boarding party. The majority of the ship's warriors were supposedly clones of one another.

When Eri made her way to the briefing room, she found that she was not the first to arrive. In addition to Kham Rho and several clone guards, there were a group of Humans. Even without recognizing the individuals, there was no mistaking who they were. There was an officer in a familiar uniform and, even to Eri's surprise, a team of Spartans. She had seen a Spartan before, though these seemed rather noticeably larger than what she remembered. In any case, since the Aegis had not yet arrived, the UNSC personnel would not have known about the presence of the Sangheili, or any of the other former-Covenant species. Here and now would be when they would learn about them, and now, Eri supposed she would learn quickly if they had been taken from a point in time before or after the end of the Human-Covenant war.

Eri, of course, made no aggressive movements, but she was certainly ready to engage her hardlight shield on a moment's notice.

---

---

---

---

Location: Resurgence - Briefing Room.
A single Cantharian, Yiithren, made its way into the room, the flight over on the LAAT having been uneventful, and cast a brief glance at the parties already assembled. One of which was from the Aegis and the other from one of the new ships that had arrived. Settling his mass in the nearest available seat, Yiithren took a moment to study the group from the new ship as he hadn't seen too much of them since their arrival. From all outward appearances though, they looked the same as a vast majority of the species that crewed their ragtag fleet, that species being Terran as or Human as he had found out from the datapad he'd been provided. Turning his attention away from them, he gave a slight nod to Eri before letting his gaze wander around the room, his mind lost in thought.

While he didn't show it, Yiithren was concerned. He'd left both Strevrols and Kurqruik back on the Va, an act that flew in the face of traditional Cantharian military code, which specifically stated that a captain or admiral had to be accompanied by one or members of their crew, usually their first mate. Yiithren, however, had come on his own with no backup or reinforcements of any kind. Though by this point he felt such measures were redundant as none of the parties he and his crew had been working alongside during the duration of their stay in the mists had shown any signs of treachery or aggression.

The captain of the Va blinked slowly, ending that line of thought for the time being. Right now he had a meeting to focus on.

Captain Tu Lee's e-butler pinged. Most people were quite happy to let e-butlers speak, but Tu Lee had almost immediately disabled the function. She preferred a quiet series of notification sounds. There was something deeply impersonal about digitally-generated voices speaking to you through your cochlear nerve.

Her wrist array picked up the subtle movements of her hand, passed the signal to her OCtattoos, which in turn processed the signal and passed it along to her optic nerve. In her virtual vision, a ghostly hand mirrored her flesh-and-blood hand's movements. She dismissed the notification from her calendar app - the meeting on the Resurgence was starting. Her e-butler sounded a polite cybernode-disconnect warning as the shuttle pod left the hangar on the Second Chance.

She shifted against the straps holding her to her chair. The shuttle was barely more than a metal skin with some engines strapped to it. The tiny thing was a good metaphor for their whole ship, really. The Commonwealth had ignored space for so long.... Tu Lee idly wondered where on the scale they would have fallen. Would they have the boxy-looking style of the Daedalus? The angled bulk of the Resurgence or sleek lines of the Glasgow? Gravity plating? Even something as simple as the hangar on the Resurgence - they'd thought to put a force field in place of a hangar door, allowing the whole space to remain pressurized - was an innovation beyond Commonwealth space design.

Meanwhile, the Second Chance had to despin the habitation ring before it could make use of what pitiful sublight maneuverability was available.. She was a bulky ship; a demonstration of how much cash CST could throw at a problem. They had a galley capable of crafting gourmet meals, even post-refit. Not that she'd authorized such waste during the "extended transreality crisis" they found themselves in post Transferrence. The one thing the Second Chance had going for it was their wormhole tech. Based on what she'd seen so far, the ships in this reality were ponderously slow to enter hyperspace, nearly completely blind while inside it, and had a disastrously long recharge time before they could re-enter it. That would render most of the Second Chance’s battle MO impossible: short, rapid hops from one side of the orbit to another, always looking for the latest hot spot to plug up. Such maneuvering that had saved Anshun (well, presumably; they'd ended up here before that battle had ended) -

The messaging app pinged in her virtual vision.

