Chapter One

Proxima Centauri is a relatively small red dwarf star located only 4.2 light years from Earth. This star is special to the people of Earth due to it being not only the closest to us, but also because it was the first location out of our solar system that we had traveled too. It was due to the proximity to Earth that it was chosen as one of the locations to set up a SS Station, or Slipspace Sensor Station.

Created after the end of the Human-Covenant War, the SS Station was designed to detect forces traveling to Earth and her colonies. Using a highly advanced slipspace engine as a core it maintains an open slipspace rupture for minutes, instead of seconds, well not actually entering it at all. This allows the advanced sensor package on the station itself to gather clearer reading on the activities in slipspace.

The massive power requirements of the such a structure are provided by vast arrays of solar panels, as the materials required to create the reactors that ships use to generate power are in extremely short supply. The reading given by the station is only a slightly bit above that of normal background static. They cannot detect how many ships are in slipspace, nor what class they are. All they can do is tell when a ship is in slipspace. By comparing this to the expected ships arrivals on Earth they can determine when unauthorized ships are approaching.

Generally, this system can give the defense fleet approximately twenty-four hours of advanced warning. Time that is crucial in charging ship mounted MAC weapons and preparing the crews for combat. Due to this it has become possible to destroy Loyalist ships before their shields become operational, allowing the small surviving fleet guarding Earth to stop all but the most dedicated attacks upon Earth.

…

Proxima Centauri: January 15th 2557

"Captain, the science team is reporting green lights on all systems and they are requesting permission to begin the test sequence," the communications officer said.

"Establish an orbit around the station five kilometers away, then tell them they have the go ahead," responded the Captain, "I want a status report once it's online."

The UNSC Frigate Incursion had been in system for almost two weeks supervising the construction of the SS Station Early bird. The Captain of the ship, David Anderson, wasn't unhappy with the assignment, but he would rather be part of the defense force around Earth. He was a soldier through and through and being stuck in as ship with a skeleton crew of actual military personal and a large group of scientist was not his idea of a good time.

Anderson himself was almost forty years old with very short black hair. He had also served in the war for over fifteen years. Seeing planet after plant destroyed or 'Glassed' as it became known as.

"Orbit established Captain, sending authorization," said the officer, "They receive and are beginning tests, they estimate they should be fully online in less then in four hours."

"Good, contact me at the first check in," replied Anderson, before beginning the long trek through the ship towards the mess hall, admiring the construction efforts put into the ship.

Being less then a month old the ship was still lacking any of the normal wear and tear that a military ship would be expected to have.

The Incursion was one of only five ships constructed after the war. Each one of the five is built as a test ship, blending advanced UNSC technology with reversed engineered Covenant technology. After the war the Elites had refused to share any of their technology, leaving only what could be developed ourselves. Unfortunately this left us with technology based for ground combat, as no Covenant ship captured ever remained intact for long.

In practical terms this meant that advanced alien systems are just larger versions of their ground based counterparts. The Incursion was built to be a stealth frigate. Equipped with Photo Reactive plating and having large amounts of the Titanium A armor being replaced with depleted uranium to help contain other unwanted emissions from the ship that could allow it to be detected. But the main part of the stealth systems is a enlarged and stripped down Covenant Cloaking Field Generator.

When all of the available stealth systems are online the ship becomes completely undetectable to all but the most advanced of Covenant ships. But the drawback to this is that much of the reactors power has to be devoted to maintaining the Cloaking Generator, leaving only enough power for basic systems.

Along with the cloaking capabilities the ship is also equipped with a standard MAC weapon, capable of accelerating a 300 pound slug to 40% of the speed of light, capable of transferring massive amounts of kinetic energy into the target. The archer missile pods remained relatively unchanged, with the exception of being reduced in numbers to make room for the internal electronic components required to achieve the cloak.

The only non-standard weapons installed onto the experimental frigate are the 100mm Pulse Lasers that replaced the 50mm Auto-Cannons on the normal frigate.

The first weapon grade laser was the iconic 'Spartan Laser' created for ground based operations. The major drawback was the large power requirements, causing the portable weapons to have a very limited operational capacity as it would run its capacitor dry in five shots or less. But being attached to a much larger source of power even the scaled up version can fire many hundreds of time before having the focusing lenses be replaced.

