A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

Post by Eternal_Freedom »

That works much better. Feels more natural.

Keep writing!
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."

Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

Post by Skywalker_T-65 »

Like I said before...I have several chapters already up on FF.N to work with, and I'm playing catch up here. So updates are going to be a bit fast while I do so.
________________________________________________________________

1200 Hours, September 10, 2552 (Military Calendar) /

USS Odyssey, Unnamed System, 'Installation 02'


Needless to say, the crew of the Odyssey was thrown for a loop when they saw the thing that had captured their ship. The UNSC segment was surprised at the appearance of what was obviously an alien AI, while the original crew were running through some bad memories. After all, the last non-human AI they had seen were the Replicators…and this was too similar to that situation to discount the possibility of things going wrong. After all…UNSC AI were programmed to work with their organic counterparts…this was an AI leading a machine army.

"Carter, now would be a really good time to get us out of here," Cam said.

"Nothing I can do Cam. We're stuck here unless you want to blast our way out."

"And we can't risk that…damn it."

The Monitor watched the exchange curiously, before talking again, "Why would you want to leave Reclaimer? This Ring is your Legacy after all, and it is my duty to deliver it to you for safekeeping."

The last time anyone on the human ship had heard 'Legacy' was in relation to the Asgard Core. So if nothing else, it piqued their interest even more than it previously had been. There was still the ever-present danger and level of risk, but…if this was anything like what the Asgard had left behind, or even like Atlantis…they couldn't very well afford to ignore it. Extreme risk aside of course.

"What do you mean by 'Legacy'?" Cam asked cautiously.

The Monitor tilted its head almost like a confused dog, "The Reclaimers are the chosen inheritors of the Forerunner Mantle of Responsibility. This Ring is an integral part of enforcing that Mantle. You should already know this if you have been able to find this Installation."

"Err…"

"So you don't know then? Very well, I will have to educate you on your history Reclaimers. Please, allow me to land your vessel on the Installation and I can explain everything you need to know."

Cam frowned at the image of the Monitor, deep in thought. They had no reason to trust this machine, it could even be said they only had reason to distrust it. But by the same token, the Monitor hadn't made any hostile moves (aside from pulling them to the Ring). And it would give them time to get the ZPM 'plugged' back into the power systems. And the Odyssey was more than capable of a quick getaway if needed.

In the end, it truly came down to a 'did the risks outweigh the benefits' situation. It was extremely risky no matter what decision Cam made. If they tried to escape, the Monitor would likely order its buddies to open fire on the Odyssey. And while the Asgard shields were probably strong enough to shrug off fire from the machines towing it, God only knew what was on that Ring still. Which was the problem with trying to trust the Monitor. It wanted to land the ship on the Ring, and that was a major problem, considering they didn't know what was on the Ring. Or what the Monitor was really planning on doing to them.

But…the chance for even more new technology was tempting everyone aboard the ship. The UNSC part of the crew wanted more weapons and abilities to fight the Covenant. And the SGC part was sorely tempted by a possibility of getting home. After all, this Ring was some of the most advanced technology they had ever seen, so it was entirely possible that its creators knew of a device like the Quantum Mirror that could be used to get home.

As 'his' crew looked on expectantly, Cam sighed and faced the Monitor, "Oh what the hell. We'll land on that Ring of yours. Just let go of our ship and we can land ourselves."

The Monitor (scarily) looked happy to hear that, "That is excellent news Reclaimer. We have so much lost time to discuss. I am transmitting coordinates to a landing zone now. As soon as the Sentinels have cleared your path, please come and land on the Installation."

"Yeah yeah," Cam muttered as the Monitor's image was replaced by a highlighted area on the Ring, "I really hope I don't regret this."

The machines (now identified as Sentinels) started to release their hold on the Odyssey, moving their cordon aside to let the human vessel through. Though the machines stayed close, cutting off any path aside from the one to the Ring. Whatever else this Monitor was, it (or should they say she since it had a feminine voice?) wasn't stupid. It (she?) wasn't giving them the chance to try and escape. So Cam ordered the helmsman to power the engines and send the Odyssey to its designated landing zone.

As the ship entered the Ring's atmosphere, sensors along its hull started to take readings of its composition, to ensure there weren't any toxic chemicals in the air. Surprisingly, the Ring had an atmosphere remarkably similar to Earth, if with a bit more of some elements and a bit less of others. Nothing that a human body couldn't adapt to though…which meant whoever had built this Ring had to be at least human-like, if not outright ancient humans like the (no pun intended) Ancients. This would make a certain amount of sense considering the Monitor declaring the (human) crew of the Odyssey to be the inheritors of the Ring.

All these thoughts ran through the heads of the crew while the ship descended through the Ring's atmosphere towards a group of structures situated on one of the larger glaciers. The buildings were elegant grey structures, mostly made of some sort of rock or concrete analogue, with the exception of the obvious landing zone that was made up of a silvery metal. The Odyssey came to a stop on the landing pad, extending a landing ramp to allow the 'First Contact' crew members to leave without revealing the transportation technology to the Monitor. Though the ship did keep its engines ready to ignite at a moment's notice if they needed to make a quick escape.

"Well, time to meet the possibly crazy AI. Anyone else worried?" Cam asked rhetorically as he pulled back the charging bolt on his new MA5C.

"More intrigued than worried. Not every AI has to be like the Replicators," Daniel said, interest shining in his eyes at the chance to meet a remnant of such an old civilization.

"We're ready when you are sir," an imposing armored figure added, holding a DMR.

Said armored figure was Commander Carter-A259 of Noble Team. The Spartan III's (and one II) had been removed from their typical posting on Reach to provide security and a fast attack force if needed on the Odyssey. It was in the former role that they were now serving, each member of the team outfitted in their unique armor and standing in a circle around the 'VIPs' (Cam, Daniel, and a member of ONI named Jeff Birch).

"Okay, so I'm the only one worried then," the Colonel said sarcastically, "let's get this over with."

And he couldn't have had better timing as the little-used landing ramp finished extending. Two of the Nobles, Kat-S320 and Jorge S-052 walked down first, making an interesting comparison as the smallest and largest members of the team. As the rest of the group cleared the hull, they saw the Monitor floating alongside a group of Sentinels. The pink-hued machine in the center looked friendly somehow while the Sentinels were training their weapons on the joint SGC/UNSC contingent. Protocol won out over excitement in both cases. Naturally, the Spartan's responded by having their weapons primed and ready, if not necessarily pointed at their 'hosts'.

"Detecting no hostile actions, and no Sentinels outside that group," a feminine voice said in the radios of the group.

"Roger that Kalmiya," Carter replied, talking to the AI that Dr. Halsey had lent them for this mission, and that was currently residing in his 'head'.

"Well Jackson, Birch, that's your cue," Cam said, motioning them forward.

Both of the mentioned people moved forward with Jorge and Noble Six providing escort, while the rest of the group continued to examine the area for a trap.

"Greetings Reclaimers," Grieving Light said cheerfully, "welcome to Installation 02's primary docking facility. I have waited far too long for your arrival."

Daniel stepped forward first, having more experience with (non-hostile) alien life than his fellow human (even if he wasn't really a diplomat), "I'm sure you are excited to meet us then. We certainly have a lot of questions for you."

The Monitor 'nodded', "I would imagine Reclaimer. I admit I still find it strange how you know nothing of your legacy, but I can rectify that now that you are here. There are so many things to discuss!"

"Like what the purpose of this Ring is?" Birch asked, moving next to Daniel.

"Naturally," Grieving Light replied, "as terrible as that purpose is."

The sudden move from cheerful to depressed surprised the group a bit. What could be so bad about this Ring that the Monitor itself didn't like it?

"Why do I suddenly get a bad feeling?" Jorge muttered to his Spartan-III counterpart.

Six shrugged her shoulders in response, while Daniel frowned slightly at the front of the little gathering.

"What is so terrible?"

"That is a long story Reclaimers. I would rather save that until we are inside one of the buildings. While it has been one-hundred thousand years since I have seen a human, I know your kind is not likely to be comfortable in this cold of weather."

Which didn't take a genius to notice. The Odyssey hadn't been carrying much cold weather gear, so (outside of the Spartans in their MJOLNIR armor) the group was showing some signs of how uncomfortable the Ring's cold environment was.

"That would be nice actually," Daniel admitted.

"Excellent!" Grieving light said, getting back 'her' former cheerful attitude, "right this way Reclaimers!"

Daniel followed easily enough, while the Spartans (plus Cam and Birch) looked a bit leery at the idea. Going into a confined building while their 'hosts' could turn hostile at quite literally any moment was not their view of a good idea. But knowing that the Odyssey could beam them out if things went down the proverbial drain meant they were willing (if not necessarily happy) to go along with the machines for now. So the Spartans once again formed a cordon around the VIPs and moved to follow the Monitor.

Rising up in front of them was a large structure, resembling nothing more than some sort of temple. The entrance to the 'temple' was large enough to fit even Jorge with room to spare, allowing the group to enter fairly quickly. And they noticed that it definitely had some heating systems, since the moment they entered they felt a wave of heat.

"I'm afraid I don't have seating Reclaimers," Grieving Light said apologetically, "but I can have some manufactured if you require it."

"We'll just sit on the floor, thanks," Cam said, doing just that.

"Now, can you please tell us what we are supposed to know?" Daniel asked again, getting right to the point.

The Monitor let out a 'sigh', "Very well. It began a long time ago, when my creators the Forerunners met your own ancestors…"

*HSG*HSG*HSG*HSG*HSG*HSG*HSG*HSG*HSG*HSG*HSG*

Thousands of years ago, the Forerunner Empire was believed to be the dominant power in the Galaxy. Our mighty Empire spread from one end of the Galaxy to the other, content and peaceful. However, we were not as alone on our technological pedestal as we would have liked to believe, for another alliance of races was our equal in nearly every way.

Your Ancient ancestors, the Human Empire and their San 'Shyuum allies were both near our technology level on their own. In their alliance, they were a force that was capable of fighting our greatest military commanders to a standstill for decades. They were aggressive in everything they did, conquering our worlds and destroying our fleets in hard-fought battles. The Humans started the war, but my creators were determined to be the ones to finish it, and eliminate their threat from the Galaxy.

Because of this, dreadful war spread through both our territory, and the smaller Human expanse. The Humans fought hard, but they were weakened from an even longer battle against an enemy we knew nothing of at the time. Because of this, the Forerunner fleets were eventually able to push your people back to their capital world, Charum Hakkor. Hundreds of human worlds fell before this, most of their populations refusing to surrender. The same would be true of their capital.

The last surviving human fleets rallied at Charum Hakkor, using technology even more advanced than our own to make up for their lack in numbers. The Siege of Charum Hakkor was dreadful, in its length and damage. For fifty years we fought and bled against the Humans and their allies. Fifty years of bloodshed and loss. Fifty years of anger and resentment towards what we believed were an aggressive and impossible to negotiate with race. Anger and resentment that would be our downfall, just as surely as it was your own.

When we finally forced our way through your people's forces, our vengeance was swift and complete. Those few of your people who surrendered were split into multiple different races and devolved into a society that barely deserved the name. Stripped of all their technology and exiled to their homeworld of Erde-Tyrene, the Human Empire was reduced to a historical footnote, while the San 'Shyuum were exiled to their own homeworld, if allowed to keep their technology for surrendering without doing anywhere near as much damage as the humans.

It was only much later that we learned of our horrible mistake, and the last revenge of our enemies. For the humans hadn't been attempting to expand into our territory and take over our people, they had been fleeing their own, far more horrible, enemy. Known as the 'Flood' to our shocked people, this enemy had been driven to near-extinction by the humans, though it horribly weakened their forces. This enemy was a parasite the likes of which had never been seen before, able to overtake an entire world with a mere handful of spores. A mere handful of spores that could destroy anything in their path.

The Flood descended on our worlds like a plague, overtaking anything the humans had ever done to fight us. World after world fell, the people infected being used to increase the Flood war machine. Our own people were being used by this parasite to fight against us. Our own ships were used to spread the infection from world to world. Even after the war with the humans, our military was horribly unprepared for this fight, unable to do more than stem the flow of the Flood.

It was during this desperate struggle that we learned just what we had lost by destroying the human's civilization. They had been able to defeat the Flood by developing a cure for the infection. But in their hour of defeat, when they realized the lengths our vengeful people would go to…the humans destroyed the cure and any records of it. Through our own hubris, we had destroyed any chance of curing our people of this infection. Our greatest minds attempted to recreate the cure, but we were unable to do so.

Realizing that we may be unable to defeat the Flood, our people turned to the very Installation you are currently standing on. Seven of these Rings were spread throughout the Galaxy. Some were used to study our enemy in an attempt to combat it more effectively, while some were dedicated entirely to use as a last resort weapon. A last resort that came, after three hundred long years of fighting the Flood.

Our people were decimated and our fleets were unable to continue to hold the Flood at bay. With every other option exhausted, the Halo Array was fired as our last remaining fleets held the Flood back. The firing of these Rings killed all sentient life in the Galaxy, outside of a few safe zones where the last remnants of my people waited for the Flood to die of starvation so that we could restore the races we had saved in the last days of the war to their homeworlds. Including your own race Reclaimers. It was hoped that with the end of the Flood, the galaxy could be restored to its former glory.

But with the end of the Forerunner Empire, myself and six fellow Monitors were left on the Installations, safeguarding them in the event of another Flood outbreak. We were told to keep the Installations safe for the Reclaimers…our former enemies, the humans. They were now recognized as our best chance of a worthy inheritor of the Mantle, and thus, were given the Reclaimer status. Any Forerunner Construct was programmed to acknowledge this fact.

With our mission in mind, the remaining Forerunners left to some unknown location, leaving my fellow Monitors and I behind to safeguard the galaxy and their legacy. And we have done so for the last one hundred thousand years. It is our mission, a mission to keep the galaxy safe, and eventually restore the Mantle to our inheritors. Nothing matters as much to a Monitor, nothing at all.
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

Post by Skywalker_T-65 »

Chapter 9.2
____________________________________________________________________________


"…and now I find myself finally meeting the Reclaimers I have waited for," Grieving Light finished.

Needless to say, this story had left the group in varying degrees of shock. This Ring could kill all life in the Galaxy? Humanity had an equivalent to the Ancients even in this universe? There was possibly an enemy out there that made the Covenant look like a minor skirmish? This was a lot to take in, and certainly not what anyone aboard the Odyssey had been expecting when they had left Reach. And it left them with more questions than answers.

"This is a lot to take in," Daniel said, leaning back somewhat.

"I understand," the Monitor said, "I can answer any questions you have to the best of my ability."

"Well, if you really have been here so long, how have you not noticed that we have been isolated on Earth until the last few centuries?" Cam asked, carefully avoiding any mention of the fact he wasn't from this Earth.

"Earth?"

"Our homeworld. Probably what you call Erde-Tyrene," Daniel explained.

"Ahhh…" the Monitor said with another 'nod', "I have been isolated here. As the Monitor, I am not allowed to leave my Installation for any reason short of catastrophic failure. So naturally I have no idea of what is occurring in the Galaxy at large. I do not even know of the other Installations, as their Monitors have ceased contact."

"Well that explains things….like why you haven't helped with the Covenant," Birch said, breaking into the conversation.

"Covenant?"

"Kalmiya, can you pull up our files on the Covenant?" Carter asked his AI.

"Certainly," the AI replied, a holoprojector that Sam and Halsey had designed lighting up in Carter's hand.

The Spartan handed the projector to the Monitor, who scanned the information eagerly. At least until it came to things about the Human-Covenant War. When it reached those parts, the Monitor became far more serious.

"This is not good, this is not good at all," the machine muttered, "is this all you have?"

"All we can show someone we don't know," Birch replied.

"And as telling me everything is a security risk, you can't show more," Grieving Light deduced.

"Correct."

"While I may not know of this 'Covenant', I can tell you about the races composing it. Or at least what I knew of them from before the firing of the Array. The warrior races you have shown me are known as the Unggoy, what you know as 'Grunts'. The larger race is the Kig-Yar, the 'Jackals'. Finally, you have the Sangheili, 'Elites' and…this is interesting…"

"What's interesting?" Daniel asked, though he had a bad feeling all of a sudden.

