[center][b]The Covenant[/b][/center] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Federationers', 'Karkosians'.. All these things had halted the Hau' rampage through the east. The 'west' was still open and being pioneered as well as the 'south' towards the core but none of those areas would amount to much in face of the so called, 'powder keg'. Various conflicts had pushed the Hau into a more defensive, cautious stance regarding these races. Many border stations would send their pings off to the void, towards the two other nations. Nothing very noteworthy would ever be recorded, nothing new or dangerous. A lone monitoring station seemed to just drift in the dark. Aboard it was many holographic displays and what would be chairs, arranged to give one person a maximum view with little need to turn ones head very far. A single Hau sat in the chair, staring at the screens. "Do you know what is out there?" she said to her self. The station had just picked up its ping which turned up nothing but a few comets and lone planetoids flying through deep space. "Why does this job have to.. suck.. so bad." Another Hau entered the room. "Ok, we are now on alert.. again.. Command believes they have received a transmission from these Federationers.. or what ever they call themselves." The first Hau just sighs, "We receive one every month. why do we care now?" "Because command told us to care. bring up display fourteen, switch it over to detect radio waves." The first Hau presses a few holographic keys. "Ah, there it is. same signal as before." The wave was intercepted about four hours later. It depicted the location and description of what would be a 'summit' The second Hau turns around and brings up another display and within a few seconds, a Luchten appears on the display. "Did you intercept the transmission?" The Hau gave a simple nod. "This one is different, perhaps the diplomats should be notified this time?" The Luchten looked down a bit and then nodded to the Hau, "Agreed. I'll send it through. I also see that your rotation ends in a week? I'll go ahead and dispatch your replacements." It wouldn't take very long for the diplomats to receive the message. They would have to validate it first though, then get permission from the Matriarch herself to investigate any further. It was well known though that the Matriarch, Aurel, was very trusting of the Diplomats and would likely agree to any investigation. That is the Hau way, investigate, Integrate, adapt, then move on. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [center][b]The Karkosians[/b][/center] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The world that the Karkosian/Hau conflict is well known in the Covenant as the planet unity, even if on the star charts its called Ifferen. The world was very unique as it had two massive empires on it and somehow didn't have /all/ thier guns pointed at one another. Hau and Karkosians frequented each others settlements without any real trouble. There were laws regarding weapons, at least on the Hau's part but it was very lax. Today though, a new Hau effort would take place, something to hopefully solidify a sort of peace treaty proper, rather than the current non aggression pact. A six wheeled APC, armed with a simple enclosed turret with a slender single barrel protruding from the center, arrived outside the Karkosians main colony. It was a rare sight as it was the first time an armored vehicle had deployed towards the Karkosian colony. A large drop down door opened and from it, a Hau emerged wearing a solid light blue outfit. There wasn't much to it aside from it being a loose fit and having a belt with a few pouches on it. . She turned to the Karkosian colony and began walking towards it. After she had stepped off the platform, two Luchten and one Hau followed her out and their attire wasn't much different with exception of the small pistols attached to their belts. It was a diplomatic envoy, standard for the Hau at least. They were lightly armed at this point as they were relying on Karkosian honor to protect them. The Female arrived at the edge of the Colony then stopped, along with her entourage. She crossed her arms and waited patiently on a Karkosian response. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [center][b]The Leviathan[/b][/center] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A small camp on a frozen world sat alone in the system. Rarely visited and only patrolled by distance warships. It wasn't very lonely though as the station had a large crew for its size, all scientists or Guards and all content with their setting. Below the visible buildings was a labyrinth of caves dug through the snow an ice. As the Hau dug a tunnel, long cords with sporadic lights were ran across the roof of the caves, spanning the length of them entirely. These weren't ran from a generator but rather a luminous gas that would glow in the dark. The scientists had dug very deep in certain areas and at one point, had broken through to the actual surface of the world. It was obvious that there was no real body of liquid water but at some point it had. The prize find though, was proof that -something- had been there long ago.. in the form of a massive worm like creature. Its skeleton was laid out in fragments but from what they had recovered so far, this would have been huge, likely around the 70 meter mark. After this discovery, the Hau pioneers had been informed as well as what would be aptly referred to as the 'first contact command'. They had sent out feelers to many worlds with bodies of water in the attempt to find any of these creatures.. the only reason they did this is that the creature in no way, was indigenous to this frozen wasteland. As time went on though, no signs of these creatures had been found and the general theory was,it was unique but some thought there might be more out there. Survey probes had been launched years back in the hopes to find more life in the galaxy, and like Hau tradition, Introduce it to what the Hau knew to be a better life, under the Covenant banner. