---

As Dr. O'Connell had expected, their collaborative efforts on improving the slipspace borer were not nearly so slow as some might have feared. Isaac's ability to rapidly analyze massive amounts of data, coupled with his own creativity, rapidly accelerated the process. Not only did the Forerunner data that O'Connell gave to Isaac give them critical clues as to what changes they might need to make, but the AI's ability to model and simulate changes allowed them to test their ideas by simply telling Isaac their ideas, rather than making tedious, manual changes to software. As well, there appeared to be many similarities between the form of Hyperspace used by Dr. McKay's universe and slipspace, so they were far from starting from scratch.

Altogether, the team put together what they believed to be viable, substantial software improvements within a day. Enough to warrant a practical test. Between Isaac and the Aegis' own AI, the changes had gone through billions of simulated trials, so all that was left was to perform a live test.

Given Dr. McKay's tendency to readily claim credit for his contributions to the project, Falul specifically requested that he, along with Dr. O'Connell and Narak, be present on the bridge for the test. Any of the others who had participated in the project, but they were permitted to observe from any part of the ship where they felt they would be able to contribute the most. They had two Huragok assigned to the borer in case of malfunctions, though nothing of the sort had occurred in the simulations. They had chosen an isolation destination that would be one hour away at their new estimated velocity, so the test itself was slated for two hours. Falul had already sent out a message informing the rest of the fleet of their intentions, so they had already begun the calculations for their jump.

Dr. O'Connell spent some time moving between consoles, double and triple checking the readouts they had on the borer's status, which were following the predicted models precisely. Eventually, she stopped next to McKay and let out a long breath. "You nervous?" She asked, casually.

---

---

As soon as the Tarentatek charged, the encounter became a fighting retreat, back towards their ambush. They needed to keep the beast in sight, keep its interest, and keep injuring it as much as possible, but all while keeping the goal in mind.

For Eri and her team, they certainly demonstrated their collective training and practice. After their initial volley, Eri's team staggered their weapons fire between each other so as to keep constant pressure on the beast. When one needed to reload, or when the attention of the Tarentatek was on him, he would dash back as possible with his thruster pack, while the others opened fire from different angles. Among Eri's team, it was make it more difficult for the Tarentatek to find its biggest threat. When Sel ran through his ammunition with his concussion rifle, he swapped to his needler, dashing back through the hallway while keeping fire on the creature. The hail of needles tracked in on the Tarentatek, embedding themselves into its scales until enough of them were brought together into a supercombine explosion.

Eri herself took a position farther back in order to give herself the time to line up her next shot. Hers was a weapon that could pierce through the beast, so she was the one most likely to be able to weaken it. As the pink mist shrouded the Tarentatek's upper body, she fired a shot towards its right ankle. Hampering its mobility was still the best way to reduce the threat it posed.

---

---

Vael took on a more skeptical appearance upon the mention of Jedi. He had sought to educate himself as much as possible on the Alderaanians, but he had simply not had time to learn all there was to know about this galaxy and its history. He knew of the Jedi, from what little he had read, but was still unfamiliar with them overall.

"I shall not be so impetuous as to make assumptions about these Jedi, but I will admit my own distrust for religious orders of warriors. My people were onced enslaved by devotion to false prophets. The blood that has been shed in the name of religion in my universe could fill oceans." Vael cautioned.

As Thaz rolled away from the antenna, a second shot barely misses her weapon arm as it slips in the small gap provided for shooting out, but by the time she zeroes in on it's origin, the sniper has either moved or cloaked again. The lack of action proceeds for a couple of minutes before two more shots lance out from a roof off to Thaz's right, one shot impacting the shield and the second hitting off the roof to her right without a clear angle on her. However, as she can see the Rodians on the ground being gunned down, the sniper doesn't fire again, though a greenish-blue shape appears on the roof retreating from them.

The Kaleesh leader doesn't stop Samus immediately, however, as she moves away he calls out to her. "Warrior!" When she turns, he tosses her a datapad. "You look like you prefer technology to monetary payments. I've got some prototype schematics on there I haven't built yet. Perhaps you can get to them first." And with that, he joins his warriors in hunting down the last of the Gammorean's hit squad, or those they could find.