"This," the Monitor replied, bringing up one of the few images that had been secured of the Prophets, "is a San 'Shyuum."

Considering what they had just learned of their past, it was a bit understandable that (sans the typically unflappable Spartans) the human group was surprised by that revelation. After all, they had just learned how the newly identified Prophets had been their ally in the past. What could have driven them to want to exterminate humanity?

"Man, the universe must love torturing us!" Cam said, throwing his hands in the air.

"I will admit it is odd," Grieving Light admitted, "I cannot imagine why the San 'Shyuum would be so determined to destroy humanity…destroying worlds like this is something that should only be used on the Flood."

"It is possible that they grew to hate us in the time that we were apart," Daniel suggested, "any civilization would change after that much time."

"Still to change so much…is troubling," the Monitor muttered, "do you know anything else about the San 'Shyuum and their allies?"

"Only what they said at first contact," Birch answered, "Your destruction is the will of the gods, and we are their instrument."

"Curious…I wonder if this Covenant discovered surviving records of our war with your ancestors. It was common for less sophisticated races to revere my creators as gods, and I would not be surprised if the same was true of the San 'Shyuum."

"Curious? That's all you have to say eyeball?" one of the Spartans, Emile, said after finally getting fed up with all the talking and no action.

Grieving Light looked apologetic, "I apologize. I have been isolated for so long that I have a difficult time relating to other's experiences."

"Is there anything you can do to help us though?" Daniel asked.

"There is not much I can do personally. Protocol dictates that I am not allowed to leave this Installation, even in a situation such as this," Grieving Light said softly, sounding unhappy about the situation, "however, I may have a way to help you."

"You do?"

Somehow, the Monitor looked like it had a plan in mind.

"I am not allowed to leave the Installation. But there is no protocol forbidding me from creating a copy of my programming and installing it on a vessel docked here," the Monitor said, in an almost conspiratorial whisper.

"Somehow I get the feeling your creators wouldn't appreciate that," Cam deadpanned…and he didn't exactly appreciate it, considering it was, you know, allowing a possibly crazy AI to make a copy of itself.

"Most likely not," the Monitor agreed, "but it is the only way I can aid you 'directly'."

"No offense, but I ain't installing you on our ship," Cam protested.

"You got that right," Emile muttered from the back.

Grieving Light looked a bit confused, "I said a vessel docked here. I did not mean your transport Reclaimer. What little I have seen of your technology would likely be incompatible in any case. It is advanced, highly advanced, but it is not the same as Forerunner technology."

That brought the group up short. The Monitor was implying a Forerunner vessel was docked on this Ring. If what little they had seen of Forerunner technology was any indication that was a gold mine. Even if it (probably) wasn't equivalent to an Ancient vessel, it was still far more advanced than the Covenant. And obviously, any technology helped.

"You have a ship here?" Birch asked, considering the UNSC needed to know more than the SGC group.

"Yes I do," Grieving Light replied, projecting a hologram from 'her' eye, showing a large triangle shaped ship.

Scale was impossible to determine from the image, but the ship did look large compared to the structures surrounding it. It also looked rather…plain. There were no obvious weapon mounts, and even the engine was hard to see. But perhaps looks could be deceiving.

"What is that?" Daniel asked curiously.

"A Keyship left here by the Librarian," the Monitor explained, "each of the Rings served a purpose beyond their use as a weapon. Installations 04 and 05 contain Flood research facilities, Installation 03 contains the Composer, and my own Installation 02 contains some of the last remaining shipyards, with this one ship docked here. It is fortunate you found my Installation first Reclaimers, as the other Monitors are programed differently."

"Different programing?"

The Monitor 'nodded', "Indeed. The Monitors of Installation 04 and 05, for instance, know nothing about the other Installations apart from the Monitors and which one is assigned to their own Ring. They do not know the location of the other Rings, or how they function. This is a security precaution to keep the Flood from learning too much about our fallback bases. But, with the fact my Installation lacks Flood Research Facilities, it was deemed safe for me to know more."

"I would guess that is to help us with our 'Legacy' right?" Daniel asked.

"Correct Reclaimer."

Daniel nodded, and was about to turn back to Cam, when something popped into his mind. He had been working on translating that crystal when they had left, but he hadn't been able to finish. That being said…if it was from a pre-Covenant race…and the Forerunner's would have known all of those…

"Kalymiya? Can you show the Monitor that artifact we found on Sigma Octanus?"

"Of course Dr. Jackson."

The pad that the Monitor had been using changed to show an image of the Sigma Octanus artifact, which the machine looked at curiously.

"Hmm…this is a star map. I am surprised it survived for so long," Grieving Light informed the group, "one of the coordinates is to Installation 04, while I do not recognize the other."

"A star map? Hmm?" Birch muttered.

"Can you help me translate what is left?" Daniel asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

"Certainly Reclaimer. Come with me, and I can teach you the language of the Forerunner."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Cam protested, "are we forgetting that the Covenant got this stone? And that means they know where that other Ring is!"

That brought the group up short. And raised a bit of a problem...they would have to get to that other Ring. If the Covenant could figure out how to use it...or even worse...if they couldn't but still managed to light it off.

It seemed like Grieving Light realized that too, "That is not a good thing. Not a good thing at all!"

*************************************


To copy the note from FFN:

When one looks at the Halo Array, we only have three confirmed Rings so far. Installation 04 and 05 both had Flood Research facilities, but were otherwise just standard (if you can call a giant death machine 'standard') Installations. Installation 03 had the Composer, and hasn't been confirmed or denied as far as the Flood go. So, I made a bit of a logical leap and assumed that the Rings could serve their own purpose aside from the aforementioned 'giant death machine' bit. They are only getting the one Keyship though. I am trying very hard to avoid a curbstomp after all. And, of the four (counting 02) Rings we have...04 and 05 are, more or less, the same in environment. Fairly Earth-like, and something the Flood would thrive on. 03 appears to be hot and somewhat volcanic (presuming I'm remembering Halo 4 correctly) likely a bit more harsh, while 02 is more glacial. Thus, it makes sense that Alpha and Delta Halo are Flood stations, while 03 has the Composer, and 02 (in here) has shipyards.

At least to me.
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

Post by Skywalker_T-65 »

9th Age of Reclamation, Ascendant Justice \

Fleet of Particular Justice, Human World


Supreme Commander Thel 'Vadamee watched dispassionately as the Unwavering Promise was destroyed by a human warship. The vessel had performed some form of jump to get behind the modified cruiser, and its Shipmaster had not reacted fast enough to destroy the human ship. While the destruction of the limited-production ship was indeed a harsh blow, it was what destroyed it that gained the Supreme Commander's attention, not the destruction of the ship.

That was not slipspace. And that was not typical human weaponry. Where have they been hiding this technology?

As 'Vadamee continued to marshal his battered fleet, the Long Night of Solace dropped into formation with the last ships in the Fleet of Particular Justice. The Supercarrier dwarfed even the large Ascendant Justice, and it didn't help that it moved as close as possible to the smaller Assault Carrier. As soon as the ships had managed to form something resembling a stable formation, a message came over from the larger vessel.

"Supreme Commander, I am disappointed," the distinct voice of a San 'Shyuum said, "the vermin should not have been able to harm this mighty fleet."

Inwardly Thel bristled at the implications of that statement, and the blow to his honor. Outwardly, he maintained the calm serenity of a Supreme Commander addressing his superior, as he answered the silent question he knew was in the San 'Shyuum's words.

"I apologize Prophet," the Sangheili said, "the humans have upgraded their weaponry and seem to posses shielding systems."

"Primitive weapons and shields," the Prophet scoffed, "after all, the Forerunners left their technology to us and the Great Journey. Anything the vermin can develop is of little consequence."

"Of course," Thel 'agreed', "the fleet was preparing to crush what was left of the human resistance."

Even if he couldn't see it, Thel imagined the San 'Shyuum nodding at that.

"As they should. The Long Night of Solace will lead the attack. I will deal with these vermin personally."

"And we shall follow Prophet."

With that said, the battered (but still deadly) Covenant Fleet of Particular Justice began to once again approach Reach. This time, they were careful to keep watch for human nuclear mines. Easily the most dangerous weapon in the vermin's arsenal, the Covenant were not about to be caught by them again. As the Covenant fleet moved forward, the massive launch bays on Long Night of Solace began to launch swarm after swarm of Seraph Fighters and Space Banshees. The small craft were joined by ones launched from the Ascendant Justice and other smaller carriers, forming a vanguard with a dual purpose…swarm the human ships, and root out any mines.

As the fighters swarmed forward, human fighter craft moved forward to try and counter the Covenant fighters. There was the expected 'Longsword' fighters, dwarfing anything that the Covenant sent forward. But there was a new fighter mixed into the standard human formations. Smaller and nimbler, when the two forces smashed into each other, these new fighters proved to be far more maneuverable than the Seraph fighters, and a near match for the Banshees. Add in the fact they had rudimentary shielding systems…it was another unpleasant surprise on top of all the other ones over this forsaken world.

Naturally, the surprise was far worse for the Sangheili and Jiralhanae actually flying the fighter craft. They were the first to discover the new human fighters, and were paying for the surprise with their lives. And in numbers that should have been unacceptable by any reasonable measure.

"We are losing fighters at a faster rate than we can replenish them Supreme Commander," one of the Sangheili managing the bridge informed Thel, "the new human craft are more effective than anticipated."

"Send in the reserves, and increase to flank speed," Thel ordered, knowing he still had tactical command of the fleet, to a certain extent, "charge energy projector, and fire on one of the human stations."

"As you command!"

As the remaining fighters in the Covenant armada moved forward to reinforce their brethren in the fight with the surprisingly effective human craft, a beam started to glow on the Ascendant Justice's bow. As the light grew brighter and brighter, the ship pulled 'up' relative to the human fleet, allowing its bow mounted Energy Projector a clear shot at the human platforms. When the ship had finished its maneuver, a beam of white light shot out at one of the platforms, bypassing the defenses that the humans had tried to form around it, and impacting on its golden shield grid that had stopped so many plasma torpedoes.

The infernal shield held at first, light glowing from where the beam had hit, the shield glowing where it was trying to deflect or absorb the energy from the most powerful weapon in the Covenant arsenal. And at first, it looked like it just might succeed, taunting the Sangheili crew of the Ascendant Justice. But…with a final burst of energy, the Energy Projector beam carved through the shield, and sliced the massive barrel of the human station in half, secondary explosions quickly engulfing what was left.

Among the lower races in the Covenant ships, there was some minor cheering at that, showing that the new human shields and stations were not invulnerable. The more professional and reserved Sangheili sufficed with silent pleasure at the restoration of their honor, and the fact that they could destroy the human stations, provided a ship got close enough, and had an Energy Projector.

It also seemed to dawn on the humans that they couldn't let Assault or Supercarriers anywhere near the stations. As evidenced by the remaining stations orienting their weapons on the Ascendant Justice and Long Night of Solace. Thankfully for the Covenant, Thel was far from an idiot.

"Move back into the Fleet. Do not let those weapons fire on us."

While the Ascendant Justice moved back, its (far) larger counterpart didn't deviate from its course. Part of it was the San 'Shyuum commanders arrogance, part of it was the shear bulk of the Supercarrier. It would never be a particularly agile ship, and having smaller ships crash against its shields would not be a good thing. All that did was leave it open to attack, something the humans were not going to let go.

Fool! Humans, whatever else they are, are not blind they will not leave the Long Night of Solace alone! 'Vadamee thought, letting a bit of frustration go through his normally calm and collected mind, though he was well aware that there was little to be done.

"The human platforms are targeting the Long Night of Solace," a Minor reported.

"Unending Redemption and Silence of the Forerunners are to move in position to intercept the human fire," the Prophet in command of the Supercarrier ordered.

And showing the loyalty that their race had, the Sangheili commanders of the two CCS-class battlecruisers moved their craft into a position where the human shells would hit them instead of the Supercarrier. They knew their shields would be little impediment, after what had happened to their sister the Truth and Reconciliation. But they were loyal, and wouldn't let any thoughts of disobedience enter their minds.

And it wasn't a moment too soon either, as the human platforms fired another volley. Most of the shells found smaller targets amongst the Covenant fleet, but several were fired at the largest target, the Long Night of Solace. The two sacrificial cruisers fired their plasma torpedoes, vaporizing a handful of the shells, and took two more head on, crumpling like tin cans, before their reactors went up in a massive explosion, flinging debris into the shield of the ship they were protecting. But they had served their purpose…while the shells still continued on to hit the Supercarrier; they lacked the power to penetrate the shield, and ricocheted off into deep space.

Much like the last engagement, the Covenant fleet returned fire, plasma and Energy Projector fire opening up on the human fleet, which started to wildly dodge to avoid the incoming fire. Those targeted by the Energy Projectors weren't able to dodge the fast-firing beams, and it didn't matter if they had shields or not…the energy beams carved through regardless of defenses.

The Plasma fire was easier to avoid, and avoid it several ships did. Those that didn't, either dropped out of formation on fire, or took the hits on their shields and returned fire. The shells from those ships hit their Covenant counterparts, blasting holes in shields and hull alike.

The ships continued to trade broadsides like this, neither giving an inch of ground, both trying their hardest to obliterate the other side. And both sides were bleeding the other badly, as a UNSC Destroyer and its Covenant counterpart blew up in the same instance, debris from the latter flaring against the Ascendant Justice's shields.

The humans are fighting harder than I have ever seen,
'Vadamee thought, almost tuning out the destruction of yet another Covenant warship, as much as it pains me to admit it, they are winning this engagement. For every vessel we destroy, they destroy two or three of our own. We cannot sustain losses like this for much longer.

Yet…while Thel 'Vadamee intellectually knew this was the case, it mattered very little in the grand scheme of things. This was his Fleet, his Command, his battle, and, most importantly, HIS responsibility. It would be so easy to blame the Prophet aboard his Supercarrier, for sending in the Fleet in separate waves. For sacrificing ships to protect his own vessel. For underestimating the humans…who despite being abominations against the Forerunners, were never weak or ineffective fighters.

And despite all of that, Thel 'Vadamee, Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice, knew that ultimately, everything came down to him.

However much it pained him to admit that fact.

"Bring us forward," the Sangheili ordered, "arm Energy Projector, and target another human station."

The crew didn't even question the order, despite debris from other Covenant vessels that had tried the same task bouncing off their own vessels shield. They merely went about their task with their typical efficiency, charging the Energy Projector, and once again angling the Ascendant Justice to attack the human stations.

"Energy Projector is ready to fire."

Thel looked at the Major who had announced that. The red-armored Sangheili nodded his head slightly at the look from his commander. They had been serving together since Thel's earlier commands, and both of them knew what they were doing would likely end in the destruction of their ship. The Fleet was disintegrating around them, even if the humans were little better. Those platforms more than more up for that however, and as a Minor called out, were targeting the Ascendant Justice even now. Nodding back at the Major, Thel turned to the view of the target again, and said one word.

"Fire."

Once again, a white lance of energy shot out from the bow of the Assault Carrier, hitting an already damaged human station. The shield on the station held for a split second, before its damaged generators overloaded, the explosions from that adding into the damage from the Energy Projector itself. Unlike the first time, this station did not explode in a massive fireball…it just disintegrated and started to fall in the human world's atmosphere.

But this time there would be no escape for the Ascendant Justice. This time, the human vessels focused their ire on the Covenant Flagship. This time, the opposing fleets were close enough that every weapon on the human warships was able to be used. This time…this time, Thel knew it was the end of his ship.

"Human vessels firing!"

And indeed they were, shells from the primitive cannons, golden bolts that looked like plasma weapons, missiles, everything the humans could bring to bear was fired at the Ascendant Justice. As the first impacts began to rock his ship, Thel said a silent prayer to the Forerunners.

Forgive me for my failure. Forgive me for my inability to stop the humans. Forgive me for leading my fleet to their deaths.

Soon after finishing that silent prayer, a shell from one of the human cruisers impacted the Ascendant Justice and punched through its failing shields. The shell heavily damaged the ship, secondary explosions followed by impacts from human missiles and plasma fire. The Assault Carrier shuddered under the repeated impacts, its armor shattering and falling away in purple chunks, the vulnerable hull underneath burning as oxygen was exposed to the fires raging on the hull. Plasma conduits ruptured, power failed throughout the ship, and its massive engines dimmed as their conduits were damaged beyond repair.

