---

"Very well, Sel, Arta, Rhanic, and Jerius, you are with me. Everyone else, double back to the last chamber and set up for an ambush. Jarraj, prepare explosives in the passageway leading to the ambush, but only where safe. The passage can collapse, but ensure the chamber does not." Eri instructed, with particular emphasis on her last warning towards the Unggoy.

Eri took her beam rifle in her hands and was ready to lead the way forward, though gave one last comment towards Jerius. "If you are skilled enough with your thruster pack, then we should all be able to outmaneuver the beast. These halls are large enough to make use of them, laterally, at least. If you do not possess that skill, then you may keep your distance." She said before promptly taking the lead forward, with a particular eye on her motion tracker.

---

---

Vael gave a single nod. "We seek allies for this war. In your history, the inhabitants of this planet showed themselves willing to resist the Empire, before being destroyed for their efforts. You hope that the people of this universe are not dissimilar from your own."

"Although, if I may make an observation..." Vael continued, stepping up alongside Erthos. "...I reviewed your history, as you provided it to us. This Empire is new to this galaxy: a galaxy already fatigued from years of war. Alderaan has not yet felt the years of oppression you described from the Empire. Even if they already distrust this new Empire, the pain it will cause them has not yet been felt. You describe these Alderaanians as preferring peace, and only regarding war as their last resort. They may yet see the possibility of a peaceful solution to their problems with the Empire, so our goals may be more difficult to attain than expected."

---------------------
Team Omicron / Immaculate Aegis CiC / Interacting with: @EliteCommander
---------------------

Issac nodded wordlessly; his mind beginning to quicken as he assessed his environment. "I'm uh... Ready, ma'am. Also, what is the Aegis's AI like? Gen One? Two? How far did the Covenant get in making their own platforms?" Issac asked. In the back of his mind, he speculated that the technology was far below what the UNSC had- but the fact that it could crunch large amounts of data and analyze simulations made it clear it wasn't an impossibility far in the future. He looked around the room, taking pause to evaluate his situation. He was irritated, simply on the notion he had to cooperate with another AI to solve such issues. Regardless, he spoke up soon after. "What would you advise?"

---------------------
SENTINEL 1-1 / Jedi Temple, Away-Team 2 Interacting with: @Sep
---------------------

Leon gestured to his team to stay put as he shuffle his way over to grab the device. "Understood; you want us to split up and regroup down there from the right side?" Dare asked, attaching the M7S to his left hip and hefting the alien device into his grip. It reminded him of a Plasma Pistol back home, although this technology looked far more archaic for its time. Getting into a comfortable hold, he idled by the team leader to await his response.

---

While the AI was taking time to initially catalogue the data, O'Connell moved to her laptop to get her notes ready for them to finally start coordinating in earnest. Meanwhile, Floats was already signaling to the translator, giving all the minute details it could of every aspect of the Slipspace borer. Again, it was not terribly good at explaining the complicated technology, and much of what it did explain relied upon the reader having a pre-existing understanding of concepts known only to the Forerunners, but it was at least answering on-topic.

Dr. O'Connell interjected into Dr. Mckay's question, as she had a better understanding of the technical specifications of a UNSC smart AI than the Spartans. Presumably. "Oh, an AI like Isaac isn't programmed like normal computer software. In-depth scans are taken of a recently-deceased Human brain, which are then converted into a digital framework based on the neural structure. It creates an initial seed for the AI to write its neural map. The end result is an intelligence fully capable of learning, and much more creativity than any conventionally-programmed software.

Eventually, Isaac collected his thoughts enough that he seemed ready to continue, so O'Connell addressed his question. "The Aegis actually makes use of a Human-created AI. Not a 'smart' AI like you, of course, but reasonably advanced for what it is. It might not have your kind of creativity, Isaac, but it is specialized towards the operation of this vessel, so it should be more helpful than harmful. I think we should hear what Dr. Mckay has to say and...get started.

---

---

---

---

@EliteCommander

Strevrols nodded slowly as he digested the information Floats provided him on the drive. While it wasn't exactly in-depth enough for it to be of any real help to him should he ever get the chance to examine it up close and personal, the info he was provided did give him some idea of what he was in for. The concepts the creature described were foreign, quite unlike the drives used in his own universe. Even their base function was different, and far more advanced than what was conventionally used by most species his people had interacted with over the years. As a matter of fact, the more he thought about it, the more he realized just how advanced these Forerunners actually were. That didn't bother him though. If anything, it inspired him. Inspired him to learn what he could and use it to better the designs already employed by his people.

"Thank you Floats," he said, pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind as he turned to address O'Connell. "And I agree. The sooner we start, the sooner we can see what works and what doesn't. And hopefully avoid blowing ourselves up in the process."