---

As the supercombine went off, it staggered the beast enough that Eri's shot missed as she squeezed the trigger, but it did draw the monster's attention to her. Roaring, it reached into the floor and ripped up a sizable chunk of stone and hurled it at the Sangheili at an incredible speed. For a brief moment, it looked like the prey would turn the tables on the hunters, however, Jerius would have none of it

"Here beast!" A rocket launched from Jerius' wrist launcher intercepted the boulder and destroyed it, sending dust and debris flying before a second impacted the beast in the head, drawing another roar. The clone jetted forwards and blasted it several times with his rifle before jetting back again and hovering in the air while Eri's warriors and Eri did what they needed.

---

Jason shrugs. "The Jedi are often referred to as a religious order, but they were really not. They were lead by the Council and their lay out consisted of the the experienced Masters and Knights teaching the younglings and Padawans so that they might learn to wield the Force without hurting themselves or others. I'm not familiar enough with the Order's history to offer much beyond that, but religion wasn't their thing."

---

Thaz remained cautious, even as the remaining Rodians seemed to be retreating. She could feel that her opponent was a good shot, which is why she was playing it safe to not give him a shot. She stood up slowly, and kept her shield up as she dropped down off of the roof to ground level. She even made sure to duck in behind some shipping crates near the wall before lowering her shield gauntlet and activating her active camouflage once more. From there, it was just a matter of moving back towards Samus' ship.

"Everything clear for you?" Thaz contacted Samus through their comms. "The fat green one dropped quick. You get something off of him?" She asked.

---

---

Eri's hardlight shield went up quickly, though with Jerius intercepting the rock, it was hardly necessary. In any case, everything that they were collectively throwing at the beast was certainly slowing it down, but their retreat had still been swift. Every leap they took back with their thruster packs brought them closer to the ambush. By this point, the door was in sight on the other end of the hallway behind them. They just had one last sprint to make. Though, the Tarentatek was more enraged than ever by this point. Her team had expended most, if not all of their concussion rifle ammo by this point, so there would need to be someone to give them cover for their final retreat.

Sel, with me!" Eri shouted in Sangheili, though she ensured Jerius could understand her next order. "Fall back!"

Moving her beam rifle to her off-hand and holding it by its barrel, Eri drew the needler from her side, standing just alongside Sel as he finished reloading his own weapon. They both moved backwards as quickly as they could as they began to unload their twin needlers into the Tarentatek, intent on holding it back long enough for the others to make it into the chamber. The flurry of needles created a series of explosions, which had already proven to be able to stagger the beast.

---

---

Vael acknowledged Erthos with a nod. "Perhaps that is the case. I would still need to judge their honor myself, though it is a moot point for now. Our task is to speak to the Alderaanians, and we should not distract ourselves too far from it. This ship is yours, so where would you prefer I be during our journey?"

Everything seemed to escalate into chaos, what could only be the masked figured guard seemed to come out of the woodwork. Imura was working on getting back on his feet, Sheppard was being held in place by the masked figure as well it seemed. "Distract the guards, i'll deal with the guy swinging around a giant glow stick." She shouted over the din, throwing a biotic slam at the figure long enough to knock it slightly off balance, and draw it's attention away from Sheppard. "You think you look tough in that black get up, swinging around a giant rave stick? Please you look like someone going through a phase." Sarah taunted the figure, glowing with the biotic energy she was using.

She fired a burst of her weapon, which the figure promptly brought up their glowing sword, and cut down. Sarah knew with reflexes like that she probably didn't stand much of a chance if not for her ability with biotics. So she chose to hold them both here, using a biotic lift to mass lift guard, and attempt to lift the masked figure off the ground. Essentially flicking off gravity for the group, making the floating men easy targets to gunfire.


As chaos erupted on the streets outside the operatives nodded their affirmatives at switching to call signs, but felt it was unnecessary given the situation as there was no chance of being identified anyways. Two dropship craft flew overhead, landing at a plaza on the other side of the bank dropping off more clone troopers to push the bank team. Chris noted that they didn't fire their mounted weapons to avoid firing into the crowd, so he didn't have to think twice he stowed away his weapon, and shouted at the others. "Blend in with the crowd as much as possible, try to look very much the part of a frightened civilian!" He moved with the crowd essentially using it as cover, as other clone units started pouring in to scan them. But with everyone frightened, it was hard to stem the tide.

