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The Tear In Time by (ENS) Rabid_Gallagher



The Tear In Time: Prologue
Date: 15 September 2006, 4:24 am

Space was, at the usual time, empty. However, as the clock in front of Captain Jerry Halloway struck one twenty nine, Pee Em, he looked out to the vastness of space in front of him for the reinforcements he desperately needed. The bridge of the UNSC Valiant worked at their stations feverously, knowing that the defense of the last Outer Colony was peritive to moral, and to the UNSC's current battle plan.

The Slipspace bubble opened up about a million kilometers in front of the young captain, Jerry's right hand cupping his chin as he watched five human ships, marked with the standard UNSC battle standards, exit the bright blue bubble that often carried death and destruction with its 'winds of hallowed glory' upon the Covenant's backs.

"This is Captain Jerry Halloway, of the Valiant. It's good to see reinforcements."

The screen in front of him, held purposely upon his captain's chair, came to life in a flicker of an instant. The screen flashed, and the face of Commander Richard Shanks appeared upon the screen. Wizened, the seemingly frail and diminutive Richard was actually a strong willed man and took no gruff from anyone.

"Good to see you too. We picked up energy signatures along an adjacent Slipspace path. Daedelus suspects one Covenant Battlecruiser, and two Destroyers." Commander Shanks reported, his eyes holding absolute certainty and a calamity that only one who has seen the wrath of Hell could hold within those opal orbs.

"Damn. Do you think we can overpower them?"

"Only if we use excellent tactics. I hope we… Wait, here they come!"

Outside, in the vastness of space near the moon Isis IV, there opened the massive Slipspace pocket that bore the sword of the Covenant. The large, yet smooth and articulate shape of the Battlecruiser exited first, with the smaller but yet more elegant Destroyers popping outwards in a path that was adjacent to the vessel. The human battle fleet formed a tight wedge, their massive 'MAC' cannons arming to fire.

In the vastness of space, not a sound was made, but the light of the mammoth plasma discharges could be seen as they made wide arcs towards the Human battle fleet. In the bridge of the UNSC Valiant, Captain Halloway bellowed out the order to fire, his two fingers on his right hand shooting towards the Battlecruiser. In an instant, the ship shook as the two rounds from the 'MAC' cannon shot out into space, zooming outwards towards the massive Covenant ship. The other ships fired in a few seconds of each other, in a precise order of fire.

The rounds tore into the massive ship, the armor buckling under the concentrated fire from the human vessels. Suddenly, the ship collapsed unto itself before it was enveloped into a massive and large blue, and rather beautiful to some eyes, explosion. The ring of it exploded outwards in a diagonal direction, making the death of the Covenant onboard the vessel a true beauty to behold.

The plasma from the ship, however, easily dispatched four of the vessels that the humans inherited. In an instant, Captain Halloway saw the end to the battle. In another instant, he saw the death of his life and what he fought for. In the future of a few seconds, he will see his life flying back to him.

A red coloured wormhole ripped into space near the battle. Its odd tendrils escaped its grasp as it 'latched' outward towards the Covenant and the two Human vessels. In the next second, the look of a vessel began to shoot out of the wormhole. It was oddly shaped, with a thin body but a huge dorsal section and two long engine-like nacelles on its smaller connecting body.

And that instant where Jerry Halloway saw the future beckoning in glory, he saw himself bathing in the substance…




The bridge crew of the USS Enterprise-E, designation NCC-1701, began their yellow alert status, manning their stations diligently and with experience that spoke of years of combat and exploration. The captain of the vessel, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, sat in his command chair as his cheek leaned into his hand.

"Sir, it appears to be that the wormhole anomaly Commander Davies reported to be a temporal time dilation effect was indeed what he reported." Data, the Soong type android, paused as he spoke, before his voice picked up his tone once more.

"It also seems to be that it transported us to a different time-line that is outside our temporal dimension, since the computer is registering the stars outside the ship are the location of stars in our own galaxy. I suggest we run the com-?" He stopped in mid sentence as the ship shook as plasma charges struck it.

"View screen, on! Hail the ship attacking us! Shield strength?!" Captain Picard asked, as the view screen flickered to full power. He saw the vessel, the Covenant design striking him with a sense of confusion before the phaser banks fired out the bright orange beams of light into the ship. The shields on the Covenant ship flickered brightly before they disappeared quickly. The phasers did nothing to the hull, however, and Picard quickly gave another order to fire something that would inflict damage.

"Weapons, fire the Quantum torpedoes."

"Yes, Captain!" Lieutenant Commander Worf, a brown skinned alien with forehead ridges, responded back as he pressed down three times on the quantum torpedo button. On the screen, three shining balls of light escaped from the Enterprise-E, slamming into the hull of the first Destroyer. The torpedoes crumbled into the ship's hull, exploding into the ship's reactor core.

Outside, the hull collapsed into itself, before erupting in a bright yellow wave of plasma, the destruction evident on the hull and the surrounding space. The Enterprise-E made a large sweep, as it began to fire its phaser banks onto the last Covenant Destroyer. The human Halcyon-class Cruiser seemingly integrated into the battle; firing its huge MAC cannon rounds into the behemoth of a ship. The combined effort destroyed the hull of the vessel which set off deadly explosions that left the once mighty vessel a floating piece of wreckage.

"Lieutenant Daniels, were there any, any, boarding parties?"

"Negative, Captain. It didn't look like they even had transporters if their weaponry was that archaic. Reminds me too much of the First Intergalactic War." Lieutenant Lewis Daniels, a tall man with chestnut hair neatly combed, spoke with a clear cut military minded voice, speaking nothing but his job.

"Hail that vessel that helped us, Number One." Picard once again ordered, with Commander William Riker turning his head to face the Captain. William had short black hair that matched with his goatee that hung upon his face.

"We can't, sir. We might have to adjust to a lower freq- ?"

"Do it, Number One. I fear our little incursion into that wormhole might have turned up a hornet's nest."




Outside, in the blackness of space stood the two human ships locked in a communication-less standoff. The Valiant stood ready, its massive rounds ready to shoot off against the ship while the Enterprise-E powered up its phaser banks and its quantum torpedo bays to full capacity. The red wormhole, however, continued to remain open, its red tendrils slowly sweeping out into the darkness that was the infinite empty. That's when it happened.

Another ship, flat horizonality but somewhat small all around, exited out of the wormhole. Immediately, the two ships turned an 'eye' towards it, watching it with close and utterly important intent. On board the bridge of the vessel that entered worked men who were dressed in flightsuits that bore the colour of olive green. Next to the captain's chair sat a man with a flattop of hair, his hand holding his chin.

"Well, Carter, where the hell are we?"





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