Keiran: Still in there, Captain?

She turned away from the window, glancing across the aisle. The shuttle was mostly empty - out of the capacity of 15, only 6 seats were occupied. Her, Keiran (the ship's Chief Technical Officer), and four "security" personnel.

"Yeah," she said to Keiran. "Just a bit distracted."
"I can't imagine what might be on your mind right now," Kieran said mischievously. "It's not like anything abnormal's been happening."
"Right. Not like the Transferrence spawned a neo-religious sect aboard, or we suddenly have to scrape together weapons for a ground-based security force, or figure out how to fit extradimensional missiles into our racks..."
"Hey, at least you don't have someone asking to start CST: Extradimensional Division."
Tu Lee rolled her eyes. "You know, it’s not cute to point out trouble which you yourself are causing."
"You know you love me," Keiran prodded.
"I don't."
"But, part of you does."
"It really doesn't."

Her e-butler pinged again, notifying her that it had lost maneuvering control of the shuttle pod. That was expected, as they'd just entered the atmosphere of the hangar. Maneuvering thrusters designed for space did not work in an atmosphere - a problem none of the foreign ships, somehow, seemed to have.

The first time the Second Chance had sent a shuttle pod over to the Resurgence, it had embarrassingly fallen to the deck with a crunch as soon as it entered the artificial gravity. Now, though, they'd learned to coordinate with Resurgence tower to take over control via tractor beam.

The Resurgence had kindly offered use of their shuttle as taxi, and Tu Lee had equally kindly refused. The crew of the Second Chance could manage just fine, thankyouverymuch.

Sort of.

"Speaking of wormholes," Tu Lee started, motioning to Keiran, "the ship VI pinged me about another request from Dr. McKay asking for a science representative."
"Erm . I'll find someone."

Tu Lee locked eyes with him, smiling slightly. Finally, someone else was in the hot seat.

"Someone," she prompted.
"Yeah. There's plenty of, erm, qualified-"
"Scientists?"
"-personnel." Kieran was studying the Resurgence's halls.
"Mmm. I've heard he's got quite the accepting personality regarding non-scientists. Very patient man." She was openly smiling now.
"I've sent the basic tech report. That should tide them over."

Tu Lee sent an image comparing the number of requests from Dr. McKay before and after they'd sent their basic tech and history reports to the other ships. It easily tripled after the man had learned of their wormhole tech.

“Shut up,” Keiran muttered.
“I didn’t say anything.”
Now he was glaring at her.

Their clone trooper escort stopped and gestured to a particular room. Two of their makeshift security personnel walked in first. Their cybernetically-enhanced muscles glittered as a wave of OCtattoos activated, scanning the room for weapons. None of the foreigners had been hostile, but there was a certain level of paranoia innate to any Commonwealth citizen - especially the Grand Family brat that had somehow wormed his way into chief of security. The Second Chance may be a Navy ship, but the Navy was still very much a new organization, and it seemed like every Grand Family and Intersolar Dynasty was trying to carve out a new slice of power. Unfortunately, some people had kept that attitude post-Transferrence.

*ping*
Sec1: Room clear.

Clear of what, exactly? Commonwealth weaponry? That wasn't exactly surprising.

She eyed the guard's weapons. They all had knives of varying types,
one had an ion pistol, another had a laser rifle (how the hell had that made it onto the ship?), and the other two simply had makeshift clubs. The club-wielder's reactions were heightened with combat wetware - very illegal, but she wasn't complaining. Even so… it felt lackluster compared to what she’d seen of some of the foreigners.

She and Keiran entered the room. They were wearing the simple jumpsuit uniform universal to all zero-gravity ships; Keiran wore his OCtattoos colorful, with a cobra actively twisting around his forearm while Tu Lee preferred to keep hers faded out of sight unless in use. His hair was a short, vivid blue, while hers was a more conventional, short, spiky brown.

The other delegations - the ones who'd been here longer, at least - hadn't brought as much security.

