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The Tides of War Part 2 "Unforseen Alliances" Chapter 6
Posted By: Corbantis<ssrm3@lvcm.com>
Date: 23 November 2002, 2:24 am
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1230 Hours, August 31, 2552 (Military Calendar) /
Sol System, patrolling outer edge of system,
RCF command ship Virtuous
Commander General Bre'sadi Vorskray seated himself in the captain's chair of his command warship. The Virtuous was a powerful version of the normal Ak'Sa Heavy cruiser; which forms the backbone of the Covenant Navy. The Virtuous had been equipped with enhanced sensors, and a new regenerative shield matrix was also fitted onto the ship. Coupled with the new mark XII plasma cannons, the ship was a very deadly tool when used by the right person.
"General, I'm receiving a narrow band slipstream transmission. I believe it is coming from a Covenant command ship." The blue officer elite said to Bre'sadi. "Put the transmission on the main view screen." The General said as he sat back in his captain's chair. The officer put up the transmission on the view screen. The face Bre'sadi saw was not one he wanted to see. "Ahh... Brother, so you will speak to me?" The image of Bre'sadi's older brother looked angry as he spoke. "Yes, what do you want? Honorable War Master. Have you seen the truth and decided to join the Coalition?" Bre'sadi looked brazenly at his malicious sibling. Bre'sadi's brother snarled. "You thought I would join with you traitors! Fool." The War Master spat on the floor of his ship, "I would rather be killed by a Human than join you," Bre'sadi's brother scoffed.
A moment of timid silence passed before Bre'sadi began to gather his thoughts and respond to his naive brother. "Then why have you contacted me?" Bre'sadi asked in a composed, cautious voice. "I wanted to see for myself the face of my treacherous brother." T'soll practically spat the word "brother" out, as if calling Bre'sadi that left a sour taste in the War Master's mouth.
Bre'sadi watched his brother, trying to figure out what he was thinking. What the General could easily read from the War Master was the fact that he was very, very enraged about Bre'sadi's defection to the rebel forces. "Why did you do it Bre'sadi? Why did you join those blasphemous criminals. You were supposed to fight by my side, supposed to join me in glorious battle against the wicked infidels. But now you choose to help them?! You choose to offend the gods? Why? Answer me brother, tell me why you dare dishonor our family name with your heresy!" The War Master roared wrathfully at Bre'sadi, and although it was just his image, the War Master's anger hit harshly at Bre'sadi's core. How awful war can be sometimes! Thought Bre'sadi to himself. Turning brother against brother must be the most terrible form of it.
General Bre'sadi quickly quelled his thoughts about his brother's outburst as he answered T'soll's question. "You know why I left brother. Don't try and make me feel guilty for having morals about life. Unlike you, I don't follow orders blindly. Not without thinking of the consequences of my actions." Bre'sadi balled his hand into a fist and stared coldly at his older brother, "You may think nothing of killing living, sentient beings, but I do. I can kill soldiers and those trying to kill me, yes, but I do not think it right to execute whole worlds of innocent beings just because their different than us, and after I saw you happily murder those unarmed human colonists in the Trk'Pahn system, I knew I would never be able to kill so heartlessly as you had." Bre'sadi pointed at the image of his brother, "You are a fool to believe what the Prophets say. Don't you remember the old teachings? The true gods created all life and cherished their creations, they did not want their creations destroyed!" T'soll snickered at Bre'sadi's wistful speech about morals.
"I will not try to understand your reasons Bre'sadi. You are the foolish one, for I will," T'soll closed his fist as if squashing something invisible," crush you, your rebel coalition, and the infidels. I will live on, you will fade away into nothing. Not even memory will remember you." With that last insult, the War Master cut the transmission, leaving Bre'sadi to stare at a blank screen.
Several moments passed before the ominous silence that hung over the bridge like a blanket was lifted by the ships comm. officer "General, the human command ship is hailing us." Bre'sadi mulled over the issue for only a moment longer before responding to the officer. "Put them on screen." The General said to his comm. officer. The view screen once again came alive, this time displaying the face of the human Admiral. The Admiral greeted Bre'sadi with a amiable smile. "Good to see you again Commander General." Bre'sadi nodded his head. "Likewise Admiral. I assume you bring good news about your meeting with your superiors?" The Admiral clasped his hands together as he spoke, "Yes, they wish to meet with you and discuss allying with your Coalition. They also wanted to tell you personally how grateful they are at your arrival. I'm guessing that you heard what happened to our forces yesterday?" Bre'sadi nodded again, "Yes. By the time we heard about it we were unable to help. At the time the Coalition's forces were spread very thin. After the event we regrouped and decided that we needed to speak with your nation about an alliance."