Thel heard all these reports, as his crew began to panic. He remained stoic however, standing calmly in the middle of his bridge as fires began to flare up from damaged consoles. Thel did not move, until an explosion threw him to the ground. The last thing he saw was the Major running towards him, before darkness claimed the Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice.

**********************************************

Several people on FFN have complained about the Supercarrier taking the Super MAC hits and surviving...but the fact is, we just don't know if that could happen or not. The biggest (IIRC) ship we see get hit by an S-MAC is a Cruiser. Until we see if a Supercarrier can be wrecked by S-MAC fire, I'm staying on the safe end that they CAN survive. If only for story purposes.
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

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1442 Hours, September 16th 2552 (Military Calendar)/

Reach Defense Fleet, UNSC Pillar of Autumn

"Assault Carrier is disabled Captain," Cortana said, "redirecting fire at a CCS-class battlecruiser."

Keyes nodded absently, letting the AI do her work. Cortana had proven to be amazingly efficient at getting the most out of the Autumn's upgrades, destroying ship after ship in the Covenant fleet. As evidenced by the burning wreck that had previously been an Assault Carrier. The UNSC Fleet had stopped firing once it became apparent the ship couldn't fight back, as a prize that big was too…well…big, to give up. Turning his eyes away from the burning hulk, Keyes saw one of the Super MAC platforms get cut in two by the Supercarrier, which (as of yet) hadn't been damaged.

"We are down to twelve MAC platforms," one of the crew called out.

"Covenant Fleet formation is collapsing!" another added.

Those words were music to the ears of anyone who happened to be listening. Only twice in this Godforsaken war had the Covenant been routed. Sigma Octanus was the first, due in large part to the timely intervention of the Odyssey and a healthy measure of luck. But this time, it looked like it was the UNSC alone that was winning the battle. The upgrades helped certainly, but it was UNSC ships and men dying out there and pushing the Covenant back.

And doing a damn good job of it in Keye's opinion. While there was burning UNSC ships lighting the 'sky', there were far more battered Covenant hulks. What had been three-hundred ships, was just a handful now. The only real threat now was that Supercarrier that seemed to laugh off any attempt to destroy it. And it was doing quite a bit of damage all by itself, as the burning platforms showed. Its plasma torpedoes weren't any more dangerous than the smaller ship's weaponry, but it had seven of those damn sniper weapons.

And the size of that monstrosity meant that trying a hyper-jump again would probably just end up with crashing into it. So they couldn't attack it like they had attacked the Supercruiser. This left a seemingly suicidal frontal charge, as evidenced by the destruction of another UNSC Frigate, its shield doing little to impede the Supercarriers fire. It was rapidly becoming apparent that even with the upgrades taking on a Supercarrier was nearly impossible.

"It would appear that the Covenant fleet is falling back to the Supercarrier," Cortana broke into the Captain's thoughts, her small blue avatar frowning slightly.

"Indeed they are," Keyes replied, "are they retreating for real this time? Or just regrouping? That is the question here."

"I would say they are just regrouping," Cortana said, "Seems like they aren't quitting until we make them quit."

"Religious zealotry at its finest," Keyes said dryly, "see if we can get a firing solution on the Supercarrier. Send any data we obtain to the rest of the fleet. A massed volley of fire just might take that monster down."

"Yes sir!"

Cortana disappeared again, dedicating her immense processing power to finding a weakness in the Supercarrier's defenses. Diagrams behind Keyes lit up with an image of the Supercarrier, bits and pieces lighting up at intervals as Cortana scanned for weaknesses, and discarded useless data. Anyone who didn't know what they were looking at would just see useless flashing lights. But there was a purpose behind the madness, and a very keen mind.

In what seemed like a lifetime to Cortana, but was only a couple minutes, the diagram stopped flashing and lit up a single red area on the Supercarrier. Focused near the bow, it was a slightly weaker area in the shield grid. And a perfect target for the fleet to fire on.

"This portion of their shield grid was damaged by Super MAC fire," the AI explained, "the sacrificial cruisers kept it from penetrating, but the force was enough to damage the generators."

Keyes nodded absently, "Send the data to the Fleet. We will concentrate fire on that spot and punch through."

"Got it," Cortana replied with a fierce grin on her face.

The data was sent through the Autumn's networks, traveling faster than any human could hope to follow. When it reached its destination in the network, it was 'shot' out at the rest of the battered USNC fleet, each ships AI recognizing a priority transmission. From there, it reached the Captains and Commanders of those vessels, all of them quickly realizing what Keyes was up to. They then ordered their individual AI to prime the weapons aboard their ship and target the Supercarrier.

Dozens of target designators flared to life, the power of these devices almost blinding the sensitive sensor net on the Supercarrier. But it didn't blind the external cameras, which recorded a wall of fire, both actual fire and plasma fire blasting forth from the UNSC fleet. All of these weapons were focused on that one point on the bow of the Supercarrier, hitting at almost the exact same time.

The silver shields of the Covenant warship flared brightly as they took the impacts and redirected the energy. But even the strongest shields the Covenant could produce were far from as powerful enough to take this many impacts at once. First one, then two, then a dozen MAC shells blasted through, followed by Goa'uld plasma bolts and Archer missiles. The bulbous bow of the Supercarrier was flattened by all the fire hitting it. The rest of the massive ship shuddered, before its surviving escorts moved forward to take hits for it.

Because of this, despite the grievous damage to its bow, the Supercarrier was able to restore some functionality to its shield grid. But it seemed that this ferocious barrage had finally broken the spirit of the commander of the warship. A slipspace rupture opened up in front of the ship (completely heedless of the handful of Covenant warships still there), and the Supercarrier lurched forth into the rupture.

With the departure of that massive warship, the Battle of Reach simmered down. At least on the space front…on the ground, the battle to save Reach was still being fought by Spartans and Marines alike…
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

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1300 Hours, September 16th 2552 (Military Calendar)/

Epsilon Eridani System, Reach, Pelican(s) carrying Spartan Blue and Red Teams



As the space battle raged around them, a pair of Pelican dropships angled towards the equally fierce battle developing on Reach's soil. These particular Pelican's carried the UNSC's trump card, the Spartan II supersoldiers. The soldiers were prepping their weapons, as their transports soared into the atmosphere with an escort of a pair of Longsword fighters. Said fighters downed any Covenant craft that got near the Pelican's, allowing the transports to land outside the ruined battleground of the generator complex.

Storming out of the transports, the Spartan's formed a perimeter as they unloaded supplies. One of the giants, John-117, moved towards a small group of Marines that were walking haphazardly through the battleground. As he drew closer, the Marines looked up at him, shock written on their features. Behind the shock though…fear. These men were broken, the Covenant assault had ruined them.

"Report Marines," John still barked out, tactical situation overriding any concern for the other men.

A Corporal stepped forward

"Corporal James sir," the Marine said, managing a shaky salute, "the Covenant attacked in force just before you arrived. We beat them back…"

John's gold visor stared down at the Marine, telling him to continue.

"…but we're all that's left sir."

The Spartan nodded almost imperceptibly. While it hurt the situation, it wasn't entirely unexpected. After all, behind the Pelicans was a ruined field full of Covenant and Marine corpses. And if that Warthog that just blew up was any indication, the vehicles hadn't fared much better. It looked like this would be a mission the Spartans would have to handle alone. Good thing they were up to the task.

"Fred, Kelly, take two Spartans with you to scout out the area. Linda, set up an overwatch position. James and Will, start planting mines along the perimeter. The rest of you, come with me and salvage what we can," John barked out, the Spartans setting to their jobs.

Fred, Kelly and two other Spartans moved forward like ghosts, splitting off as newly fitted Sodan cloaking devices activated on their wrists (MJONIR armor's inbuilt radiation defenses prevented any problems with the devices). Linda moved up to one of the intact generator buildings, the only sign she was even there a small glint off her sniper rifle's scope. For their parts, James and Will loaded up on various types of landmines, heading out into the scattered corpses, planting mines in the ground, underneath vehicles, even underneath Covenant corpses. Anywhere a mine would be effective, the Spartan's placed one.

While his fellow Spartans did their jobs, John walked around the battlefield looking for anything that could be useable in the upcoming fight. There was ammo and weapons scattered everywhere, but determining what was still useable would take more time. Gathering up some scattered Plamsa Rifles and Assault Rifles into his arms, John headed back to the base.

"Move that turret off the Warthog!" another Spartan, Anton, shouted.

Behind him, another pair of the Supersoldiers were ripping the turret mount off the back of a ruined Warthog. The weapon was still useable, so they were taking it to a new mount on the base perimeter. Another group of Spartan's were slowly carrying a Banshee to the base. To the casual observer, it looked like they were preparing for the apocalypse, with the amount of work they were doing. And, it would prove an apt description, depending on what Fred and Kelly had to report.

*HSG*HSG*HSG*HSG*HSG*HSG*HSG*HSG*HSG*

Those two Spartans (the other pair having split off in a different direction) were going to have quite the report to bring back. After moving into the dense foliage at the edge of the kill zone, they had started to come across Jackal patrols, likely doing the exact same thing they were. With their new cloaks enhancing their already impressive stealth skills, the pair had begun picking off the Jackals, making sure to not make a noise.

"Another pair of Jackals ahead," Fred whispered into his radio, silently unsheathing his combat knife.

"I see them" Kelly replied, a soft sound of branches breaking alerting Fred to her position.

As he moved towards the right Jackal, he saw a faint outline of Kelly's armor moving twigs as she moved towards the other alien scout. As he neared striking range of 'his' Jackal, Fred clicked his helmet mic twice. Kelly clicked her mic a single time, before lunging forward and grabbing her Jackal around the neck, the sickening sound of bones crunching and the alien squawking alerting its partner.

The other Jackal attempted to fire its plasma pistol at where it thought Kelly was. But Fred's knife slashed through its arm, making it drop the pistol, before the now bloody knife lodged into its neck. Fred twisted the knife, killing the Jackal quickly.

The two Spartan's decloaked, and moved the Jackal's bodies to a better hiding place, to keep any other scouts from discovering the corpses. After finishing that grisly task, they set out further into the forest, though it seemed like that was the last patrol in the immediate area. At least until they came upon a clearing…and saw something they had not wanted to see.

"That must have crashed here…" Kelly muttered.

Fred merely nodded his head, as the two Spartan's stared out at a disabled Covenant Battlecruiser. The ship was laying on the ground with open wounds in its hull, obviously not flying again anytime soon. But it was what was coming out of the ship that was bad. Thousands of Covenant troops and vehicles, exiting through the still functional landing bays.

A casual observer would assume they were abandoning ship, or something along those lines. And it was true they may have been doing that. But with the Covenant, it wasn't ever that simple. Even if it was a case of them abandoning ship, these were still combat ready soldiers. And if the ship was shot down, they fully knew what the Super MAC platforms could do. So they were probably going to attack the generator once they had gathered the forces needed.

"Master Chief, this is Scout Team One," Fred radioed back, "we have discovered a crashed Covenant Battlecruiser with troops and assault vehicles being deployed. Likely in preparation for an attack on the Generators."

"Roger that. RTB to help defend the Generators" John's voice came back.

Fred keyed his mic once in acknowledgment of the message, and waved Kelly over. The two Spartans left an observation drone behind to keep an eye on the situation, before reactivating the cloaks and moving back to the base. Every single Spartan would be needed if they were going to take down a Covenant force of this size.


*HSG*HSG*HSG*HSG*HSG*HSG*HSG*HSG*HSG*HSG*

Silence…eerie silence. After the scout teams had returned, the 'fight' had turned into a waiting game. The Marines had long since been evaced, while the Spartans had taken up defensive positions around the complex. The armor-clad giants hadn't moved so much as an inch since they had finalized the positions, waiting for the inevitable Covenant assault to arrive.

What few reports they had received from the space front said that the Covenant were on the defensive and would likely be pushed out entirely. This was good news, but it didn't change their mission any. Even if the Covenant fell back, not one of their soldiers could be allowed to stay on the planet. And if appearances were anything to go by, the Covenant knew as much. They had long-since detonated the reactors of the crashed battlecruiser, and started to move troops towards the generator. It was only a matter of tim…

"Grunts incoming! Elites and Jackals in a staggered line behind them!" Linda reported, watching the distance with her scope.

With that announcement, John turned up the amplification on his HUD, and saw the long line of Covenant ground forces approaching. It looked like they had sent everything they had left on Reach to take out the Generator. This was not going to be an easy fight.

"Sniper teams, target the Elite Majors and any Zealots you can spot," John ordered, "mortar team, fire HE/F shells into the Grunt formations."

A series of clicks answered the Master Chief, before the loud crack of sniper fire began to echo across the area. Several Elites dropped with gaping holes in their armor, or missing their entire head thanks to Linda. A whoosh announced the first mortar shell to be fired, the projectile arcing into a large group of Grunts.

A massive fireball erupted at the point of impact, tossing Grunts into the air. Several more shells fell in quick succession, battering away at the front line of the Covenant advance. The alien force didn't slow down in the slightest however. Grunts pushed the corpses of their brothers out of the way, as Jackal's and Elites began to use their shields as a phalanx to prevent the higher ranking Elite commanders from getting sniped by the Spartans.

As if that wasn't enough, Banshee flyers began to shoot in over the Covenant forces, firing their plasma blasters and fuel rod guns. The barricades the Spartans had established melted under the fire, sending the soldiers themselves scattering for better cover. As the Banshees flew overhead and wheeled around for another pass, a pair of Spartan's forsook any cover and raised Jackhammer missile launchers to their shoulders. The Banshee's saw this and turned to fire on them, green blobs of light indicating fuel-rod fire.

Unlike their fellows however, these Spartans (Li and Grace) pressed a switch on their gauntlets, Goa'uld shields popping into life. The fuel rod fire impacted on the shields, turning the ground around the Spartan's to glass. But the shields held, and the moment the Banshees were forced to turn or crash, missiles flew out from the Spartan's launchers, blasting the Covenant flyers from the sky. Li and Grace discarded the used launchers and jumped into a nearby bunker, avoiding a hail of blue/green plasma fire from the advancing ground forces.

"Fire the chainguns."

The turrets salvaged from wrecked Warthogs got their turn to fire next. Thousands of bullets rained forth, blasting into the Covenant forces. Grunts were cut down like stalks of wheat, falling in the hundreds. Jackals and Elites fared little better, their shields holding out long enough to keep them from immediately dying, but doing little else. There was a slight waver in the Covenant lines, only the threat of being shot by their superiors keeping the Grunts advancing in the face of this murderous cross fire.

As the chainguns continued to rip into the Covenant lines, a pair of Wraith tanks were brought forward, lobbing blue pearls of plasma in a high arc at the chainguns. The Spartans manning the weapons leaped to cover, narrowly avoiding getting incinerated with the weapons. With the loss of the guns, the Covenant forces began pushing forward with a new-found vigor. Sniper fire continued to whittle their numbers, joined by Assault Rifle and DMR fire from the other Spartans in their defensive posts. The fusillade of bullets continued to take its toll, nearly half of the Covenant force either dead or wounded by this point.

But that was still several thousand Covenant against not even thirty Spartans. Long odds for the Covenant…made even worse when they hit the first of the landmines. More explosions blossomed in the Covenant line, and this time the Grunts started to run for their lives. The snipers and mortar fire were bad enough. Getting killed from something they couldn't see, hear, or smell…not even the Elites could corral the Grunts now. And of course, the breaking of the Grunts caused cascading problems throughout the Covenant forces. Elites and Jackals continued to press forward, but they had to move past the chaotic mass of terrified Grunts, sometimes having to kick, stab, or shoot one of their own 'allies' to continue on.

To add onto problems for both sides, the Grunts were soaking up the Spartan's fire. None of the bullets were hitting the equally short Jackals, and the Elites were using said Jackals for cover by this point. And the ammo supply wasn't unlimited either…the mortar had long since ran out of shells, and Linda was the only sniper still firing. Even though the Covenant wouldn't have been able to overrun the Spartans through skill, the numbers might be enough to push them back.

