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First Contact - The Stray
Posted By: Commander Demitri Wolf<evo_343@hotmail.com>
Date: 7 February 2005, 5:39 AM
Read/Post Comments
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Chapter One: The Stray
1200 Hours, January 1, 2440 (Military Calendar) /
Epsilon Eridani System, Office of Naval Intelligence
Medical Facility-003, in orbit around planet Reach
Commander Joseph Taylor paced across the antiseptic white tiled floor of the Observation Room biting his nails as he went. He was uneasy, and there weren't many things in this universe that would make him nervous, but this did. He glanced to the terminal on one side of the room where its heart rate and other vital signs were being monitored-nothing unusual for something that had been sedated with extremely powerful tranquillisers-and then looked back to his companions.
Leaning over the brass rail was Lieutenant Commander Lauren Corbett, a woman of outstanding intellect, she was nearing twenty-seven and had studied criminal and military law at Harvard and languages at Yale before joining the Judge Advocate Generals office which was now part of ONI. Her naturally brown hair was sun bleached blonde and was at regulation length, her deep blue eyes added to her aura and made her look slightly out of place on a government medical station.
Next to her was Commander Anna Forbes, also extremely intelligent, two years Corbett's senior and three years Taylor's junior; she was here because of her medial degrees that she attained after studying at Yale, where she met Corbett; she now worked aboard the ONI Medical Facility. Two inches taller than the 5" 10' Lieutenant Commander, her brown hair fell longer-than-regulation to just past her shoulders and her blue eyes complimented the look. Both women were married-and both with a child-much to the dismay of many of the males at ONI who found them very attractive.
Commander Taylor-married also with a child on the way-had a muscular build and chestnut brown hair that explained why the 6" 2' thirty-two year old was found so handsome by the female officers. He was once a Navy pilot fresh out of Luna, but it wasn't long before his impeccable skills and outstanding credentials drew attention from the Office of Naval Intelligence who soon after extended an offer to him to join them as an officer, which he accepted. He was here as a senior officer to oversee this, the horrid tests and experiments that were being carried out on this creature.
Soon the thing would be finished with and his presence would no longer be needed, he was looking very forward to when he would be able to put several blast doors and a handful of armed guards between him and it.
"What do you think it is Commander?" came Lauren's voice.
Taylor pondered the question and replied, "I don't think I'm qualified to answer exactly what it is, but perhaps Commander Forbes, your doctorates would make you more aptly able to answer, do you have an answer?"
"Sir, in my eight years of practicing medicine and my five in ONI, I've never seen anything like thing, as best I can say it's roughly human sized, maybe a foot or so bigger and almost human shaped. But it's most definitely not a human, I can't say exactly what it is but put simply; it's an alien." The Commander concluded.
Joseph grunted in agreement, lent over the bar and looked down on the 'test subject'. It was ugly, not hideous or repulsive like aliens he had seen in movies, but ugly. It had four mandibles protruding from its face and had some sort of golden armour incasement.
"Well, whatever it is, I'm glad it's down there and I'm up here that's for sure." Corbett said and Anna replied, "You took the words right out of my mouth."
Dr. John Hopkinson, Chief Medical Officer on the facility spoke softly into his mouthpiece as he delicately removed the chest plate from the creatures armour.
"Removing item J-68346," as he handed the armour to his assistant, Dr. Philippe Daveu, "Dr. Daveu overseeing the cataloguing of the armour." Philippe took the armour and carefully placed it on the conveyer belt that fed it through a processor that detected its chemical makeup and other data and sent it back out. He put it inside a bag that he inserted into another smaller machine that sucked the air out of it before clipping it to the line that ran over the conveyer belt and entering details into the computer. He hit the red button on the computer and the line started to slide the package away.
All the while that was going on, Hopkinson was taking extreme care in removing the outer layer of skin on the creature's stomach. He put it onto a metal plate and spoke again into the microphone, stating that it was 'item J-68347' and handing it over to Daveu who repeated the process.
John took a small syringe from the table next to him, removed the safety seel and took a sample of its blood. He placed it on the tray and then took another that had already been filled with a green liquid and inserted it into the supposed kidney of the creature and injected it. He was extremely nervous being in a room with this thing, the sooner he finished the sooner it would be killed and he could perform an autopsy, but it needed to be alive to properly analyse it's blood flow and other important scientific things. He had just removed the needle from its kidney and placed it on the waste tray when the intercom on the wall clicked on.
"Dr. Hopkinson, his heart rate is picking up, you don't have long, are you finished?" the voice came from a tech manning the console where all the data from the probes and patches inside and outside the creature was collected.