---

---

---

---

In just a matter of seconds, all hell came loose as an all-out firefight broke out within the building. Samus was able to roll to the side just in time as the Gorm proceeded to rattle blaster bolts into all he deemed as a threat. She could feel a number of stray bolts bounce just behind her, nearly hitting her ball by mere inches. She rolled towards the back of the building before morphing back into her armored form. There was no use attempting to diffuse this fight, really there was only one thing she had to do. She had to kill every armed opponent in this building, while simultaneously disarming and keeping Gorm alive. And she had to be quick about it.

Samus would pop out from behind the table before running perpendicular through the bar. As she did, she aimed her cannon towards the closest enemy forces - firing upon two of the kaleesh mercenaries close by - before ducking back behind a counter and firing again at the enemy forces. If she was going to take Gorm alive, she'll need to take out his opposers first. Only then can she concentrate in capturing this green, rambunctious, piglet, or at the very least give Thaz an opening to shoot it before it would know what hit it.

Eggman watched the monitor as the picture of the small device appeared on it. "Hmmm, strange looking thing. This guy is one of those no-nonsense types. I hate those guys, especially working with them. No flair or drama in anything they do, just cold hearted murder." He shook his head. "I mean, what's the point in taking over the world if you can't have fun doing it?" He sighed. "Well, i'm sure i'd be able to wrap my head around it if I could get my hands on a working one and dissect it, but I don't suppose you have one of those." He then shook his head again. He then turned back to him. "Look, as for the Egg-boss, I think you may have missed something from my report. The Eggboss' aren't here to replace your crew, they are my greatest contributions to our war effort. Now, your ship isn't terribly large, but i'm sure you could find some space for the Egg Viper." He handed a datastick to the person at the comm. As the schematics appeared on the screen, showing a large, snake-like machine with cutting blades and laser cannons built into it. "Think of her as a good-will present. Shielded cockpit designed to repel both kinetic and energy based attacks. With that blast-shield at the front down, you can ram straight through several feet of solid titanium without scratching her paint. Those three modules on the tail carry laser cannons, a Megalaser at the front for pesky opponents, takes a few seconds to charge, but that won't be too much of a problem." He then motioned to the large spiked wheels on the side "And what sort of giant robot would be complete without the spinning blades of death?" He asked. "So, what do you think? Want to give her a look over? I can have one of my men bring her over for you to get started with, if you like?" He smiled a large, smug grin.


Sonia nodded as Bishop explained the Naquadah. "I'm not much of a scientist myself, I'm a politician and a warrior."

"Well, lucky that one of us is the understudy of Mobius' greatest scientific mind." Thunderbolt butted in. "And though I highly doubt you'll be able to make any meaningful improvements to the great Doctors designs, i'm sure that you can keep yourself studying this marvellous technology." Sonia made a throwing up motion to Bishop behind Thunderbolts back, before making a silent apology. She turned and began leading her way through the ship. "Although Egg-Carrier X is based on an older design, her technologies are second to none." She bragged. She finally approached the Shielding section and opened the door. "Through here is the main shield generators, we have multiple different forms of shielding to protect the ship from different forms of attack. Regular shielding for protecting against battle, but also elemental shielding, such as flame shielding, Aqua shielding, thund-" She was caught offguard as a shadow dropped down and grabbed Bishop, dragging him into the corner of the room as a series of clicks and hisses were heard in his ear.

"KOFFAL, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?!" Sonia screamed at him.

"Intruder..." It hissed with a barely intelligible tone. "State your business."

"HE'S A GUEST, PUT HIM DOWN THIS INSTANT!!!" Sonia said. Koffal let go of him. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU EVEN DOING IN HERE?! WHY AREN'T YOU GUARDING THE EGG?!"

"Egg is guarded... Engine room more defensible... Warm... Safe..." It hissed.

"WE ARE NOT UNDER ATTACK AND THOUGH I APPRECIATE THAT YOU ARE HERE UNDER ASYLUM, I WILL NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PEOPLE! GET YOUR EGG AND GET BACK TO YOUR ROOM NOW!!!" She screamed at him. Sonia helped Bishop to his feet. "I'm terribly sorry about that." She said. Koffal walked over to a large pile of Energy Core cannisters. He moved the red ones aside and picked up the golden orb and quickly rushed from the room. "He is here on political asylum, he carries the egg of a queen. He's... Immensely overprotective..." She sighed. "After the first day, he made his way into the ventilation ducts and it took us 8 hours to flush him out."

