[color=#e2e2e2][b]DESTINY ASCENDANT
BRIDGE[/B]

The bridge crews grew increasingly frenzied as the situation spiraled out of control. There were weapons drawn in the main hangar, a war being waged on the surface of the planet, and a tactical nightmare forming in the orbital battlespace. There would be no winners in a contest of conventional military strategy; that much was clear. But the Aeon class cruisers were not suited to employ conventional military strategy. The tactical officers knew this well, though the rookie XO was still adapting.

“Shhhhhiiiit.” Natka swore at her station and promptly abandoned her post.
She moved to the holotable in the back center, a position usually reserved for the command structure only. “Lieutenant what are you doing?”
The XO was not up to speed with many of the mutual agreements between the [i]Destiny[/i]’s veteran crew. “The situation is getting chaotic. I need a bigger workspace, I’m stealing the table,” she answered him.
“Command table is for commanding officers only.”
“Per the commander herself, if she is not on the bridge and we are not in active combat, I can take the table. That’s how it’s been for ages.”
The XO stepped back and let her have the table. Black ops was different enough from what he was used to that such an agreement might actually stand here, and he was too new to have the clout to challenge the supposed agreement.

Natka worked quickly to get herself set back up in the new workstation. She waved over the XO to include him in the analysis. “We’ve got at least two major forces pressing for this objective here,” she pointed towards the surface structure everyone was after, “a civilian population center directly adjacent, and two smaller forces I’ve identified on the fringes. One has an FOB going up here to the northwest but has not advanced. The other force is here to the south of the objective and has attempted an advance, but remains engaged at range. Meanwhile the two large entities are doing work.”
“So who is who exactly?”
“That’s actually a good question; I’m not one hundred percent sure yet but I’m running some traces to figure it out,” Lieutenant Natka did not miss much thus confounding her was an achievement, “The large force with an armor asset approaching and multiple air assets appears to belong to the self-identified 'Covenant' fleet that has arrived and thoroughly provoked the commander.”
“Absolutely fantastic ...” the XO snorted.
“I also have this other force that has moved into the structure and I’m not sure where they came from. I didn’t trace them from a capital ship. Their shuttle either had stealth or local system FTL. SICI, can you rewind our data and find that shuttle?”
“I do not need to. Per your earlier request, I have finished analyzing the engine trails from said transport,” SICI’s omniscient voice confirmed, “interestingly enough, the trail emissions match the vessel that the overseer arrived in the hangar aboard, despite being different life forms.”
“Does that make it his force? Are you sure?” Natka looked back at the covenant forces, which had similar variation of life forms, “Son of a bitch!”

The XO and the lieutenant exchanged a face. “So he is on the ground too. SICI, reverse the imaging data we have, I want to try and assess escalation,”
“Copy XO, running it back.”
SICI digitally scanned the footage for anything she noticed while Natka and the XO, Senior Officer Viktaan Dyykes. Both of them immediately noticed the viciousness with which the Covenant forces attacked. Alone it was insignificant, but the foreboding threat they broadcasted SICI had caught earlier suddenly became relevant.  Again there was a concerned glance exchanged as both of them silently acknowledge just how ferocious they were being, and how dangerous that made them as an adversary. They kept rolling the footage.

Lieutenant Dyykes caught it before Natka, a rare feat. “There, those are the overseer’s forces yes?”
“Yeah, why- oh shit!” Natka had seen it too.
The overseer’s forces landed, turned towards the civilian center, and attacked without provocation with flamethrowers. Neither of them needed to say why that was bad. They both already knew. “Do it now; she needs to know!” Natka barked, turning back to the intel.
The XO nodded and clicked his headset. “Bridge to CO, we have a problem.”

[hr]
[b]DESTINY ASCENDANT
MAIN HANGAR[/B]

Muriel wanted to nuke the ruins; she wanted to bathe the entire site in the fires of a miniature sun and obliterate both their ground forces in one fell swoop as punishment for their audacious- no, egregious transgressions. Letting them get away with threatening a commander of the Alduur Imperial Navy was tantamount to heresy. Alas, the tactical situation made the decision a poor one. Covenant forces had numbers in excess of what the [i]Destiny Ascendant[/i] could possibly deal with even if they succeeded in taking no damage. The ship simply didn’t have the necessary quantity of ordnance.

“Fleetmaster your ‘business’ appears to be waging war,” SICI subtly interrupted her, reminding her about the intercepted transmission earlier they had opted to ignore, “and your force has explicitly stated it does not care who it engages with.”
For a brief moment she wasn’t sure where she was going with this. The fleetmaster and the overseer seemed at odds with each other yet the overseer felt it prudent to ... attempt diplomacy? Where was that five minutes ago? That pissed her off more than anything: that he felt suddenly the Covenant was worthy of some semblance of respect and she was not despite being the one who extended her hand first.

The overseer did pull back his staff as she demanded, though. She [i]really[/i] wanted to shoot him. Really they both deserved it at this point, but the tactical situation was far too unfavorable. The Covenant had a fleet that could overpower her ship in an instant. If she killed him, there was nothing stopping them. The overseer was a far easier kill to get away with, however his droids would react faster than her marines. There would be a number of injuries, potentially fatalities. Four deaths was a cost too high for a vengeance kill. She could not reconcile the numbers, so she slowly lowered her weapons, returning them to their thigh holsters. “Tactical, hold fire on mod 21 torpedoes.”

She felt confident the overseer underestimated the power of a fusion torpedo dropped directly on a target. Short of being buried under twenty meters of solid rock, nothing survived such devastating weapons. If he was right however, then her threat remained only effective versus him. The Covenant could easily replace the forces she could slay with such a strike.

The marine sergeant did not follow her lead and the fireteam kept weapons trained on the overseer’s droid security force. Until they lowered their own weapons, Commander Muriel would not demand the sergeant do the same. Anything else would be a measure of trust that no one within the hangar was willing to extend. Her train of thought was derailed as the transmission came through her headset. [i]”Bridge to CO; we have a problem.”[/i]

She clicked her headset and responded, “Go for CO.” Only her speech would be audible to the rest of the hangar.
“Commander, we have strong evidence to countermand any assertion that both the fleetmaster’s Covenant and the Overseer’s force intend to accept peace,” the XO cautioned.
Muriel’s first thought was [i]’tell me something I don’t know,’[/i] but she merely acknowledged with a brief “uhuh” before allowing him to continue.
[i]“We have confirmation of unprovoked engagement versus civilian targets.”[/i]
Muriel failed to suppress her immediate reaction this time. “Oh shit! Are you sure?”
[i]“Yes, the overseer’s forces engaged civilian presence with flamethrowers. We recommend that both forces be considered extremely hostile. For your safety, I strongly advise ending this meeting immediately,”[/i] he urged.
“Understood, we will proceed as recommended.”

Muriel looked to the fleetmaster, then to the overseer, then back to the fleetmaster. A token glance was given to the two Cindorians as well. It was plainly obvious she didn't want to say what was on her mind. That would likely start a war. As much as she desired to punish such a horrendous violation of the rules of war, it wasn’t possible. Moments like this were why she hated trying to play diplomat. She looked back at the two belligerents. Still struggling to choose her words carefully, she opened her mouth to speak, "I thi-" before being cut off.[/color]