"I will need to leave my ship here on your systems border for continued defense of the system. . I was wondering if I could board your ship. Could you convey me to your home world?" The human Admiral waved his hand above his head, "Sure, come on over! I'll be happy to have you aboard. I'll have one of my pilots in a Long Sword guide you into one of our docking bays." "Thank you Admiral, I will leave momentarily." Bre'sadi said as he stood up. "I'll see you soon then General." The human nodded to Bre'sadi, then the transmission ended.
"Commander Zar'ak, you have command until I return." "Yes, General." Replied Bre'sadi's second in command as the commander approached the captain's chair. Bre'sadi walked to the gravity lift, entered, and keyed the lift to bring him to the ships starboard hanger bay. The lift descended to it destination.
The lift arrived moments later to the appropriate deck, and Bre'sadi stepped off the lift. The doors hissed shut behind him. As he walked down the hall and entered the bay, he was approached by the lieutenant in charge of the docking bay. The blue Elite was carrying a plasma rifle and a scout's utility belt. "Sir, It is good to see you. I thought you might want to have these just incase anything happens." The Lieutenant said as he held up the weapon and belt to Bre'sadi. "No, I want to show the humans that I trust them. If anything happens I will utilize what weapons they may have." Bre'sadi brushed by the Elite as he approached the Seraph interceptor that he would fly to the human ship.
Bre'sadi seated himself into the Seraph, then he powered the ship up. It's engines whined as it began to auto-hover above the floor of the hanger bay. The force field that sealed off the hanger from the vacuum of space changed color to indicate to Bre'sadi that he could now fly out . He eased the throttle of the ship up as he moved out of the hanger bay and into space. He then maneuvered the Seraph toward the human warship which began to gradually get bigger in Bre'sadi's view port. Once he was close to the ship, a lone human craft approached Bre'sadi's Seraph. His audio comm. system beeped as the other pilot signaled him. The general activated the comm. panel. "Hello, mate. Follow me this way to the hanger bay." Said a deeply accented voice to Bre'sadi. He didn't know what exactly the pilot meant by "mate", but Bre'sadi followed the Human craft. He was led to a large metal door on the bottom of the ship. "Just fly up in there, land on the platform, and wait for the ship to be cycled through the airlock." The human said, then he left Bre'sadi. No force fields? Thought Bre'sadi, So they really are not that advanced yet? Interesting.
The doors opened and Bre'sadi flew in, then he landed on a platform marked with a big cross. The hanger doors closed, and the platform he was on began to rise to another set of doors that opened up right below yet another set of thick metal doors. The doors below closed, and a loud thump against the Seraph indicated to Bre'sadi that the room was flooded with atmosphere. After several moments, the top doors opened and the platform raised into a large hanger bay. Once the platform stopped, several humans in uniforms jogged towards the Seraph. Bre'sadi shut down the craft, and climbed out of the Seraph. As the humans approached Bre'sadi, he couldn't help but think how funny it was that humans were so much shorter than his kind.
"Hello, Commander General. I am Admiral Leonard." the human craned his neck upward to look at Bre'sadi. Bre'sadi couldn't help but chuckle at the human's height. "What's the matter General?" The admiral said as he looked up at Bre'sadi. "Nothing, it is just that you humans seem so short to me. I just think it funny that I am looking so far down at you, that's all." The Admiral laughed shortly at the comment made by Bre'sadi. Then the Admiral pointed at Bre'sadi and jokingly said, "Hey, we may be shorter than you, but be grateful that we designed our ships with high ceilings!" The Admiral gestured to a door a few feet behind Bre'sadi. "This way then, General. I'll show you the bridge and then show you to your quarters until we reach Earth." Bre'sadi nodded his head as he followed the human.
The ships doorways were a little taller than a human, but short enough that Bre'sadi had to duck down beneath them to reach the next hallway beyond. The human Admiral turned his head behind him to look at Bre'sadi. "Were nearing the bridge now, one more hallway and we'll be there," He slowed until he was beside Bre'sadi, then he looked up at the towering alien, "By the way, I was wondering...." The Admiral was cut off by loud klaxons that sounded throughout the ship. "What the hell?" Said one of the marines escorting Bre'sadi and the Admiral. The group stopped and the Admiral pulled out a comm. link. "Captain Tyner, Report!" Yelled the Admiral. "Sir, they just popped up bellow us! I think it's Covenant, looks more advanced than their usual ships though. Its heavily armed and... Oh my god! Evasive maneuvers! Launch counter measures. What? Damn it!! Brace for impact! Admiral, Ad...Admiral, it fired some kind of... of plasma torpedo, I..." The Captain was cut off by a loud rumbling explosion that shook the entire ship. Then everything exploded around The Admiral, the Marines, and Bre'sadi. That was the last any of them saw before a shroud of unconsciousness covered them all. To be continued...
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