The Spartan Effect

Sovereign Falls [prologue]

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April 10th, 2183

     Alarms blare on the command deck of a dreadnought. Asari ran back and forth, battling a few fires and trying to keep the battered ship together long enough to escape the geth fleet harassing them. They had to get the council away from the fighting. Twenty minutes ago, they were preparing for Saren and his geth to come through the relay, and they were ready for him. They weren't ready for the geth and Saren appearing directly next to the Citadel and attacking its defenses. Immediately, the fleet raced to return to the Citadel and fought to keep the geth away from civilians and the council, but they had underestimated Saren and his flagship sovereign. 

    "Shields are at 45 percent and dropping. The main cannon is not responding," one officer shouted over the alarms and panicked voices of the bridge crew. Next to the center of the room stood an Asari commando, speaking into a comm terminal.

     "Mayday, mayday, does anyone read us? This is the destiny ascension requesting immediate support, we have the council and several thousand civilians onboard, and we are taking severe damage from geth forces, I repeat-" 

     whatever she was going to say was cut off by one of the other Asari at what appeared to be a sensor array terminal.

"Ma'am, I'm detecting a MASSIVE anomaly."

     A third Asari, Matriarch Lidanya, commander of the Ascension, is over by the sensor officers in a flash. Her face is a wall of stone, and there is fire behind her eyes. Beneath this, however, there is fear, as she knows they don't have long without backup.

     "What anomaly, lieutenant." her voice is steady and soothing to the frayed nerves of the bridge crew. They were selected to pilot the Jewel of the citadel Fleet, and they were being played with like an oversized bath toy.

     To her credit, the officer in front of the sensor suite, only flinched inside when her commanding officer appeared behind her, used to explosions and fires after the last 15 minutes of hell. She pointed at a significant radiation spike the computer had picked up. 

     "A radiation signature, ma'am. It's 20 kilometers out."

     The Matriarch, already fearing the loss of her ship and the council, expected the worst.

     "Nuclear weapons? I didn't think the geth used those?"

     The officer replied quickly, "No, ma'am, too big, nothing on visual scans either."

     "How big?" The Matriarch demanded

     "A couple hundred—no, wait. It just spiked. It's over two kilometers wide now."

     The panel began beeping rapidly, alerting the officers to a new screen.

     Frantically pressing keys, the lieutenant brings up the visual of the anomaly, stunning the Matriarch into silence. The screen revealed what looked to be a storm cloud and, at the center, a black hole. A geth cruiser then came onto the screen, blocking the lower portion of the anomaly before being violently torn apart by the massive ship that exited the anomaly. Immediately the nearby geth ships began firing at it, to seemingly little effect as bright yellow flashes lit up just before their shots could land, a shield taking the hit

That's when they heard the voice, and a spark of hope was lit inside them.

     "This is Spartan Thomas R-095, acting captain of the UNSC ETERNITY. We read you, Ascension. Please flash your IFF, and we will provide support. How copy?" Short and to the point, his voice betrayed him as a younger man, but his tone and steadiness spoke of experience.