Some weeks had passed since the UNSC Forces had set up camp on the planet below. All the while, the fleet itself maintained a continuous patrol pattern as not to wake up with Covenant jumping in after them. While the Admiral was aware that the Covvies with their advanced Slipspace drives would've gotten here days or even weeks ahead of'em, it paid to be precautious about the possibility of your old enemy returning from the pits of hell to finish you and your people off.

He sighed, looking at the desert-covered orb below them. The ships were currently stationed in geosynchronous orbit above the twilight zone of the world, so they could clearly see the dark area as well. Faint lights glowed in the clouds near the equator of the plan, where the UNSC research division had set up a base of operations to study this new AI, Latana, and the secrets of the Concordat.

He eyed a report from the Doctor and her Research and Development teams down below. Thumbing the tablet to turn it off, he stood to his feet and walked up to the reinforced windows of the Supercarrier's bridge, his mind asking the sea of stars ahead countless questions to which he would hopefully receive answers from down below. He hummed, then said, "Latana, status of the fleet?"

"At one hundred percent, sir," The AI replied, "Slipspace drives have been ready to go for two weeks, now. Science and exploration crews have also mapped local stars and provided coordinates for multiple areas of interest."

He sighed. He'd spent too much time worrying about below. Turning to her, he ordered, "Tell the Prowlers in the fleet to depart. Random jumps and keep stealth on. Cole Protocol remains applicable in regards to the location we are currently at. Our fleet's going to need to keep itself on the down-low, no matter where we are..." He sighed, again, then turned to face the windows, "Speaking of. Any theories from our eggheads?"

"Various, ranging from a Slipspace anomaly that caused us to slingshot to a different galaxy straight to the wacky, like being in another universe, sir," She replied. With a flick of her wrist, she brought up the numbers on one screen in front of the Admiral, then stated, "I ran some calculations in regards to the possibilities and... Well, as you can see, they're all equally likely."

"You're telling me it's possible we're in some godforsaken alternate universe?" He inquired, "If yes, why haven't we jumped to the Earth of this universe? Why haven't we just... I don't know, emerged near home? And just what sent us here, if that's the case? That anomaly hadn't been there before, had it?" And all he got as an answer was a shake of the head. The man sighed deeply, then rubbed his face.

This was going to be a clusterfuck to parse through. He could just feel it. "I understand..." He replied dejectedly, then thumbed his datapad. May as well get to reading the other R&D Reports that the doctor had been leaving. Plopping himself down into his seat with the tablet in hand, he added, "Tell the Prowlers to report directly to the Moscow. Every single detail of their system-wide scans."

"Understood, sir. Already relayed. Prowler ships are heading out in various directions as we speak and preparing to exit the system," She replied, then hummed and said, "I have a feeling we may be facing a lot of work in the coming few months, sir. I just got a new package of data from the planet and have sent it straight to the lab, but if the Doctor's writings are to be believed...? We may have access to a semi-sizable database of alien technology stored within the Monolith."

"... Prepare a rundown for me. When is the doctor coming back aboard?" He inquired, standing up.

"She should be on her way for her break. The devices she inquired about in her report are being requisitioned from storage for her lab," The AI replied. She then pulled up several holoscreens around her and started parsing through the information. Outside, in the darkness, they could see the winking lights of Prowler engines departing for the dark void beyond. The sun of the system shined to the left of the warship.

One of the Phoenix-class vessels floated past their portside, showing the multitude of Heron drop-ships that were ready for use to prepare the UNSC's underground abode on the planet below. The Admiral hummed, looking at himself in the faint reflection of the ship's window. They'd have to set up a working government, mostly due to the fact that the Military wasn't exactly the good kind of leader for a country, as history had proven. Except in times of war, of course.

The man scratched his chin, then said, "I'll go take a walk, Latana. Keep me appraised on anything you think important."

"Sir, yessir," The AI replied as he walked out of the Bridge and into the hallways. Deck crew saluted the man as he passed by. He returned the salutes almost robotically, too deep in his own thoughts to reply to any questions they may have, then took a right down the other hall. The officers' club was his first target. He wanted to get some coffee before going to greet the doctor and her boys and girls.

Other staff aboard the ship also greeted the man. He replied kindly to them, took coffee from the counter sat in the far right of the massive room, then walked out. Marching toward one of the tram cars that went from one end of the ship to another, the man climbed aboard with several other Marines, soldiers and ship and science staff. The tram departed...

