26DISCLAIMER: This fan work is made under the 'Fair Use' clause of the Federal Copyright Act for the purposes of entertainment under the 'Transformative' and 'Non-Commercial' standard. All Source materials and intellectual properties belong to their respective owners. If you enjoy this work, please consider supporting the creators of the original source material. I make no money whatsoever from this work.
The Halo IP is owned by Bungie Studios, 343 Industries, and the Microsoft Corporation.
The BattleTech IP is owned by Catalyst Game Labs, and The Topps Company.
The MechWarrior IP is owned by Xbox Game Studios, and Piranha Games.
Chapter 1: Unexpected Neighbors
SLS Terra, Bridge
LOCATION UNKNOWN
TIME UNKNOWN - Last known Date February 21, 2772
Colonel Jason Watkin, Commanding Officer of the Royal Black Watch, and Paladin of the Star League, regained consciousness strapped into a command couch(1), misjump alarms blaring through the bridge of the McKenna-class Battleship SLS Terra. The Admiral, seated at his back, was calling for a report from all ship stations. The Admiral turned as he groaned, and passed him a bottle of painkillers and a squeeze-bottle of water. He accepted them gratefully and immediately popped two of the pills into his mouth and followed it with a mouthful of water. Jason glanced around the bridge, and aside from some sparking consoles, he couldn't see much in the way of damage.
"We got lucky," Colonel Watkin said to Admiral Ethan Nelson after the initial damage reports came back with only a few areas glowing red on the tactical displays.
"We did," he answered. "We also appear to not be alone. Most of our task group is still with us." Admiral Nelson pointed to the holotable in the low center area of the bridge. Their small second wave fleet was arrayed in a loose formation around the Terra, the yardship SLS Hephaestus being the closest off their starboard keel. Surrounding her were their fleet's three M5F series Caspar Drones(2), SLS Tiku TQF-157M5F, SLS Kappa TQF-158M5F, and SLS Lucky 307 TQF-307M5F. Off the Terra's port beam was the DCS Oshika, a ship placed under the Colonel's command by the order of the Coordinator of the Draconis Combine himself, to ensure that the deaths of the last heirs of House Cameron would not weigh on his honor.
Further away and aft, sat a cluster of merchant jumpships loaded with cargo, specialists, infantry elements, and the various dependents of the fleet. Hovering protectively above them was the FSS Red Robin, a volunteer unit from the Federated Suns that had joined up with Kerensky's forces to fight back against the Usurper, Stefan Amaris. The fleet appeared to be missing some of its escorting screen of destroyers, which made the Colonel frown.
"At least we kept our Potemkin," Watkin muttered as he unstrapped himself from the command couch. The SLS Bandolier, a Potemkin class troop carrier, was one of the biggest saving graces for their small fleet. She carried 25 dropships, this time loaded about evenly split between troops and supplies.
"Navigation, any idea where we are?" Admiral Nelson barked down into the flight ops pit.
"No match in our stellar database(3), sir," the navigator, a young woman with blonde hair pulled into a short ponytail, responded glumly. "We're lost." This last was said with an air of finality, before.
"Maybe," the secondary sensor operator chimed in, "but they might not be. Ship contact, low orbital over the nearby planet. Mass, in excess of 40 million tons, best guess."
The silence on the bridge was deafening. 40 million tons would outmass the entire Task Force with just one ship, nevermind just the warships. Colonel Watkin glanced at the Admiral. "Sir, I'd rather not fight them if we don't have to."
"I happen to agree, Colonel," the Admiral groused. "I'm not sure that ship would notice us if we started scratching at it with our guns." The Admiral turned and barked back into the pit. "Comms, keep an ear out, if we get anything, get linguistics crunching. I'd like to be able to talk with them within a week, if they're not shooting at us. Navigation, if they start shooting, I want us running for the zenith point. Until then, get the sails deployed, and start charging the batteries for when we find out where we are and plot a route back home."
A chorus of 'Aye, Sir!'s from the pit answered his declaration, and then the normal noise of operations aboard a warship's bridge sputtered back to life. Colonel Watkin saluted the admiral and pushed himself off the bridge and down the passage towards the gravity deck where his most important charges awaited.
UNSC Spirit of Fire, Bridge
Korinth Prior, Low Orbit of the 4th Planet
0840 Hours Shipboard time, 23 February, 2531
"Serina, status," Captain James Cutter called out as he strode onto the Spirit's bridge.