The only reason this ship was assigned this mission, instead of being in the war against the remaining loyalists, was because once the station was online it was to direct its sensors towards the cloaked Incursion to test its effectiveness against the most advanced man made sensors.

…

Proxima Centauri: SS Station Early Bird

"Solar collection panels working within expected margin, capacitor charge at 40% and rising," said the scientist, "Containment systems online, Shaw-Fujikawa generator primed."

"Primary sensors beginning start-up sequences, capacitor charge holding at 80%," replied another.

"Excellent, prepare to bring the generator online and shutdown the artificial gravity plates," the head scientist said.

Of the many different sensors in the station one of the most important was the gravimetric sensor. It could detect the gravitational field being put out by a an object weighting just a few kilograms. It had already been set up to compensate for the mass of the station itself and the relative area around it. But gravity plates had a tendency to fluctuate, something thing normal matter did not, and this could not be consistently accounted for.

"Shutting down plates, everyone hold onto something," said a scientist.

Being designed with low gravity in mind the station was equipped with multiple metal bar around the walls to help move around, along with ones near the control panels so workers could hold themselves in place.

"Beginning slipspace rupture formation," called a scientist.

Inside the containment chamber, thousands of micro black holes were being formed and destroyed via Hawking Radiation emission, creating a literal rip in space. Normally, it is at this point that a ship would begin to pass through the rip, but because of the functionality of the station itself the rip is instead maintained in real space.

"Rupture is open and containment is holding, beginning sensor tests for consistency of background static," there was a slight pause, "Gravimetric sensors are fluctuating," said another scientist, "Sensors detect fluctuation to be arising from outside the rupture."

"Confirm shutdown of gravity plates and request the Incursion to move at least 25 kilometers away from the station. Reorient sensors to external scanning and search for anomalies," replied the lead scientist, "Might just be a rouge comet."

"Sir, reading are coming from the 5th planet's moon. It's magnetic and gravimetric signature is inconsistent with expectations for a moon of its class," called the other scientist.

"Contact the Incursion and send all data we have on the moon to them," replied the lead scientist, "Lets just work on getting all secondary systems online for now."

…

Proxima Centauri: Incursion

"Captain to the bridge, repeat captain to the bridge," came the call over the intercom, loud enough to cause vibrations to rack through the ship.

Getting up, Anderson picked up the bowl containing his 'breakfast' and began to move over to the food recyclers. After the war supplies were extremely scarce. Food being sent to ships was little more then a flavourless nutrient paste. Recycling systems for both food and water had been installed on many of the ships in order to save as much as possible.

'I don't see how this could be reprocessed into food when it wasn't to begin with,' he though to himself as the greyish brown slop slowly dropped out of the bowl. Grimacing at the thought of that he left the mess to begin the trek back to bridge.

Due to the odd shape of the non human parts of the ship, many of the once strait hallways in the original designs of a frigate class ship had been replaced with curving hallways to fit around the smooth architecture commonly associated with Covenant technology. Externally the ship retained the look of a standard UNSC frigate in order to cause confusion in the ranks of the enemies as a single first generation frigate wouldn't pose a threat to even the smallest Loyalist ship.

Due to this it was theorized that a single frigate would be overlooked in favor of targeting larger ships that are known to pose more of a threat to Loyalist ships, allowing the ship to get in close as the Pulse Lasers required relatively short range to operate. This trade off was deemed acceptable due to the fact that a full broadside from the turrets have the ability to take down shields faster then even MAC rounds. Though they are much less effective against the hull itself.

Reaching the elevator he quickly placed his palm upon the reader, it responded by giving him a small beep in acceptance. Quickly prioritizing the captain over other crew members the elevator stopped in the middle of moving between floors and begin to rise to the current floor of the captain. A muted ping wall all that was heard as the doors opened revealing a man leaning against the wall wearing loose fitting military slacks that were oddly fitting with his short brown hair and brown eyes.

"Captain," said the man, giving a lazy salute, "Are they ready to being the tests already?" he inquired.