"Prepare to fall back!" John ordered reloading his Assault Rifle and readying an 'appropriated' Staff Weapon he had borrowed from the Odyssey.

The Spartans sent one more volley of fire into the Covenant line, and prepared to fall back to the Generator Complex itself. But a loud roar in the air interrupted them. A UNSC Frigate, the Savannah hovered over the battleground, raining down golden plasma bolts on the Covenant forces.

"This is the UNSC Savannah, good job Spartans. The Covenant Fleet has withdrawn, so we'll handle these stragglers for you," the Captain of the Frigate radioed in.

"Roger," John replied curtly, watching as the Frigate rained down plasmatic death on the Covenant ground forces. It wasn't long before all that was left was smoking craters from the bombardment, the battlefield going silent again apart from the Savannah's engines.

Reach was finally secure.

*********************************

And that finishes the battle of Reach. Just one more update before we jump back to Alpha Halo.
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

Post by Skywalker_T-65 »

Hey, look an update! Sorry about the delay again.

Reach Orbit

In orbit, cleanup had begun. UNSC ships were towing their derelict counterparts into an impromptu scrapyard, along with the few intact Covenant warships. Among those ships was the still burning Ascendant Justice. Inside the bowels of that ship, the few surviving crew were making their way to the expansive hangar deck, one of the few undamaged portions of the once-mighty Assault Carrier. One of the crew was Major Nar 'Saranee. The red-armored Sangheili had a golden-armored member of his race slung over his shoulder, the other Sangheili still unconscious from the damage done to the command center of the Ascendant Justice.

He had refused help on multiple occasions, and from multiple other races. This was his burden to bear, as head of security for Supreme Commander 'Vadamee. It was a miracle straight from the Forerunner's that the Supreme Commander had survived the explosion in the command center, and Nar wasn't wasting it. Even though he was well aware that, were he lucid, 'Vadamee would be telling him to leave him behind to die with the ship. That honor demand he die with his fleet.

Unfortunately for Thel, the Major's honor demanded that he get his Commander off this ship and back to High Charity. Thus, he was carrying the unconscious Sangheili to the hangar, where there should still be a small ship docked. And as he reached the hangar, Nar wasn't disappointed. Sitting undamaged in the expansive bay, was a small light Corvette. Placed there to help land troops if needed, it would now function as an escape craft to return to High Charity.

"Move!" the Major shouted at several Kig-Yar blocking his path, "the Supreme Commander is injured!"

The avian Kig-Yar moved out of the way, squawking in their own tongue as Nar moved past them. He quickly rushed to the entrance of the Corvette, carrying Thel up the ramp and into the vessel. A group of lower-ranking Sangheili quickly moved forward, and this time he let them take the Supreme Commander. His duty was now to launch this vessel, and make sure the humans did not destroy it.

Thus, he moved to the command center of the small vessel, settling into its command chair. A group of Sangheili were already preparing the vessel for launch, proving once again that his race was ready for any situation.

"Report," the Major said in his gravelly voice.

"The Everlasting Solitude is ready for launch Major," a Minor Sangheili reported.

"And the hangar doors?"

"Damaged. It will require firing on them to exit."

Nar nodded, "Very well. As soon as the last of our brothers is aboard, open fire on the hatch."

As they waited for the rest of the Covenant forces to board the small vessel, human warships latched onto the Ascendant Justice, sending boarding parties aboard to capture the warship. As the humans swarmed into the vessel, they found nothing but burnt corpses greeting them, no Covenant forces trying to contest the boarding.

That was highly irregular on its own, even more so when it became apparent that the ship was salvageable. Heavily damaged and mostly crippled…yes. But still worth something, especially with its more or less intact weaponry. So the fact the ship appeared empty…was not a good sign. In the slightest.

This was confirmed when the warship shook as the small corvette blasted its way out of the hangar. The human warships scrambled to try and capture the ship, but it was too fast and maneuverable.

The Covenant ship flared its engines at their top speed to escape their would-be captors, leaving them in the proverbial dust. A few human ships fired upon the corvette, but it was able to avoid or take the shots. As soon as it cleared the debris field, it launched for High Charity. Even if they were all declared Heretics or shamed and stripped of their ranks for fleeing…it was too important to not take that risk. They had to let the Hierarchs know of the new human weapons.

And it had to be Supreme Commander Thel 'Vadamee who did it.


1500 Hours, September 13th 2552 (Military Calendar)/

Soell System, USS Odyssey, on approach to the reported location of Halo Installation 04


It had taken a couple more days than intended, but the Odyssey was finally entering the system that supposedly held Installation 04. At least according to Grieving Light anyway. None of them quite trusted the Monitor yet, which is one of the reasons they hadn't reached Soell until now. They didn't want to risk the Monitor lying to them, so they had been running the coordinates and data given by the Monitor through the Asgard core as many times as they felt it needed.

And with Sam Carter being the one doing the scans...it took quite a bit of time, as her calling card was being as sure of something as possible. But now that they were finally entering the system, the scans were picking up the same energy signatures that had surrounded Installation 02. And as the largest planet in the system, Threshold, came into view...so too did a twin of Installation 02. This would have been a good thing, as it meant the ring was still intact...but the ships surrounding it ruined that image.

"Activate the cloak!" Cam ordered, as the Odyssey vanished from view.

The reason for that was readily apparent, as dozens of Covenant warships surrounded the Ring. It would seem that they had indeed managed to translate the artifact, and find their way to Installation 04. This simple fact was worrying, as if the Covenant managed to activate the Ring...bye bye all sentient life in the Milky Way. Not to mention the mysterious Flood that were supposedly being studied on this particular Ring.

"What are those ships doing anyway?"

"Landing troops," Sam answered, having moved to the bridge by this point, "lots of troops."

And she zoomed in one of the external cameras, showing a veritable swarm of Spirit and Phantom dropships angling towards Halo. There had to be thousands of them, spreading out all over the Ring like a purple cancer. And there was no way the Odyssey could handle all those ships and take out the landing craft without breaking out nukes and possibly damaging Installation 04. So they were at a bit of an impasse.

"So. Any ideas?" Cam asked, turning to Sam and Daniel.

Daniel shook his head, but Sam looked like she had a plan of some sort.

"If we get close enough to the Halo we could beam down the Spartan team. If they can track down Guilty Spark we might be able to enlist his help against the Covenant," the blonde Colonel suggested.

"We're up for it," Carter said, having been on the bridge if Noble was needed.

Cam nodded, "Sounds like a plan. I'm heading with them."

And that was that...everyone on the ship knew Cam was tired of playing Captain and wanted to get back into the thick of things. If they weren't needed more on the Odyssey, Sam and Daniel would probably have joined him. As it was, only Cam was grabbing an MA5C and a Zat pistol as he joined the Spartans. As he holstered the pistol, Cam turned to the Spartans.

"Okay, this is just a recon mission. We find Spark, and that's it," the Colonel said, though a grin formed on his face, "though I won't complain if we happen to get into a firefight. Things have been getting too boring lately."

As he said that, the typical flash of an Asgard transporter enveloped the group, depositing them on the surface of the Ring as the Odyssey hastily recloaked. At the moment, the small group was standing in a snowy area near a large pyramid like structure. The Spartans fanned out, while Cam and Carter looked up at the structure. The former pulled out binoculars, the latter zoomed in his HUD.

The large structure in front of them was definitely Forerunner, if Installation 02 was anything to go by. And it matched the description of the 'Control Room' that Grieving Light had given them. And as a bonus, the Covenant hadn't discovered its location yet. Though that probably wouldn't last very long, so Cam and Carter waved the rest of Noble Team forward, as they began to ascend the large structure. As they neared the entrance, Sentinels began to appear, though they kept a small distance away.

When they reached the entrance to the Control Room, Cam walked towards the hologram that contained the activation switch. However, it did nothing when he touched it. He tried again, with the same result. Letting out an annoyed sigh, he motioned Noble Six forward. The female Spartan shrugged and stuck her hand on the panel. Unlike with Cam, this time the massive door creaked open, accumulated snow toppling down on the group.

"I hate snow," Cam muttered, shaking his head clear as the group moved into the hallway.

More doors met them, blocking the path towards the Control Room. Say what you will about the Forerunners, they built this Ring securely. They weren't letting anything that wasn't human or Forerunner get near the Control Room. Of course, with Six's magic touch unlocking the doors, it didn't take long for the Spartans (and Colonel) to enter the room. Floating in front of them was a massive hologram of Threshold, one of its moons, and Installation 04 itself, the last one greatly expanded in size compared to the other two.

"Geez, don't do anything small do they?" Emile whistled.

"Got that right," Cam agreed.

This time, Carter was the one to walk forward. He pulled a chip out of his helmet, and inserted it into the Forerunner system. A full-size hologram of Kalmiya appeared, looking a bit overwhelmed by the amount of data pouring through her systems. And to overwhelm an AI that served as the prototype for Cortana herself...that took some doing. It took a few minutes for Kalmiya to recover, at which point she looked down at the human group.

"I believe I have found the Monitor," she said, her voice so similar to Cortana's, "he seems to be at a Flood research facility, on the opposite side of Halo."

A sigh came from Cam, "Well that's great. We have to go to the Flood to get to the Monitor. At least its sealed up."

Kalmiya was quick to burst that bubble, "Covenant forces control that facility. They likely have no idea what is inside, and will break their way in."

This time it was curses, and from more than just Cam. Bad enough that they would have to fight through Covenant to get at Spark, they might have the idiots release the Flood. And that was bad news for everyone. And, of course, fighting the Covenant at the Research Facility would tip them off that 'Demons' were on the Ring. And they wouldn't hesitate to send everything they had at the humans. Lose-lose situation all around.

"Sam, can you read me?" Cam asked, using her given name as saying 'Carter' with said Spartan right next to him might be a bit confusing.

"Loud and clear. Did you find the Monitor?"

"Yeah...at a Flood Research Facility swarming with Covenant."

"...damn..."

"That was the general reaction down here. Can you beam us over there? Kalmiya is transmitting the coordinates now."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

His answer was a flash of light, fading to reveal a swampland. An eerie swampland with glowing plants to boot. Needless to say, the group found themselves preferring the bitterly cold Installation 02 to this. At least it didn't have a plant that looked like it would eat them if they got too close. And the fact it was dark and overcast didn't exactly help matters. The Spartan's turned on their helmet mounted flashlights, while Cam hit the one on his MA5.

"Swamp...why do the monsters always live in swamps?" the Colonel asked rhetorically.

Unsurprisingly, the Spartans didn't answer. Sighing, Cam lead them forward deeper into the swamp. They didn't encounter the Covenant, not until they saw a structure in front of them, opening up and extending into the ground. A pair of Jackal's were holding guard posts at the entrance, sending wary looks down the ramp behind them. Of course, that meant they weren't paying any attention when a pair of silenced pistol shots from Kat hit both in the head. As the Jackal's dropped to the ground, the human group moved past their bodies into the structure.

It was dimly lit for a Forerunner building, and the fact that the ramp lead to what appeared to be an elevator didn't help matters. It meant they would have to go even deeper under ground. Sure, the place was meant to store the Flood, but this was a bit...creepy. Especially with the lack of Covenant.

"Am I the only one wondering why this place is so quiet?" Cam asked, while the Spartan's remained quiet, "jeez...you guy's are worse than Teal'c."

Still silence.

...

...

...

"Fine, ignore me."

After that, the elevator reached the lower level. This time, there was signs the Covenant had been around, namely a few supply crates stacked haphazardly around the room. Well, that and an Elite that came running in when he heard the elevator. For his troubles, Cam shot him with the Zat. The blue lightning flickered around the Elite's shield, dropping it from the overcharge and allowing Noble to gun it down. Cam looked at his Zat, shrugged, and holstered the MA5 in favor of the Goa'uld pistol.

Moving over the dead Elite, they saw a large room, with nothing crossing it. Aside from a panel, that Noble Six touched. A bridge of light formed, that Jorge (as the heaviest one there) experimentally stepped on. Finding that it held his weight, he waved the rest of the team forward. They moved across the bridge, entering another room. This time though, it had a large windowed structure in the center, with a platform all around it at the top. All the doors on their level were locked, but one of the Spartans hopped up on a 'crate' in the corner, and started to hoist people up to the platform. Once the last of them were situated, they continued on into the next area. This time, the Covenant were waiting...but it wasn't for them.

As the door opened, Carter flinched back, his shield flickering from a stray plasma bolt. Rolling forward through the door this time, he raised his rifle up expecting to find Covenant firing on him. But...he quickly discovered that that bolt hadn't been aimed at him. Grunts were running through the lower level of this room, firing their weapons wildly. Blue flashes of plasma shown through open doors, as wounded Elites began to follow their lower ranking fellows. They were running from something, and it didn't take a genius to figure out what.

As the Spartans (and Cam) took cover behind a low wall, the Colonel whispered, "Any sign of something that isn't Covenant?"

Jun had raised his rifle over the side of the wall, using his helmet cam tied into the scope as an impromptu periscope, replied, "Negative. Just a lot of terrified Grunts and wounded Elites."

"The doors?"

"Sealed behind a Zealot. Nothing as of yet."

As Jun watched over the wall, and Six looked from the side, the Grunts were corralled by the least hurt Elites, while the more heavily wounded ones slumped to the ground, shaking slightly. For something to do that to Elites...it had to be the Flood. Nothing else could explain it. It was also the only reason the Spartans weren't springing an ambush...this group of Covenant couldn't stand a chance in hell of stopping them. But they didn't want to waste ammo they might need on the Floo...wait...why was the door glowing?

"Plasma fire hitting one of the doors!" Jun reported, as the Grunts and still-standing Elites primed their weapons and aimed at it.

And they didn't do it a moment too soon, as...things began to pour through the melted door. First pods that scrambled along the floor towards the wounded Elites, then...horribly mutated Elites. If Cam had been looking, he would have called them Elite Zombies. For they resembled nothing more than undead aliens, swarming forth and firing Plasma Rifles that barely fit in their mutated hands. The Covenant returned fire, but their plasma weapons seemed remarkably ineffective, and even when they managed to down one of their mutated counterparts, more rose to take its place, including the wounded Elites that had been overtaken by the pods and turned into the fighter form.

The tide of enemies swarmed over the Covenant like a flood. Which just served to confirm that this was indeed the Flood. And it was every bit as terrible as the stories Grieving Light had told said it was. While they didn't particularly want to help the Covenant, the Spartans (and Cam) jumped up and started to rain fire down on the lower level. The Flood was their common enemy.

"Ha ha! Take that you zombie bastards!" Emile laughed, as he tossed a frag grenade at a group of pods.

Said pods popped like popcorn, with such force that it actually amplified the explosive effect of the grenade, tossing Grunts around like toys. Jun fired his sniper rifle, but quickly discovered that the bullets had too much force. The Flood barely noticed his rifle's bullets. So he switched to a Zat much as Cam had done. The two men, Spartan and displaced Colonel, fired bolt after bolt down. And they noticed an interesting (and welcome) effect that Zat fire had on the Flood.

If the bolts hit the pods, they jumped from pod to pod, setting off a cascading explosion, destroying whole groups of the things with a single bolt. If they hit the mutated Elites...the electric current 'popped' the pod nestled in the reanimated aliens chest. It was very gruesome, if effective. For when the pod died, so too did the body it was hijacking. Noticing that, the rest of Noble directed their fire onto the fleeing Covenant. The crossfire from MA5Cs, and DMR's was too much, and the already terrified Covenant broke and fled. The Flood turned its attention to the humans, but judicious use of Zat's and grenades kept them at bay long enough to retreat into the room they had left.

After sealing the door and moving some Covenant crates to help barricade it, the group checked their ammo, even the mighty Jorge panting slightly. That had been hell. If it hadn't have been for the Covenant 'helping'...they didn't want to think about it. Nor did they have time too. There was banging on the door they had just sealed, and they knew the Flood could get through.

"Come on, lets get the hell out of here!" Cam shouted, setting off and backtracking their path into the facility, as he tried to raise Sam on the radio.

"What's going on down there? I'm reading weapons fire all over the place!" the other Colonel questioned, the powerful transmitter aboard Odyssey more than enough to break through the Forerunner structure and the meters of earth above it.