Chris knew it was a temporary solution until they were spotted again, but it worked for a little while until a clone trooper stopped him. "We have the target!" It shouted raising it's blaster, luckily the sergeant was quicker on the draw with his pistol blasting a hole through the troopers face plate, serving to scatter everyone even more. "Sergeant Decker, to Glasgow command."
"This is Glasgow, go ahead Sergeant." Came the familiar voice of the ships XO.
"We've been engaged by the cities garrison. Requesting evac, and some really big guns to deal with potential air support. Can you do that for us?"
"Shuttle is being prepped head to the lower levels of the city, our shuttle will find you there. Try to lose your tail if you can, if you can't we'll have something for them. Glasgow out." With that said, Decker turned his comm back onto the mission, and spoke as clearly as possible over the din. "All bank team members, we are heading for the lower levels of the city, shuttle evac is en route. Decker out." With that said, he just had to find the closest lift, or vehicle going down a couple levels. Which actually seemed harder, than he thought with everyone fleeing before him.

As Jerius and the other members of Eri's team fell back while Sel and Eri fired their weapons at it, the beast drew up another slab, but used it to block the pink needles as they flew at her, memory of the effect of letting them hit it still ringing fresh within it's mind. After it was confident that the barrage from the pair had ended, the rock came hurtling through the air at them, only to be intercepted once more by another rocket from Jerius's wrist launcher. Roaring in anger, the beast charges towards the trio. "As you said, Eri'Moram, fall back!"

---

Both of the Sangheili dropped their empty needlers, then with their thruster packs, boosted themselves as best as they could towards the door to the next chamber. The rest of their team had already made it through into the chamber with the time the three had bought them, they just needed to follow suit. Though, the curve of the long hallway meant that they could not make it in a straight shot, and they could not make the turn at full speed. It meant they had to slow down, and the raging beast, while not agile, was fast in an outright sprint. Faster than Eri had hoped.

Eri did not give Sel any change in orders, so he continued to rush for the chamber, but the Tarentatek would certainly catch the both of them if it was not stopped. It was Eri that stopped and turned back, beam rifle in hand. She had only a few precious seconds to act, react, and line up her shot, and if there was any shot she needed to make, it was this one. She fired her weapon at the creature's ankle, and at the speed it was moving, that would not be the kind of wound it could just shrug off without effect.

---

---

---

---

As soon as Samus tucked away her quarry's tusk in her arm component and walked back towards the hangar, she would be hailed by the commanding Kaleesh warrior. Catching the datapad with her exposed hand, her visor shined off the valiant lights as she gave an appreciative nod towards the warriors that then proceeded to chase after the straggling Rodians. Whatever schematics were hidden within that pad, she reckoned that they would come in handy one way or another. She'll have to look at the full list when she gets back. It was then when Thaz contacted her once again.

"Everything clear for you? The fat green one dropped quick. You get something off of him?"

"Only its tusk." the bounty hunter replied as she glanced down at the bloody thing, which was still tipped with mangled nerve endings and all, "Think of it as a confirmation of authenticity. Now head back to the hangar. We're done here."

---

Under the cloak of active camouflage, Thaz could move through the port relatively without worry. She had not seen where that Rodian sniper had gone, but really, it did not matter. She had only really even fired her weapon at one target, but it was the only target that mattered. With Samus there to help keep the majority of the Gammorean's bodyguards off of her, and to quickly swipe some proof of their kill, it was a simple and quick job. So as long as Jerus had actually done his part correctly, of course.

Thaz had been able to move quickly enough that she got back to the ship before Samus, and was waiting inside when the bounty hunter arrived. She already set aside her weapon and looked relaxed in one of the seats.

"Simple and quick. Best kind of jobs. Bounty hunting here doesn't seem much different from back home. Find a target, shoot it. Taken plenty of heads before myself. I think I'll fit in just fine." Thaz remarked.

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

McKay stood with a small metallic cup of coffee in his hand. The standard military issue kit had been brought aboard so that they could brew the drink, after all, he hadn't been expecting to come across another human from a similar universe to their own. He sipped at the bitter liquid as his eyes poured over the screens. He hadn't really slept since they had come to this universe, having spent as much time trying to find a crazy solution in order to get home before they had found that impossible and instead they tried to interface technology with the shipyard to the point where they could actually build ships that were worth it. From what he had heard by Caldwell was that Hermiod had finally managed to interface with the vessel to a degree where he could input designs and alter them. Which meant that they now genuinely had the capability to build ships. The issue was who would they get to control them?