"Well, if you're done, let's get to the shields." She sighed. They started walking through a glass corridor, green liquid through the glass with fish-like robots swimming in it. "Elemental Gel, it's what powers everything, so naturally, we need to keep a large stock of it around, the robots are constantly testing it and keeping its elemental PH at a neutral level. All you have to do is expose it to an element and it takes that element on. Want a machine with ice-powers, drop a snowball into it, want it to have fire powers, drop a lit match in it." She bragged. "We can make more of this stuff, but it's slow going." She sighed "Hence why we keep the large stock. Also why-" She walked over to the glass and put a hand on it, before he saw electricity shoot from her into the glass and the electricity dissipated across it. "Advanced shielding" She smiled smugly. They continued to walk until they finally reached a room with a large machine, large cogs turning around it, and large pipes carrying the green liquid into it and more pipes carrying multiple different coloured liquids away from it. "This is the shield generator. We can use this to change the elements of the shielding. We use general force shielding for the most part, because the elemental shields don't really stand up well to energy or kinetic attacks. But it does allow Egg Carrier to go places most others can't. Start pumping the blue stuff, she'll be able to dive underwater, pump the red stuff and she'll be able to get within a million miles of a star. Yellow stuff and we'd be able to fly through an Ion storm like it wasn't there."

"If you want some schematics, i'm sure we can get you some." She said, before looking at Thunderbolt, who shook her head. Sonia nodded, Thunderbolt shook her head more, Sonia put her fist in her palm and stared daggers at the chinchilla.

"Yeah, i can get those for you." She said.

Jason nods, watching the general hustle aboard the ship. "You're right, of course. But then, even in my universe, Alderaan never explicitly fought the Empire. They provided many of the ships the Rebellion used early on as well as a large chunk of it's funding. Princess Leia herself wasn't condemned as a member of the Rebellion until shortly after they had obtained the Death Star plans, which had resulted in the testing of the full power of that battle station on her home. You already know what became of it."

He sighs as he leads Vael out of the hangar. "I'm simply gambling on the chance that the Alderaanians may be willing to help us in similar ways. I'm not even sure they actually maintained their own militaries among the noble houses."

---

Kham had tuned in just in time to catch the tail end of the discussion, but he was mostly in agreement. However, he was more concerned with his discovery. "Kham Rho from the Resurgence here. While I'm all for sitting down and figuring this out together, might I suggest we figure out what kinda physical limiter is in place? Because every time I run a simulation with the AI, about thirty seconds in there's a catastrophic meltdown and that's including if we clean up the coding."

---

For Thaz, this first shot would mean everything. She was still hidden, far from the firefight, but that would change the moment she took her shot. The discharge of energy would disrupt her active camouflage and reveal her, and that Rodian sniper was still somewhere, invisible. No doubt the sniper was currently looking for some way to help his boss, but as soon as Thaz revealed herself, she would be a target. Fortunately, she had a plan in mind to deal with that.

Thaz laid herself down on her stomach at the edge of the spaceport roof so that she could rest her beam rifle on it. Given that he was embroiled in a shootout, the Gamorrean was now a moving target, but Samus' disruption was certainly playing its role. The bounty hunter was doing an admirable job keeping Gorm out in the open, and actually giving Thaz a clear shot.

Jerus had already said that he was ready to make his kill, so for the sake of the job, Thaz hoped he was not lying. Taking no chances, Thaz fired two shots in rapid succession, the first piercing through the Gamorrean's thick skull, and the second hitting him center mass. Thaz quickly contacted Jerus. "I've taken the shot, make your kill!"

At the same time, Thaz pulled back her rifle while it was overheated and held her left arm out just over the edge to activate her point defense gauntlet. Her active camouflage had been disabled, but with her low profile laying on the roof, the shield could protect her fully from the direction of the hidden Rodian sniper.

DOCTOR NOVAK // UNBROKEN HOPE // FLEET SPACE

Doctor Novak scrolled through the various screens of data as the form of Isaac disappeared, excusing his absence as he left the ship. "Okay well first-" She scrolled through the endless lines of data. "-you'll need to give me a rundown on the power systems. Nothing sensitive, I just need to figure out if your ship has the raw juice for adding shielding, and then if it does find the easiest paths to connect the relays on the outside of the ship to the wiring that is no doubt inside the ship." She scrolled through the data as she was trying to find what she was looking for. "Once we have that, we can easily use the shipyard to build the relays without using too much in the way of resources. Put them on while we work on the control systems, I'm thinking we might still use crystal technology, it's far superior to wiring. Working on an interface should be rather simple since from what I've already read up on your technology many of the control interfaces and connections are the same as what we use."

COLONEL CALDWELL // DAEDALUS // FLEET SPACE

Caldwell looked at the information as it was on the screen. "We don't have an actual physical device on the ship but we have the full schematics though that-" He pointed at the screen "-is something I'm interested in. I don't necessarily want the actual physical vessel but the shielding." He stood up and walked closer to the screen. "I'd be very interested in getting a look at its shield generator, or rather having one of my people have a look." He returned to his seat. "Our shielding is advanced, with a ZPM we were able to deflect a coronal mass ejection from a star. We have however been unable to make shielding units small enough to cover a fighter. Nothing that can last for very long at least. So we've at least found something from your universe that we would benefit from, part of me wonders whether or not our shielding on the ship is better."