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [center][b]The Revelation[/b][/center] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was a day that would change the Hau Covenant forever, and it all began with a simple Hau Cruiser, flying swiftly among the stars. It wasn't a war situation or a tactical advance, or even a patrol for that matter but rather a lone Cruiser scouting a new star system. As it blazed past by the bodies of this star, perhaps even world after world at the speed it was moving, brought it by chance, something unique among the stars. The bridge of the ship, buried within the ship itself had no windows, instead holographic displays around a circular lay out. what appeared to be raised consoles with chairs were on the walls, all facing the center of the ship where the leader of the ship stood vigil. It may be a small ship but nonetheless, it was a front line Hau warship. The captain, knowing this, was always on alert. They had a rough job to most with the little sleep and all but it wasn't supposed to stop them and this had paid off many times. But this wasn't the same. A crewman was staring almost blankly into a display, trying to figure out how long it would take to grow her nails out. Ahead though, on the display, formed a red triangle. "what's this?" she said under her breath. She leaned closer to the screen then turned her head, while still staring from the corner of her eyes. There was urgency in her voice at this point, "Captain, you need to see this!" The captain, without a thought, rises from her chair and moves to the console. "Oh.... Oh my. Bring it aboard." The ship slowly moved to the object and engaged a sort of gravity beam to it. A tactical station officer spoke up, "Alright, it's locked, lets reel it in." the captain could only smile at their easy catch, "Once we get this loaded, set course for Sedna, full speed." The navigation officer, a rather large Luchten, gave a simple nod as he entered the coordinates in to his console. Maybe an half hour passed before the job was done. The ship turned towards where Sedna will be and engaged its FTL drive. There was what seemed to be a bolt of lightning that wrapped around the ship for a second and then the ship itself seemed to stretch towards its location, before the end caught up to the front and disappeared in a flash. All of this within a matter of seconds. It was gone with no trace... By the time the Cruiser left Sedna gate and the next, and the next, a flotilla of seventy ships had formed around the Cruiser. Its contents were broadcast as urgent, to the Capitol itself... The nation didn't spare any assets with a object with a priority one package. Even massive Hau dreadnoughts had joined the defense of this single Cruiser. It was worth it though as these content were.... priceless. It was a day before it would be presented to Matriarch Aurel, a day of cleaning and examining but it was finally ready. Luchten shock troops lined the pathways to the Covenants Capitol building itself. Gunships flew over head and the massive 'home fleet' had nearly blot out the sun. Aurel walked out of the doors of what would almost be taken as a palace. She wore a long, light orange colored tunic like shirt and slim pants sharing that color. She wore a light blue and white colored tall boots and blue arm bracers. Her outfit was further adorned with A light blue stole which had the Covenants national symbol clearly engraved at each end. This was all brought together by sharp angled Light blue pauldrons and a light blue chest piece made of a strange metal that, even though a light weight 'heavy' metal. It had various symbols carved in and on the chest, a red diamond with what looked like bird wings protruding from both sides. This wasn't even a flashy outfit for the Hau but rather the most dumbed down variant of the Matriarchs 'armor'. She slowly walked down a long stretch of steps to a courtyard which was lined with a bright white colored stone steps. She was flanked by two Luchten honor guard with the other honor guards from all races standing watch around the yard itself. As she moved closer a number of Hau and Higg personnel stood at the object which sat dead center of the yard. Aurel stopped to get a good look at it, standing maybe twenty feet from it. She extended her arm fully and pointed, "What... is this?" A Higg approached the Matriarch. It had long yellow stripes down its abdomen and its arms were of a bright red. It moved like a person would expect a spider like race to move. As it moved closer, Aurel lowered her arm. The Higg spoke, "Aurel, this is... a probe of some sorts. We are still trying to figure out how it came to be in Hau space. The current theory is that it had slipped into some sort of wormhole. But nonetheless, it is a marvel.. I've never seen anything like this before." The Higg motioned her towards the probe and the two walked closer. As she reached it, she put her hand on its surface. As she ran her hand over it, she could feel the many dents on the cold metal, this probe was very old. The Higg motioned for one of the other Hau, "Aurel, This.." She turned to look at the Hau, who was holding a golden disk of some sort. "This mentions.. a far off race of beings. Having at least achieved space flight. The probes power system has long expended so its safe to say the race that sent this has had time to advance." The Higg motioned to the Hau again. "This is where it gets.. weird?" and with that, the Hau placed the disk in a specific place on the Probe. Various sounds could be heard in the courtyard, a odd chirping, crying, and other sounds but what the Higg found and was most proud of, was a voice that echoed through the courtyard. It blared loud and proud. [i]Go.. Go.. Go Johnny Go! Go.. Go.. Go Johnny Go! Johnny B Goode. Go.. Go.. Go Johnny Go! Go.. Go.. Go johnny Go! Johnny B Goode.[/i] The Higg stood back as the music played and then he personally stopped what was now obviously a record. "This, Aurel is called, The sounds of Earth." Aurel looked at the Higg and said very softly, "What is an Earth?" Aurel turned her attention to the probe and eyed it up and down. Long metal struts with various objects attached and what they could see written on it was clear as day. [b][i]Voyager 1[/i][/b]