The Pressure of Talking  

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(AN: I'll fix any mistakes in my own time until them report here if you see any)

Captain David Anderson on the outside perspective looked like a calm and collected man, ready to walk into unknown territory and to be one of humanity's many representatives.

Internally, he was worried about the meeting he was about to partake in.

He was not one to panic without reason nor to come up with ludicrous lines of thought or conclusions, but he also knew anything could happen within reason.

The worry that ebbed at him was coming from what the inhabitants onboard that behemoth of a ship would want to talk about, and he also wanted to know why they even bothered with saving them, why reveal themselves, and finally he was worried about the answers he might get.

And a larger part of that worry was, what if they were just like the Covenant.

He didn't like that thought, but it was also a logical worry, he'd join the Navy at the tail end of the Great War, he'd seen how scores of human ships were wrought asunder by so few Covenant vessels.

He also had the horrible honour of watching a planet die, to see the result of a heroic yet hopeless struggle.

It was a miracle for him to even survived the battle of Earth, the last battle he was in for the Human Covenant War, his ship then lost its engines from a plasma lance and crash landed in the Norwegian Alpes, were it not for his friend Shepherd who was an ODST then, dragged him all the way to the nearest town he would have died that day.

Looking at Shepherd now, a Spartan IV clad in near all black save for a red strip down the right side of his shoulder to forehand stood taller than him along with two other Spartans of Fire Team Normandy all clad in their own unique armour kits.

Anderson was also accompanied by a 6-man squad of ODSTs who volunteered for this meeting.

Another thing that had to be mentioned was the recording equipment they had on them, they would be live streaming everything they saw and heard back to the Jolly and Blue Pearl, they also had monitors showing their vitals just in case the camera feeds were disrupted.

And if the worst possible outcome happened, both ships had orders to preform emergency Slip-Space jumps to a random locations as the Cole Protocol demanded, then they try to make it back to human controlled space.

Until then though, Anderson would first need to verify that who they were meeting was ether hostile or god willing they were friendly, for the sake of his friend and crew he dearly prayed for it to be the latter.

Without much fanfare the group of solders and Captain boarded the Pelican a D77-TC type one of the older models still in service.

It didn't take long for the transport to fly out of the hanger and into the void on a flight path towards the crimson ship, within the troop compartment of the Pelican, Anderson made sure to ensure that everyone was on their best behavior yet ready for a confrontation should negotiations turn sour.

The Pelican shuddered slightly as they passed through atmospheric barriers of the hanger bay doors that they were given landing clearance for, the Pilot made sure to inform everyone inside that there was a rather large group of armoured soldiers lined up to meet with them.

Once the blast doors opened, Anderson and his entourage piled out nearly coming to a stop as they couldn't hide their stunned expressions, while Anderson didn't have a helmet like the rest of his guard detail, you could still see it through their body language.

You couldn't really blame them, they are human, and the beings who have lined up to meet them were showing human bodily proportions despite the staggering height and crimson armour they wore.

But it all came ahead when a very much human looking man garbed in a combat officers uniform walked up to greet them.

Anderson couldn't believe what he was seeing, this was not what he thought he would be encountering onboard this vessel, thoughts immediately were swirling to make logical conclusions.

Insurrectionists, not likely they would have already been fired upon.

A lost colony ship with its people cut off from all of humanity forming different culture and way of life, that was more logical.

"Greetings members of the UNSC, welcome a bored the Red Tear, I am Captain Ferdinand with the role of guiding you all to the Throne where my Masters are waiting for you, may I know who among you is in charge of this envoy" the man spoke in a gruff Britannia tone, the fact they could understand the man was shocking, the fact they knew who they were.

Anderson composed himself and stepped forward clearly displaying himself as the leader among his armoured soldiers.

"I am Captain David Anderson of UNSC Jolly, acting ambassador for the United Nations Space Command and United Earth Government, I must admit Captain I am very…surprised, I and everyone did not anticipate humans being in control of this ship" it was hard to keep the shock out of his tone, professionalism and training can take a man far, but they are limits.

The man in front of them made a negative gesture.

"Humans are not in charge of the Red Tear, come, please save your questions for when you meet the Masters" he waved his hands for them to follow and slowly turned around to begin walking.

Anderson kept his mouth shut and signaled the men and women under his command to follow their host, as they moved the crimson armoured giants started folding in behind them as they walked further into the belly of this beast of a ship.

The trek towards the 'Throne' as Ferdinand had called it gave Anderson the impression that those he'd be meeting were of royalty, but more alarmingly was that the true owners of this ship weren't human.

This both worried and confused Anderson, aliens giving orders to humans felt wrong, after the War, every single human dared not venture to far into alien territory nor more less work with any other species if they couldn't help it, at least that was to Andersons knowledge.

But his confusion also came from the thoughts of 'why serve these non-human Masters', but as they continued to move on further the quickly began to notice the Art and design of the hallways they were walking through.

In some sections it was ridiculously magnificent at how beautiful the canvases were along with the statures of gold and stone along with the carvings made on nearly every single nook and cranny along the interiors.

Sure, Anderson and his group found many gun turrets and disturbingly more humans armed with differently designed rifles at the ready while watching them pass along with few more of those crimson giants, but even they had rather decorated uniforms.

Within minutes of walking and a tram ride towards their destination, they finally made it towards a set of large ornate doors leading to what their guide called the 'Throne Room' where their non-human Masters laid behind.

Anderson was thankful for the end of this strangely colourful journey and his worry was largely abated with the amount of Art he'd seen and how well looking the human crew a bored the 'Red Tear' were.