TEYLA EMMAGAN // THE TARIS // HYPERSPACE

Teyla spent a large portion of the flight in her quarters. It had taken her time to get used to the look of Atlantis, then she had come to know the appearance off the Daedalus and the facilities from the people of Earth. Advanced beyond the Athosians or anything else she had seen in Pegasus. Now there was this whole new universe to explore. The design was surprisingly similar to that of the Daedalus, only larger. There were also less warning lights and signs. It made her think that the people behind this vessel were more accustomed to spaceflight. From what she had read that made sense. She left her room and walked to where the being from the Aegis was speaking to the mission leader.

"Perhaps should they be as honourable as indicated they will be willing to help us. Allies come in all shapes and sizes, there is more to offer than simple military might."

DAEDALUS AWAY TEAM 1 // IMMACULATE AEGIS // FLEET SPACE

McKay continued to pour over the A.I, completely obsessed with it. "I need to see how this process is achieved, this is incredible. You actually map and then replicate the human mind? How do you train it? Does it retain the memories from when it was human?" HE shook his head as Ronon cleared his throat loudly. "Okay, back to focusing." He turned as Kham spoke up, and the floating aliens said their piece. "I disagree, I think the actual technology has to be adequate if the good Doctor here is correct and an A.I upgraded the ship in their home universe. If an A.I performed the upgrade then that indicates that the issue is software, not hardware. It is possible that with what we know about the technology we may struggle to make the upgrades without altering the physical technology."

He turned to the UNSC Doctor. "So, how fast did this A.I... Cortana make this other ship? It might still be faster to build a hyperdrive for the ship."

Ronon turned to the Spartan who seemed to be staying out of the conversations about science. Probably like him she (if she was a she e wasn't sure from the voice and the armour gave away nothing) was only here to protect their asset. "So, are you really that tall or is that the armour?" He had heard enough about these Spartans to be curious about how they would handle in a fight.

LIUETENANT BISHOP // EGG CARRIER // FLEET SPACE

Bishop brushed himself off after being accosted by the alien being. "Why the hell do you keep something around on your ship that runs around in the vents with an egg? Where did it even come from? You said where you come from you were chasing someone who was fleeing. Why didn't you just leave it on the surface of your planet when you ran? Why bring it aboard?" He pulled out a tablet as they continued walking towards the shield generator, ready to take scans to determine the effectiveness of the technology.

"This is true, which is what I am hoping for. But a few members of their esteemed Star Barrier Battalion would be a nice replacement. Cybernetically enhanced beings who can match the strength and speed of any Sith or Jedi, but without their Force Powers." I chuckle as I lead the pair to a lounge where we can discuss a touch more comfortably. "Believe it or not, the planet was at the forefront of personal shielding and melee weapon design at one point, though as the desire for such things shrank, so too did their relevance."

---

While the members of the Glasgow used the fake information they'd secured, Captain Erin and her squad discreetly moved about, with their marksmen and medic maintaining bodyguard distance from the crew members, to maintain the facade, while the others moved about their own missions. Captain Erin and Hok'Ren carefully made their way down towards the primary mainframe of the bank where the Twi'lek set up and hacked into it to begin siphoning credits out of some less important Imperial programs.

As he did that, Meteor moved further down the hallway and took up overwatch, casually leaning against the door while the captain herself moved over to one of the vaults to familiarize herself with the lay out so they could figure out which ones were safe to tie into the siphon. Opening a secure channel with her comlink, as she and the team hadn't yet fully familiarized themselves with their new omnitools, she speaks quietly and quickly to their N7 escort. {This is callsign Krayt, we're almost done down here. How's the op up top going?}

---

If Eri could see underneath Jerius's helmet, she would find herself on the business end of an insulted Mandalorian's glare. "My skill is more than adequate with my jetpack, Eri'Moram. Rest assured, I will do more than my share to aid." He followed the group forwards after his reply, his rifle up and to his shoulder as he watches for the movement of their prey. However, they mostly hear it as it chuffs and roars to itself, moving about a chamber up ahead with little concern for those approaching it.

---

"It did not take her long." O'Connell answered to Dr. McKay. "And her upgrades were effective. Not only did she improve the accuracy of the ship's slipspace capabilities, but the upgrades she made to its weapons allowed it to destroy half a dozen other Covenant warships. Granted, Cortana was one of the most advanced AIs Humanity has created. She came from the mind of Dr. Halsey, who is probably the most brilliant scientist of my universe. She was the one who created the Spartan-IIs, and I can't even begin to list all the ways that my work is based off of her research."