"No, the station shouldn't be online for another hour at least," said the captain, "Although they could just be having some problems that they need our assistance for."

"Well, if something comes up, and you need it destroyed, you know who to call," replied the man, who Anderson recognized as John Sheppard, "Nothing better to do out here."

"You applied for posting on a stealth ship, and what? Did you expect it to be full of action?" said Anderson.

"I expected, captain, to be dropped behind the front lines onto some Loyalist planets." he replied.

He didn't blame him, Sheppard had lost his planet to the Covenant during the high point of the war. Four years later he joined the marines to help fight back. After only two deployments he applied for the ODST branch. Six months later, he had his first drop onto a planet already under heavy attack. He spent the next ten years in and out of combat until the end of the war. Afterward he remained in the ODST to be part of the defence fleet against the loyalist raids that still occurred now and again.

"You know we don't have the ships or the manpower to go on the offensive," he said, "We can barely defend ourselves at this point."

A soft ding rang as the doors to the elevator opened once again to the hive of activity that was the bridge of the ship. People moving from station to station making sure that all systems were online and ready for action if need be. Seeing the captain the marine at the door moved into a crisp salute.

Moving out of the elevator he looked back towards Sheppard, "Don't worry, you'll get some action. Just try to be patient until then."

The closing of the elevator doors was the only thing that prevented Sheppard from making a smart comment back, but as it was the doors simply closed as it resumed its decent back towards its original destination.

Moving quickly through the open floor space Anderson reached the main holographic table currently displaying the avatar of the ships A.I. Asya. Her avatar was made with long white hair going almost halfway down her back, and wearing a Japanese style kimono embroidered with small flowers around it.

"Captain," she called in greeting.

"Asya," he replied, "What's going on?"

"We have a report from the station. They are detecting abnormal gravitational readings that are throwing off their initial scans of slipspace. They reoriented the scanners outward under the hypothesis that there was an comet that had come back around the sun and was throwing them off," she stated, "But what they found was a fluctuating gravitational field around the 5th planet in the system's moon."

"What does this mean for us?" the captain replied.

"A moon consists of a set amount of mass the fluctuates minimally with impacts," she said, "But to be continually fluctuating would indicate artificial constructs in the area."

"Covenant?" he asked.

"Unknown, the field is larger then any known anti gravity field produced by Loyalist or Elite ships," she responded.

"Activate stealth systems and bring us towards the object," he called, "Send a request to the station to continue scanning the object, lets see if we cant get some more info."

"Stealth systems online and running at 95% efficiency, well within expected margin of error," she said, "Though I must remind you that the stealth systems are untested captain, we have no idea whether or not it would work in a real world situation," she said to him.

"Yes, but we don't have any other options," he replied, "If this some new Loyalist warship we don't have the weapons to fight a ship of that size. And being this close to earth we can't exactly leave it."

"True, should I send a report back to earth?" she asked.

"Yes, they should know just in case it is an attack," he replied, "Distance to the object?"

"Twenty thousand kilometers and closing," she said, "Coming around the planet now. We should have visual in 2.54 seconds."

Slowly the holotable changed from Asya's avatar to that of the moon and area around it. Only to see the space empty, the moon barren and cracking.

"Sir, the SS Station Early Bird is reporting a rise in gravimetric readings as we approach," she said, "Scanners show massive plate activity."

The moon itself looked as if it was about to shake itself apart. Large sections of the surface cracked and shifted breaking apart from the position it had held for thousands of years as massive amounts of gravitational forces worked to tear the moon apart.

"Captain, our ships gravimetric sensors are picking up the forces now!" she said with a hint of urgency, "Recommend we move away at top speed now!"

"The moon has been giving off those reading for the last little while, why should we move away now?" he inquired.

"Our own gravimetric sensor can only detect the forces put off by stars or large gas giants, and for us to get readings off the moon now means something is going on. This is enough to confirm this is due to artificial intervention," she replied.

"Drop the cloaking now!" the caption roared, " Move us away at top speed!" He was quite sure that something with the power to rip a moon apart could remove his ship from existence in seconds, if it turned out to be hostile.