He made a mental note to see how much Hermiod knew about the O'Neill Class. A couple of them flying around would surely increase their chances.

He turned to O'Connell as she spoke up shrugging slightly. Ronon still stood at the back of the room, he had tried to discourage him to go and do something more constructive with his time, yet despite his constant complaints that he was bored he continued to stay nearby. "Not particularly. It should be a smooth test, we'll fly a small ways away, do some stuff and then be back in no time. Easily done."

---

Despite McKay's apparent confidence, Fiona was still nervously wringing her hands as she checked over the readouts once again. "Yeah I...suppose so. Any kind of tests with anything having to do with slipspace is just always so nerve-wracking. For as vital as it is, slipspace is just so dangerous. Make the wrong kind of mistake with the portal, or accidentally destabalize the drive's quantum field mid-transit, and we all end up getting reduced to subatomic particles, just like that. During the battle of Reach, one of our Spartan teams used a slipspace drive basically as a bomb to take out a ship over five times this size. It would be a quick death at least, but...you're right, though. Our changes have been through billions of simulations; I shouldn't be so alarmist."

Dr. O'Connell grinned, giving McKay a quick pat on the back. "I wish I could have your bravery. I could never go out in the field like you've said you do. I'd be a nervous wreck. But life-threatening risks like this are probably just another day for you."

If there was any desire to make any last-minute alterations to the test, there would be no time for it. Within moments, the Aegis' AI finished the sequence and powered on the slipspace borer. Fiona immediately noticed that the borer was drawing almost fifty percent more power than usual, but it was not as if the ship's reactor did not have plenty of capacity to spare. From the view screens, they could see the brilliant blue and white glow of a massive slipspace portal opening in front of the ship, which the Aegis' engines soon pushed the ship into.

Once in the slipstream, the slipspace drive's power draw fell back down to mostly normal levels, and the ship proceeded without any obvious issues. Unlike what McKay might have been used to in hyperspace, there was nothing in slipspace that the Human eye could see, so the view screens showed nothing but blackness until they switched to displaying more useful information. Notions of distance and velocity became meaningless within slipspace and could not be directly measured, so they would only be able to know if their changes were successful once they arrived.

---

---

---

---

After several minutes weaving through the winding streets, Samus finally made her way back to the hangar. She was cautious about any potential stalkers that might take a malevolent interest in her abilities, however as far as she knew she had nothing to fear. With the Rodians on the run, the bounty hunter could at least rule them off as harmless at this point.

As she entered her ship, Samus could see Thaz patiently waiting for her within a passenger seat.

"Simple and quick. Best kind of jobs. Bounty hunting here doesn't seem much different from back home. Find a target, shoot it. Taken plenty of heads before myself. I think I'll fit in just fine."

"Don't be so sure." Samus responded as she sat down and prepared the ship for launch, "In my experience, bounty hunting can be quite a... complicated profession. I have a feeling the missions are going to get more complex then this."

She looked back at her alien partner.

"Be prepared for anything that happens next."

With that, her gunship began vibrating as it slowly ascended before thrusting into space.

DAEDALUS AWAY TEAM 1 // IMMACULATE AEGIS // SLIPSPACE

McKay looked up at the viewscreens expecting to see the swirling blues and blacks he so often associated with hyperspace. Only to find that apparently Slipsace had nothing that could be seen, at least not with the human eye. He merely made an 'mh' noise at the mention of him being in the field an used to being put in a position of danger. "This is an incredible difference in technologies." He pulled out his life signs detector and began keying buttons as he scanned. Proving that the device was useful for more than simply detecting life. "It's fascinating how two similar technologies can produce vastly different results. I'd love the chance to study one of your slipspace drives over a longer period of time." He looked around the room as the entire ship shook slightly. Checking the readouts everything still read as normal so he continued looking at the scans.

"We can all learn so much from one another."

---

"I have been thinking about that as well, actually." Dr. O'Connell commented. She continued keeping an eye on the readouts, but with everything being within normal parameters for the moment, she continued to speak, somewhat quietly, to McKay.