"We have new contacts, sir. Unidentified ships emerged into realspace near the local Lagrange point(4), and have been holding position for roughly the past 5 minutes," Serina answered him, the ship's AI's smooth tone a welcome change to the excited crewman on the radio that had summoned him back to the bridge. "Radio traffic is high, but I'm still working on the encryption. That's odd, the ships match no known ship profiles, either Human or Covenant." There was a short pause. "We may be looking at another First Contact, Captain" the AI added, almost as an afterthought.
"Of all the times not to have the Professor aboard," Cutter muttered. "How long until Forge is on the ground?"
"Recon Teams are currently passing through the outer atmospheric layers and are currently out of contact. Estimated time to landfall, 3 minutes," the AI informed him in her best chipper tone. "Shall I recall them once they've passed the interference layer?" (5)
"No," Cutter decided. "Keep them on mission, we'll handle things up here for now, and if they can find the professor, all the better." He turned back towards the passageway. "I'll be in my cabin, Serina. Let me know if you make any progress on that encryption."
"Learning a new encryption scheme to listen in on the new neighbors, aye sir," Serina remarked as the Captain leaned over the tactical display table at the rear of the bridge.
About five minutes later, Serena reappeared from the table's holo emitter. "Captain, news on the encryption front. You're not going to believe this, but our new neighbors are speaking English."
"You're right, I don't believe it," Cutter looked over at the AI. "Let's hear what you've got then."
Serina waved and brought up an audio display window. "Playing decrypted audio recording now." The speakers on the bridge fuzzed briefly before the audio solidified into a clear signal.
"DCS Oshika reports no major system malfunctions. Armor integrity at 87 percent, we were fortunate in that respect," a voice with a Japanese accent reported. "Only a single fatality to report, one of the technician's straps broke loose and she struck her head on one of the machine benches during the turbulent emergence. Her sacrifice will be remembered by the Dragon." The Spirit's bridge crew sat in silence as several other ships reported along similar lines, before one of them spoke up.
"Should we try to talk to them?" one crewman asked, only for an argument to break out among the crew as they debated the merits of attempting to contact a new group. Cutter brought the argument to a halt with a raised hand.
"Serina, prepare to record a message for a tight beam transmission to our neighbors. We have a confirmed Covenant presence on the planet, and if they are what I think they are, I'd rather not leave them to the mercy of our enemies unwarned. First, though, I want you to pull up whatever footage we have from their arrival. I want to take a closer look at it."
Cutter focused intently on the screen on the rear wall of the Spirit's bridge as the footage played, his jaw tightening as he watched the strange flare of light that resolved itself into the ships that currently hung at the Lagrange point. "That," he began, motioning to the screen as he paused the image on the flare of light, "is not a slipspace jump. Serena, your analysis?"
"Upon reviewing the ship's sensor logs, I can confirm that there were no signs of an emergence portal," Serina confirmed. "However, there are definite gravitational anomalies in the preceding minute leading up to their appearance. The light wave at their emergence was also accompanied by a large electromagnetic pulse. This pulse was of such a scale that it would be detectable from several Astronomical Units distant." The AI smirked as she continued, "The pulse was not of sufficient strength to affect any of our own systems at our current range."
"In summary, Captain, these ships are like nothing we have ever encountered before. I cannot even begin to postulate on the mathematics necessary to achieve such a feat."
Captain Cutter pushed away from the edge of the tactical table. "Alright people, time to see if they're willing to be friendly."
SLS Terra, Grav Deck 1, Officer's Country
Far Orbit of Unknown Planet
Misjump + 15 minutes, 0845 Ship Time, Date Unknown
"Colonel Watkin to the bridge. Colonel Watkin to the bridge."
The blaring of the intercom made Jason look up from where the 5 year old Amanda Cameron lay on the floor, drawing on scraps of paper. The tall, red-headed Colonel was built strong and lanky, almost an archetypical MechWarrior. His uniform proudly bore the crossed pistols of the Gunslinger program, and his blue eyes shone from within the creases of a hardened veteran.
"Uncle Jason has to go again?" The blonde haired little girl asked from where she lay, her head turning to look at him.
"Uncle Jason has to go for a bit," he nodded, then reached down to ruffle Amanda's hair. "I'll be back soon, okay Amanda?" Jason smiled as Amanda tried to bat his hand away, then stood up and nodded to the other occupant of the room. "I'll try to keep you informed as best I can, Lady Cameron."
Elise Cameron looked up from her sewing, "Thank you. I only hope that our fortunes are not as dire as we feared they were." She frowned slightly, and went back to her sewing, and Jason turned and palmed the keypad to open the door onto the passageway of the forward gravity deck aboard the Terra.