"Reports from the Early Bird station have reading above that of the star in the system!" she called, worry slipping into her voice.

The moon itself, having taken all the forces it could, finally gave out exploding outward into space. The massive debris cloud expending rapidly outward in all directions obscuring sight into the mass and raining destruction onto the planet below.

"Debris cloud will overtake us in less then thirty seconds," said Asya.

"Reorient the ship so the more armored sections face the explosion!" yelled Anderson, trying to be heard over the sounds coming from all over the bridge as stations beeped in hopes of having the attention of a person focused upon them.

The ship swung around, metal groaning attempting to absorb the large amount of residual inertia, facing towards the expanding cloud as it raced towards the ship.

"Contact in five seconds!" Asya yelled, "Brace for impact!"

The ship shook violently as it was pelted with thousands of rock shards, each one like a bullet smashing into the ship. Paint was scraped off and reactive plating was dented and cracked. But only fifteen seconds after the barrage started had it stopped. Leaving a worn ship floating in space

Inside the ship the shock wave had thrown anyone who was standing onto the ground. Anderson himself held onto the holotable in an attempt to avoid being thrown around. His grip held only for a few seconds before he too was thrown to the ground. Each second felt like hours to the few crew members on the ship as the integrity threatened to give and expose them to the cold vacuum of space.

Getting up, Anderson looked around to see the bridge filling with smoke.

"Damage report, Asya?" he asked, hoping the main computer banks were still online.

"Mostly superficial captain, all core systems still online and working at or above 90% capacity. Forward pulse lasers turrets are jammed and unable to swivel more then thirty degrees in any given direction. Photo reactive plating all along the front of the ship is inoperable, it is unlikely that they can be fixed and will need to be replaced," she stated, "Many crew members are suffering from light to moderate wounds from the shock wave. All in all we got off easy."

"What about the station?" he asked.

"It was shielded from the wave by the planet, its completely unharmed," she replied.

"Any idea what caused this in the first place?" he inquired.

"Dust cloud is still dispersing so we cant get a visual, but the readings are stronger then ever," she replied, pausing for a few seconds, "Cloud is cleared enough for the scanners to pierce, bringing up the image now."

Slowly the holotable's display zoomed into the debris field to settle on a large object shaped like an active Energy Sword. Blackish blue energy pulsing softly in the 'handle' area. The entire thing was almost five dozen kilometres long and pushed all the debris around it way with each rotation of the 'Gyroscope' like object.

"Asya," Anderson said, then paused admiring the object, "What am I looking at?"

"I don't know captain," she said, "I really don't know."

"Send a copy of all of the reading we have recorded up unto this point back to Earth, see if we cant get some extra support down here," he asked.

"Yes sir," she replied.

…

Proxima Centauri: Four Days Later

Only hours after High Command had reviewed the report send by the Incursion had they decided to send a small task force to the system to examine the alien object. In total the task force consisted of one first generation frigate, the Memory, one prowler, the Blackbird and two support ships. One as a science vessel to work in tandem with the scientists still on the SS Station Early Bird to find out what the object is. The second is a logistics ship to help perform some field repairs on the Incursion and to bring extra engineers to be stationed to the ship long term. Even with the extra member the ship was still understaffed, there simply weren't enough trained personal to man new was decided to not recall the damaged ship as only its stealth systems were damaged beyond field repair and it still had significant combat potential.

The small taskforce represented a large portion of the ships available for operations outside of defences of UNSC space. The only reason ships were being sent at all was due to the proximity to Earth and the potential that it could represent a new unknown alien race. And with previous experiences in that area, potentially bring a new war upon them.

…

Proxima Centauri: The Incursion

Arriving on the bridge Anderson immediately moved towards his normal spot at holotable, hoping to hear good news about the repair work on his ship.

"Good morning Captain," Asya greeted, "Have a good sleep?"

"I don't see how it could be morning in space, Asya," he said, "Anyway, how are the repairs progressing?"

"Forward Pulse Laser turrets have had their jams cleared and scratched focusing lens replaced, 75% of the damaged Photo Reactive plating has been replaced but that's all that can be as high command has no more to use," she stated, "The other plates have been repaired as much as possible. At present our stealth systems are operation at 80% of expected capacity."