Her attention kept getting drawn to the mushroom-octopus thing. It certainly wasn't the elf-like Silfen, but it did remind her a bit of a smaller version of a Raiel. At least, the head was kind of similar. They both had tentacles, at any rate. On the other hand, the hulking, four-jawed alien was unlike any of their “native” aliens. As for the combat-suited humans - it was hard to be sure, given the disparity of tech in the room, but she'd bet the latest exosuits from the Navy Trooper project would beat them. Probably.

There was a weird tension in the air - the exosuited humans and the four-jawed alien were eyeing each other.

She sat down, Keiran next to her.

"Weird vibe in here," Keiran said. Tu Lee glared at him.

Sheppard hadn't been thrilled about the idea of using a Puddle Jumper, but he supposed Caldwell was really serious about the whole 'full disclosure thing'. There wasn't anyone in the jumper, just him and Caldwell. McKay had told them that he was doing something important with the information that 'Wampa Squad' had recovered from their trip to the Imperial shipyards. He sighed, his hands on the control yokes as the Jumper glided effortlessly through the void between ships and into the waiting maw of the Resurgence. Once it was low to the deck he guided it through the ray shields into the pressurised space. Standing up he opened the rear hatch, gun in hand looking around the room. He could already see all the other vessels from the different ships among the fleet. He had become quite accustomed to seeing them, looking out of place in the hanger. The Jumper had to be one of the strangest though, if only due to the fact that it didn't match the design aesthetics of the rest of the Daedalus or the F-302s. Sheppard smiled as he walked following his clone escorts, leaving the door open. Nobody here could fly it anyway, without their timelines matching up there wouldn't be anyone here with the ATA gene. Surely. He hoped.

That's when his earpiece buzzed and he clicked it. "Sheppard, you there?"

The grating voice off Rodney came through his earpiece just as he waved at Ronon and Teyla who were walking towards them. "Yeah, we're here." He looked at Caldwell who tapped his own earpiece to tune in, being on the same team they had set up for the same frequency for effective communication.

"You need to find Erthos. I've got more information"

Interacting with: Everyone aboard the Resurgence.

Marcus Oliver masked his scowl as the familiar form of a Sangheili entered the room. Beyond keeping his grudge placated, he allowed himself to briefly take in the new, unfamiliar environment of the ship. The strange, uniformed men in red and black served as the faceless defense of the warship, and slightly unnerved him. Though, at any rate, they'd probably think the same about his Spartans. Team Omicron stepped up to flank closely on either side of the uniformed Admiral, the unflinching golden gaze of their visor locked onto the Elite and every other potential threat in the room. Marcus cleared his throat, looking over toward Kieran and nodding. "Quite weird, indeed." Oliver sighed, turning his gaze back to the Sangheili and speaking up calmly. "I trust that we're going to be civil here, as much as the years... haven't been, across our worlds. We don't have much of a choice in the matter, and I'd prefer not to engage in unnecessary violence." Resting in the right side of his uniform's beltloop was a black-finished M6C-PDWS, serving as one extra gun alongside the assortment of assault rifles, sniper rifles and shotguns that Team Omicron brought along. The 42 year old Admiral had a gruff complexion about him, with hazel eyes, a strong jaw and a trimmed goatee marked with a horizontal scar running diagonally down alongside his face. Eyeing the others in the room, he rolled his shoulders and attempted at a greeting despite the tension filling the room. "I'm Marcus Oliver, Admiral of the UNSC Unbroken Hope. Despite the circumstances, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

---

Of all the reactions from the UNSC delegation that Eri had been anticipating, this had not been one of them. The Humans did not react with violence, nor with overt accusations towards Eri, as the Terrans had towards the Zerg. Yet, they also did not act as allies, and by the way he spoke, he did not sound familiar with any alliance between them. Though, Eri was aware that she was not wearing the usual armor of the Swords of Sanghelios. It was marked with their symbol, but the Humans may not have noticed it from across the room. It could be that they had mistaken her for a follower of Jul 'Mdama's Covenant.

Eri moved to take her seat at the table. Somewhat surprisingly, the Resurgence did have on hand chairs to accommodate a being of her size. From what she had read about this universe, there were thousands of intelligent species of a variety of sizes, which she supposed explained their preparedness.