"Flood," Cam replied simply.

"Great. Get back to the surface as fast as you can! I can read your signatures, but I can't risk beaming you up right now."

Cam wasn't about to argue about that, as Flood began to come out of the proverbial woodwork. It was all the group could do to keep moving and not be bogged down by the seemingly endless swarm of parasites. Only when they reached the elevator and got back to the first level did the Flood stop chasing the group. As they ran out the exit of the building, Sam tried to get back in contact.

"C...am...I...ca...n't...re...ad...your transponder..."

"Sam? Do you read?"

His only answer was static...and strangely cheerful humming. The source of which was a floating blue ball, the same shape as Grieving Light.

"Greetings, I am 343 Guilty Spark, Monitor of Installation 04," Guilty Spark introduced himself, "come with me Reclaimers, the Flood must be stopped."

"Now wait just one dam..." Cam began, before golden light flashed around the group...


Now, originally, this was going to just be that little segment at the top. I decided to add in the first part of the Alpha Halo segment to make up for the delay.
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

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1000 Hours, September 14th 2552 (Military Calendar)/

San 'Shyuum Home System,Forerunner Keyship FES Ecumene


While the Odyssey and her crew were fighting the Flood on Installation 04, the Forerunner Keyship, Ecumene, had arrived at the San 'Shyuum homeworld. Aboard the ship were only three things. Swarms of Sentinels and their more rare cousins, the Jaffa Teal'c, and a copy of 007 Grieving Light. The latter two were currently on the vessels equivalent to a human bridge, buried deep in the vessel, much as a Covenant warship. Thus, they were watching on external holoprojectors, as the vessel approached a fleet of ships. Somewhat surprisingly, they didn't resemble Covenant warships. Instead of a deep purple coloration, these vessels were a dark blue. They didn't resemble organic creatures or whales like the Covenant ships, if anything they resembled blocky Forerunner vessels. Or crude copies thereof.

Also unsurprisingly, they were moving forward to surround the Ecumene. It was what anyone would do when faced by an intruding ship, though neither Teal'c nor Grieving Light knew exactly why the San 'Shyuum had reason to be leery of a Keyship in particular. After all, how could they?

"Scans of the homeworld are complete," the copy of the Monitor said, "there seems to be a large crater in the southern hemisphere. Interesting...it is cordoned off by a large wall, and the closest settlement is hundreds of kilometers away. Why could they possibly be doing that?"

"The ships on approach should have our attention 007 Grieving Light," Teal'c said dryly, having gotten used to how easy it was to distract the Monitor or her copy.

"Of course, of course," Light replied sheepishly (somehow), as messages began to come in from the San 'Shyuum warships.

"Traitors and heretics, why have you returned? You are not welcome here!" a translated message came through the speakers.

That wasn't what was expected. If anything, Grieving Light (and Teal'c to a lesser extent) had expected the San 'Shyuum to welcome the Ecumene. After all, if the Monitor's theories were correct, the Covenant (and San 'Shyuum by extension) should be worshiping the Forerunner. However misplaced it may have been.

The fact they were calling the Ecumene 'traitors' and 'heretics' was interesting.

"This is the Forerunner Keyship Ecumene," Grieving Light replied in the San 'Shyuum language, "we are not your enemies. We come in peace."

The ships outside slowed to a halt, as their crews went into a state of shock. Granted, they still suspected some sort of trick. But they knew that the Dreadnought had been called Mantle's Protector by the Forerunner. If only because the Reformists had been so eager to rub the fact they had learned the name into the face of the Stoics. While it was certainly possible they were lying about the name...there was also the chance this was a genuine ship of the Gods.

"Ecumene we require proof you are who you say you are."

"Very well. I am connecting you to a view of our command center," Light replied, as a hologram lit up with the face of a San 'Shyuum...though it didn't look as old and decrepit as a Prophet.

"By the Gods...an Oracle," the San 'Shyuum said, shock plainly written on its features.

Light tilted slightly in an admirable imitation of tilting a human head, "Oracle? I am the Monitor of Installation 02, 007 Grieving Light. And the temporary commander of the Ecumene."

"Monitor? You are an Oracle. And we apologize for our hostility. We had thought you were the Reformists, returned to attack us once more."

Right about now things had taken an even bigger turn into confusion-land. It seemed that the San 'Shyuum had a civil war at some point. And, they also had a Keyship. How, Light didn't know. But the fact remained that they did.

"If the Covenant also possess a Keyship," Teal'c began, "we must warn the UNSC."

"Who is that with you Oracle?"

"A Reclaimer named Teal'c," Light replied, though she knew the San 'Shyuum likely didn't understand, "or a human. No matter what you call them, they are the chosen children of the Forerunner, inheritors of our legacy."

If it was possible, the San 'Shyuum looked very bitter at that news. Which made sense if they revered the Forerunners as gods. No one would want to be told they weren't the favored or chosen children of their god(s). But, admirably, the alien commander bowed his head at Teal'c.

"While this news is not...welcome...I trust in the Oracle's words. We will escort you to our homeworld. It is the least we can do."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

AN: I decided to go this route for a reason. I have yet to see anyone use the Stoic Prophets, mostly because it is assumed their homeworld was destroyed. Even in-universe it isn't confirmed though, so I figured 'hey, why not'. And Light knows Teal'c isn't a 'human', but he's close enough that it doesn't matter to her.
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

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Must remember to post on this...

1600 Hours, September 13th 2552 (Military Calendar)/

Soell System, Halo Installation 04, Unknown Location


Much like the rest of Installation 04, the large Library was empty and silent. Aside from the sound of water dripping in through cracks that the Sentinels hadn't quite managed to repair, it was lifeless and empty as per-usual. The Forerunner had intended it to stay that way, sans a return from their much reduced population, or the eventual Reclamation by Humanity.

Thus, when a flash of golden light deposited six Spartan Super-Soldiers and one wayward Colonel, it broke 100,000 years of silence in a heartbeat.

"n...minute..." Cam finished his sentence, before leaning over and taking in deep breaths. Forerunner 'beaming' was way less effective than Asgard designs, or heck, even Goa'uld Rings. At least as far as him keeping his lunch down went.

Of course, the Spartans didn't show any discomfort. They just brought all their weapons up, aiming at a very confused blue ball. 343 Guilty Spark...Monitor of Installation 04, and the one who had brought them to this location. The Monitor tilted in the exact same manner as Grieving Light, 'blinking' as he saw the weapons aimed at him. Somewhat naïvely, he hadn't been expecting hostility from the Reclaimers. After all, he was just taking them to do their job!

"Why are you targeting me Reclaimers? I am merely trying to help contain the Flood outbreak," and he said as much.

Leaning back up (albeit shakily) Cam answered for the group, "You just took us here without any explanation eyeball."

"Eye...ball?" Spark asked confusedly.

"Nevermind," Cam sighed, "where are we anyway? I didn't see this on..."

If Spark noticed how Cam had nearly given away their visit to 02, he didn't show it. He just answered the first question.

"This is the Library. Follow me Reclaimers, we must retrieve the Index and use it to activate this Ring's defensive measures."

"You mean the Weapon of Doom?"

"If by that you mean the Pulse Weapon, then yes."

Spark then ignored the group, muttering and humming under his breath. The Spartans and Cam followed, outwardly silent. But they were communicating via radio, and, needless to say, they were more than a little worried now. Light hadn't been...well...borderline insane. And there wasn't any doubt that Spark was. Considering the constant humming and muttering of things like 'Oh how wonderful to have Reclaimers here' or various status reports. And, equally important, they had no intention of lighting this Ring off. They would sooner nuke the thing to stop the Flood than actually use it.

"So, anyone else planning on beaming the hell out of here once we've got the Index?" Cam asked.

"Count me in, can I shoot the annoying lightbulb first?" Emile replied.

"Calm down Emile," Carter chided him, "but yes, I and the rest of Noble agree Colonel. We can't let him fire this thing."

"Good. Now we just need to get the...Index..."

Which could present a bit of a problem actually. As the group followed Spark through a small passageway, they came out in a massive central chamber. The 'room' arched up, slowly contracting until it reached a central point at the top. Calling even that 'small' would be a disservice though, as a Pelican dropship could probably still fly through it with little trouble. As for the level the Spartans were on...they could see the other side, but that was about it. And, upon closer inspection, they could see a small blue light at the center of the chamber. Zooming in on HUD's and binoculars, they saw a blue cross, floating in midair. That had to be the Index that Spark wanted them to retrieve. Problem being...

"How the hell do you expect us to get that? We can't exactly fly over there!" Cam said, rounding on the Monitor.

Spark just began moving down the side of the chamber, forcing the Spartans and Cam to follow, "We will have to go through security checkpoints to another level Reclaimers. There we can take a lift to reach the Index. It is a security measure in case of Flood infection."

As the group hurried through the passageways, they came across a blocked door. Spark turned to them, and explained the situation. Apparently, whatever idiot designed the door, decided the Monitor had to fly off and leave them hanging while he went to disable the overrides. And, as if things couldn't get worse, they heard howling. Closing up into a circle formation, the group pulled up their weapons, scanning the area. The first sign of trouble was a clanging sound coming from a 'hole' in the wall, that seemed to be meant for Sentinels. Out of that hole...came a Covenant Plasma Rifle.

Emile broke ranks to recover the weapon, standing orders being what they were. As he picked up the weapon, a powerfully built Elite came smashing down on his head. But it wasn't an average Elite...it was one of the grotesque mutations. Emile threw the thing off his back, jumping to his feet and blasting its head off with his M90 Shotgun. But the monster just got right back up, and charged the Spartan. Dropping to his knees, Emile sent the mutated Elite flying over his head, before getting back with the rest of Noble, who provided cover fire while Cam readied a Zat shot. The blue lightning shot forth, hitting the Flood form in its deformed chest, popping the infection form. As the first deformed Elite dropped to the floor, a veritable swarm of the things came pouring from everywhere around the human group.

Pods, deformed Elites, a new pod carrier...oddly no Grunt or Jackal forms. But that hardly mattered when the number of things was enough that it made Covenant human-wave tactics seem mild in comparison. One after another, Noble ran out of ammo and had to switch to Zats (and in Jorge's case, a Staff Weapon) to keep the Flood at bay. Just when it seemed they might be overwhelmed, the door opened behind them, and a large group of Sentinels poured out, sending orange beams of light into the Flood ranks, burning down anything they touched. The crossfire of Goa'uld weapons and Forerunner machinery quickly wiped out the remaining Flood, allowing Noble to go through a rapidly shutting door.

As the door completely closed and locked the Flood on the other side, the human group panted and glared at the Monitor. Spark was floating above them, seemingly more curious than worried.

"Interesting...I did not believe the Flood could penetrate the Library so quickly," the machine muttered, "we have to hurry Reclaimers!"

And off he went, forcing the Spartans and Cam to run to keep up. Spark had no concept of exhaustion evidently, as the only 'breaks' he gave were when he had to open doors. Something that happened depressingly often, and always involved Flood attacks. If it weren't for the Flood dropping plasma weapons, the humans would have lost anything but Goa'uld weaponry a long time ago.

"They. Just. Keep. Coming!" Six shouted, punctuating each word with fire from her 'borrowed' Plasma Repeater into the waves of Flood.

"What is this, Alien?!" Cam shouted back, zatting a fighter form right before it could grab his leg.

"What?!" this time it was Kat.

"Old movie!"

"Less talking, more shooting!"

As the Flood kept swarming the group, Carter jumped atop a small platform set to the side from a door. In his hands was a Covenant Fuel Rod Gun, taken off a fighter form. Next to him, Jorge poured down fire with a plasma turret, also taken from dead Flood. As he put the massive yellow weapon to his shoulder, Carter shouted down at the group.

"Fire in the hole!"

And fired several green blobs of energy into the surging Flood masses. The blobs burst into massive balls of green plasma, blowing Flood all over the room, and leaving scarred, but oddly not cratered, ground behind. Carter dropped the empty weapon, jumping back down to the rest of the group. It seemed that the fuel-rod fire had at least forced the Flood to regroup if nothing else, letting the humans get a breather.

"They won't quit," Jun said, pulling his sniper rifle off his shoulder to keep an eye on the hallway.

"Anyone have any grenades?" Kat asked, pulling a pair of plasmas from a disfigured Elite's belt.

"I have a couple frags," Cam replied

"None," from Carter, who Kat tossed the plasmas to.

"A frag and a plasma," Six and Jorge replied in unison.

"None, but I don't need 'em," Emile replied, picking up another discarded fuel-rod gun.

So loaded out, the group waited for Spark to return. Soon enough, the Monitor arrived, humming as always. The door began to open, as the machine floated down to the group's head level. He looked confused at the extra weaponry they were packing, but didn't comment on it. He just moved to the doorway.

"This is the last passage before the lift to the Index. The Flood have infested it however, so you have to be careful Reclaimers. Your low-level Combat Skins don't offer much protection," the Monitor said, before the door opened up and an Elite ran through it. A Zat blast took care of him, but it also alerted all the other Flood, who started to swarm at the group again.

This time, Emile didn't save the Fuel Rod, and just fired the weapon until it overheated, at which point he tossed the weapon like an impromptu grenade. The overloaded weapon exploded, and coupled with its bolts, cleared a path through the Flood. Noble formed a spear with Cam at the center, charging forward and firing every weapon they had. Grenades flew, plasma scorched Flood flesh, Zat bolts skittered around the floor...and through it all, the battering ram that was Team Noble charged. They kept moving, not letting up for a second, lest they be overwhelmed by the Flood.

"Keep going! We're almost there!" Carter shouted, as plasma fire licked at his feet from the few Flood still holding their weapons.

"Don't need to tell me twice!" Six shouted back, tossing her last grenade.

"I love this!" Emile shouted himself, firing whatever weapon he happened to be holding at the time.

And after a final push, they finally managed to reach the lift, quickly sealing it to hold out the Flood.

"I...hate...zombies..." Cam said, panting as Six started the lift.

"Same here," Jun replied, especially as he was the only one still carrying his original UNSC-issue weapon...a Sniper was useless on Flood.

"Not to worry Reclaimers, the Index is right ahead," Spark said, floating back into view as the lift hit the final level.

Once again, Noble Six walked forward, grabbing the Index in her hand. The device was tiny, for all the power it held. Blue in color, with green and red highlights. Much like an AI, it was possible to see code running up and down the device, showing it was active despite sitting in stasis for so many thousands of years. The Index felt warm in Six's hand as she marched back over to the rest of the group.

"So that's the Index," Cam said, seeing it up close and personal now, "smaller than I expected."

"A security measure Reclaimer. It is easier to protect a small device," Spark explained, "now we must return the Index to the control room, and activate the Installation."

"Of course," Cam 'agreed'.

"Prepare yourselves Reclaimers," Spark said, as golden light once more surrounded the group...
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

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2040 Hours, September 13th 2552 (Military Calendar)/

Epsilon Eridani System, Reach, Low-orbit


Meanwhile, cleanup continued in orbit of Reach. The planet had been secured from any Covenant incursions by the arrival of reinforcements, and now it was just a matter of cleaning up the planets orbit so that debris didn't fall onto the surface. And when you had the hulks of multi-kilometer long warships sitting in orbit, that was a very important task indeed. Even if it did seem rather demeaning to Captain Keyes, having the Pillar of Autumn reduced to playing trash-ship. But his was one of the few unscathed ships, and was large enough to move even the largest of debris. So Keyes took the job, even if he really didn't like it.

"Covenant Destroyer, Covenant Cruiser, Covenant dropship...oooh, a Seraph," Cortana said in the background, cataloging debris to keep herself occupied.

"I'm surprised one is still intact," Lovell said, as a pair of Pelican's vectored in to recover the fighter.

"And doesn't that feel odd to say?" Hikowa commented.

"Odd, but good," Hall added, "very good."

Such was the sentiment shared amongst all of the survivors at Reach. They had finally managed to beat back the Covenant, entirely on their own. Certainly, they had won at Sigma Octanus...but that was a much smaller fleet, and with the Odyssey helping out. This time, the UNSC had taken a Covenant force that heavily outnumbered them, and blasted it back into the stone age. Morale had gone up all over the fleet, even amongst those relegated to clean up duty. Nothing quite like cleaning up the orbit of a world they had held.

