Part 1: The Never-ending Night

"If the stars could talk, I am quite certain they would tell us how puny we all really are. For each one of us, there are millions, possibly billions of stars, each one with it's own mini universe. Of course we each have our own universes, and though not nearly as significant or as important as the stars, we each treat our own private affairs like it was everything. Like God looked at each one of us individually and told us to run the universe ourselves. What a mess it would be too, we can't even keep our own lives in order. Of course we all are preached upon, and preach to others about how important we are as individuals, about how irreplaceable we each are. Tell that to the ones dealing with the over population crisis. Now there are some of us, not many mind you, but still enough of us that overlook our own existence. Ones that sort of just wish it away, ignore it, or worse, take it away. Most of us aspire to save the world, to make a difference, I don't. I aspire to live my own humble existence on my own, so I can get out of the rain"

Devon looked up at the bleak sky, rain pelting down on his face. His clothes were sopping wet and full of mud. He glanced around, doing a head count to see how many of the squad was left. Let's see, there was Ricky over there, and Goldsmith on the right, Beck seemed to have disappeared again but that was normal seeing as it was, well, Beck.

Devon glanced down at his chronometer, they were three hours into the simulation. It was like most simulations, horrbile living conditions, people getting picked off one by one. I suppose that's how they saw the aliens. We knew of them for fifteen years, but we still hadn't met any. Still hadn't been to their worlds yet. Naturally interstellar travel would be needed first, but somehow I believe that that was the least of their problems, otherwise, they wouldn't be training us this intensely for an offworld mission.

Sadow looked across the bridge of the latest ship. It was the best their current level technology could muster, but it wasn't going to be for sale anytime soon. He'd personally commissioned the best engineers to build it for himself, so he could go exploring, and be able to readily defend himself if the need arose. Lord Helios knew that were some very uncooperative species out there. Sadow ran his hand across the consoles smiling a bit too himself.

"Prince Sadow, the ship will be completed within the week. I think it would be best if you started to get people to join the crew. You wouldn't be able to fly a ship of this size with just one person. It'd be quite impossible, even for you. I'd get your most trusted friends and colleagues for bridge and helm control, while having qualified personnel running the other systems. This will be the first ever ship crewed by our people that will leave our comfortable home. I don't want you dieing out there because of lack of crew." The chief engineer voiced his concerns readily, knowing his head was on the line if anything went wrong.

"I understand, but you don't need to worry. I already had a crew from the start, and they are ready as ever to get this thing off the ground as soon as possible. I trust everything is going according to plan?" Sadow was unamused at the engineer's concern.. Sometimes he hated being of royal blood.

"Yes, and all the tests we've run have checked out. Come back in a week, and we'll be ready for flight."

"Thank you."

A big cat was lying on a big bulge on the bed in the bedroom. The bulge consisted of a 18 year old sleeping skater guy who was her 'owner', although she would never agree with that title. Him owning her was just about as likely as she suddenly becoming a monster and biting his head off. Oh wait, she could do that indeed. Still she wouldn't, he was far too interesting too kill. His habit of going off to random desert rock semi-jams was way too much fun to watch.

She opened one eye, and then another. She slowly got up not to wake him, and jumped off him. He groaned and turned around because the source of warmth abandoned his belly.
She silently wandered to the open window and dove underneath the curtain onto the small balcony. She jumped up, over the guard rail and sailed down to the ground two floors below like she was just hopping over a picket fence. When she landed on all fours she shook her bones, looked around and like usual she wandered off towards the east where the sky was already getting lighter.

On the way to her favorite little spot where she could enjoy the first rays of light she rewarded an over-curious stray dog with a quick wipe of the nails. She coolly licked the blood of her nails while the dog ran away yelping. Situation Normal, All Feaking uninteresting. She wandered on to the small spot on the side of a small mesa where a old and weathered tree stood all alone from others. She swiftly launched herself up the stem and perched on the top branch that would receive the very first warm light of the morning when her curiosity senses started tingeing out of the blue.

It was an hot night at Kourou, in the French Guiana, one of the several launch points for shuttles owned by the United Nations Space Command. James Cannon knew that only with big luck he could get the chance of being launched into deep space in the next year... A Space shuttle was visible on the launch pad... A pretty nice sight, with all those lights pointing at the ship...

"That ship should take us to the Freedom..." Was James Cannon thinking...

The UNSC Freedom was one of the several Discovery-Class ships in construction... Seven in total. The prototipe, the Discovery, was testing the FTL engine at the moment. He was hoping that good results dictated a nice start for the new Deep Space Program, started by Mankind...