... The Admiral, however, was taken out of his thoughts when he heard one of the men humming. It was a familiar song. He'd heard it during some history class way back during the Academy days... An eerie, heavy song from a dark period in the past of humanity. It was a song written by the people of a Regime about as vile as the one it was fighting during that time, but it was for the common man and woman to find in them the wrath to defeat an invading foe.

A couple of others inside began to echo it. The man's stop and the stop of those soldiers came. As they walked out onto the hangar deck, where the man would wait for doctor Grayson to return. In the Hangar, Marines and pilots lounged around or were working on their vehicles alongside mechanics. Some turned as they heard the men and women that had come with him, all of them humming that song.

They joined.

Before the Admiral knew, half the deck crew was humming this song, including himself. Despite the regime that wrote the damn thing being vile, the song itself was a morale piece. A valiant cry, a defiant shout that they would not go down without a fight. And as they hummed it with him walking down the deck, several of the soldiers that were ethnically Russian began to sing, with his neural lace translating...

Let noble wrath

Wash them over like a wave!

This is a people's war!

A Sacred war!

Those in the deck crew that had sung with the rest of the men returned to their posts, silently humming the song for another minute before the deck fell silent again, save for the noise of clinking metal and machinery being worked on. He looked at the men and women under his command, his gaze sweeping across the entire deck, before stopping on the Marines that started the singing.

He knew they were trying to raise morale. He had made a promise to Lord Hood over the com, that Battlegroup Moscow would be back to assist or reconquer Earth, no matter how long it took. The entire crew knew the second option was more likely, taking into account what happened at Reach and how quick the Covenant was in bringing another fleet to the planet. Optimism, pessimism, whatever. It didn't matter now.

What mattered was preparing for the day they'd take revenge upon the Covvies for killing all of them. If and when they found a way home, the Admiral or his successors would make sure they took it. Right now, however? It seemed as though they had another possible threat incoming. These 'Machines'. To Humanity, however, their name was 'Reapers'. A sentient machine race of some kind.

Determined, the man looked to those who had begun the song and did little else but offer them a proud salute. They smiled, though behind their smiles were sunken eyes, red with exhaustion. They raised their hands in salute, to which the Admiral nodded, dismissing them. They had more important business to attend to, such as patrolling the ship and ensuring Cryo remained stable.

The jet-wash of a Pelican's engines vectoring for landing blew into him like a gust of wind, causing his clothes to flutter and nearly taking his cap off his head. The aircraft extended its landing gears and touched down in front of him. From it, the Doctor emerged, tablet in hand, then smiled and said, "I'm sorry for being late, sir. Atlana and I had a talk about the database she has."

"And?" He inquired, "You're going to have to give me a rundown of the tech we have available here."

She smiled, "Oh, there's things aplenty. Prototype tech, too. Some matches with or can potentially assist the research ONI Materials has been doing in regards to plasma and laser weaponry for us to use against the Covenant. There's also a new Element that's been discovered! It's part of the power source and it has some incredible properties attached to it!"

"Element Zero. I heard," He nodded, "The planet itself, meanwhile?"

"Habitable on the dark side, as we predicted. If you want to settle here, we can set up underground cities spanning from the spite itself," She replied as the two now walked together toward the trams. She continued, "However, I'd suggest we find a new, more habitable, Earth-like planet if we want to live somewhere nice. Leave this as a research base with a minor military presence."

"Understood," The man nodded, "We have twenty million people on board this fleet. One planet with that small a habitable area may not be enough... And not everyone wants to live in underground facilities, doctor."

"We can spread our numbers out evenly if we find multiple habitable planets," She suggested, "Seeing as you did just send Prowlers out on research duty, as well..." And she smiled as she saw the man's confusion. She stated, "Latana told me via single-beam that some of the ONI assets in the fleet are being mobilized to find us a new home. Everything alright, Admiral?"

"We're a refugee fleet, Doctor," He replied, "Armed to the teeth, but Refugees nonetheless..."

"And we will return home, stronger than ever... However, we have a new mission here. Acquiring and researching the tech we'll need to defeat the Covenant, should they still be around when we return. That and defeating the Reapers when and if they rear their as-of-now unknown heads at us and the rest of this galaxy," She shot back, seemingly enthused about her work here and now.

"However long that'll take?" He asked, raising a brow.

"Even if the next generations are going to have to carry forth this project, sir," She nodded, "Yes."