Narak knew Dr. O'Connell well enough to know when she was losing her focus on to a tangent, so he soon interjected. "Even without the most advanced artificial intelligence, this should not be something that should prove too difficult for us. The projects that Dr. O'Connell and I work on regularly deal with far more advanced technology than this ship, and this AI...Isaac, now has access to all of the information that Cortana used to make her changes. We should be able to complete this in a few days. Perhaps sooner, depending on your own competency. I believe the key lies in understanding the technology's origins. Much of it was derived from the technology of the Forerunners. We may not have a Forerunner slipspace drive aboard, but the Huragok may be of assistance, and of course the data from the Halo array."

---

---

"Hmm, I know many among my own kind who would disagree. Not all of my people have yet earned the wisdom to look beyond the points of their blades. It is fortunate, then, that my shipmaster is wise." Vael remarked towards Teyla. "The task that my shipmaster has given me is to judge the honor of these potential allies. To see that they are free from hints of corruption or betrayal that would put our fleet at risk. Our enemy, as I understand it, is both insidious and cunning. Any allies that we choose to trust must be committed to opposing the Empire, and resilient against infiltration."

---

---

Eri's reply to Jerius was both short and simple. "Then we shall both have the chance to prove our words."

Eri was the one who led the way, quietly for the moment. Although she had disconnected her active camouflage in order to power the thruster pack, that did not mean she could not use a more conventional method to get the drop on their prey. With her helmet linked to the scope of her beam rifle, she scanned the passage ahead as they moved through it. Once she had sight of the Tarentatek, she would look for a shot straight to its head. With enough luck, she might be able to end it right then and there, though she was not relying upon it. Even if she could get a clean shot through its head, she did not know how large its brain was in relation to its skull, nor exactly where to aim to hit it. She had other ideas in mind for how to approach the kill, should the first shot fail.

The two operatives moved ahead of the crew of the other ship, quietly, and discreetly dealing with whatever clones were still in the area. Moving the bodies into the shadowy nooks, and corners of the temple then taking it in while they waited for the other teams to catch up. "They certainly didn't try to clean it up, after they shot this place up." Sarah said, to the others as she walked down some steps where a pillar had crumbled onto them, it provided decent cover for Imura to quickly scan with the scope on his weapon. Satasified that he found the archive, he gave a subtle hand signal to the other operative, then nodded to the others. "Looks like the archieve is dead ahead, we'll move up." Imura whispered, before heading to the entrance. He wasn't prepared for what he saw next, a woman in dark clothes stood before them, turning to the sound of footsteps she ignited something in her hand, the crimson red blade of this weapon hummed with energy, and she charged at Imura, her shout seemed to rile up the troopers with her, who turned to face the group, and start firing.

"Contact, contact!" Wilkes shouted over the din, Imura barely managed to get his omni-blade up in time to stop the energy blade, which seemed to surprise the robed woman, but she didn't stay surprised long. An unseen force pushed Imura across the room, his armor sending up a spray of sparks as he skidded across the ground. Wilkes managed to send a blast of biotic energy toward the clones, before providing a little cover fire so Imura could crawl into cover, but she could only do so much before she found herself suppressed as well, she'd have to wait for the others to free her up.



The team had managed to siphon away a fair share of credits, when their other team radioed them. Sergeant Chris Decker answered them, he had his doubts about these strangers but they had all been pushed away when they had come together on the ship, and when they had first met. "Things seem clear up here no trouble yet." His teammate gave a thumbs up, but something didn't feel right this had all been to easy, so he looked around the room. The bankers seemed to be speaking in hushed tones. The doors opened, and in walked a couple of clones with red markings on their armor. "I think we've been had, get ready to move." He said quietly into his radio, and got up the clones stopped him, and his squad mate at the bench they sat on. "Stop right there!" One said as they intercepted them.
"We've been notified that a device in this area has been accessing restricted banking records, and accounts. Let me see your device."
"Sure thing."
Chris handed over his datapad, and gave the signal to his squad mate, he knew as soon as they accessed the datapad that had been used. They'd find out they were the crew responsible for siphoning those credits. They were lucky though they had no name, and no identity in this universe, or anywhere in this galaxy so they were more than free to go loud. So that's exactly what they did.

Chris materialized an omni-blade which he used to quickly slash at the neck area of the clones armor, his comrade used his concealed carnifex pistol to blast a hole through the other one. The mass accelerated round tearing a large hole through the clones armor, and leaving a nasty exit wound. Even though the round was the size of a grain of sand, the speed at which it moved was more than enough to kill anyone in their armor. "We're leaving, chart a course for the nearest place we can steal a ride, and lets go!" Chris shouted over the radio, the screaming of the civilians in the area just started, and he had no doubt that backup was on the way.