"Better then nothing I suppose," he sighed, "Anyway, have they found anything out about the object?"

"No, either that or they just aren't saying anything," she said, "And you know what they say about ONI."

ONI or Office of Naval Intelligence is a branch of the navy that operates directly under HIGHCOM or High Command. Agents of ONI are known as known as 'Spooks' due to their tendency to work behind peoples backs and be general refusal to share information with the other branches of the navy. ONI is also in control of the navy's 'Prowler' fleet.

Prowlers are UNSC stealth recon ships that were used for tracking Covenant movement during the war. ONI itself had a large stake in the Incursion as it was the next generation of stealth ship, capable of taking an active part in a battle instead of hiding of to the side after placing some HAVOC tactical nukes in space.

"Don't forget, I did work with them for over a decade," he said, "And yes, right now they could be searching through thousands of years of records from an highly advanced alien civilization, and still tell us they are as baffled as us."

Even though he had worked for ONI he never liked their secretive ways. He did it to help fight the Covenant. Over the course of the next ten years later he had seen to many of his brothers and sisters die in combat well he stayed off to the side, undetected by the hostile ships. That was why he had himself reassigned to a frigate for the last five years of the war. It was due to his experience in both stealth ships and frigates that he was chosen to command the Incursion.

Silence reigned over the bridge of the ship as Anderson looked out the window at the unknown object. The gyrating object in the 'handle' was almost mesmerizing. But the silence was quickly shattered.

"Captain, power reading in the object are rising," she said, "The Memory and the Early Bird confirm."

"What about the Blackbird? Technically they have lead on this," he asked' "How ever much sense that makes," he added quietly.

"They want us to move away and reorient towards the object just in case," she said, "The support ships are jumping away. May I recommend that we begin charging weapons?" she added.

"Agreed, though I'm not sure if our weapons could destroy that thing even if we wanted too," he said, "Though a NOVA mig…" he began to say before being cut off.

"Twelve objects have just appeared near the object Captain," she said, her voice keeping the same clam tone it always has, "Visuals coming in now."

Once again the holotable changed to show the same unidentified object as before, but this time the twelve new objects were shown in orbit around it. Each one highlighted in yellow to signify it as an unknown. Zooming on the objects it became increasingly clear as to what they were. Ships, many covered in easily recognisable turreted weapons. But what surprised him the most was the size of them. Eight of the ships were the size of Longsword fighters and the other four were less then the 8th the size of his frigate. None of the four ships was big enough to hold even one of the 'fighters' so it was unlikely they that they were, in fact, fighters.

"Captain, ships are rearranging locations. Extremely small ones up front and small ones in the back," stated Asya, mirroring his scepticism about the ships size, "The Blackbird relaying a message for us to broadcast out."

Using a second ship to relays messages was common practice for a Prowler. Even the best stealth systems wont hold up if you constantly send out large amount's of electromagnetic radiation.

"Relay the message and inform the Memory to orient towards one of the larger targets," he said, "At the first signs of hostile actions open fire, don't wait for confirmation, relay to the Memory and have the Blackbird confirm."

"Blackbird confirms, continuing with action," she replied, "I'm detecting a build up of an unknown energy around the unknown ship's hulls, it is possible that the ships are equipped with a unknown shield and are currently powering them up."

"Bring the Pulse Laser online and lock all targets. Powering shields isn't a completely hostile action," he said.

"The Memory is orienting its Auto Cannons towards the unknown contacts," she said.

Auto Cannons are weapons installed on nearly all UNSC ships with the exception of some of the experimental ship's. At their core they are simply giant guns in space. Guns that fire over a ten 50mm explosive rounds a second. Unlike all the other weapons built onto UNSC ships these turrets are not built for engaging other large ships, but instead for destroying smaller fighters and intercepting missiles.

"The four larger unknowns are launching what I believe are their fighters," called Asya, "Or at leas…"

It was at this point that the ship shook lightly in recoil of the MAC being fired in response to enemy beginning to attack. It took less then one second for the advanced systems to register the hostile act by the, now hostile, unknown ships as it began to fire upon the Memory with an unknown weapon. And further half second to fire the main weapon.