Jacob Yaklin woke with a yawn, at least that's what the Humans call it. He got off his bed, quickly scanning any interesting tid-bits coming from the Humans' satellite waves being directly downloaded onto the computer part of his brain. Catching the score of the latest American-styled Rugby game, he quickly walked through his ships halls, wanting something, anything, new to happen in this sector.

Stepping off the elevator to the bridge nestled deep within his own little stealth frigate, he scanned the stars aswell. Automatically after thinking it, Earth popped into view. Watching the Humans as they dawdled about on the ships they were creating, he wonder out loud, "When will they find me out here?"

As a matter of fact, they had almost found him when he entered the Sol system, almost found him when they pointed their satellites at the area to find the disturbance that was inevitability caused by his entry. But...they didn't. Jacob was thankful of that, thankful that his ship's stealth systems were, as it's builders had said, top of the notch. Now, as his ship lay on the surface of a plutoid, Jacob mentally puts in a set of coordinates to the Asteroid belt. Then, his ship quietly setting off for ETH-2874, an asteroid large and suitable enough for his ship to land, he sat down and started watching the sights.

As he continued scanning any radio or microwaves while his ship floated through space, he sighed, there wasn't anything new, at least not yet...

Devon glanced about the new surroundings. They had been pulled out of that endless training simulation, thrown on a plane and flown off to the other end of the world. Devon was still a bit soppy and muddy, but that didn't bother him so much.

They were close to final approach and it was much sunnier here then wherever they had been training, but like with protocol, locations were kept top secret at all times. He could see they were near a military landing facility, by judging of the design, he'd say it was space oriented. Perhaps all of their training was finally going to be put to some use. Or perhaps it was just more training.

Devon nestled into his seat for the duration of the trip

As Jacob Yaklin settled in for the final ride into the sector of the Asteroid Belt he called "great mountain valley", he began recieving stronger signals from the humans. As he went through continous pages of human history on this global human network they called "the internet" he started to wonder what they would do in the cosmos, he felt a pang of fear of exactly that, what they would do.

As a mear nano-thought, he thought about making himself known, wide open to Human eyes. Sadly he realised he would automatically be considered an enemy as what seems to be human culture. Still, he thought, he would love to see how the humans react when they would realize that their precious Earth...was being spyed upon by curious eyes.

A week had passed, and the crew of the Zeraila boarded the ship, and Sadow stood at the helm, waving at everyone below him. The crowd took up a roar as they cheered, and Sadow nodded at his helmsman, Zeranthos, and she started the ship, taking it to orbit the planet pretty quickly.

"All systems are green Sadow, ready to test the engine and head to the coordinates given to us?" Zeranthos asked, tapping lightly on her console, impressed by the craftsmanship of it all.

"Take us to a nearby asteroid field, and we will test out the weapons." He replied, marveling as well. The sleek design of the ship was meant for a new kind of FTL travel. He wanted to test all the systems right away, but nothing should stop their mission..

The ship seemed to bend as the warp drive was initiated, and the ship took off.

The cat suddenly leaped right out of the top out of the tree onto the ground. She started running towards the top of the mountain ridge where the sun was starting to peak over it's tops. She leaped over a small arroyo and started climbing the other side of the valley.

As the sun was rising over Groom Ridge a large curious cat was looking at the facility below. Two large black semis escorted by several other smaller vehicles on two and four wheels left the gates of the complex and started picking up speed.

(Okay, should settle my theater of action now.)

The Zeraila came out of warp near an asteroid belt outside of the Sol system, and everyone sighed, relieved everything went smoothly. It only had taken a few hours to get where they had wanted to go.

"Alright, let us test the weapon systems. Target the two largest asteroids with the plasma phaser. Let's see what this little piece of technology can do." Sadow was eager to get started. This would be a start of a new era for his race, if all went well.

Zeranthos smiled, doing as she was ordered, and the ship turned about, and fired, a green beam hitting two asteroids, making them explode in a shower of micrometeorties that flew fast in all directions. This could cause a problem for any planets in the nearby system, if the rocks had a chance to break any atmospheric barrier.

"I'd say Sadow, that went quite well and was a pretty good light show as well. Let's go on to the plasma torpedo and quantum missile. After that we can test a homing spacial charge, then get on with the other part of the mission, after testing stealth capabilities: Discovering what race is coming close to space travel, and see if they have any FTL capabilities." Lt. Commander Zerakti, head of communications and sensors, spoke with clarity.