SLS Terra, Bridge
A short walk later, and he was drifting onto the bridge of the battleship. "You called for me, Admiral?"
"You're here, good," Admiral Nelson said. "The medics see you for that bump to the head?"
"They were there with Amanda and Elise when I got there, yes," the Colonel answered, his hand coming up to rub the back of his head. "Still smarts a bit, but no concussion."
"Good news then. We've picked up a transmission directed our way by our mystery contact from earlier. Lieutenant, play it again for the Colonel." Colonel Watkin grabbed hold of a railing on the central command holotable and brought himself to a stop across from the Admiral and a Lieutenant floating beside him. The Lieutenant, who's nameplate read Cantrell, pressed a few buttons on the console and an audio message began to play.
"This is the UNSC Spirit of Fire to the Unidentified Ships in far orbit. This area is currently under an active conflict condition. Please state your intentions."
"Is this translated?" the Colonel asked the Lieutenant.
"No sir, it's a direct audio file," Cantrell responded.
"Strange indeed. Any intrusions in our networks?" The Colonel asked.
"No sir, spoofing check came back all clear, and no records of any attempted entries, successful or otherwise, are showing up past when we were assigned our destroyer screen back at Stirling."
"Do we have any idea who or what this 'UNSC' is?" the Admiral asked the Lieutenant.
"No sir," the Lieutenant responded. "There are no records of any such organization using any similar acronym save the old United Nations Security Council of pre-spaceflight Terra."
"United Nations?" Watkin asked.
"Precursor to the Terran Alliance, failed rather quietly," Cantrell answered the question. "Fell apart trying to stop a war between the Western Alliance and the Soviet Union."
"Ah. History wasn't my best subject," Captain Watkin commented.
"Your best subject was 'Ass-Kicking'," Admiral Nelson interjected. "As you oh so kindly demonstrated for us on Terra and Kikuyu."
"He has a point," Cantrell responded, his Russian accent stronger in his humor. "In all seriousness though, sirs, what are we going to do here? Do you want us to send anything back their way?"
"It would seem only polite," Nelson decided. "Compose a message detailing that we happen to be lost, and that we are a military force that was gathered to attempt to overthrow a coup of our home systems."
"I take it you'll want to handle this yourself, Admiral?" the Colonel asked him. When the admiral nodded, he tapped a pair of controls on the table, and looked back at the man. "I'm going to inform Lady Cameron, and get some of the Kuritan Samurai guards over here. If you're going to do a meet and greet, I want to be ready ahead of time." Colonel Watkin pushed back off the table towards the exit hatch from the bridge.
SLS Terra, Grav Deck 1, Officer's Country
30 minutes later
"I want to meet with them," Elise Cameron decided firmly, after Jason informed her of the Admiral's decision regarding their mysterious contact.
"I would strongly encourage you to wait, Lady Cameron," Jason advised her. "We don't know what their motives are yet. Their single ship outmasses our entire fleet, and I'm loath to have you meet directly with aggressive actors. Once we know more about them, I will happily help you to set up a meeting with them if they are not hostile toward us."
"I understand your reasoning, Colonel Watkin," she told him, using his formal title, "but I must insist. I'm the only person in this fleet that has any sort of real political training, even if it was brief and mostly in the way of direct experience instead of formalized training. Besides," her expression softened and she let a smile show briefly, "if something does happen to me, I trust you and Suzumi will raise Amanda well."
"I- Yes ma'am," Jason answered, subdued. He knew when there was no longer any point trying to argue with Elise. She was very strong minded, and once Elise decided to do something, it was very hard to dissuade her from her chosen path of action.
"If you could let the Admiral know I'd like to speak with him regarding our new neighbors, I'd be thankful," Elise finished, turning back to her noteputer, which was currently tethered to the table with a multicolored lanyard.
At the clear dismissal, Jason saluted, then walked back out into the passageway. As the door to Lady Cameron's office closed behind him with a hiss, he leaned back against the wall and pressed his hands to his forehead. He wished the Elise Cameron of today was as easy to deal with as she had been during their flight from the Terran Hegemony during the Amaris Coup, back when all he had to worry about was keeping her and Amanda alive.
One of the Kuritan Samurai gave him a knowing look as he composed himself again. "Royalty is always hard to work around when they gain their stride," the Samurai told him, voice slightly muffled by his facemask. "They do not always remember that those surrounding them are just human, and oft have as much stress as they do."
The samurai reached over and clapped Jason gently on the shoulder. "We must always remember that they too, are only human, and need our support just as we may need theirs."