Thus, the small fleet moving around and corralling the grey and purple wrecks into an orbiting 'junkyard'. Said junkyard was rapidly filling up with both Covenant and UNSC hulks, thankfully more of the former than the latter. Off to the side however...a relative handful of damaged, but salvageable, Covenant ships were being towed to a dock. The largest amongst them was the Assault Carrier that had caused so much trouble after the battle had ended. Seemingly abandoned, the ship had been boarded by the few UNSC Marines still in the Fleet and not on Reach.

This had seemed to galvanize the surviving Covenant aboard however...a light Corvette had blasted its way out of the crippled ships launch bay and sped off past the shocked UNSC fleet. By the time any ships could orient to fire on it, the Corvette had opened a sllipspace window and escaped. And, being as the Assault Carrier had been the obvious Flagship before the Supercarrier had arrived...it meant that it was likely a Prophet or high-ranking Elite escaping aboard the Corvette. But, even with that minor annoyance, they still captured a (mostly) intact Assault Carrier. The amount of technology and knowledge aboard a six kilometer ship would take months...maybe even years to fully understand. But it was going to be oh so worth it.

"You know Captain," Cortana said surprisingly softly, "I think we may just have a chance at winning this war now."

"Hmm," Keyes replied, turning his head to look at the AI.

"Well, we have more ships coming off the lines every day. And the ones built with the Goa'uld technology already integrated are going to be twice as effective as retrofit ships," the blue woman explained, "and if what we did here is any indication..."

At that, Cortana waved a hand out at the debris field. Words didn't need to be said on that subject...just the sight was enough.

Keyes nodded, "I happen to agree with you Cortana. I've been fighting this Godforsaken war for so long...it looked bad. Very bad. But now...now we have a chance. The Covenant are the ones running from us. And we have the better ships."

"I wouldn't go quite that far sir," the AI replied with an infectious grin, "but I get the sentiment."

"Naturally," Keyes replied, smiling slightly himself.

After that little conversation, silence came back to the bridge. The crew seemed content to relax, finally able to rest without fear of a Covenant invasion breathing down their necks. Though, it couldn't last forever. After all, Battlegroup Keyes was still, more or less, intact. They still had their mission, even if it had been pushed back a bit. In fact, Keyes was somewhat surprised, if he was being honest, that Stanforth or Whitcomb hadn't contacted him about RED FLAG yet. It was their best chance at ending the war without even more bloodshed after all.

"So beautiful," Cortana broke in again, something Keyes was slowly getting accustomed to.

"What?"

"The stars. We've used space for fighting for so long, we forget the age of exploration," the AI explained, "I may be a military AI Captain, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate nature. Probably some remnant of Mother I suppose."

"Catherine always did have an interesting view on things," Keyes agreed, "if only the Covenant hadn't forced her to put all her time into developing the Spartan's armor."

"Oh I bet she would have done so anyway," Cortana argued with a bit of a laugh, "I do believe I know Mother better than anyone out there."

"I don't doubt it," Keyes replied with a chuckle of his own, before a crewmember brought him a message, "and it seems like she's coming for a visit."

"Really?"

"Yes. Send a message to her Pelican, have it dock in Hangar Two. I'll meet her there."

"Right away. Wonder what she needs?"

"Who knows Cortana. Catherine rarely gave reasons."

"True. Very true sir," again with that bloody grin of hers.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

"This is Pelican Bravo 252, requesting permission to land," the pilot of Dr. Halsey's dropship sent to the Pillar of Autumn.

"Pelican Bravo 252 is cleared to land, Hangar Two is open and waiting," a voice eerily similar to Halsey's own replied.

Ahh...still using Cortana. At least she hasn't taken the Autumn on a joyride yet, Halsey thought with a small smile.

"Roger that, landing in Hangar Two now," the pilot replied, taking his bird in for a landing.

Halsey looked out the cockpit window (if she wanted to sit up there, the pilots weren't going to say no to someone of her fame) as the Pelican angled for its landing. The Autumn still looked old and rusty, but she hadn't taken any damage in the battle that Halsey could see. And, glasses or no, she had very keen eyesight for this type of thing. Though she did give a bit of a disapproving noise when she saw stress marks from the use of the emergency thrusters. Cataloging what it would need to reinforce the hull, Halsey almost (almost) didn't notice her Pelican come in for a landing. Passing through the shield, the ship turned around, and settled down.

Getting to her feet, and smoothing out her skirt, Halsey nodded at the pilot and co-pilot, "Thank you. You may head back to the surface now, I can get another Pelican here."

"Yes ma'am."

With that done, Halsey walked down the landing ramp, and saw Jacob Keyes waiting for her. Old feelings reared their ugly head, but Halsey stamped them down. She merely walked up to Keyes and shook his hand. Nothing more, nothing less. And she saw the same determination in his eyes as in hers. Both of them had acknowledged a long time ago that they had to be professional about things, and it looked like that at least still held out.

"Welcome aboard Dr., "Keyes said, not even using her first name, "good to see you."

"Good to see you too Captain," Halsey replied, showing the same formality, "I see you have been treating the Autumn well."

"Naturally. And I see you have been treating yourself well."

Halsey felt a slight blush crawl up her cheeks, "Quite. Now, I'm sure you're curious as to why I'm here."

"I'll admit to that," Keyes replied, as the two moved out into the Autumn's halls.

"I have been working on the data provided by the Odyssey, and I believe I've made a breakthrough."

"Oh?"

"Yes, I believe I have discovered a way to amplify the strength of the Goa'uld shields and weapons. Right now, they are inferior to Covenant designs. But, by studying the Eternal Faith and the technology integrated into our fleet, I have figured out how to reverse that."

"Reverse it and make us more powerful than the Covenant."

"Exactly. I want to use the Autumn to test these modifications."

Keyes stopped and rose an eyebrow at that. The much smaller woman by his side returned the gesture, daring him to argue with her. Keyes was way too experienced with Catherine Halsey to fall for that trick though. He knew she wanted him to try and poke holes in her theory. She liked having people do so, as it 'kept her sharp'. All scientists were like that to some extent, Halsey more so than others.

"Presuming you're correct, though I have no reason to doubt you are," Keyes said, enjoying the look on her face, "you want to use the Autumn as a testbed again? Aren't we already more experimental than most prototypes by this point?"

"An apt description, as the Autumn can be seen as the prototype for all future cruisers," Halsey replied easily, "but yes. You and your crew have experience getting the most out of experimental technology. And I believe that the Goa'uld technology can be improved, and tested on this ship. With this crew."

"Very well," Keyes replied with a sigh, "when exactly are you planning on installing all these upgrades?"

"As soon as possible. The Autumn will be upgraded alongside that Assault Carrier."

And that sent Keyes' eyebrow straight into his hairline, "The Carrier? It's joining the fleet?"

Halsey nodded, "Yes. After we strip it of anything of use of course."

"I shouldn't be surprised by that, though I will welcome the support. Timetable?"

"A few months at most. Most of that time will be needed to repair that Carrier."

Keyes sighed slightly. He didn't enjoy delaying the mission anymore than it already had been. But, and this was key, he acknowledged the reasoning. Having the Autumn refit even further (and, logically, other ships in the fleet too) meant they would be more prepared. It also gave the Odyssey more time to scout out the Galaxy. Something that he was sure the displaced Americans would enjoy. Even if he didn't see the appeal.

Regardless of his feelings on the matter though, it was decided. All he could do now was work with what he had been given. And that meant getting his ship and crew back up to full efficiency. Maybe he could get one of those new simulators installed aboard the Autumn to keep their skills sharp. God knew they would need it. Especially if they attacked the Covenant homeworld, wherever it was.

"Well, anything else you have to tell me Dr. Halsey?" Keyes asked, breaking step long enough to ask the question.

"Only that it won't just be Goa'uld or Covenant technology integrated into the Autumn," the Doctor replied.

"Hmm?"

"I discovered an ancient...Library...of sorts on Reach. We are still examining it, but we believe that this 'Forerunner' structure could possibly contain technology we could use to improve our vessels. It is still very much in the early stages, but I am hopeful," Halsey said.

"Sounds like a good thing to me."

And wasn't that the truth...any technology helped. Any at all.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

I really do need to keep up the updates here. Oh well, I do have quite a bit worked up already, so I won't run out of material any time soon at least.
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

Post by InsaneTD »

A good chapter and thank you for keeping this up to date.
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

Post by Skywalker_T-65 »

1030 Hours, September 14th 2552 (Military Calendar)/

San 'Shyuum Home System, Forerunner Keyship FES Ecumene



"I am not certain this is a good idea Grieving Light," Teal'c said, as the Ecumene was escorted into the atmosphere of the San 'Shyuum homeworld by a pair of their 'cruisers'.

"Why is that Reclaimer Teal'c?" Light asked, having decided that even if Teal'c wasn't a normal human he was still worthy of being called a Reclaimer. After all, the Didact was hardly a normal Forerunner.

"I do not trust the San 'Shyuum," the Jaffa replied simply, "my people were once loyal to false Gods. While the Forerunner did not encourage this behavior amongst the San 'Shyuum, it is not encouraging to me."

"I cannot blame you for that view Reclaimer. Only request that you at least give them a chance."

"I will Grieving Light. But do not expect me to trust them."

"Understood Reclaimer."

With that out of the way, the massive Keyship continued to descend to a landing zone built by the San 'Shyuum ages ago. Unlike the other Covenant races, the San 'Shyuum had known what Forerunner ships were from the beginning of their recorded history. So it was only natural they build a landing zone for a 'ship of the gods'. Such remarkable foresight came in rather handy, as it allowed the Ecumene to come in for a safe landing, without any worry of crashing or toppling over from unstable ground.

The San 'Shyuum ships landed nearby, as small shuttles left the ships. For their part, Teal'c and Light were 'beamed' out by the Forerunner teleportation device. Much more convenient than hoofing it to a shuttle. Surrounded by an honor guard of Sentinels, the Jaffa and Monitor waited for the San 'Shyuum to arrive. Thankfully, they didn't have to wait long as the shuttles came down for a landing. Lowering ramps, a small group of San 'Shyuum walked out of the shuttles.

The 'Prophets' were tall and elegant looking humanoids, nothing like the stooped and ancient creatures that lead the Covenant. However, as soon as they got within a few feet of the Sentinels and Grieving Light, they bowed as far as their bodies would let them.

"Welcome to Janjur Qom, Oracle," the leader of the group said, reverence in his voice.

Light looked distinctly uncomfortable, as she floated over to the San 'Shyuum group, "Don't bow to me please. We're here as equals, as friends."

"You are an Oracle of the Forerunner," the Prophet said, not lifting his head, "we must bow to you."

Light turned back to Teal'c, obviously uncertain of how to proceed. Having some, not so slight, experience in situations like this...Teal'c was more than ready to step forward and help. Even if he did have to force himself to not start calling the Forerunner false gods.

"Grieving Light is not an 'Oracle'," the Jaffa warrior said, "she is a Monitor."

Teal'c talking managed to get the San 'Shyuum to raise his head. There was a curious mixture of respect and dislike on his face.

"So you say...Reclaimer..." the 'man' said, testing how the word sounded, "but, the Forerunner are our gods. And, this is their Oracle. Call it what you will, you won't change our minds."

"Very well," Light broke back in, resigned to a long process of 'reeducating' the San 'Shyuum, "at least talk with your head raised."

The San 'Shyuum nodded, and his group rose back up to their full height. And while they still looked with distrust at Teal'c (a look he was sharing) they had awed and reverent eyes for Light.

"Please, follow us Oracle. Our leader wants to meet you, we have much to discuss," the first San 'Shyuum said.

"Such as why you had a landing zone for a Keyship built?" Light asked curiously, "or the crater in your southern hemisphere?"

At the first question, the San 'Shyuum gave a rough approximation of a human grin, "We knew you would come some day Oracle. So we prepared for that day." But the second question...not so much, "As to the crater...that is where the Reformists took the Dreadnought. A twin of the vessel you arrived on in fact. It was our most holy monument, and they desecrated it to escape our righteous wrath."

Light and Teal'c looked at each other, before the Monitor asked the obvious question, "So these...Reformists...do possess a Keyship?"

"Keyship, is that the Forerunner name for the Dreadnought?" the San 'Shyuum asked, and at the 'nod' from Light he continued, "Yes they do. The Mantle's Protector is what they claimed it was called."

"Mantle's Protector..." Light said softly, before coming to a sudden halt, "oh no...oh no, oh no, oh no..."

Teal'c and the San 'Shyuum turned around at that.

"Is there something wrong Grieving Light?"

"Did we offend you Oracle?"

Ignoring both of them, Light moved erratically from side to side, muttering under her 'breath' in an admirable imitation of Guilty Spark. Something had spooked her, that much was obvious. It took Teal'c repeating his question to get the Monitor's attention.

"The Mantle's Protector was lost after the firing of the Array, and reseeding of the galaxy. We were too few in number to search for it...even with what was locked aboard," she explained, "a fragment of Mendicent Bias...the greatest traitor in Forerunner history. I must speak to your leaders now!"

That last bit was directed at the San 'Shyuum, who quickly bowed once more, "Come Oracle, we will take you there as quickly as we can."
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

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High Charity, Holy City of the Covenant,

9th Age of Reclamation


Major Nar 'Saranee sighed ever so slightly as the Everlasting Solitude continued on its journey through Slipspace. The vessel may have escaped the destruction of its fleet at the hands of the humans, but that didn't mean the crew was safe. Everyone on board, from Nar himself, to the lowest Unggoy, knew that they were likely to be declared heretics or shamed upon return to High Charity. There was a bit of discontent at this, hence Nar sighing. But there was also a remarkable amount of unity in the ranks. All aboard this single Corvette viewed themselves as the last of the Fleet of Particular Justice, and so long as Thel 'Vadamee lived and commanded them, they would have a purpose in life. Thus, the remarkable level of unity with Kig-Yar and Unggoy working together to restore slightly damaged systems, while Sangheili wandered the halls keeping an eye on things.

Together we march to our doom. How poetic, Nar thought, with a rough approximation of a human snort.

Walking to the rear of the command center, the Major saw Thel begin to regain consciousness. The Supreme Commander shook his head, flexing his mandibles as he put a hand to his throbbing head. Raising his head groggily, Thel saw the Major approaching him.

"Where am I Major? And why am I still alive?" the Commander asked, voice even lower than normal.

"The Everlasting Solitude. Honor dictated that I get you off of the Ascendant Justice, Supreme Commander," Nar replied easily.

"And my honor dictated I die with my fleet!" Thel shot back, (shakily) getting to his feet.

Once he was at his full height, Thel turned a glare on his head of security. Nar returned the glance, staring right back at his commander. The two Sangheili stared at their counterpart, the rest of the crew stopping their tasks to see who would win this battle of wills.

"That would have done no good Commander," Nar said, not showing how it took all his willpower to talk back to his commander, "you know the humans better than anyone. And the experience you have with these new weapons was too much to leave behind."

"What good does that experience do when the Hierarchs will shame me and cast me out for not dying honorably?!"

"A lot, when our people will still listen to you. Retreat is sometimes the only option, you know that as well as I do."

Thel continued to hold Nar's glare, before finally letting out a sound of disgust and turning his head. He wasn't happy, but he acknowledged the Major's point. So far as they knew, no one had survived the battle other than themselves. Thus, they had to return to High Charity and warn the Hierarchs about the new human weapons. Even if it meant their death or shaming, it was a necessary task. However much it burned to do it...and Thel could tell that Nar wasn't any happier about running from the battle than he was.

"You are correct Major," Thel admitted, painfully, "however, did you retrieve the logs of Ascendant Justice before launching? We need them if the Hierarchs will believe our tale."

Nar nodded, and then gave a Sangheili grin, "I did, and did one better Supreme Commander."

Reaching behind a console, Nar tossed a large staff at Thel. The larger Sangheili caught the staff, and examined it. It was ornately carved, made of solid metal, and seemed to be shaped like on of the reptilian creatures they had found on human worlds before glassing them. Thel turned to look at the Major once more, the red-armored Sangheili pointing at a small indention on the Staff. Pushing down on it, Thel saw the front of the staff open with a crackle of golden light.