"What species are supposed to be in Sector 137, or the Sol System as some other races state?" Sadow asked, bemused by Zerakti's demeanor on this matter.

"A species called... Humans.." Zerakti replied, awe in his voice.

Devon watched as the member of the team threw up on the floor. It was Devon's turn next in the machine. Devon stepped inside, still watching the other member wipe his mouth with the back of his sleeve as some of the more experienced people laughed at him. Devon strapped himself into the seat and the techy latched the door tight. Lights flickered on and a display panel lit up in front of him. A voice over the intercomm came on.

"Now, we're gonna start like you're in a crash re-entry, it'll be rough"

Devon didn't say anything, but just waited. Suddenly the machine started moving, throwing Devon about. A crash re-entry must be smoother then what they were making it feel like now. Devon could feel his blood swishing around his body as the machine rotated and shook in all sorts of random patterns. Devon just waited for it to be done

BOOM!!!

"hmm...?"

Jacob woke exactly as the visual screen zoomed to the disturbance. As he stared as the remains of two asteroids floated through space, he started wondering who caused the explosions. As he calculated the trajectories of every single fragment and where they were going, he mentally came upon a data file of a ship arriving in the system. When the trajectories were being organized by most dangerous to the system's inabitant's, he found the source floating an asteroid cluster farther away than of pluto.

He sent a message to the ship stating,

"Greetings, it seems you've entered this system for some fun as the two asteroids make it to seem. I would kindly ask for you to halt from making any more...careless decisions. If not...at least try not to destroy any planets or harm any of this systems occupants.

-sincerley JY"

As he finished and sent the message, he decided on a course of action, pertaining to the many fragments now roaming through space. He found three large fragments heading in a direction that would inevitability collide with a planet. Two were heading for Jupiter which Jacob had designated GG-J. While the last one was heading toward a collision course around Earth. After some calculations he figured it would it Earth's moon. Jacob set a course to the fragment, plus for his ship's phasers to blast it plus any tertiary-fragments when in range.

"Well, I asked for something big to happen, and it seems I got what I asked for."

"Let's test the targeting system. Fire the torpedos at one of the smaller fragments, the one heading to the only habitable planet, it seems, in this system. Fire on my mark." Sadow stated, getting serious again. They had received a transmission only seconds before, but chose to ignore it. They had to get their mission completed, and if anyone tried to stop them, code dictated they remove any obstacles.

"Torpedoes arming in 3.....2.....1... Torps armed sir." Zeranthos replied, nodding at Sadow.

"Mark!"

The Zeraila spun around, firing the torps at the small fragment, and disentegrating them on impact, but the light show and explosion were awe-inducing.

"Well, they are pretty good, but they won't do that to any large vessel. Stick to the code, and let's get on with the other part of the mission. Missiles and spacial charges can wait." Zakti stated, in his ever formal fashion. Commander Lera, being the highest ranking female officer onboard, and the one piloting the ship, turned the Zeraila around, and started the cloak. The ship seemed to blend into the surrounding area, but to a trained eye, someone could spot the minor disturbance, as if looking through a glass of water.

Devon looked into the glass of water before drowning it down in one gulp. He wiped the beads of water from his face and looked to the mission commander. He and the other trainees sat in the briefing room which darkened and a LCD projector lit up the forward screen. On it were images of distant planets. The commander spoke up.

"As you all know, fifteen years ago we discovered an alien planet. Shortly after we discovered another. We have been desparately trying to achieve our own form of FTL drive so that we can get to these planets. However, we have had no such luck, until about two years ago. Two years ago, a damaged alien craft landed on earth. The vessel was obviously capable of interstellar travel. For that time, we have been cannobolizing that ship, integrating its parts into our own designed ships. This is where you people come in..."

The Zeraila flew to within scanner range, and began to monitor the humans on the planet, which they later found to be called "Earth". They used their scanners, undectedable at this time, or so they thought. They scoured the entire planet, looking for any info on a FTL ship production, or if the humans ever found a way to get that far.

"So far nothing sir, all is quiet. This thing they call the "Internet" is quite impressive though. Not like we would have any means of such basic technology. If they do have something underway, they got it pretty well hidden. I will keep up the search." Zakti stated, going back into his work.

"I propose a break. Set the auto-pilot to orbit the planet just inside sensor range, and if need be, fly a bit closer to get better readings. We don't want to have the humans alerted to our presence.. Would be a violation of our code. Everyone, take some much needed rest and relaxation time. I know I am." Sadow stated finally, yawning. He got up as Zeranthos started the auto-pilot. and the uneeded personnel left the bridge, to various parts of the ship.