The elderly doctor sighed and replied, "Almost I just have to, what the he..." but the doctor never finished his sentence as he was cut short by the sedated alien creature behind him that was certainly not unconscious anymore. In the three seconds that the doctor had turned to speak through the intercom the alien had woken, taken in its surroundings, broken the bonds tying it down and pounced on his victim. It then smashed the doctor's head on the ground three times before blood flowed from his mouth; he was dead after two knocks.
The console tech hit the emergency button next to him and howling sirens blared throughout the facility while the observation room was sealed with titanium-A battle plate armour usually used on ships. A view screen appeared in the room and its three occupants rushed to it, only to be horrified by what they saw. The creature had finished with Hopkinson and turned its attention to Daveu who yelled in terror. The alien strode bristly up to him and lifted him by the neck with ease, the doctors legs kicking against it and his voice still sounding in terror, chilling the onlookers to the bone. The thing looked into Daveu's eyes and roared in his face before brutally punching him in the stomach with such force Daveu spat up a large puddle of blood and slipped into unconsciousness. It seemed pleased with itself and before it chucked the body of the doctor to the ground it gave another roar and forced his head from his shoulders.
Commander Forbes screamed in fright while Taylor and Corbett fought back the urge to throw up.
Taylor bashed the intercom button with his palm and bellowed, "All defence personnel to the containment area we have a security breach. It's loose, two men down." He cut the transmission and pushed the button for the link to the enclosed research area where the alien was now on rampage, smashing things and roaring loudly, it scared the hell out of its onlookers.
"Stop. Please stop." Taylor pleaded with the alien who only just seamed to realise that its armour was gone and it had a large section of its skin over its chest missing. "We won't hurt you, please just stop."
The creature looked like it understood what he said and looked at the camera that was taking the footage of it and gave a terrible laugh at him. Taylor swallowed hard,
First contact with an alien life form and all it wants to do is kill us.
Lauren put a hand on his shoulder, "We have to get out of here in case it comes for us."
Anna nodded in agreement; Taylor hit the bulkhead release and the massive door slid slowly up. "I hope you rot in hell you son of a bitch." Joseph spat at the intercom as they opened the doors below so the quick response team could get in.
They walked out and into an elevator that they took to the reception area of the station, on the way up they heard bursts of gunfire along with screams and roars from both the humans and the alien as it attacked them and finally fell after the flurry of bullets cut through it and it collapsed on the floor,
Limbs twitching before it stopped after drowning in a pool of its own blood while the team examined the bio dome where the doctors had been murdered.
After seeing the two dead doctors the marine in charge went back out and bashed its head in violently with the butt of his weapon screaming at it while other marines fired rounds into it, blood splattering everywhere. The elevator's occupants were silent in shock and didn't move until the doors opened and they stepped out. Vice Admiral Samuel Howe-Head of the Facility-approached them and gave a weak smile, "I...I hope you can appreciate that the existence of alien life is Top Secret, nobody can know about this. Debriefing in my office, six minutes."
"Yes Sir." They replied in unison.
The occupants in Vice Admiral Howe's office ranged from the tech the was manning the data console, the Quick Response team that had killed and beaten the alien and the trio of officers that had witnessed the whole event.
Once everyone was in and the door had been shut Howe immediately started the debriefing.
"What you saw today, the alien, we found him-a lone scout-on a planet that was deemed ready to colonise by the UNSC. It was by itself, for reasons we are still unaware of. At the moment we are calling it 'the Stray', but we don't know if there are more of its race or wether it was the last of his kind, we don't know if its is the only race of aliens out there, we don't know if they are aware of our presence in the universe or of our abduction of the creature. What we do know is that they are hostile, extremely powerful and cunning, with-as it displayed to us," he said and picked up a remote from his desk, pointing it at the screen on the wall and pressing the start button, "that it has a brain that reacts very quickly. Play clip frame by frame." He ordered and the small media clip started up.
The screen showed the Doctor injecting the liquid into the creature's kidney and then turning as the tech spoke over the intercom. As he turned the frame rate slowed down and zoomed in on its face, it was hard to see but somewhere in there its eyes opened and focused on the doctor, before closing again.
"The remarkable thing is that its eyes were only open for 0.27 of a second, and in that time it took in its immediate surroundings and prepared itself to attack." Howe said pausing the clip to speak and then playing it again.
The view zoomed out and showed the larger picture, the doctor talking then spinning around in surprise as the creature broke its bonds and lunged at him. Due to the slow rate in which the image changed it was possible to see the look of utter surprise on the doctors face-his eyes widening dramatically, his mouth opening in surprise-and the look on the creatures face-the look of bloodthirsty lust to kill the man that stood before it. "End Clip." Howe said and the screen went dark.