It took less then a thousandth of a second for the three hundred pound tungsten slug to reach its target. To it's credit the shields used by these people held up valiantly against the round, managing to hold it off for a full quarter second before giving way and allowing the object to continue on its path towards the ship. Ship based MAC weapons have the capability of doing tremendous damage to even the largest of Covenant ship's once the shields are down, so the effect against a target so small was simply stunning. As the round impacted the hull it began to flatten out in order to allow the largest amount of energy transfer before the round passed out the other side, but even the small fraction of the energy that had been used to destroy the ship had been more then enough. Less then a second after the ship had fired had it's target been completely eliminated. Not a single chunk remaining was over the size of a table, the ship being having been utterly ripped to shreds.

"Target destroyed Captain," said Asya, voice devoid of all emotion, "The Memory confirms destruction of their target."

"What happened?" he asked, "I mean what did they do."

"Sensors detected projectiles being launched from the four larger targets," she replied, "Weapon fire consistent to that of mass accelerators, not unlike that of the MAC, but on a much smaller scale," she explained, "The two remaining larger ships are holding position and focusing fire upon the Memory all other ships are moving towards at them at high speeds."

"Lock onto one of the remaining large ships and have the Memory target the other, move us towards the Memory and have our Pulse Lasers focus on the smallest ships first" he ordered, "Target the small ship's with the archer missiles."

"Yes sir, target locked and MAC firing," she said as another shutter went through the ship. The overview showed both of the larger ships being destroyed in the same fashion as the first two. "The other ships have began to open fire upon the Memory. They launching archer missiles."

Archer Missiles are also standard armament issued to all UNSC ships. Standard ship to ship missiles carrying a powerful explosive core capable of doing substantial amounts of damage to unshielded targets. Unfortunately Covenant point defence systems are capable of destroying large amounts of missiles before they can get close enough to do any damage. The solution to this was relatively simple, launch more missiles.

Frigate class ships have thirty missile pods holding forty missiles each. So even a small group of frigates are capable of launching hundreds of missiles at a time in an attempt to overwhelm the point defenses of enemy ships. Unfortunately, between the ten of them, the overlapping fields of the hostile ship's point defenses were able to effectively destroy all incoming missiles.

"The Memory is reporting energy weapon fire," called Asya, "Scanners show the energy weapons hitting the Memory are the same as those that shot down the missiles."

"Launch archer missiles against the larger ones, lets see if we cant distract their energy weapons," he replied, "What about the MAC?"

"Enemy ships are currently too close and moving too quick, we cant orient the ship fast enough to hit them," she said, "Hostile ships are orbiting the Memory at a distance of less then five hundred meters."

"How are their Auto Cannons holding up?" he asked, "And how long before we are in pulse laser range."

"Auto Cannons are having minimal effect, the ships are too close and moving to fast for them to track their targets effectively," she replied, "Sixty second till we are within range for our Pulse Lasers. Ships are firing missiles."

To the two foot thick Titanium A armor that first generation frigates are quipped with, the small mass accelerator weapons, and, relatively, weak energy weapons were nothing more then pinpricks. Obviously built for engaging other ships of their size they were woefully equipped for attacking a ship the size of a frigate.

"Auto Cannons only managed to intercept three of the four missiles!" she called," Impact on the Memory in five seconds!"

Oddly, the missiles employed by these hostiles didn't seem to explode on impact, instead there was a small blackish blue field that engulfed the missile and the area around it. The result of which was devastating. Large portions of the armor in the area simply ripped itself to pieces, bending and shaking even after being separated by from the ship.

"Captain, I'm picking up large gravimetric disruptions surrounding the impact site," she said, "They are using gravity as a weapon, tricky. We are entering Pulse Laser range."

"Target the ship's known to carry missiles first, I don't think the Memory can take many more of those," he said, "Prioritize ship's that break off and move towards us. We wont be helping them much if we end up in the same position."