At any rate, not all of the delegates had yet arrived, and Eri saw no better time than the present to deal with this potential problem head-on. She was not one to take a "wait-and-see" approach. "I assume it has been explained to you that we have been taken from our own universe to another...Marcus Oliver. We are from the same place, but from when were you taken? Have you yet lived through the end of the Human-Covenant war? I was taken from a time years after we defeated the Covenant."

Interacting with: Everyone aboard the Resurgence.,@EliteCommander

The pitch and tonal inflection of this Sangheili was different, and as he supposed, this was a female. What caught him off guard was the mention of the Covenant's defeat, moreso than her question of when he was pulled from 'his' universe. Raising an eyebrow, even the members of Team Omicron took a brief moment to glance to one another in utter silence; certainly communicating among themselves as they prepared to digest the incoming information. "...Twenty-Five-Fifty. You're telling me that... the war was won? What, was there some sort of internal strife or something? Because as far as I recall, our forces were making strides just fine." Marcus's face suddenly felt hot- there was no way that the Covenant could simply fracture, was there? He wouldn't admit it, but he was in denial faced with the reception of such news. Clearing his throat and swallowing, he tugged at his collar briefly and nodded with a wave of his hand. "I'll.. deal with this information later. I'm assuming your jump drive malfunctioned as well. Yet, why would it pinpoint to the same anomaly that brought us all here? Surely there must be an explanation. Do these... people know anything about it?" He gestured to the Clones; feeling as if he was now talking to a wall and grasping for straws for answers that wouldn't be found. On top of talking civilly with an Elite, Marcus felt damn powerless at the absurdity of the situation finally registering before him.

Marcus eyed a nearby chair across the room, moving to sit down as the five Spartans quickly moved to stay close by his side. They stood upright instead, still fixated on the Elite in the room and largely ignoring everyone else. The chair felt as is someone largely misinterpreted Goldilocks, being too goddamn big for him to seat himself comfortably. Regardless, he folded his hands into his lap and listened for the replies of the individuals around the room. As cautious as he was, he was curious to find out why they were all here, and what could be done about the situation in order to finally get home- if that even was an option to begin with.

---

Eri opened up her datapad to get a reference to the year the Admiral spoke of. She did not know the Human calendar off the top of her head, so she had to spend a few moments cross-referencing some information she had stored in the device with her own people's timekeeping. "As you define your dates, the Immaculate Aegis, the vessel I represent, was taken from the year 2558. Your intuition is correct, Human. The Hierarch of Truth betrayed the Sangheili, at the same time as our Arbiter learned of the lies behind our faith. The Arbiter allied with your kind, and led us with him against Truth and his Jiralhanae mongrels. We who follow the Arbiter's leadership are the Swords of Sanghelios, and we have been allied with the Humans of Earth for the past six of your years." She explained.

Granted, Eri had only given a basic explanation that left out a great deal of important information, but it would serve well-enough to identify Eri and who she represented. She highly doubted they would believe her, regardless, but it was still just as important that she say it. For now, it was far more important that they deal with their current situation. Ultimately all that she, and most of the others, cared about was getting back to their own universes. "We know frustratingly little about why we are here. We believe something has pulled us here, but we do not know what, or for what reason. Once everyone else finally arrives, it will all be explained to you."

---

---

---

---

Compared towards her fellow peers, Samus Aran seemed to be primarily keeping to herself over the past few days. She had been rarely seen outside of her quarters - which that in of itself is unusual - only getting out either to grab nutritional supplements or to inspect her gunship, all within her cold, hard, carapace of armor. It'd been repaired just a few hours after their last conflict with the Imperial regiment, however data logs would show that she hadn't even piloted it outside of a simple test flight the very same day. The bounty hunter claimed that the engines were in working condition and that she could sneak into light speed whenever she wanted. Even as the fleet took refuge in the cloudy nebula - or officially stated as "ionized space" - known as the Transitory Mists. After all, she wasn't normally the type to just sit and idle around.