"As you can see it is a vicious and cunning creature. To cut a long story short; it is deadly, it is now dead, you knew of its existence, you do not speak a word about it to anyone, ever. If this gets out who knows what will happen, have the paperwork on my desk and destroy anything on you that you deem to relate in anyway to what you have seen here today. That is all-you're dismissed-but Commander's Taylor, Forbes and Lieutenant Commander Corbett, please stay behind."
The others filled out and the door closed shortly after them.
"Please, through here." Howe said and gestured through the privacy screen that blocked off the other half of his office, his personal quarters. They approached the screen and a small retinal scan beam shone over Howe's eyes, pinged, and the screen slid over.
"Take a seat," Howe gestured towards the armchairs in the middle of the room set around a mahogany coffee table; "More mahogany." Taylor thought.
"Anything to drink?" The officers all shook their heads.
"Very well," replied the Vice Admiral taking a seat, "There is a reason I had you stay other than to have a chat over drinks. I've had orders from the brass to send you on an official Office of Naval Intelligence investigation into the origins of the Stray. I'll leave the proper briefing for when you get to Camp Hathcock, that's where my orders originate. That's all I can tell you at the moment. Good luck."
Twenty-Third Cycle, 57 Units, 8th Age of Reclamation (Covenant Battle Calendar) /
Covenant Destroyer Forbidden Haven, unknown coordinates
The Blue-armoured Sangheili on the flickering holograph droned on relaying pointless information to the viewer. His mandibles twitched as its eyes raked over something of interest among the clutter of his daily report.
"Is there anything of interest to me in between the lines of that tiresome report messenger or can I go to sleep?"
By the Forerunners, how has this happened? This is troubling.
The one called messenger, pondering what had caused such a catastrophe to take place, replied to the other.
"Well Excellency there is something here that might be of some worth to you in your..."
The Sangheili raised a hand and stopped the babbling messenger, obviously a far more insignificant creature to his Commander counterpart.
"Do not waste my time with idle talk messenger, if they are anything other than the normal battle reports and rubbish from the other side of the universe then let me know. If it interests me you'll have saved me the task of having you killed for wasting my time if it isn't, understood messenger?"
The lesser creature's mandibles quivered slightly, but he tried to his fear. He wondered wether he should let the Commander what had happened or not. If he did and the Gold-armoured Sangheili wasn't pleased with what he had said then he would be killed, but if he didn't, and he knew that this was valuable information to the higher up, then the punishment would be far worse; he'd take his chances with the truth.
"Yes Excellency. Sometime in the last twenty-four cycles or so a group of Yanme'e scouts on a routine operation found evidence of an alien presence on the planet Ashbiloch. Up until a few hundred cycles ago Sangheili guards were used on the planet as sentries on the lookout for Heretic's that habitually passed by and occasionally landed. The Yanme'e scouts came across a dropship of some sort, though mostly destroyed it vaguely resembled a Herikuu once we reassembled its scattered remains," the messenger said, likening the alien craft to the winged creatures that lived on the Sangheili homeworld, "we still do not know of its origins but plan to investigate further. The Sangheili guard that the Yanme'e were sent to replace was nowhere to be found, we suspect that the aliens have taken him."
The Commander gave a grunt and replied, "What was his name?"
Almost trembling with fear the messenger mumbled something under his breath. "What is his name!" the Commander roared.
The Messenger's arms snapped to his side and he stood ridged before blinking, "Jhako 'Henekree." He repeated solemnly, bowing his head in knowing sorrow.
Supreme Commander Bora 'Nekalee nodded slowly and then grabbed the large chair next to him and flung it with all his massive strength at the purple wall of the Forbidden Haven; the tiny splinters of wood that littered the ground all that remained of it. He grabbed for the two primitive metal Unggoy dagger's in the ornamental case on the wall, he threw the knife in his left hand at the wall where it stuck and wobbled violently emitting warbles from the shaking metal. The second he thrust into the table leaving a large mark in it before throwing it too at the wall. The whole time his mandibles were parted to their extremities and a guttural roar resonated from his mouth.
He then tore the energy sword hilt from his belt and activated it with a flick of his wrist, "Whoever did this will pay, my son's death will not go unavenged." He vowed to the messenger whist shaking with rage, "Inform the council that I request a meeting with them in five units, do it now."
The messenger nodded and terminated the connection leaving the Commander alone once again. 'Nekalee's hands shook as he tightened his grip on the moulded hilt in his hands and then relaxed which he repeated a few times before the words that he had heard before finally sunk in.
His son was gone, taken by aliens, probably dead. They would pay, he would make sure of it.
