"Captain, Awaken" The voice seemed to come from inside his own head be the loudest noise Captain Riley Caber had ever heard in his 48 years in existence. He tried to open his eyes but was meet with a wave of pain from his right side.
"Captain, AWAKEN" There were two voices now and his eyes shoot open when he realized it was the two shipboard AI's screaming at him through his Neural Implants, Something that was strictly against regulations and would only be done in an extreme emergency.
The bridge seemed to be a mess but Caber could tell from experience the damage was mostly superficial. Using the back of his chair for support he struggled to his feet, noticing several bridge officers and ensigns doing the some, others on all fours vomiting the remains of there breakfast. The two ONI Bodyguards seemed to still be rooted in the exact same spots they had been before...Whatever had happened, happened.
"Report" His voice was hoarse, the smoke drifting onto the bridge from somewhere did little to help. a courses of moans and grunts was all he received in reply the first time. Anger rising, maginified by the pain he felt in his head and side, he repeated his order.
"God dammit, someone Report, What hit us?" The effort of raising his voice forced him to slump into his command chair.
The bridge crew roused themself from the floor as quickly as they could manage and Operations Officer Garza was the first to respond.
"Main Power is down, we have no se-" He paused as his console flashed a series of red and yellow indicators at him "Backup generator is online sir, safety overrides manual restart, Vasilyev is at it again" Caber waved his hand in annoyance, not caring what got the power back just that it was back on. Major Raza dusted herself off as her bodyguards lifted her from the floor, seemingly none the worse for the fall Damned woman, would be the only one of us alive if this ship went down.
While Garza hurriedly scanned the internal systems of the ship Navigation officer Kim voiced her report from the other side of the hazy bridge. "Sir, we seem to be surrounded by contacts and are way closer to a planet that we should be, and not the planet we should be at. Also sir, I think my legs are broken, and if you don't mind, I'm going to pass out now, apolog-" her voice went quiet and Caber swore and hit the intercom on his chair.
"Medical team to the bridge" the hail went out over ship wide and a medical team would scramble, if they were able. Raza snapped and pointed at the injured Officer and her bodyguards moved toward her and gently lifted her out of the chair. One tended to the injuries while the other sat at the console, hands moving with practiced ease over the controls.
"Weapons, Communications, report"
Weapons officer Scott quickly ran through weapon readiness "Sir, MAC coming back online now, 4 minutes until full charge, Missiles pods report green, 9th Marines report being Locked in and ready to roll sir" Scott shook his head slightly, The ODST's probably enjoyed being flung around the ship like a sack of Potato's.
"Sir, I think you will want to hear this" Communucations officer Haley Gestured at the main screen and typed on her console. the main screen flicked and came to life, a host of transmissions playing over each other as she attempted to fliter the odd frequencies and network traffic. Most of it was giberish, only bits and peices of slightly understandable words got throught
"----Earth defen---andromeda---" the mention of the home system made Caber sit up.
"Wait, stop, scrub and play back that last message, Caden, Wendak, where the hell are you" The two AI's materialized over the holotank. Wendak spoke first.
"We took the liberty of doing a bit of exploring over the frequencies why all you ladies were sleeping sir, most of the systems were surprisingly easy to break and well sir, whats that old human saying? We arnt in Kansas anymore"
Caden was much less sensitive in his reasoning and laid the situation out to the entire bridge crew "We are no longer in the milky way galaxy, the ships and planet you see and detect are completely foreign entities, No allied UNSC Forces are withing hailing distance, based on my calculations. we are alone." Before anyone could speak the message Caber had ordered scrubbed played via the main monitor.
"This is the Earth Defense Forces Ship Andromeda to --- known vessels. Please identify yourse --- immediately. We have no --- ire for conflict but will defend ourselves against aggression. Please respond. Dies ist --- Earth Defe ------- Schiff Andromeda...."
"The Message Loops sir" Officer Haley stated "Should we replay?"
"Open a channel" Caber stood, unleashing a new wave of pain from his probably cracked ribs "Caden, slip back into the foreign systems and see if you can translate some of the other garbage we are getting, Wendak, Translate this hail into every language you can think of and broadcast it on whatever frequency this Andromeda is using" He waited for the AI to nod before beginning his speech.
"Unknown Vessel Andromeda, This is Captain Caber of the United Nations Space Command Cruiser Icarus responding to hail, We desire no conflict and would like to offer any assistance we can in return for the same favor. We have crews standing by to assist" He waved at Officer Garza to move crews into position now that the ship was fully responding to the damage the incident had caused. Caber cut the comm off.
"Operations, Weapons, give me something"
"MAC Charged, Priming pods A1-G1, Security teams ready" Scott replied.
Garza's head poped up over his command console, the open comm link to enginering faintly buzzing in the background. "I can get you 60% power right now, main reactors up in 6 minutes, Medical teams moving through the ship" on que a medical team arrived and rushed to Officer Kims side.
"You-" Caber jestured to the armored figure at the navigation console.
"Petty Officer Roland sir" he voice was clear and deep.
"Petty Officer, get us moving" With a sense of purpose Caber sat in his chair, the situation around his ship slowly coming into focus.
For better or for worse the Icuras would soon be at prime fighting condition and ready to take on whatever this new galaxy had to throw at them.