The ship's orbiting the Memory had been doing damage to it with near impunity. Their defenses could stop all missiles, their ships knew to avoid the front of the ship to avoid the MAC weapon, and they moved to fast for their Auto Cannons to hit them. But being a few kilometers away the Incursion could hit the orbiting ships with near perfect accuracy, with only ships behind the Memory or directly in front of it being safe from fire.

"Shields on the hostile ship's seem unable to affect out pulse lasers Captain," commented Asya. It was true, the lasers seemed to simply cut into the ships, as if the shields didn't exist at all, dropping many of them in as little as two shots.

"Four ships confirmed destroyed," she said, "Hostiles are launching more missiles. Over ten confirmed launches."

Ten missiles, each one able to do massive damage to ships armor. The effect done to the interior structure of the ship would be devastating. The best option was clear.

"Tell the Memory to abandon ship and set their reactor to overload once escape pods reach safe distance," he said solemnly, "Once 50% of the pods have launched begin to fire at all ships, regardless of collateral damage."

Time seemed to slow to the crew of the Memory as they raced to get off the ship before the impact. The ODST on board escaping by using their HEV pods as life boats. But they had less then twenty seconds until impact. Only four escape pods and the HEV's had managed to escaped before impact.

If it wasn't for the peoples lives being lost, the effect could almost be called beautiful. Large flashes of blackish blue light filled the space around the Memory as it bent and distorted with the massive tidal forces that worked to rip it apart. Once the light had cleared the ship was surprisingly still there. Or a least most of it was. Large portions of the ship were simply ripped out and what was remaining was bending and twisting along the entire length of the hull, threatening to give out and finally fall to pieces. But even during this a few escape pods could be seen exiting the ship.

"Sir, hostile ships are retreating towards the unknown object, total surviving force is five of their medium ships and three small 'fighters'. What are your orders?" she asked.

"Bring us towards the wreckage and begin picking up escape pods, but first, target retreating ships," he said, "Fire MAC when ready."

"Firing," she said.

These ships, being much smaller then the largest of the hostiles, simply stop existing. Small clouds of dust being all that remained.

"Ship destroyed, others are at the object," she said, " Picking up a small burst of energy being directed towards it."

As suddenly as they arrived the ships left. Disappearing in an all too familiar flash of blackish blue light. Leaving space around the object, with it just sitting there, remaining as if nothing had happened at all.

"All hostile ships have evacuated. The Blackbird is taking off its stealth systems," she explained, "The Blackbird says our order are to rescue survivors of the Memory and then to hold position with weapons ready. They are going to return to Earth to pick up supplies and alert HIGHCOM of this.

"Fine, bring us around and set a course towards the closest escape pod," he commanded.

"Already done," she replied, as the ship began to move off to help any survivors from the battle.

…

Earth: HIGHCOM Two Hours Later

"Welcome everyone," said the first person, "I trust you all know why we are here?" he inquired.

"Unfortunately, I'm sure we all do," replied the second, "But the question isn't why we are here, its what we are going to do about it."

"We don't have many options," said the third, "We can't fight a war with these people, we can hardly defend ourselves as it is."

"We can't ignore it for the same reason," said the fourth, "We don't know anything about these people. They could have fleets of ship's much more powerful then the ones we have seen."

"Agreed," replied the third, "But what does that leave us with?"

"We could simply destroy the object. They appeared to use it to move at FTL speeds," suggested the first person, "Without it they simply couldn't send any more ship's."

"The science team has reported that the structure is made of some unknown material," said the second, "We aren't even sure we could get rid of it if we wanted too."

"Surely a NOVA Bomb could disable it at least," replied the forth, " They are known for cracking planet's," he exclaimed.

"NOVA Bomb's are in extremely short supply, we couldn't afford to use one in a hope that it would do the job," said a fifth man, "And besides we don't even know why they attacked. We might have just spooked them."

"I suppose that that could be true," replied the third, "Maybe we should send a ship to investigate."

"We have no idea what's on the other side of the object, or even if we could use it if we wanted too," said the second.

"The ONI Prowler Blackbird and the Prototype Frigate Incursion both detected a signal sent to the object that appeared to activate it," said the fifth, " Its possible that we could send a ship if we really needed too."

"We don't have many ships to spare," said the first, "Maybe a stealth ship? It could move around undetected and gather intelligence."