'Nekalee was only half there when he succumbed to his rage and let out another roar as his right arm flung out and he carved angry yet graceful movements in the air. He deactivated the sword and calmly went to the door that pulsed with light, pinged and opened up allowing him passage through. The doors slid closed behind him and locked his private quarters, hiding the COM system that now lay in smouldering ruins on the floor.
2341 Hours, January 1, 2440 (Military Calendar) /
Epsilon Eridani System, Reach UNSC Military Complex,
planet Reach, Delta Wing-Section Three secure facility
"I don't give a damn Dieter," Vice Admiral Howe barked, "wether I have the clearance or not, I want access to all files relating to the alien!" he banged his fist on the desk and the AI in front of him flickered slightly.
"Sir, Section Three security clearance level is required to access these files," the Captain James Cook modelled AI standing on the desk replied, a tone of frustration in his normally cool passive voice, "to give you access to them would violate many protocols and would be..."
"What did I just say?" Howe interrupted, "You know I can eject your processor cube and smash it with my shiny new shoe now don't you?"
Dieter seemed to smile, "Threats don't work against Artificial Intelligences I'll have you know Vice Admiral Howe, so there's no use trying. I can get you the files with less restriction but the Top Secret files I can't do, will that suffice?" he drawled. Howe nodded, glaring at the AI as it shrugged and vaporised into the air leaving behind a cloud of sea blue smoke which soon faded away too.
Howe raised his head from his desk a minute later when he saw the flashes of light emanating from the projector on the other side of the room.
"Well, did you get the files?" he asked impatiently and the AI smiled as he glided over to the desk and waved his hand. Howe's computer beeped and the he hit the Enter button, he gave identification and the barrier on the files lifted.
"Thankyou Dieter. We found it on Athens, outpost close by." he mumbled as he read to himself, "Right then, I think it's safe to say that it's not the only one there is, I hope those three are ready. Dieter, get me Admiral Jason O'Neill, Section Three Commander, Camp Hathcock."
The AI nodded and vaporised, leaving Howe alone in the dark office. He made his way over to the small bar fridge and took out a bottle of scotch that he poured a glass of and downed in two gulps. His fingers pealed off the cool glass as he set it down on the table and flopped back down in his seat. A trickle of sweat ran down his face and he glanced up at the digital thermostat on the wall, forty-two degrees Celsius; no wonder he felt like he was in an oven. The Vice Admiral fumbled on the table and knocked a button on his computer keypad; the air conditioner overhead clicked on and he pushed the downwards-facing arrow button half a dozen times.
The window on his computer showing the temperature of the air being cycled through the room by the air conditioner tickled down and stopped at nineteen degrees, Howe felt the cool air sluice over him and reclined in his chair. He closed his eyes, he wasn't going to sleep he just needed to rest for a moment, then he'd talk to O'Neill, just a few seconds.
Howe awoke at the sound of buzzing and rose a hand to his closed eyes trying to clear the fatigue, he open his eyes and blinked a few times while yawning before hitting a button on the keypad. He looked up at the computer and found Admiral O'Neill's unsmiling face staring back at him.
"What, Howe? The Admiral asked tiredly, there were bags under his eyes and his normally sharp face looked somewhat shrunken.
"Sir, I've looked over the autopsy results and any data I could access, I just thought I might suggest forming a fleet to accompany the three officers we have sent, if there is an intelligent race out there in space who knows how advanced they are. If we send three officers un-aided to a planet to investigate an alien presence then we have no idea what could happen, it's crazy an d foolish not to mobilise a strike team. That's my view sir."
O'Neill yawned and clenched his jaw shanking his head, "Howe, we at Camp Hathcock believe that mobilising a fleet to go to a possibly alien inhabited world is more foolish than not sending one. If this race is far ahead of us and we send three officers to attempt contact then we have a higher chance of success than if we send in a strike force. If there are aliens and if they are hostile and we find out at the expense of three officers don't you think that that is better than possibly loosing an entire fleet?"
"Acceptable losses," Howe muttered with a silent rage flowing through him, "No, Sir, I don't think any losses are acceptable, but my view hardly counts for anything anymore. Sorry for wasting your time Sir, Goodnight." He made to disconnect the connection when O'Neill interrupted.
"You're being put at the head of a medical research project Vice Admiral, the dead creature's body is to be further studied, I want the full report on my desk in hard copy and electronically transmitted to my computer in seventy-two hours, Goodnight."
The connection terminated and the room shrunk back into darkness and silence, the soft whir of the air-conditioner and the gradually intensifying beating of his heart the only sounds Howe could hear.
"Well at least one thing is for sure Dieter,"
"What might that be sir?" came the AI's voice from the computer speakers
"I'm going to need some more scotch."
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