"What is this device? And where did you get it?" the Supreme Commander asked his subordinate.

"A Kig-Yar team took it off a human boarding party before returning to the Everlasting Solitude," Nar answered the second question first, "and it is a weapon from what they reported. A plasma weapon. The design is useless, but the firepower is immense. They reported it taking chunks out of the corridor, and their shields barely took two hits before overloading."

Thel looked at the staff with a new-found admiration. Resealing the weapon, he set it against a console, before turning back to Nar.

"So, this staff is a smaller variant of the new weapons on their warships?"

"So far as we can tell."

"Then send the Kig-Yar who retrieved it a reward. They may just have saved our lives."

Which was true enough. Recordings could be faked, though any Sangheili would sooner shoot themselves than lie to a Hierarch. However...possessing one of the new human weapons, would help their case immensely. As Nar had said, the design may be useless from a practicality standpoint, but if they could convince the more religious segments of their society to attempt to miniaturize the design, they could have a replacement for the Plasma Rifle, useful as it may be.

"We are arriving at High Charity now Supreme Commander," one of the crew called out, knocking Thel out of his thoughts.

As the black void vanished, the Everlasting Solitude came to a slow halt outside the defense zone of High Charity. Hundreds of Covenant warships floated through space, escorting the massive form of the Holy City of the Covenant. One ship stuck out like a sore thumb however...a heavily damaged Supercarrier. It didn't take a genius, or the IFF, to identify it as the Long Night of Solace. The ship must have fled the battle after taking the damage. That could be a very good thing, or a horribly bad thing. On the one hand, it mitigated the fact that Thel and his crew left. On the other, the Prophet in control of the vessel may have reported a different set of events, and if so...it would be ones that made him look good, and the Sangheili look bad.

"We are being hailed."

"Identify yourself," a curt Sangheili voice said.

"This is Supreme Commander Thel 'Vadamee aboard the Everlasting Solitude," Thel replied.

There was some noise on the other end, obviously some amount of shock at Thel surviving, "Very well. Land immediately, the Hierarchs have requested a meeting."

At that...the line was cut. Thel sighed slightly, knowing that even the Hierarchs couldn't help him now, not if the Prophet on the Solace had convinced the rest of the Prophets and Sangheili council that he was at fault here. All he could do was make his report, and hope for the best.
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

Post by FaxModem1 »

Hmm, the Covenant are good at taking technology of others and making it their own, usually at the cost of making it terribly inefficient. They're rather like the Goa'uld in that way.
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

Post by Skywalker_T-65 »

High Charity
A few minutes before the arrival of the Everlasting Solitude


"...as you can see, Supreme Commander 'Vadamee is at fault for the defeat we suffered against the humans," the Prophet of Restriction was saying, as he finished his report with the damaged hulk of the Long Night of Solace projected as evidence.

Riots rose up from the Sangheili side of the Council Chamber, as white-armored Councilors protested. The Prophets stayed silent, observing more footage of the battle. Even the most vocal of the Sangheili soon stopped shouting however, as the High Prophet of Truth rose a single spindly hand. Floating forward, he fixed his eyes on the lower-ranking San 'Shyuum in front of him. Restriction flinched slightly under Truth's gaze, before the other Prophet mercifully turned to survey the rest of the chamber.

"While I am loathe to condemn a hero of the caliber of Thel 'Vadamee, the Prophet of Restriction has brought forth irrefutable evidence," Truth said, his voice amplified by the chamber, "it is quite clear that the Supreme Commanders leadership suffered, as he let the new weapons the vermin had in orbit of their world destroy his fleet. As such..."

Before Truth could finish, a messenger Unggoy came in, quailed under his gaze, and stammered out his message.

"Hei...Hierarchs, a Corvette attached to th...the Fleet of Particular Justice has...arri...ved," the poor creature said shakily, "Supreme Commander 'Vadamee is aboard."

If the shouting from the Sangheili side of the Council had been loud before, it was absolutely deafening now. They were shouting out of happiness that their war-hero was still alive, and that it was foolish to doubt him in the first place. While that was drawing the attention of his fellow Hierarchs and lower-Prophets, Truth turned from the petrified messenger, to look at Restriction. And he saw the other Prophet angrily muttering under his breath. Raising a single brow at the lower-ranked Prophet, Truth got his attention.

And he looked as terrified as the Unggoy did.

Interesting...he must have been lying about something. I could use this to my advantage...blackmail him to my side, while still discrediting the Sangheili...Truth mused, before turning to the messenger, "Allow Commander 'Vadamee to land, and have him and his crew sent here. We must determine how they survived."

"Yes Hierarch!" The Unggoy shouted, before scampering off.

As the two sides of the Council continued their shouting match, Truth waited patiently for the new arrivals to show up. While it would normally have taken well-near an hour for them to arrive from the docks, with the fact the Hierarchs wanted to see them...it didn't take long for 'Vadamee and as much of his crew as could fit in the chamber to arrive. The golden-armored Sangheili came first, a red-armored Major walking beside him, with a handful of lower ranked Sangheili escorting the highest ranked Kig-Yar and Unggoy of the vessel bringing up the rear. It was interesting to note, however, that they all walked united. Even the normal antagonistic tendencies of the Kig-Yar towards the Unggoy weren't there...very interesting indeed.

As 'Vadamee and his Major reached the point next to Restriction, they both went to their knees and bowed deeply.

"Thank you for seeing us on such short notice Hierarchs," 'Vadamee said, "I apologize for the delay in returning to High Charity."

"Rise," Truth said, raising a hand as Thel and the rest of his crew stood up, "I am curious how you survived Supreme Commander. According to the Prophet of Restriction, only his Supercarrier survived the battle. You died honorably with your fleet."

It would have taken an idiot not to notice the emphasis Truth put on honorably. Thel wasn't an idiot, and gave a small Sangheili frown. He had known Truth wasn't likely to be happy, but he to hear it...it wasn't easy. This was the leader of his entire society after all.

"I nearly did perish in the battle Hierarch," Thel said, "if the head of my security detail, Major Nar 'Saranee had not saved my life, I would have died on the Ascendant Justice. Only his intervention, and the rest of my surviving crew, allowed me to be here."

At hearing that, Truth turned his eyes on the red-armored Major. To his credit, 'Saranee didn't flinch under the gaze, though if he were a human he would be sweating.

"So, you are the one who kept the Supreme Commander alive?"

"Yes Hierarch."

No shaking voice either. Impressive...Truth thought, before asking his other question, "And why did you do so? Sangheili culture demands that a commander die with his fleet."

"I did so because the humans have developed new weaponry Hierarch," 'Saranee answered.

Nodding his head slightly,while inwardly losing his cool as this ruined the chances of hiding what had happened at the last human world, Truth turned back to 'Vadamee.

"And you? How effective are these weapons that the Major claims the humans have? The Prophet of Restraint only mentioned the satellites they possessed."

Truth didn't fail to notice the sharp glare 'Vadamee leveled on the Prophet, but chose to ignore it. As he waited for an explanation, one of the lower ranking Sangheili on 'Vadamee's crew walked forward. He was carrying a staff of some sort, prompting Truth to raise his brow once more. Even more so when a plate of ship armor was brought forth by another member of the crew. 'Vadamee looked up at the platform, and Truth realized he was asking for permission to do something. Giving a small nod, Truth watched as 'Vadamee pressed a button on the staff. The front end split open with a burst of gold light. But what was more impressive...with a small tap of another button, a gold burst of plasma shot out of the staff, creating a crater in the plate that a Plasma Rifle would take repeated fire to manage.

Even Truth himself was somewhat slack-jawed at that. Granted, he had known the humans possessed plasma weapons...the ill-fated attempt to capture the Marker Crystal had brought that up. But to miniaturize them...even if it was a horribly designed weapon, it still had a lot of firepower behind it. It also destroyed any chance he had of hiding the humans new-found technological prowess.

"Plasma weaponry..."

"How did the humans develop it?"

"It is nothing like our own weapons..."

Murmurs went through the Council, on both sides. Raising a hand, Truth got attention back on 'Vadamee, who had handed the staff weapon off to the Sangheili who had brought it forward while a pair of Honor Guards removed the damaged armor plate.

"So the humans have made infantry plasma weaponry," Truth 'mused', "so long as their vessels don't possess it, they can do nothing to stop our glorious crusade, temporary as this setback may be."

Maddeningly though, 'Vadamee shook his head, "If only that were the case Hierarch. The human vessels possess similar weaponry."

And with that, the view of the Long Night of Solace changed to a video taken from the Ascendant Justice. A video showing human vessels with golden shields taking Plasma Torpedo hits and continuing to fire. And the weapons they fired...golden bolts of plasma similar to the staff. While they appeared weaker than Covenant weaponry, the very fact humans had plasma weaponry spoke volumes.

Heading off the Council before they could get up to their normal argumentative-selves, Truth spoke up, "This does go a way towards explaining how you lost your fleet, Supreme Commander. However, that does not change the fact you lost to the humans. I move that Thel 'Vadamee be stripped of his rank."

"We agree," both Mercy and Regret said, speaking for the first time since 'Vadamee had arrived.

A chorus of approval came from the rest of the Council. Thel bowed his head, accepting that it could have been a lot worse for him. Of course...he who tempts fate...

"However, he has still proven an effective Commander," Truth continued, "with this in mind, I am appointing Thel 'Vadamee as Arbiter of the Covenant. The crew of the Everlasting Solitude are similarly stripped of their rank. That vessel, and its crew, are now your own Arbiter. Use them as you will, to regain the honor you lost with your fleet."

Shocked silence entered the chamber, all the Council, the Prophet of Restriction, and both the other Hierarchs unable to form words. But none were so shocked as the new Arbiter, who hadn't even been given the chance to accept or refuse the offer. For Truth to make such a unilateral decision to appoint him...and the last survivors of his fleet...to suicide status, meant that he wanted to get rid of them. And Thel realized that, even as he realized this was the only way to restore his honor.

So he rose to his feet, looked the Prophet of Truth in the eye, and nodded his head, "I accept your gracious offer Hierarch. What would you have your Arbiter do?"

Truth grinned fiercely, "For now, watch as the Sangheili redeem themselves for their failures in recent days. For even now, we approach a Ring of the Gods!"

"WHAT?!"

Practically every voice in the Council said that one simple word. While Truth, Regret, and Mercy had known of Halo, the rest of the Council had been kept in the dark. With good reason, as they didn't want riots or anything similar.

"Yes, I did not misspeak. The Sangheili of the 2nd Fleet of Retribution discovered Halo. They have been securing it while High Charity has approached. We should be arriving now."

And indeed they did...arrive to a field of debris, the barely recognizable ruins of Halo.
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

Post by Eternal_Freedom »

Oh thats an evil place to end.
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."

Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

Post by InsaneTD »

Indeed. Bloody cliff hangers. Please don't be too long with the next part.
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

Post by Skywalker_T-65 »

1700 Hours, September 13th 2552 (Military Calendar)/

Soell System, Halo Installation 04, Unknown Location, 30 minutes before the arrival of High Charity



As the small human group felt the golden light fade from view, they saw themselves once more in the Control Room of Halo. Spark and a small group of Sentinels were floating around them, waiting for the Reclaimers to recover from the discomfort of teleportation. Which took a bit longer than last time, due to their exhaustion from the run through the Library. Once they had recovered though, Spark floated up to Six, the one still holding the Index.

"Come Reclaimer, we must place the Index in its position to activate the Ring. We cannot risk the Flood leaving this Ring," the Monitor said eagerly, moving to 'lead' Six to the center of the Control Room.

For her part, the normally fairly quiet Spartan was sending rapid fire messages to the rest of her team.

"Is Kalmiya ready?" she asked

"Should be," Kat replied, no outward sign of communication, "she has had time to infiltrate the systems. If we have any way of stopping this Ring, its her."

"Still more risky than I like,"Jorge said sourly, "I don't like playing God with the entire Galaxy."

"No choice big guy," Carter said, setting a hand on Jorge's bicep, "We have to stop this Ring, and there isn't another option."

For his part, Cam let out an annoyed sigh. Sure, having the helmets and radios meant the Monitor had no clue what was going on, but it also meant he didn't. And he didn't like that, not one bit. It was like working with Replicators or something.

Ignoring Cam, Six walked forward and, taking a deep breath, inserted the Index. The Control Room started to shake slightly, as long disused generators roared to life over the Ring, powering up and preparing to fire the life-ending weapon. But, just as suddenly as it started...it stopped. Silence came back to the Control Room, as Spark started to freak out, floating back and forth across the area.

"What is happening?! This ring has had one-trillion successful test firings, it should not be malfunctioning!" the Monitor shouted, his eye disturbingly flashing red on occasion.

"Looking for this?" a female voice said, as a massive hologram of Kalymia came to life (Cam's idea).

If it were possible, Spark would have had a stroke. As a machine however, he settled for pure anger. Something he had never felt before, but he was channeling perfectly now.

"A construct? A construct IN THE CORE?!" the Monitor shouted, "Unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable!"

"Oh shut up," Kalymia said, absolutely uncharacteristically (this time Emile's idea, though Kalymia couldn't bring herself to his level), snapping her fingers and sending Spark to the ground.

"I think I'm in love!" Emile shouted, laughing as Spark floated back up.

"Remove this construct at once Reclaimer!" the Monitor shouted, rounding on Six, "the Ring must be fired, and the Index must be preserved!"

"You mean this thing?" at that, Spark turned to see Kalymia holding the Index in her hand...before absorbing it into her data-matrix, "sorry, you aren't lighting this Ring off."

"WHAT?!" Spark shouted, all higher thought fleeing from his mind.

"You heard the lady, we aren't firing the Ring," Cam said, stepping forward.

Sparks anger faded somewhat, replaced by confusion as he looked between the Reclaimers and Kalymia. He wasn't sure what was going on, or what to do. All his protocols said, quite clearly, that if the Flood were released to find a Reclaimer to activate the Ring. And, nothing said they would refuse to. It was unbelievable. They had just fought the Flood, they clearly knew the threat. Why...why were they refusing?!

"Reclaimer, I have to ask you to activate the Ring now. You have fought the Flood. You know what could happen if they escape, and they will if we don't activate the Installation!"

"Nope, not happening. I'm not committing genocide on the Galaxy," Cam replied casually, "they are limited here. Why would we need to activate every Halo in the Galaxy to stop them? The Installations are linked after all, correct?"

"Correct...but what if Flood have compromised the other Rings too?"

"They haven't, at least not 02 anyway."

Spark's thoughts ground to a halt there. Before they caught up again, and he turned on Cam.

"You KNEW ABOUT THE INSTALLATION?!"

"No need to yell eyeball," Cam said, rubbing his ears.

"You've been to Installation 02...you've met 007 Grieving Light then," Spark said more calmly, "I'm sure she's told you how important it is to stop the Flood. So help me."

"Nope."

If Spark were human (or still human in any case) he would be pulling out his hair in frustration. His program was running hotter by the second, as he tried to rationalize the stubbornness coming from the Reclaimers.

"If you won't activate the Installation, how will you stop the Flood? Well?"

"Blow it up," Emile replied, at which everyone turned to look at him, "what? Any Flood that don't die that way, will die when what's left of the thing crashes into that big-ass planet outside."

"Blow it up...destroy my Installation?" Spark muttered, eye flashing red and blue.

"Great idea Emile!" Six congratulated him, "for once I find myself in complete agreement with you."

"I don't like the idea, but its blow it up or let the Flood leave..." Jorge said.

"Yeah, but how are we going to...look out!" Kat shouted, pushing Cam to the side...right as a beam of red light shot from Sparks now fully red eye.

Cam fell to the ground, Kat landing on top of him. He tried to get her to move...but then the smell of burnt flesh hit his nostrils. With a feeling of dread, he removed her helmet and saw lifeless eyes staring back at him. And when he looked down...a burnt crater was now carved into Kat's body, Spark's beam having gone straight through her shields and armor.

"What the hell?!" the other Spartans all shouted, weapons trained on the now red-Spark, and his Sentinels.

"Destroy my Installation? No, I don't care if you are Reclaimers, I wouldn't care if you were Forerunner...this Ring, is mine."