He nodded in agreement. That sentiment was only normal for those of the UNSC. The likelihood of humanity's extinction in their own realm was high, with the Covenant coming in to kick down the last gate and wipe them out for good. He then stated, "Whatever it takes, then. Even if I won't be alive to see it, I want us to return to our home, be it a different galaxy or universe, doctor. And I want the generations that face the Reapers to be ready..."

"Our research may take a few years, sir, but... We will get it done," She stated with a firm belief in herself and her people.

"Right. What else did the Concordat's AI tell you? If we have a small cache of technologies here, plus this new 'Element Zero' stuff, what can we do with it?" He inquired.

"Atlana said she'll prepare a series of coordinates for us to look over after she's understood our capabilities for FTL. It seems that the way the Concordat got here was fairly different from how our FTL works, namely relying on a lot of Element Zero-based fuel to travel between systems in close proximity to each-other. We're in the farthest Star Cluster from what their databases call, roughly translated, 'a Relay'."

"Relay?" He raised a brow.

"We've been looking into it, but there's still a lot of data to parse through, including historical records about the Concordat," She explained as the tram stopped at the Labs. The two exited the vehicle together, to the sight of the working RnD department of the warship. Labs were examining various things sent upstairs by the doctor's team. Including samples of plant and animal life.

"Where'd you even find animals?"

She smiled, "Some little critters inhabit that section of the planet. There are, however, sand-snakes and other seeming threats on the bright side of the planet's surface. Worryingly enough... Some bigger tectonic movement has also been detected near the twilight zone of the planet, but we could never pinpoint the exact locations of what was causing it."

"Concerning. Maybe we can have seismic sensors at the ready just in case?"

"Already on it, sir."

Of course. He chuckled, then stopped at the door with the doctor. He said, "Keep me updated, doc. I'd like to know what kind of tech we're looking at. In the meanwhile, if you need to talk to any one of the Prowlers," then raised his tablet and tapped the side twice with his index. She nodded, then saluted quickly and entered her laboratory to begin work.

The man returned to the bridge deck, then sat himself down in his chair and listened to the radio and telecom units speak. He had a moment of worry about Earth. Some of his extended family still resided on the planet, but for the most part, just like with the rest of the crews of the warships, their families were on board alongside the other refugees that'd colonize new worlds in this part of the Galaxy.

For all it was worth, the man was genuinely unsure of what they were gonna do beyond building up their own defenses at this point. They'd find a couple of new worlds and worthwhile systems, colonize them, then head on out to further explore the areas beyond this little corner of space. They needed space for the millions they had aboard. They'd get it. He was sure of it.

Until then, however, the fleet remained in Yellow Alert, ready to either engage in combat or make a random jump out-of-system as soon as the opportunity presented itself. The Covenant wouldn't get the drop on them a second time. And they'd find that the UNSC was more advanced than them when they arrived. Hopefully, he thought, they would get some of that research underway, set up a proper base of operations and an industrial site.

Some hours later, the man was sipping a coffee in his room as he read through another one of the Doctor's rather thorough reports on the Concordat's history. It seemed that it was an ancient state, as old as their Artificial Intelligence had said. It was a monotheistic clerical dictatorship wherein the people worshipped one single god, an entity beyond time and space that had created their world in their view and let them exist. Said god provided them wealth and technology early on, but had warned them that if they were ever to use it in hatred, to conquer other peoples, there'd be trouble.

It seemed that trouble was thought to be the Reapers, as, according to the last few entries in this station's logs, it had been rapidly constructed by the Concordat's ruling caste and their military advisors in an attempt to stave off the death of their people. It was supposed to be a genetic databank, a vault for their technological achievements and the return of their species. However, that never came to pass due to the Reapers moving too quickly and too brutally for them to be able to stop them... All while other neighboring nations watched it unfold. Most of their tech was 'lost' to the VI because it hadn't yet been stored safely in the database of this Offsite repository station.

Annoying, but expected. Life wasn't just gonna be easy for a fleet like theirs...

He sighed, then set the tablet down. A theocracy, huh? Part of him was glad the Concordat was gone, because he didn't wanna have to deal with another Covenant situation, but another part of him thought of them going through a similar plight to humanity's and, hence, he couldn't find it in himself to fully dislike the bastards. Not to mention the fact that they left them whatever pieces of tech they could find out here and things started getting slightly muddled. They couldn't glean much of their culture until the whole set of research was completed, either...

Fucking hell...