James Cannon was assisting the 13rd FTL drive test in that month... Everyone hoped that the error that haunted the earlier missions was corrected: A power overflow that blowed an important power conduit between the Main Fusion Reactor and the FTL drive, called by the tecnitians "Phase drive". The Mission chief contacted the captain of the Sparta, a space fortress located in a mid-range orbit, that was building the ships.

"Sparta, here's Earth Control, you're clear to launch the Discovery" - Said the Mission Chief.
"Earth Control, this is Sparta. We're clearing the Discovery"

A screen lightened up, showing the release of the docking clamps from a white, relatively huge (for human standards) ship, posessing 5 large, blue colored Ion Engines and several dozens of smaller maneuvering thrusters...

"Have you noticed that those ships look a lot like the Ion Cannon Frigates from Homeworld 2?" Said someone to Cannon
"Yeah, I've... But that game is old as hell!" Said I.

In the meanwhile, the ships was clearing the dock again... The stats were showing in one large central screen, while the picture of the release were showed in 2 smaller screens in both sides of the main one... It was an impressive sight...

As Jacob's ship floated nearer to the fragment...it blew up!

"What the..."

As he scanned the area he once again found out that it came from the ship, which now....he could could barely see but a shimmer.

"Interesting cloaking ability," said Jacob, "to bad I can still barely see it."

As he sent a message to the ship saying, "Thanks for the clean up" he decided to drop nearer to BD-1's, or Earths, moon.

As he quietly enabled his In System Drive, he noticed that there was alot of chatter coming from the human's shipyard. Before his ship engaged it's ISD, he caught a glimpse of the ships undocking from the shipyard.

He decided it was time for him to formally greet the Humans. He sent a message as his ship disengaged his ISD saying "Good luck on your journeys, you're going to need it." Jacob made sure to heavilly encrypt the source info, he didn't want to be truely found out. As he settled on the dark side of the moon he decided to send a probe to track where the ship would be going. It would entertain Jacob. He wondered if they would find his world. The world the Delkoni had colonized so they would have a home at all. The Delkoni's creaters, before they had been destroyed by the Fel, made sure that their world would be suitably uninhabitable for the Delkoni. Sal or Fel...sane or rampant...

"Damn" Was James thinking... "Again..."

The same pipe had blown on the same room... The crew had to cancel the test or it would be polvorized...

He decided to go to the room of the brains behind the project... It was full of engineers trying to figure out the same problem as usual... He then looked at a board with a Discovery-Class vessel in it... The power grid between the Reactor and the Phase Drive was highlighted... There were three pipes... But... how many were needed? They only use one, why do they have 3? He turns to an engineer and asks:

"Why do you have 3 power tubes when you only use one?"

"Back-ups" Said the engineer.

"You use the main one, right?" Asked I

"Yes..."

After thinking a few seconds he said:

"How about if you used all three pipes to transfer the power to the Phase Drive?"

"Nah..." Though the engineer... "Wait! Maybe!" He then disappeared into the main group...

A few hours later I knew they were gonna make another test right in the next day...

Devon opened the door and took a look outside. It was night now, and the meeting had lasted a very long time. Devon yawned and looked up at the moon.

"Funny" he thought to himself, "other worlds, other beings, other intents"

Devon continued lookig at the moon, when e was startled by the sound of movement next to him. He turned and looked. Next to him was a woman, standing about 5 foot 8, her hair done up in a bun. She wasn't wearing a uniform, but Devon could tell that she was military.

"Quite something" she said to him, "thinking we've been all alone, and now we're going to meet them"

The two of them began to slowly walk along the premises of the facility, still gazing up at the stars

"Doesn't really matter does it," Devon replied, "more beings, like us, not like us, does it really matter?"

"Of course it does!" she said, "this could lead us to a better future, imagine, advances in medicine, technology, art"

"and war" Devon said coldly.

"Now what makes you say that?" she asked.
"That's what we are, aren't we? We're parasites, beings who take things from others, and what we don't have, we fight for, kill for, murder essentially, and we all call it in the name of freedom."

"Pessimistic are you"

"No, just seen enough crap to knw when I'm being bullshitted"

At that, the woman stopped and looked at him. "What makes you say that?"
"They talked about diplomacy, talking, come on, tell me one succesfull diplomatic mission that didn't involve fighting somewhere down the line. No, this is a front, a cover, we already know that they have something that we don't, and they want it, badly, I can sense it. Somehow, we already know who's out there, we know what they've got, they probably don't even know, but we're gonna fight them for it I can tell. And besides, why would they do all this intensive training if they didn't intend for us to use it?"

