Chapter Text
It had been a vain attempt for the cruiser to make a slipspace jump. UNSC Rebellious Intent had already been ditched due to a crippled life support system. The two desperate Spartans who boarded her hoped the aging ship could’ve at least gotten them back into the less-hostile part of the system. Now they would be lucky to make it out of the jump alive.
Whatever had happened to the ship left the two soldiers (and one simple AI) fighting to keep her in one piece. A low creaking groan echoed through the ship as she threatened to break apart in the slipstream tunnel. The shriek and chime of the ship's alarms were practically deafening the duo as they fought for control
Just when they thought they had everything under some kind of control, the ship lurched forward. Like a fighter going full throttle, the massive cruiser rapidly picked up more and more speed. The eerie and low creaks and groans of the ship beginning to break apart could faintly be heard over the clamor of warnings and alerts if one listened hard enough.
None of that mattered when one of the engines gave way. The two armored soldiers were jerked forward and back in their seats, the sheer force alone would've killed a normal human. They were just brutally knocked out, mercifully unaware of the ship breaking apart.
Miraculously, they didn’t end up a vaporized trail of atoms and space dust. The AI was just barely able to save the bridge from being atomized as the ship fell out of slipspace. Hailey, as the bigger Spartan had called her, ran a sweep of the section to survey what was left. Her prognosis for the supersoldiers wasn’t good. The bridge was sealed off before they made the jump, but with the vast majority of the ship’s systems lost to the galaxy, they were running on borrowed time at best. If they were to survive, the two would need to free-fall onto a hospitable planet. MJOLNIR armor could handle a fall like that with the reentry packs brought aboard. Not the most ideal, but survivable.
There was a planet nearby, uncharted, with signs of civilized life with the clusters of platforms she detected. Other than that, the remaining scanners only found an endless ocean. The good news was there was no sign of Covenant ships, as far as the computer could tell. That didn’t mean she wasn’t going to activate her self-termination. She was a liability now. She couldn't do much for the humans, but she could buy them a few more minutes of power. It was barely enough to keep the remaining doors powered, but every minute was precious to escape the splintered wreckage of Rebellious Intent.
If Hailey was one of the smarter AI’s the UNSC had made, she might've done more. She might've called out to the two warriors in an attempt to wake them. Her more restrictive programming didn’t have any routines for that in her millions of lines of code.
.What else could a computer chip do here?
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It was maybe ten minutes before one of the Spartans began to regain consciousness. The smaller one, Jen-G234, stirred in the seat’s harness. The first thing she was aware of was a high-pitched ringing in her ears. Cautiously, the soldier flexed and stretched, testing to see if she’d been injured in any way. Even then, her augmentations practically made her pain tolerance bulletproof, making it easy for her to not even notice minor injuries or wounds.
Nothing seemed to be too critical of an issue, her ribs were sore, but that was probably from being yanked forward into the safety harness. A quick assessment of their situation told her that it probably wouldn’t do them any good. Most of the panels and controls were dark, save for a few powered by their emergency batteries. The sight of the blue planet growing ever so closer fueled her with a new sense of urgency.
Freeing herself from the harness, Jen pulled herself over to her companion’s side. He was beginning to move on his own, so she spoke out, “Wakey, wakey, Will. We’re gonna have to leave our sad excuse of a ship very soon.” She spoke in an unusually hushed tone, keeping in mind the other Spartan probably was feeling the same if not worse.
“Status, Jen,” was the hoarse answer as he freed himself to float beside her. He did a similar check on his body, satisfied with the results.
“Well, our AI friend destroyed herself, what’s left of our ship is falling towards an unknown planet, only emergency power, probably lucky to come out of this alive, and did I mention we’re by some unknown planet? Because I don’t recall any with that much fuckin’ water,” Jen listed off some of their immediate issues as she bounced around the compartment to collect her floating belongings.
“Thankfully our artificial friend was kind enough to point out a potential landing zone, and I think that this --” she paused to pass him a bulky reentry pack, “ is our ticket over there.”
Will processed their grim situation as he hooked the device onto his companion's back. "Avoid any locals, don't attract any attention to yourself, and stay low and hidden until I mark a rendevous point," he instructed her. "You have an active camo module installed. Use it."
"Got it, Will," was her reply, letting him fix the reentry pack to her back. "Good luck," she added sincerely, opening the one door that separated them from the cold, vacuum of space.
They'd drifted close enough to be pulled in by the planet's gravity, their velocity rapidly increasing as they broke into the atmosphere like two meteors. Jen didn't know how or when they were separated, but when she glanced over to check on the Alpha, he was gone. No surprise there. Jen knew that he probably needed to dodge ship debris, much like she now had to do. A quick twist or her body and she narrowly avoided a shard of the ship.
She was rapidly approaching her landing zone and braced for the hard impact. The domes were shielded with an energy field, crackling as she struck it with a resounding “Boom!” The dazed soldier had to angle herself towards the safety of a flat platform jutting out from the side of the building. It was either that or be lost to the churning waves below.
As much as Jen wanted to rest and shake off the hard landing, Will’s instructions echoed in her mind. She couldn’t risk being seen by the locals, who most surely would investigate the damage done by the remains of the ship. Her bulky form shimmered before disappearing, unknowing of the surveillance team that had most certainly noticed the heavily armored figure outside.
Only one of the observers appeared to be unbothered by the situation, the Togrutan, Shaak-Ti. She’d felt a massive disturbance in the Force when the unknown object suddenly appeared just outside of Kamino’s atmosphere. It was nothing of Separatist design, nor did it belong to any recognizable design found in the galaxy. She’d felt the two life forces onboard, faint at first, but remarkably resilient to survive that breach and a free-fall onto the Kaminoan facility. The two beings could prove themselves to be either valuable allies or worrisome enemies. Especially if the other one had similar cloaking abilities.
The Jedi master excused herself from the room, as the security team went into a mild meltdown of who or what just infiltrated the cloning facility. The life form was close, the whispers of the Force leading her down hallways and corridors until she reached one of the many storage rooms. This one contained more janitorial supplies instead of training armor or weapons.
The being was towards the back, alert and seemingly aware of the Jedi standing outside. The Force swirled uncertainly around them, seemingly knowing that the being shouldn’t logically be here. Shaak Ti could very well use her abilities to find out more about the alien, but for the sake of keeping tensions low, she ruled against it.
“I know you’re here,” she spoke out into the dark, “If you reveal yourself now, we can discuss your situation without any force needed.”