"I've been a bit busy myself to be able to go in-depth into the technical data we have on the other ships, but the prospect of being able to study technology from other universes is beyond tantalizing. My entire job back home is to study and reverse-engineer alien technology, so this is exactly my sort of work. I have to think that it wasn't an accident that, what was her name...Elizabeth chose the Aegis just when myself and Narak happened to be aboard." O'Connell reasoned. "And I don't think you'll find much argument from the Shipmaster. Like I mentioned before, the Sangheili were of the warrior caste of the Covenant. They would love to know how all of their technology works. Shields, power systems, weapons, either small arms or ship based...I would be willing to bet that Falul will let you study it all to your heart's content. The only condition would be that you share any results you might find with them. And you wouldn't be starting from scratch, either. Narak and I have been working with Forerunner technology more recently, but I have put years of research into reverse-engineering Covenant technology, and I still have all those notes. Between all of the scientific knowledge of all of these universes, we might be able to make a breakthrough."

DAEDALUS AWAY TEAM 1 // IMMACULATE AEGIS // SLIPSPACE

Rodney was about to speak when an alarm blared throughout the ship. Rodney ran to a nearby terminal and brought up a diagnostic. Likely the chief engineer from the Relentless would be swearing right now. It appeared that something had gone wrong between the navigational interface and the borer. As the system detected the issue an automatic failsafe brought them out of slip space and back into real space. They appeared directly over a world, surrounded by dozens of ships of varying sizes. The confusion caused at the sudden appearance of a vessel that had not been detected on long-range scanners caused a flurry of activity from within the fleet as strike craft were launched, and vessels repositioned themselves with favourable firing solutions on the new vessel.

Rodney turned to face O'Connell. "Uh, we've got a problem here!"

---

While Dr. O’Connell was frantically going through the readouts in search of the source of the error, the bridge crew of the Aegis was quick to react to the situation. Falul’s attention was placed immediately onto his own readouts, and the view screen of the space ahead of them. Whatever words Falul might eventually have for the scientists, his foremost priority was the potential threats ahead of them.

Falul had the sensor data sent to his own display, and it took just a few seconds for him to start making his decisions. “Are our shields at full strength?” He asked to one of the Sangheili at a console off to his right.

“Yes, Shipmaster. Only the borer was interrupted by the error.” The crewman answered.

With that information, Falul’s orders were decisive, and came quickly. “Power the reactor to full and focus all spare output on shields. Acquire targets, but do not yet power weapons." He began, turning his gaze directly to McKay. "You, assist with transferring slipspace control to the secondary borer and get this ship ready for an emergency slipspace jump as soon as possible.”

Falul paused just a moment, leaning back in his chair as he observed the fleet. “These ship configurations are not Imperial… but this is a military fleet. Cross-reference sensor scans of their vessels with all of the known local ship configurations Erthos provided us. I want to know who they are. And broadcast this message on an open channel.”

“This is Shipmaster Falul ‘Taham of the Immaculate Aegis. We have arrived in this system unintentionally, with no hostile intent.” Falul announced.

After he broadcast his message, Falul turned briefly to Uril. "Get a message back to the fleet. Inform them of our situation."

---------------------
Team Omicron / Immaculate Ageis Hangar / Interacting with: @EliteCommander
---------------------

Issac found himself holding his breath, despite no need to breathe in the first place. When the jump commenced, the hologram audibly exhaled a sigh of relief as the ship began to gradually stabilize. All their hard work had finally paid off, now it was just a matter of hoping they didn't explode upon leaving Slipspace. Issac felt the error as soon as the ship left Slipspace, and although he did not attempt to curtail the situation, he immediately found himself running a diagnostic on the affected borer in an attempt to triangulate the error's occurrence between two flashpoints- one before the jump, and the other seconds before the error occurred. He looked around the ship and sighed, frustration lining his voice. "Ah, shit.."

Team Omicron had remained near the central podium the entire time; ready to yank Issac and go into combat if any of the Sangheili tried anything. As the ship jumped, everything seemed fine until the error caused a sudden exit of Slipspace. Immediately, they were all on alert and ready to yank Issac at a moment's notice. Even though there was virtually nothing they could do inside the ship, the team drew their weapons and remained at a ready stance. Kendra bit back a growl of frustration- this had to be the absolute worst place to be. Now the mission became of dire importance to get Issac back to the Unbroken Hope.