With that, Devon walked away from the woman.

The cat on the mountaintop started changing. First it it was only barely noticeable, but the blackish blue fur morphed into brown feathers, the front paws became wings while the back paws acquired claws with large talons. A beak started to emerge on the head and the irises of the eyes got rounder and brighter. three seconds later there was a big bird of prey sitting on the ground instead of the cat.

The bird shook his feathers once, flapped the wings once, flapped twice, and took off. Rising on wings the size of a door and aided by the thermals the bird took fight and followed the convoy.

The Zeraila had watched with interest at the attempted launch, and noted in the logs. The crew had just gotten off break and were deciding to head home.

"I feel sorry for them. They are using outdated technology. Hack into one of their encrypted military channels that is responsible for their attempts at FTL travel, and send them step-by-step instructions on how to use that outdated piece of junk. Make sure they can't trace it back to us, and make sure it's in their language. After that, let us leave. Hm, High Queen Elize did say if they were close to FTL travel, to try and make contact.. Send the probe to land on their space station, with the appropriate message, in their language of course. I feel that we should atleast let them know they are not alone." Sadow ordered, and sat down as his crew went about their task. The message was coded, encrypted, and would be easily decrypted once it was sent. The probe was launched and started doing it's initial scans of the planet before heading towards the space station, but as soon as it got close, a small fragment from an asteroid collided with it, knocking it into orbit around the planet as it began to descend, landing a few feet from a supposedly abandoned military research facilty, which the Aerelians had noted had increased activity, despite what the common people thought.

"Oh well. Lera take us out of here."

The Zeraila spun about, and took off, hitting warp as soon as they were clear of any asteroids.

"Oh, am I late?" Said Cannon to his XO... a female human, tall and elegant, blond with green eyes...

"Yes, you're!" Said she with an semi-irritated look...

"Sorry! I know all that recessivness don't make wonders for you but..." Said James...

"There you go making fun about my eyes, and my hair..."

"Ok, sorry what did I missed?"

"Nothing more, just the launch of the ship... They are making the final checks..."

They end the final checks right after the chat... They gave clearence to the ship to start the test... but something weird appeared right in front of the ship. A small blue/green cloud appeared right in front of the ship... That didn't appeared in the previous tests... The power levels continued on the right levels, and all conduits were inside limits... Suddenly, something happened... The ship disappeared in a light with the same colours of the cloud... Two minutes had passed until a comm arrived from no where:

"This is The UNSS Discovery... We've arrived sucessfully to the moon!"

The control room opened in a huge party... Everyone was happy with it... The first short range FTL flight of human race...

"Copy that Discovery! Do a slingshot maneuver around the moon and return home! We've a lot of data to process!" Said the mission controler...

I was happy, because tomorrow, my crew would be aboard the Freedom... And we shall be preparing for the first long-range FTL flight made by mankind...

Devon sat in his quarters silently reading a book when the phone rang in his room. He slid off his bed and picked up the receiver

"Good news Devon, they succesfully made a short FTL jump. Join us for a briefing in two hours"

Devon hung up the phone. It would seem that the day was getting nearer.

Jacob woke up to alarms blaring.

"...ugh...great now what."

He arrived to the bridge to find out it was at was a proximity report. A Human ship was coming around the face of the moon. Jacob instantly started the cloaking sequence.

"I hope they didn't see my ship..."

He checked the probe. Yup it was fully functional, coordinates, video, and...communication inside the ship. Jacob, now fully awake, started listening in on the human's conversation in a room that he guessed was the bridge. He didn't hear anything besides orders, and nothing about an alien ship. Jacob sighed with relief that the humans seemed not to have found him. He sat back watching the ship, he also looked at what the probe was sending. It seemed that the Human ship was called the Discovery. Jacob kept the probe on its current orders.

Jacob then relaxed as the Human Ship floated across the desert-like scape.

Devon and the other troopers marched across the landing platform. It was day and the sun was shining brightly. The briefing the night before had been most interesting, almost exciting. The other troopers were joking amongst themselves, but Devon kept to himself. The mission itself was relatively simple at heart, liftoff, rendezvous with the discovery, then head for Alpha A, the name they had designated the first planet. The travel time was estimated at three days and first contact was the priority.

They entered an elevator which took them to the top of the shuttle, where the cockpit was. They entered the cockpit. Devon could feel his heart rate increasing, this was exciting, even for him. They took their positions and awaited orders.