With that, the Sentinels opened fire on the group, while Spark hung back, no longer cheerful and blue. Thankfully for Noble, they had the Goa'uld shields, which they promptly brought up while Cam grabbed Kalymia. Taking cover behind Jorge, he dragged over Kat's body and commed the Odyssey.

"Sam? Sam?! Please tell me you read me!"

"What is going on down there?!"
Sam's beautiful voice came through, "I'm reading weapons fire, and Kat's transponder is out!"

"She's dead," Cam replied shortly, "the Monitor and his Sentinels took offense to the idea of blowing up the Ring to stop the Flood. We need an emergency beam out now!"

"Got it!"

And with a musical chime, white Asgard beams sent the human group back into space. Spark floated to where they used to be, curious about the technology, but still righteously angered with them. He may have faded back to blue with them gone, but that didn't change much. Turning to one of his Sentinels, Spark barked out a question.

"Where are they?"

"No data. Cloaking device probable,"
the machine replied 'in Spark's head' so to speak.

Spark growled, turning back to the Control Room's terminal. Floating up to the device, he activated Halo's defenses. Weapons sprang to life over the Ring, trained at space. The Covenant vessels floating in orbit started to scatter, even as a Frigate was destroyed to make a point.

Back the Hell away from my Ring!

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Meanwhile, the Odyssey stayed under its Cloak, the crew watching as any Covenant ship that tried to get within communication range got blown up for its trouble. The ground team must have really pissed off Spark. Speaking of which...

"Cam, are you okay?!" Daniel asked, running up to his friend.

The Colonel walked in, uniform burnt and bruises covering his body. He had taken some glancing hits while grabbing Kalmiya, but...at least he was alive. That was more than could be said for Kat, who Noble was currently sitting with, mourning their loss. Sam got up from the Captains chair, letting Cam wearily sit back down. He sighed, and put his head in his hands.

"I'm fine Jackson. That Monitor though...I'm glad we met Light first. He's insane. I didn't even know they had weapons, but it tore through Kat's shield like it wasn't even there," the Colonel said, the sight etched into his memory, "we have to destroy the Ring now. He'll figure out how to fire it without the Index, and then we're all screwed."

Sam walked forward, "Is destroying it the only way?"

Cam nodded, "Destroy it, let the Flood escape, or let Spark commit galactic scale-genocide...take your pick. I'd like to think Light could stop her Halo from lighting off, but we can't be sure."

"How are we going to destroy it though? It's not exactly small you know," Daniel asked.

"Centrifugal force," Sam replied thoughtfully, "the Ring has to rotate at least somewhat to maintain that environment. If you punch a big enough hole in it..."

"The rotation will tear it apart," Daniel replied, "very devious Sam."

Cam watched them talk, thinking back to something currently sitting in a cargo bay, gathering dust. The orders had been to not use it unless they came across a major Covenant base...but he thought this took greater precedence. He just didn't particularly like the idea of being the first man to use two universes biggest nuke. Not much real choice in the matter though.

"Actually, I have a better idea," he said, tapping some instructions in his command station.

"What?"

"The NOVA."

Both Sam and Daniel gaped at him, joined by the UNSC crew. That thing was already at planet-cracking levels, even before they stuck Naquadah on it. God only knew what it could do now...there may be no kill like overkill, but this was a bit ridiculous. And Sam said as much.

"You can't be serious...we don't need that much firepower to punch a hole in Halo!"

"We ain't punching a hole in it," Cam shot back, "the Flood could still survive. No...we need to vaporize the thing. And take Spark with it."

And now they realized what Cam was thinking. Both pragmatically, and from a revenge for Kat view, Spark couldn't be allowed to survive. And it was certainly possible he could escape the Ring if they just let it tear itself apart. Thus, potentially planet-obliterating firepower.

"NOVA is ready sir," a voice said over the radio.

"Send it out then."

A brief flash of light revealed the Odyssey as it dropped its cloak to beam the NOVA. Weapons fire from Installation 04 zoned in on the small ship quite quickly, but as the cloak came back up, it just passed clean through the phase-shifted ship. The distraction, however, meant that Spark and his lackeys, nor the Covenant, saw the brief flash of white light over Installation 04. Sitting there, was the massive (by nuke standards) form of the prototype NOVA bomb. As the countdown on the device neared zero, no one quite knew what would happen...then it hit zero.

A flash of white light came into being, overloading the sensitive sensors on every Covenant ship in the vicinity. Shipmasters shouted orders, crews ran to their stations to try and identify what had happened...before being vaporized as the ball of energy slashed through space. Covenant Cruisers popped like balloons, their shields providing no protection against the raw force assaulting them. Those closer to the epicenter simply ceased to exist, as energy sufficient to crack a planet in two spread out from its original detonation point.

As for Installation 04, Alpha Halo? The raw destructive power of the NOVA vaporized the half of the Ring nearest to the detonation point. Trillions of tons of metal, earth, and plant life, ceased to exist in a matter of milliseconds. The parts that weren't vaporized were flash-burned, oceans and continents evaporating and melting under the intense heat and destructive force of the NOVA. Structures that had stood for 100,000 years, were obliterated in seconds. Sentinels were disabled by the EMP, before shattering as they were tossed around the surface like toys.

As the energy wave continued to spread its destructive energy, parts of Installation 04 spun off into space, centrifugal force and the NOVA's power sending them spinning into the distance. The few Flood that survived the initial damage were killed by the radiation and fires, no piece of the Ring left untouched. Even Threshold herself began to show effects, clouds being blown aside, a massive hole forming in its atmosphere, at least the size of Earth.

As the power of the NOVA finally began to fizzle out, the crew aboard the Odyssey could barely believe their eyes.

"What have we unleashed..." Daniel muttered, eyes wide.

"Nothing...nothing could have prepared me for how powerful that is," Sam said, awe creeping into her tone...and this was the woman who had blown up a star with nothing but a Stargate.

"Is the Ring completely destroyed?" Cam asked the slack-jawed sensor operator.

"Huh," the woman said, before quickly looking at her station, "a few small fragments are left. One is heading for a moon, the rest look like they will be pulled into Threshold."

Cam nodded, "Good...get us out of here."

And with that...the USS Odyssey left the destruction behind, hopefully forever.
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

Post by Eternal_Freedom »

No kill like overkill indeed. Just how big was that explosion? The standard NOVA was supposed to be around 2 petatons....adding Naquadah....eep.
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."

Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

Post by Borgholio »

Eternal_Freedom wrote:No kill like overkill indeed. Just how big was that explosion? The standard NOVA was supposed to be around 2 petatons....adding Naquadah....eep.
Well Naquadah enhances a normal nuke about 100-fold (Stargate movie). So that's 200 petatons. Nice fireworks show. :)
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

Post by Diverball »

Borgholio wrote:Well Naquadah enhances a normal nuke about 100-fold (Stargate movie). So that's 200 petatons. Nice fireworks show. :)
Only from a suitable distance. And correct me if I'm wrong, but the maximum distance we've ever seen an Asgard transporter used over is surface-to-low-orbit. I'm not sure that would be enough for a 200 petaton detonation. I wouldn't want to be within an AU of a blast like that.
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

Post by Skywalker_T-65 »

Diverball wrote:
Borgholio wrote:Well Naquadah enhances a normal nuke about 100-fold (Stargate movie). So that's 200 petatons. Nice fireworks show. :)
Only from a suitable distance. And correct me if I'm wrong, but the maximum distance we've ever seen an Asgard transporter used over is surface-to-low-orbit. I'm not sure that would be enough for a 200 petaton detonation. I wouldn't want to be within an AU of a blast like that.
Odyssey is using a phase-shift cloak. So while I wouldn't want to be that close either, the explosion wouldn't do anything to them at least.


Thanks for the comments everyone!
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

Post by Eternal_Freedom »

Damnit I thought this was an update.

Of course, this does mean they no longer have the super-NOVA (heh) to use on High Charity and it's fleet. Of course they still have their regular super-nukes they can use.
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."

Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

Post by Skywalker_T-65 »

E_F: Technically I was in the middle of putting up the update when you commented. :P

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High Charity, Holy City of the Covenant

9th Age of Reclamation, Holy Ring



As High Charity and its escorting fleets exited Slipspace, they were expecting to see the glorious Holy Ring of the Forerunner. What they weren't expecting to see, was a field of burned, shattered debris with a handful of heavily damaged ships combing it for any survivors. Somewhat naturally, considering the circumstances, the commanders of the newly arrived ships went into panic mode. Messages were sent back and forth amongst the vessels, and the damaged counterparts in the debris field...a field entirely too small for how large Halo was. Most of them amounted to the expected 'what happened here?!' type. The more level-headed Fleetmasters however, managed to make cohesive questions of the damaged ships commanders. Like the fact Threshold had a rather large hole in its atmosphere that was only now filling up.

"We do not know Fleetmaster," the highest ranked survivor said, coughing slightly as his damaged lungs took in smoky air,"the Holy Ring began firing on us, and forced the Fleet to withdraw. Soon after that, a massive flash of light erupted near Halo and destroyed it with the majority of the Fleet. Our vessels only survived as we were exploring on the opposite side of a moon, and even then we have severe damage."

"Did you recognize the flash?" the highest ranked Fleetmaster asked...obviously suspecting the humans in some way did this.

"No Fleetmaster. What limited sensors we have operational do not recognize the lingering traces of the explosion," the Shipmaster answered, "It is a nuclear reaction, but unlike any we have seen. As much as we hate to admit it, it seems that it was a self-destruct mechanism on the Holy Ring itself."

If the Fleetmaster and his comrades were human, they would be cursing up a storm. As it was, they merely growled under their breath. It made no sense that Halo would destroy itself rather than yield its secrets to the Covenant and the Great Journey, but that was what seemed to happen here. Similarity to human weapons aside, the vermin had nothing powerful enough to do this type of damage. That didn't mean that he was looking forward to telling the Hierarchs as much though.

"Report Fleetmaster," Truth's voice came through this time, harshness and barely repressed rage quite evident even considering the distance.

"The Shipmaster of the Prophecy believes that Halo self-destructed Hierarch," the Sangheili replied, "the evidence supports this claim."

There was silence where there had previously been chaos. Every ship had heard that message, every ship had heard what had happened to Halo. And, they were all waiting to hear from Truth. Their honored leader, and his fellow Hierarchs, were the beacon the Covenant needed now. They had been shaken to the core by this discovery...they needed stability and hope, and they needed it now.

"This is a test of our resolve," Truth finally said, the transmission hitting everywhere in the area around Halo's ruins, "We know that the Forerunner made more than one Holy Ring. They are testing us by destroying this Holy Ring, and preparing us for our Great Journey. Scout ships are to be dispatched at once, to continue the search for another Halo."

Ripples went through the Covenant fleets at that announcement. But now that they had a purpose again, they sent out scouts to do what Truth had asked of them. Back on High Charity however, things weren't quite so simple. The Council had moved out to discuss what had happened, but the Hierarchs were still in the room with the newly-declared Arbiter and his crew of Shamed soldiers. After all, the Arbiter was directly under their authority, so any orders had to come from them.

And even if he was still in a mild level of shock, Thel recognized this. He bowed his head, only looking up enough to keep his leaders in his line of sight. Because of this, he was able to see Truth float up to him, the Prophet frowning slightly as he looked down on the Sangheili warrior.

"Arbiter," the High Prophet began, Thel stiffening slightly, "what is your opinion of what has happened?"

Thel turned that question over in his head, ignoring the oddity of the High Prophet of Truth asking for his opinion. Even as Arbiter that was odd, after all.

"I do not know Hierarch," the new Arbiter answered honestly, "the humans have more powerful weapons, but what the Prophecy describes is beyond even what I have seen."

Truth nodded ever so slightly, "So you do not believe it was the vermin?"

"Not at this time, no," Thel replied, "but I can not say for sure without knowing more of what happened here."

And he was telling the truth here. The newly-minted Arbiter was not a scientist by any means. He did, however, know human weapons better than anyone in the Covenant fleets. If he had more time to study what had happened, he might be able to confirm if it was human doing, or if the Forerunner truly were testing them by destroying this Halo. And, he wasn't sure which option was preferable...

After all, if the humans could destroy Halo, what else had they been hiding all these years? And how had they even found the Holy Ring? On the other hand though, why would the Forerunner need to destroy a Holy Ring to test the Covenant? Had they not been doing the will of the gods this whole time? Certainly, the humans were respected in most Sangheili circles for their martial abilities, but that didn't mean they didn't trust what the Prophets said about destroying them.

"Very well. New armor is being prepared for your crew," Truth said, speaking of old-style Covenant armor marked with the Mark of Shame, "the Prophet of Regret will take you to the Mausoleum of the Arbiter to receive your own armor. Once you have received the armor, you will return to the Everlasting Solitude and we will give you your mission. That is all Arbiter."

Thel nodded ever so slightly, and rose to his full height once more. Giving the Sangheili salute, he turned and lead his crew out of the chamber. Regret floated amongst them, leading the Arbiter to his 'new' armor. For their parts, Truth and Mercy moved to look out at the Forerunner Dreadnought. The majestic ship was sitting in the center of High Charity, the many cities below shining and reflecting off its dull grey armor. It was the symbol of unity for the Covenant...and the symbol of the lies the three High Prophets lived by.

"Halo didn't self-destruct," Truth began, not even turning to look at his fellow Prophet.

"No, it did not," Mercy agreed, "Even the Oracle didn't destroy the Dreadnought. The humans had some hand in this."

Truth nodded his head. The vermin may fool the easily fooled Sangheili, but they wouldn't escape the notice of the High Prophets of the Covenant. Especially the master of deception that Truth was. And of course, looking out at the Dreadnought reminded him of said deception. The humans were far from vermin...if anything, they were the last of the Forerunner, from what the Oracle had claimed. So, it made a certain amount of sense to blame them for this, even beyond just years of hatred.

After all, if the humans were Forerunner, they might have known the location of Halo all along. And if they had known, when the Covenant arrived, they would have begun setting the Holy Ring to destroy itself. Logically then, it had to have been the humans, even if it wasn't one of their weapons that did it. Though the Prophets willingly overlooked the question of why the humans had such ancient technology if they had access to Halo...as they had just proven they had more advanced technology defending their 'core' worlds.

However...

"This will still work in our favor," Truth continued, "the loses to the humans and now the destruction of Halo...the Sangheili have been thoroughly discredited."

Mercy nodded, "They are no longer worthy of protecting our glorious Covenant."

"Regret will protest, but it is time to replace the Sangheili," Truth said, "they are not reliable any more. To think, they respect the vermin. They have their uses, but the Jiralhanae are far more reliable and subservient. Contact Tartarus and tell him his warriors are to replace the Honor Guard...with the exception of Regret's. If he trusts the Sangheili so, he can keep them."

Mercy nodded once more, "It will be done."

Truth nodded, though he didn't show the glee he felt. The other Prophets were playing right into his hands here. The Sangheili would be loyal to the Covenant above all else, and wouldn't support Truth declaring himself the true leader of all Covenant. The Jiralhanae however, were loyal to Truth above anything else. By replacing the Honor Guard with loyal Jiralhanae, Truth was placing himself in full control of the Covenant, even if it wasn't readily apparent that he had. For, if he ever had need to...remove...Regret and Mercy, all he had to do was contact Tartarus and it would be done.

Thus, the Prophet of Truth, was now the one and only power in the Covenant hierarchy...
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Re: A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

Post by Eternal_Freedom »

Meh, close enough Skywalker :D

I'm trying to work out if this makes things better or worse for the humans. On the one hand, they've vaporised Halo and the Flood with it (and a good chunk of Covenant ships) but now the Covenant are going all squirelly.

And I'm wondering what the Odyssey's reaction is to the sight of High Charity, and which character will suggest "nuke 'em" first :D

EDIT: Hmm, I've just had an idea. We know from SG-1 and Atlantis that you can use mini-hyperspace jumps to bypass shields....and High Charity has some fuck-off huge hollow spaces. I now have a vision of Odyssey microjumping inside High Charity and dropping off a few Naquada enhanced nukes in there then departing via the same method. Mwahahaha :twisted:
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."

Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
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