---------------------
Sentinel 1-1 / Jedi Temple / Interacting with: @Sep
---------------------

"Got three signatures, they haven't spotted us." One of the ODST's piped up, prior to doubling back into the shadows. Leon followed suit, watching the masked figure carefully as they ignited some sort of blade. The responding shot from the non-UNSC operative was easily deflected by the ethereal figure, and Leon soon noticed that they weren't alone. Out of the shadows came two armored figures wielding what looked like fancy Bo staffs. As the team engaged the threat, their opening came sooner than he anticipated. The masked figure was lifted into the air by a strange repulsion field. "Mercer, Jackson and Miller- focus fire on primary. Scot, Martinez; on me." Leon wasted no time in giving orders to his team as he doubled back and began to encircle around the right side of the archives. Sticking to the shadows long as he could manage, the three finally were able to obtain a clear sight picture of both troopers. "Engage."

The first team that was positioned carefully to the back of the Archive entrance opened fire on the masked figure; the first shot coming from the SRS-99AMS Anti-Material rifle. Sounding no louder than a loud cough, the round screamed toward the target; aiming for the head of the floating, suspended figure. The two on either side of the sniper opened fire with their battle-rifles; saturating the primary target in a hail of armor-piercing bursts. Leon and his team rounded the corner and engaged the enemy from their position; breaking concealment as they fired upon the two troopers. So, this was it. Time to see if the round they carried actually did something against these fuckers.

---

Regardless of Samus’ cautious words, Thaz still felt more relaxed than she had been on their way to the planet. They had done their job and would be getting paid. Especially since they were already leaving the planet, it was not as if the bodyguards would be catching up to them. There was an audible hiss as Thaz unsealed her helmet and set it aside next to her beam rifle, finally revealing her face for the first time since they had met. She approached beside Samus, leaning herself up against the wall just beside the control console.

“I don’t know about this whole ‘war’, but I’m going to get my pay, get some tech from this universe, or some other ones, and sell it back home when we figure out how to get back. I’ll make enough to retire rich.” Thaz commented.

With Taris heading to Alderaan, the others had asked for a royal representative to come with them, someone familiar with royal etiquette and of royal stock, was needed to convince them of their plight. Sonia had brought K'Tari with her, due to her also having noble stock (Being the daughter of the head of the Order of Mystics) She had also been the one doing research on the Jedi. They had been forced to stay down at the hangar as the Taris' engineers had been highly suspicious of the Eggmobile that they had come over on. They had spent quite some time having to answer some questions about it, before FINALLY, being allowed up to the officer's lounge where they could partake in the meeting. The pair had hung back as the others discussed Alderaan and these "Jedi" that they had heard so much about.

Finally, the pair approached and made their presence known. "Greetings, I have brought my aid, K'Tari with me." Sonia bowed to them. "I do wish to extend my thanks to you for allowing us to join you on this mission, that is a lot of trust to put in us. I also wish to extend the most profuse of apologies for the Doctor..." She sighed. K'Tari then stepped forward and courtsey'd.

"I have read the report on these "Jedi" and i have to say that they sound very similar to the Order of Mystics." She said, bringing her hands up and what looked like tiny, dancing fireworks "Although, i do believe that this "Force" that they believe in, might be the Gaia of this universe." She said. "Which explains why me and my brother's abilities to harness the magics of Gaia seem unchanged, despite being away from them. It also explains why they believe in a Light side and a Dark side. There is a Light Gaia and a Dark Gaia. The parallels seem... Uncanny..." She postulated. She then heard the large Lizard man mention a distrust of religious warriors. "Religion can bring people together for a greater cause, but it can be a force for evil as well. I should know, my people worshipped the Chaos Emeralds, up until our leader said it was our "Divine Right" to use their power to conquer Mobius... What resulted was the creation of a Destroyer God that wiped out most of us."

"Locating some Jedi will be a priority, but securing an alliance with these Alderaanians will be the top priority." Sonia replied. "But it might not be easy. Sometimes, people will start turning a blind eye towards tyranny in order to preserve the peace as long as possible. My Grandfather ignored Eggman until it was too late. These people might be wanting to do the same."