"We don't know what they might encounter on the other side," said the second, "They might need to have some fire power to defend themselves."

"All that leaves is the Incursion itself," said the first, "But its not in top condition, it would require weeks to fix it, assuming we even had the parts for it."

"None of our ships are in perfect shape," said the fifth, "We have ones on the front line who's MAC's cause more damage to the ship itself then the enemy."

"It's not even fully manned," added the second.

"No, but if we merge the survivors from the Memory into the crew of the Incursion it should be at a full complement. Many of the systems are the same as that in a frigate and all the specialised systems have operators stationed on the ship already," said the fifth.

"OK, even if that would work that doesn't help the fact that they could send an army through," said the forth.

"HAVOC Space mines, we could just some up in the area around the object on a proximity fuse. Then we simply use the SS Station in the area to keep tabs on it," said the third.

"This might just work," replied the first, "So there are three main objective for this mission. One, find the reason why we were attacked. Two, find out fleet positions and strength. And third, to gain insight into their technologies weakness's and strengths, in case this does result in a war."

"They would also have to prevent our technology from falling into their hands at all costs," said the fifth.

"Agreed, we will send the Blackbird back with the HAVOC Mines to set up the field," said the third one, "We should also send them with some Shiva's for the Incursion."

"If we are all in agreement," said the first one, looking around for signs of protest. Seeing none he continued, "Then the Blackbird will be prepped and ready when it returns."

With that the meeting was over and each member left the room one by one, leaving only the first man.

"The Incursion, eh, lets see if it lives up to it's name," he muttered to himself.

…

Proxima Centauri: The Incursion Two Days later

"That's the last of the supplies from the Blackbird," said Asya, "Three Shiva class nuclear warheads, they aren't skimping on the weaponry this time are they."

"They want us to, quite literally, charge blindly into what is most likely enemy territory with a crew who's trained to operate a different ship to our own." Anderson said, " Anything less then a few nukes and I would be thinking they don't care if we return."

"We don't have much time to go over the crew that survived from the Memory, we'll have to assign them to their positions quickly," she said.

"I trust you can do that in a mater of seconds?" he asked, "Or have you already done so and just want to show off?" he asked smiling lightly.

"Maybe," she said, smirking, "The Blackbird says the HAVOC Mines are being set to explode on a proximity fuse. So if we want to come back through we need to contact HIGHCOM first."

"I would expect nothing else," he said, "But if they are beginning to set up the mine field, then we should get going. Bring us towards the object, prepare to send the signal. We depart in twenty-four hours, to let the crew get in place."

"Moving into place now Captain," she said, "I'll start sending out the work orders to the crew members. This is going to be an interesting first mission."

"Trial by fire," he said, "The best kind."

Twenty-four hours later the Incursion sent the same signal to the object that the unknown ships had. The objects power levels began to rise before engulfing the ship in a, by this point, very familiar blackish blue light. The ship began to accelerate to unimaginable speeds, and that's when the first of many things went wrong.

…

Authors Note

So that ends the first chapter of my first story. I'm actually quite proud that I managed to finish what I started. Anyway, the point I'm trying to get across in this chapter is that UNSC didn't bounce back after the war. They didn't become some kind of super fighting force. Their forces are smashed, their population scattered, and supplies are divided unevenly because there is a lack of ships to transport them.

Also, in case it wasn't clear. I suck at making characters. So I'm asking anyone who's reading this to give me some suggestions, IE names, appearance, race, back-story's, personalities, profession and the such. The more detailed your person is the more likely it will be put in as a main character. They could even be a annoying political reporter who's to inquisitive for his/her own good. In fact that one would be extremely useful, so if anyone makes one using that I can almost guarantee them becoming a main character.

That leads to two more questions for the readers.

1. Should the Master Chief be put into this at some point?

This one would be dam hard to pull off without having it stop making any sense at all, but if you people would except Cortana being a hacking god I could pull it off.

2. I'm only planning on including two of the original alien team members who got onto the Normady in the original Mass Effect game, so what two if any?

I have no preference on this one all up to you guys.

In the morning I get to see how many people hate my attempts at writing :D