---------------------
Team Omicron / Immaculate Aegis CiC / Interacting with: @EliteCommander
---------------------

The Spartans didn't say anything, as years of military indoctrination had overcome the desire to reflexively cringe at the doctor's mention of Halsey's 'creation' of them. However, the wince was notable from Issac as he continued on. "I'm listening." In truth, it was amazing he could divide his processes into separate partitions- one soaking up, categorizing and filing away the less relevant data just as fast as he was able to respond himself. The size and scope of what CTN 0452-9 had accomplished was astonishing. Surely it was no ONI Black Box AI, but he began to wonder: what could he do in regards to the reverse-engineered shielding incorporated into the Mjolnir's armor? It would certainly help, all things considered. Regardless, that was a question for later. Taking a deep breath and pulling himself away from the data, he keenly listened to the input of the other doctor in the room.

Vanessa, on the other hand, had not anticipated being approached by the man. She looked over to him, and without missing a beat, quipped: "The armor only adds a few inches." As long as the man didn't dip into any personal questions beyond what she considered typical, it was fine.

--------------------
Marcus Oliver, Mark Bradford & Security Team One / Unbroken Hope Engineering Room / Interacting with: @Sep
--------------------

The Admiral simply gestured to Mark as he was caught rather blindsided by the question regarding technical specifications. The COO cleared his throat, looked toward the Doctor and spoke up while swiping through a tablet to pull up the most relevant information regarding the ship's power plant and drives, respectively as he pointed out the window, which depolarized to reveal a clear picture of three massive generators hooked up to the engines. " These are three Mark III Halford-Kojima Deuterium Fusion Reactors. These three each have the individual capacity to supply up to 7 billion kilowatts an hour. By three, that's an output of twenty-one billion. We have a uh.... maximum capacity of 40 billion 'fore we start to experience system complicatins'. When we hit the anomaly, our power spiked to 55 and shut everythin' down fer a bit. We have excess, but not without compromise if these arrays are anything in excess of twenty-plus kilos." The COO swiped through the overlay to bring up the entire grid distribution system of the entire ship- the red lines looking like blood vessels powering a living object. As mark finished his explanation, then took a step back as Marcus looked at the Engineer with a lightly puzzled expression, before turning back to the doctor. "Hopefully that cleared things up."

As Thaz confirmed that Gorm had been dropped, who's body was still twitching on the ground from the well placed headshot planet side, Jerus struck, his left arm launching out and grasping the Nautolan by his throat. His form did little more than shimmer as he lifted the struggling cyborg. "How?! Who?!" Jerus didn't answer, simply uncloaked his right arm with it's dagger blade unsheathed.

"Ash'amur." The blade lanced into his gut and sliced up as the bounty hunter let go of his throat, cutting the augmented Nautolan in twain from the gut up, his body leaking blood everywhere. {Target down, moving to rendezvous unless you guys need help down there.} As Thaz expected, a retaliation shot came her way, however it didn't hit her shielding as she had hoped. Instead, hit knocked an antenna above her loose, making her have to choose between staying in her cover with a concussion or avoiding any injury but briefly exposing herself.

Meanwhile, the Kaleesh stopped firing on both Samus and the Rodians briefly as Gorm hit the dirt before all but their leader resumed firing on on the green and blue skinned aliens. He approached Samus as his warriors started picking off the panicking hit squad. "You were here for the pig?"

---

As the first two clones dropped from the quick attacks of the N7 operatives, four more came in the bank's doors, rifles up, but were all quickly dropped by quick shots from Denni and Rhosom, the former had her blaster pistol out while the latter holstered his own pistol for his hidden marksman rifle. {Krayt, this is Rawwk, moving to predetermined rendezvous.} The duo moved to their N7 allies and nodded to a side entrance. "The captain had a feeling the number of funds you folks would grab would get someone's attention and with their response team down, they're probably sending more Coruscant Guard to catch and detain us." Denni chuckles darkly.

"And that's if we're lucky. With things having kicked off, our squad will switch to callsigns only. Well, except for Meteor, he always goes by his callsign. I'm Guardian, you already heard Rhosom's is Rawwk. Captain is Krayt and Hok is Wrench. We're ready to move when you are." Meanwhile, the team down below was already moving for the exit they'd found during the calm period of the operation, the siphons set in the system and explosive tricks planted. Meteor had his rifle up and Erin and Hok'Ren had their blaster pistols out.

{Copy that, Rawwk, we're moving now. Krayt out.}

---

As the group moved in on the Tarantetek, moving down the stairs and hallway leading to it's lair, the creature could be heard doing little more than shuffle about, growling and roaring, and when they could see it eventually, it wouldn't hold still, making it hard for the Sangheili to get a shot off that would accurately find its head. However, as they were about to leave the optimal range for rifle's usage from within the hall, it stopped, turned and stared at where the entrance was that the bait team would be using. If ever there was a time to shoot, well, it would be now. "Eri'Moram," Jerius mutters, "if you will take one eye, I will take the other."