DAEDALUS AWAY TEAM 1 // IMMACULATE AEGIS // MUUNLIST

Before Falul had even barked orders McKay had already worked himself over to a console and was checking over programming pouring through the data. As they had already made the programming changes if there was an issue in the programming then when they jumped on this backup slipspace borer there was a possibility of the same fault happening. Annoyingly he couldn't pour over data in the same way that an A.I could so had to rely on reading through it one line of a code at a time. As far as he could tell there was nothing wrong with the programming. Thats when another alarm started to blare. McKay sighed as he turned to the human doctor. "You know, something like this happens to me way more often than I'd care to admit." He turned to a screen that showed the nearby scans as another fleet dropped out of hyperspace.

A fleet of Imperial Vessels, including the new ones that the Commandos from the Resurgence had gathered intel on.

With no response yet from the fleet of ships they had appeared in the middle of, McKay only hoped Falul would make his intentions clear in his targets, or flee. He was happy with that too.

DAEDALUS // FLEET SPACE

The second that Caldwell had recieved the call the ship had been put on alert. Navigation had pinpointed the Aegis to be above a world locally known as Muunlist. At their top speed it would take a mere twenty minutes too get there, which was a constant among ships of the fleet other than the Unbroken Hope. Caldwell nodded to Mark who opened a channel to the fleet. "This is Colonel Caldwell, I have navigational co-ordinates for where the Aegis dropped out of slipspace and have plotted my course in order to jump to their aide. I recommend we leave one ship behind with the shipyard and all leave after it as quickly as possible."

The Daedalus turned, as it began to power up its hyperdrive.

---

Falul gave a long glare and a soft growl towards the view screen as the situation rapidly developed. Though, any frustrations he had were directed more towards potential…external factors. To have the Aegis accidentally arrive here, in just this place at just this time, seemed far too convenient. He wondered if Elizabeth had a hand in this as well, but that would be a concern for later. The Aegis’ AI soon returned the comparisons of the sensor scans to their archived schematics of local ships. Providence-class carriers, Munificent-class frigates, Lucrehulk-class battleships, this was clearly a fleet belonging to the faction known as the “Separatists.” Falul recognized the name. From what he had been reading, they had been waging a war against the Empire’s predecessor.

In any case, the arrival of the Imperials complicated some matters, and simplified others. “Acquire new targets and have strikecraft prepared for launch. Target two of the weaker ships, here and here, with the torpedoes and ventral lance.” Falul ordered, pointing out two of the Venator-class star destroyers on the holographic display in the center of the bridge. He was aware that the larger class of Imperial ship was more dangerous, but targeting the weaker ships first served several purposes. Destroying the Venators quickly would be the most efficient way of reducing the amount of incoming hostile firepower, especially if they could be destroyed before they launched their own strikecraft. From the technical specifications of the local universe’s ships that Falul had studied so far, their turbolasers had a more limited range than the Aegis’ primary weapons, so they could fire upon the Imperials before they could return fire. Secondly, if the Aegis could potentially cripple or destroy a Venator in a single shot, that would make both their allegiance and value in combat crystal clear to the Separatists.

“Once we have fired upon the Imperials, attempt to fall into formation with the local fleet.” Falul ordered before soon turning his attention back to McKay. “I want this ship ready for, at minimum, a combat jump.” Compared to normal slipspace usage, a combat jump would be easier to keep stable, as the borer would only need to be active for a small fraction of a second, once the portal was established.

With as frantic as she was being, Dr. O’Connell clearly was not accustomed to the stresses of battle. Still, there was at least one useful thought that came to her mind that she had the courage to bring up. When it came to ship-to-ship combat, there was always one single advantage that the UNSC had that could actually, legitimately be considered an advantage. “Shipmaster, I…I think Isaa-, um, the UNSC AI is still aboard. If you let it plug into the ship, it could run cyberwarfare far more effectively than this ship’s AI.”

Out of all the information that had been presented to him, Falul took the most time to consider Fiona’s proposal, even if it was only a few seconds. “Very well, but it may only work through the ship’s spirit, and must be contained from core systems.”

In the hangar, the Spartan team would easily notice the rapid bustle of activity as the pilots scrambled to their Seraphs and Banshees, though it took less than a minute for Dr. O’Connell to contact them on their comm channel. Or, more specifically, Isaac. “Are you still on-board, Isaac? An Imperial fleet just dropped into the system, and it’s looking like there’s going to be a fight. The Shipmaster just gave permission for you to take over cyberwarfare for the Aegis. You'll have to go through the ship's AI as an interface, but you still should have access to everything you need.”