"Thank you," Jason told the samurai, before turning and beginning the trek towards the bridge. It was time to speak to the admiral.
SLS Terra, Bridge
A Few Minutes Later
The door to the bridge hissed open before Colonel Watkin as the scanner read his fingerprints. The central holotable in the bridge pit was lit up with a series of communications windows. The first window showed an older gentleman in a green uniform with a green duty cap emblazoned with a bird clutching a planet, and a ribbon with the letters "U.N.S.C." The second window showed a blue female avatar, with data code scrolling behind and through the visage of the avatar. The older gentleman's window was highlighted as the current source of audio, though he seemed to be distracted looking at something other than the camera on his end.
"-normal. All is… hold on… something's…" the voice coming from the speakers on the holotable paused briefly. "Movement! We've got movement all over!" The sounds of automatic gunfire could also be heard over the speakers, though Jason couldn't hear any return fire.
"What's going on, Sir?" Jason whispered to the admiral as he grabbed the railing on the side of the holotable to bring himself to a stop.
"A situation arose groundside during my call with the captain of our ship contact," Admiral Ethan Nelson whispered back, just as the transmission came back alive again.
"This is ECHO! Help! Help! They've breached our- AAHHHHHHH!" the transmission cut out abruptly.
"ECHO signs are offline, quite suddenly I might add," the woman's blue avatar spoke in the silence.
"Sergeant, take a team out there and find out what's happening," the older man Jason assumed was the captain of their unknown ship barked out.
"Captain Cutter, if I may," the Admiral interjected, "I have another idea. I can send down some of my own men to assist your Sergeant in this investigation. Colonel, I want you to take two dropships groundside and support our new neighbors."
"Aye, Sir," the Colonel answered, pulling up a window displaying the dropships docked to the Terra. "I'll be taking the Abyss and the Hecate 3 down to the surface. We might bring some more down later to secure the surface." Jason pressed a pair of keys on the holotable's command panel and then spoke. "Abyss, Hecate 3, this is Colonel Watkin. Prepare for immediate groundside deployment. Abyss, I'll be aboard in less than 5 minutes."
"Thank you for your offer of assistance, Admiral. I accept your aid. Serina, tell Sergeant Forge friendly assistance is headed groundside, I'll update him with an ETA as soon as I have it for him," the elderly Captain said.
The speakers blared again "INDIA, reportin' in. Elephant's unpackin'. Hold for… Wait… Over there… What the hell was that! Spirit! This is INDIA! They've… they've taken over…get us…aahhhHHH!"
"INDIA signs are offline as well," Serena, the blue avatar, spoke up. "How very ominous."
"Colonel, get those dropships groundside on the double!" the Admiral barked. Colonel Watkin saluted and shoved himself out the bridge doors. The last thing he heard as the bridge doors closed was the Admiral ordering a flight of ASFs to make recon passes on the planet.
SLS Abyss, Mechbay
Final Descent to Unknown Planet
30 minutes later
Colonel Jason Watkin sat strapped into the command couch of Stormwing, his Marauder MAD-2R, as the dropship vibrated through the final stages of reentry. His mind ran through the latest information that the AI, Serina, had provided on the enemy.
Virulent, parasitic organisms that consumed anything of sufficient biomass. It was a good thing, then, that they had had some flamer infantry aboard the Abyss, a Colossus class dropship, from their latest assignments with the rest of Kerensky's fleet. Traditionally, the SLDF only used flamer infantry for fighting against entrenched enemies, usually in city fighting. But against parasitic organisms, especially ones large enough to shoot? A flamer would be a godsend, especially to clean off 'Mechs.
Despite the UNSC's groundside Sergeant's comment of too much information, Jason disagreed. The knowledge of what their enemy would do was very important. After all, he didn't want to send in his own infantry unsupported into something that was just going to eat them.
"Final atmospheric layers cleared, landing coordinates in sight," the dropship's Captain, Bert Larsen, told him over the radio. "It looks like that friendly firebase is fighting off swarms of little crawling bulbs. I'm going to keep some of the infantry close to our landing site to keep these things away from the ship."
"Understood," Jason confirmed. "I'm ordering the Firestarters to deploy first. I'd suggest we also deploy any tanks with flamers first as well, if we have them aboard. Can we get the bay door open for the Firestarters to jump?"