But there Samus was, sitting in her room looking aimlessly out from her window into open space. She was a still as stone, her face blank and her breathing stable. There was still a lot to take in regarding the turn of events that had taken place and she needed time to plan her next method of assault. She had begun researching and inspecting the nearby sectors for any sign of a potential job, along with other places situated far into the "Outer Rim" portions of the galaxy. In addition, while she barely talked to anyone, she had been occasionally listening in onto current events, such as the addition of two more stragglers and vague rumors of new missions popping around the corner. So she wasn't simply sitting there and doing nothing productive, rather simply being that she had nothing better to do.

All but glaring into the twinkly void that encapsulated her mind...

But even that will have to wait. As for the first time in days, the bounty hunter was finally summoned by the higher ups for an important meeting. She got up from her seat and made her way to the Bridge. She was one of the last individuals to arrive, finding herself standing next to Eri and close to a squad of five armored figures, as she crossed her arms and listened to Jerrus.

---

"Twenty-Five-Fifty?" Tu Lee blinked. "We're from Twenty-Three-Eighty-Two. You don't look like your from two-hundred years in the future." She shook her head. "Anyway, Keiran knows more about the Transferrence."

Keiran looked faintly embarrassed. "Right. Couldn't tell you much about it, actually. I'd honestly thought it was 'standard' strangeness brought about by several hundred nukes dumping their energy into nine intersecting wormholes. We only learned intersecting wormholes were possible when the Primes used it against us. I don't even want to think about those equations when you throw in an absurd amount of energy into the mix. Hey, who knows, maybe that's what we need to do to get home. Anyone want to volunteer for getting 300 nukes thrown at them?" He grimaced. "On the other hand, most of my wormhole science is just working knowledge supplemented with memory implants. I only started working at CST in my second life, but I'm the best expert we've got. Whatever the Transferrence was, thank Ozzie, because we'd be space dust without it." Keiran grinned. "You could say-"
"Don't-" Tu Lee started.
"-we've been given a Second Chance."
Tu Lee groaned. "How long have you been holding on to that one?"
"Just thought of it, actually."
"Ugh," Tu Lee rolled her eyes. She pointedly turned away from him, addressing the room. "How we got here bugs me less than something else: why did someone go through all the trouble of bringing us here? What possible problem has the best solution of flinging a dozen starships from a dozen universes into one place?"
"What kind of economy would you need to be able to afford to even do that?" Kieran said.
"And why would you go through all that trouble and not give the starships any instruction whatsoever?"
"Hey, yeah, good point! I'd make damn sure my investment is doing exactly what I need it to, not sitting idly in some Mists." Keiran frowned. "Unless they want us to sit idly in these Mists. Maybe we're pawns in some vast temporal conspiracy, and all we have to do is nudge a few hydrogen atoms in a particular direction."
"Really. You're going for time travel," Tu Lee said.
"Well-." Keiran gestured expansively toward the room full of extradimensional aliens. "And at least I'm not suggesting it was 'God'."
"Don't remind me," Tu Lee said with a sigh.

"I kinda figured we was just dead," one of the security personnel mumbled quietly. "And this is all some weird afterlife thought up by a bunch o' nerds."

AR-1 // RESURGENCE

Colonel Caldwell walked in with Sheppard and McKay, they had briefed Erthos on the situation coming to the agreement that they would be the ones to tell everyone. It looked like they would need to stay here to deal with a problem after all. The only issue was that still left the mystery of who brought them here, and if solving the problem would let them return home. Walking in between the discussion between Eri and the Admiral he had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. Ofcourse they had to have come from different times. It would have made things too easy if they had both come from a time where everyone was friendly and allies.

Caldwell sat in one of the regular-sized chairs available, flanked by Rodney and Sheppard on either side. Sitting up straight he nodded towards Eri, in the way of a formal greeting as he wasn't entirely sure if she held rank or if she should just be referred too as Eri and did not wish to offend. "Good to see you again." He then passed his way around the room, offering greetings to Yiithren before turning to the newcomers to the little ragtag fleet they had going on. While he had communicated with them via ship-comms he hadn't actually met the newcomers face to face yet. "Welcome to our little fleet. I'm Colonel Caldwell of the Earth Ship Daedalus, this is Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard and Doctor McKay. Who some of you have already met."