Eggman looked at Caldwell with a look of confusion. He was offering the man an advanced robotic battle-suit and all the man seemed interested in was the shielding. He rubbed his eyes before throwing his hands up in admittance of defeat on this. "I'll have Oglivie bring it over for you to look at, but i am warning you that the shielding on this thing isn't the best example of my work. I had to retrofit the energy shielding into this. I never designed it with that in mind. It's main defenses is the heavy armour, where i come from, the main problem i found was... Kinetic attacks..." He grumbled as he remembered that damned Spin-Attack of Sonics. "Also, you'd need facilities to create Elemental Gel of your own." He said. "I can also provide samples of the gel if you're interested."


tried to console him. "Again, he is a political refugee that we offered asylum to, that Egg is a queen of his species that he was born to protect. I mean, if you were born with only 1 purpose in life, i can imagine that i would be doing much of the same." She said. They finally made it to the large machine with the pipes leading into it. Thunderbolt quickly tapped on the computer panel, quickly checking pressure for all of the pipes.

"So, maybe once you've completed your scans here, you'd like to take a look at some of the fun things." Thunderbolt laughed. "Shields are all nice and good, but doesn't have the same luster as a giant robot.

---

Thaz's eye was naturally drawn to where the sniper was shooting, particularly with the shot going far over her. She had to react quickly, but she was able to pull her beam rifle in close to her body and roll to the side out of the way of the falling antenna, keeping her shield arm held above her head to keep her protection from a forward angle.

With the antenna crashing down beside her and Thaz finally settling back onto her stomach, she had a few scorch marks on her armor from he gasses escaping the overheated rifle while she was holding it so close. However, it was ready to fire again by the time Thaz was stationary. She scanned the area ahead of her to acquire her primary target, which, at the moment, was the Rodian sniper. In most other positions, the beam rifle would be far to large and heavy for her to utilize along with her shield, but the fact that she could use the roof itself to support the rifle meant that she could keep it steady and aim with just the one hand. Since her helmet display linked to the scope, she did not even need to bring it up to her eye. She would just need to expose the weapon from behind the shield at the moment she intended to fire.

---

---

For as large and cumbersome as it was, Eri's beam rifle did have the advantage of its excellent penetrative capabilities. It was possible she might be forced to drop it at any point, so she wanted to get the most out of every shot she took. As soon as they had been able to see the Tarentatek, Eri had already been giving orders to her men. They were all on the same communications frequency as Jerius, though they still spoke in Sangheili out of comfort. They had no prior time to practice or train with Jerius, so trying to force him into the kind of precise and detailed maneuvers they tended to employ would have been more harmful than helpful, regardless. They would all do best working in the ways they were familiar with.

Eri was already lining up her shot when Jerius made his suggestion. The Tarentatek was a large beast, and even ignoring the conspicuous, though likely non-vital horns and spikes on its head, it was an easy target to hit. However, without knowing the creature's anatomy, she could not be certain of where to aim for a fatal hit. So, aiming for the eyes was a reasonable tactic to have a guaranteed impact. Making such a precise shot on a small target that could suddenly move at any moment was far from an easy task, but Eri was the leader of her team for a reason, and she had a fair chance of actually making it.

Eri took her shot, but whether her aim was on the mark or not, her orders to her men were still the same. "Go, go, go!" Eri shouted in Sangheili, prompting her men to carry out the plan they had been given. Sel, Arta, and Rhanic spread out from one side of the hall to the other, moving just into range with concussion rifles in hand. Their ultimate goal was still to lead the beast into an ambush, so for the initial engagement, the intent was to do as much damage as possible without taking any unnecessary risks, and most importantly, to make it angry enough to follow them. Of course, that did run the risk of injuring it enough that it would flee instead, but if that was the case, then the beast would likely not be nearly so threatening as the others had implied.

For their opening volley, the three Sangheili aimed their weapons towards the feet and ankles of the Tarentatek. Regardless of whether or not the explosive blasts could break through its scales, the beast would not be able to fight physics. The small, but intense concussive blasts would send their shockwaves into its body, putting stress and damage onto the muscle and bone directly. Since the Tarentatek was purely a melee threat, hampering its mobility was the most rational way to begin an extended fight.

Teyla nodded to both points. "It is always possible that these allies can aide us discretely but yes we should be careful. If our enemy is as cunning as we are led to believe then we should be cautious that he has not already somehow manipulated Alderaan into serving him in one way or another." She sighed. "My real question is, while you know the history off this universe to a certain degree why have you singled out these people as potential allies? I recall reading in your histories information on a religious order of monks. Jedi? Surely they would be far more superior allies."