The next thing the Colonel heard in response was the bay door as it rumbled open and the roar of the fusion drives filled the mech bay. "Hazard Lance, deploy! Jump Jet drop," Jason gave the order. The two Firestarters powered up their mechs and walked out of their cubicles, joined by a pair of Javelins, and turned towards the ramp that took them to the bay door. "Tiger Lance, follow behind Hazard Lance. Secure the LZ while Hazard Lance provides support to friendly forces as needed. All other lances will deploy by the numbers after landing." The four Phoenix Hawks of Tiger Lance also powered up and began to taxi behind Hazard Lance.
A minute of tense waiting followed before he felt the dropship finally settle down onto the hard ground of this planet. "All Mechs, deploy!" Jason brought Stormwing's reactor to full power and walked the mech around the corner and down the ramp into the open air of this new planet.
Author's Afterword:
Special thanks to my co-writer on this project, DarkPhoenixJake, and CSS Stravag for beta-ing the first four chapters.
This project has been an absolute ride, with almost 15 separate iterations from when I first came up with the initial versions of the story, some of which were radically different in both concept and composition. Eventually, when I began working with my co-writer on the project, we ended up narrowing it down to what you see here before you.
The writing process itself began with us writing out the story from the initial events of the major changes to our timeline, but that didn't feel satisfying to read back over, so I made the decision to start the writing at the Misjump that really kicks off the wild ride of adventure.
Jake and I spent quite a bit of time trying to decide where the Misjump would land our intrepid little group of soldiers (and some civilians), considering settings like Warhammer 40k, Mass Effect, and Macross, among others. The full list would take up quite a bit of space.
I hope you enjoy the adventure alongside us. Discussion makes the Idea Engine go brrrrrrrrr.
Co-writer's Afterword:
And our journey begins…
This story has been in the works for a while now, and went through a couple of rewrites while we were trying to get everything done to our satisfaction. The small things in a story are some of the worst when it comes to inconsistencies, and they can quickly create plot-holes. This story is the result of many hours working together on topics we are both passionate about.
We originally were planning to start this story much further back in the timeline, but decided to start at this part instead. You may see some of our original material later on, but it won't be in the form we first started with.
We hope you enjoy this story, and are working on more chapters at a steady pace. Fair warning, we both have full time jobs, so chapters may be slow to be released.
If you like the story, leave a comment, let us know what you think, and give us a follow/favorite.
EDIT: Some scenes have been fleshed out based on feedback from readers, and I have made the decision that such edits were necessary to help other new readers and clarify some details.
Glossary of Terms:
(1) Command Couch
This is the term used in the Mechwarrior/ Battletech universe for the seat that is used by crew for seating during acceleration and maneuver. It's built similar to seats used in aircraft cockpits. Also used to describe the pilot's seat in Mech Cockpits.
Alternative usages: Acceleration Couch, Crash Couch (seldom used, as most pilot's are reluctant to use the word 'Crash'), Pilot's seat, Captain's Chair, and Control Console.
(2): Caspar Drones
A highly advanced drone warship with an inbuilt AI, Caspar drones are used by the SLDF as system defense craft. Control can be passed from system defense stations to any unit with the appropriate control equipment. Some new model Caspar drones carry their own control equipment onboard and can thus be released to their own command.
Several hardware and software restrictions are in place to prevent the built in AI from either going rogue and refusing orders, or to prevent hostile powers from seizing control without the correct access codes.
(3) Stellar database
The term used for a collection of navigational data of astral bodies used to determine one's own position among the stars. A stellar database is a required tool for long distance space travel.
(4) Lagrange Point
A Lagrange Point is a location in space where multiple sources of gravity cancel each other out, forming a stable area that allows placement of objects that are relatively stationary to whatever they're orbiting. They are considered 'prime real estate' for stationary objects in high orbit. In the Battletech universe, Lagrange points are often referred to as 'Jump Points', as they are the only areas that can be used by KF drives to safely jump to or from.
The most common Jump Points are the Zenith and Nadir Lagrange Points of a stellar system, as they are the largest and most relatively stationary points that can be found in any given system. They are often multiple days travel at a single gravity of acceleration from any planets in the system. On average, Zenith and Nadir points are roughly a week's travel from a system's planet(s), though that can vary greatly.
Planetary (or Local) Lagrange Points are often called "Pirate Points", because they are very small, relatively fast moving, and thus hard and risky to target without very detailed information on the conditions within a system.
(5) Interference Layer
This is a known current issue in going from orbit to atmospheric operations. The atmospheric resistance of a craft becomes more severe as it is affected by the drag forces of the atmosphere, which causes extreme heat. As the temperature rises, gasses and other particles start to convert into plasma, causing electromagnetic interference, which interferes with radio signals.