Doctor Novak nodded along as the technical specifications were read out to her. Typing away on her tablet. "Power shouldn't be an issue, interestingly enough if you still use Earth-based radioactive material we may be able to increase your power generation with a unique mineral we use to power our ship and some of our enhanced warheads. I'll see about getting you some to run some tests. We'll definitely be able to get something up and running." She pulled out a cable off her tablet. "Can I plug this in? I can highlight some of the work that we can get done before we start adding on arrays."

"If there were any way to track down the survivors of Order 66, I would say we should, but...the Jedi Order itself is gone. The entirety of the Clone Wars were a machination of Palpatine to position himself to take over the Republic and destroy the greatest rivals of the Sith, the Jedi. To that end, he had the Clones implanted with control chips with a list of predetermined orders. Only one was the one he wanted, the others were cover, from what we can tell." Jason folded his hands thoughtfully and rested his chin on them. "Still, finding the survivors wouldn't hurt, their wisdom and knowledge about the exact state of things in this version of my home would come in handy."

---

Jerius fired at almost the exact same moment as Eri did, however, while her shot pierced the eye perfectly, his own missed it's mark by a centimeter and instead ricocheted into one of the monster's spike, snapping it off. With a roar, the monster turned on the group and charged, shrugging off the blasts and seemingly unphased by them. While the special ops team worked in sync with each other, Jerius jetpacked straight back and up into the air slightly, a single tracer rocket embedding itself in it's scales before a trio of smaller rockets impacted it. "Keep it under pressure, I will draw it's attention away from you."

He knew if it wanted to, the beast could hurl stone at a deceptively fast speed and he needed it aiming at him so that Eri's team could do their best to keep it weakened.

---

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---

---

With chaos erupting all around her, Samus forced herself to wait for Thaz to take her shot. She could easy take the matters into her own hands by arming a well-placed shot towards Gorm, but timing was of the essence. If she killed him too quickly, it may not bring Jerus enough time to make his move, and being that she had no direct contact with him at that moment, it was up Thaz to do the honors.

So just as Samus shot another Rodian in the shoulder, she quickly witnessed two laser bolts piercing from the heavens and hitting their mark. The first shot penetrated straight through his skull, while the other penetrated the pig-creature's round belly, both spelling doom for the unfortunate Gamorrean. She whirled to see the target fall limp and collide with the floor. Now the tides had turned completely for the opposing Rodians, as they began to issue a hasty retreat while the Kaleesh followed in pursuit. As the bounty hunter proceeded to make her way towards the corpse, the masked Kaleesh leader would ask if she was here for the "pig".

"Affirmative." the armored bounty hunter nodded but said nothing more.

Once she reached him, Samus kneeled down and began to inspect the corpse. She'd then proceed to lower her head towards her comms.

"Target acquired." she reported in to both Jerus and Thaz, "We're on our way towards the rendezvous point."

She'd then speak directly to her partner.

"Good work, Thaz." the armored figure said approvingly, "Meet me back at my ship."

Before she would leave however, Samus ripped out one of Gorm's tusks as a sign of documented proof that she indeed killed her quarry. With that, she began to leave the premises and regroup with her partner back at her ship.

TEYLA // ABOARD THE TARIS // HYPERSPACE

Teyla stopped for a second. "So the Jedi Order was wiped out by these Clones?" She shook her head. "I'm sorry, eventually I will get a grasp of your galactic history. It is so different. Where I am from all of us have little technology, and are oppressed by a species that culls us like livestock. The only other space-faring race was beaten by them millennia ago and fled out of our Galaxy. Only recently the people of Earth have started to tip the scales back in our favour. I suppose it is simple in comparison."

DAEDALUS AWAY TEAM 2 // JEDI TEMPLE // CORUSCANT

Sheppard indicated to advance as the sound of fighting reached them, stun pistol raised they stormed the room with the UNSC marines as one of the operators was thrown away by some form of invisible force by a figure clad in black armour, face hidden behind a helmet. He raised his pistol and fired for centre mass, but the figure just drew his energy blade which absorbed the energy from the attack. The figure turned towards him and raised a hand, he tried to dodge whatever the figure had planned but found himself held in place as the figure looked around at the mismatched group. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

At the same time a group of figures clad in white armour came out of a door led by two men in black. Weapons were cocked and loaded.

Sheppard spoke through gritted teeth. "We're just tourists. What about you?"

FLEET SPACE TIMESKIPPED 24HRS

COLONEL CALDWELL // DAEDALUS // FLEET SPACE

Caldwell sat pouring over the schematic of the shields. It wasn't perfect, as the Doctor had said they struggled with Kinetic attacks however the act of miniaturising the tech was something they could apply to their own shielding. So potentially something that could be of incredibly beneficial use. Something they could offer to pay back to the Egg-Carrier. He sat thinking looking over the details. Then he paused turning to Marks. "Have we heard anything from the away teams?"

"Not yet sir." He paused, looking out the view window to the fleet. They had to be ready to move.