But there was still this noring sensation, an ever-increasing pressure that he couldn't place was mounting as his continued further into the ship.

And as those large doors opened, the beyond stole his breath.

The hall was incredibly large, tables and ornate furniture in near uniformity were evenly placed around the area, the Art decorations seemed even extravagant, and looking at one wall section was one massive portrait showing two giant figures behind their own circular objects that he assumed to be planets as the name of one under the giant golden figure lettered in gothic Latin stated 'Terra' while the great Angel on the opposite side said 'Bal'.

Anderson didn't know what the planet Bal was, but he knew enough about Latin to know that Earth was called Terra, but that lead to many more questions than answers.

He couldn't dwell on it, not when they still needed to move towards the Thrones where the supposed alien royalty were seated.

But yet again he was shocked at what he saw next, eyes widening, he felt his heart starting to beat much faster and that pressure seemed all too noticeable now, he couldn't help but feel that ice cold spike shoot through his head, it was an unpleasant feeling.

The area where the Thrones were held beings who at a distance looked human, but that's just it, getting closer to them it was clear as day how inhuman they really were.

There are five of them all female, extraordinarily beautiful dare he say on a divine level, Anderson was for a lack of a better word enthralled and it took great effort to even describe their appearances.

The one sitting on the Throne itself was clearly the leader, white long hair, crimson eyes that seemed to softly glow and fair skin complexion from someone of Hindu decent, garb in white robes with interesting jewels and crown, she defiantly looked like someone in charge, that and there was a pressure, or an aura should he say, moving onto the women who was…floating?

Anderson blinked as he examined the sight again, yes the blonde woman with the same crimson eyes in a proper royal blue dress was floating, in fact aside from the one sitting all four of them were floating and that really threw Anderson of his game then he already was.

Next, another woman of Hindu descent with the same crimson eyes and white hair, but her clothing was…provocative, she was barely clothed as the only thing covering her modesty was a decorative gold bra and undergarments, but she had extremely strange bodily effects, Anderson didn't know how, but her arms and legs were cracked with blue flame wafting off them, plus she had a neon lightish pink spiked halo hovering above her head.

The fourth was also just as strange, oversized white horns adjourned her head and her eyes were different from the rest of this group as they were molten gold, her hair was also white yet it was a ridiculously long main reaching her all the way to her ankles with the end tips being dyed in a bright yet fading gold much like her eyes, and her outfit was expressive but also very strange as there were some segments that Anderson couldn't really identify in his very limited knowledge about clothing in general.

And the last women was ironically very easy to explain in detail as they looked like some sort of demon lord, with fading red, black demonic looking armour and massive horns on her head along was a strange red mark on her cheek, she also had crimson eyes and blonde hair.

"Greetings Captain David Anderson and to those who are with him, we welcome you aboard the Red Tear" Anderson blinked and nearly shook himself visibly, he once again found himself deeply surprised at being addressed, but it was also the voice of the woman who was seated that drew his attention towards.

Anderson didn't know why but her was mesmerizingly smooth and extremely pleasant thing to hear, it felt like a mother was talking to him, and that greatly unnerved him.

"Allow us to introduce ours mortal names, to my right is my Wife Elizabeth Keter, to her right my eldest child, Charlie Keter, to my left and second born Leo Keter, and finally to her left is my youngest daughter Kelly Keter, as for myself, I am Brianna Keter, together we command this ship and all who belong to it, now then, I believe you have a great many questions for us, but do know some questions will not be answered" with that she ended her greetings and introduction, Anderson could only think one thing.

'what the hell' Anderson then spent some more time thinking about what he had just listened to, he wanted to ask why they looked so strange, were they really human, what was up with the way she introduced them as, what did she mean mortal name, but most importantly of all though.

"I…thank you, my first question I'd wanted asked when you saved us is, why did you do it" it was something that bothered him, what was the point of saving them, he dared to assume that they were part of some highly advanced space faring civilization much like the Covenant.

"I will answer that question" it was the woman with the large white horns who spoke next, and like her mother her tone too was soothing to hear, but hers wasn't motherly but that of a young adult which would make sense given the revelation them being one big family.

Anderson wondered what answer he was going to get.

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It was strange seeing Captain Anderson in the flesh and even more so in UNSC navy officer uniform, it looked good on him though despite being a character from an entirely different work of fiction.

But he was also acting in a way that I was very familiar with, a near unwavering voice that spoke of experience and ingrained professionalism.

Still for his question, it was something that all five of discussed on finding a solution for, and while I did bid to have us be of extra dimensional origins that was sadly not chosen to be how we explained our existence in this universe.

Instead, it was of how we were amalgamations of different beings forming singular existences and traveling the galaxy for a multitude of centuries upon centuries, seeing many races rise and fall in different corners of the galaxy along with how we saw the firing of the Halos and so much more.

Personally, I didn't really like this explanation as I felt there were too many plot holes to fill in as it was one big, massive lie, a lie that I was telling a very shocked Anderson along with his stunned entourage, if it had been my desired origin story then at least we would have been mostly truthy in were we actually came from with few selected bits left out.

 But majority will always overrule the minority.

So, question after question came and answered while few were not elaborated on like telling them our mortal names only as we rightly didn't have enough trust to tell them our Divine names.

Anderson and his group seemed to relax a bit after Mum told them that we were a singular ship amongst the stars and that we did not have any other similar vessels nor a civilisation to go to, I don't blame them for being worried about that, it would be a nightmare to contend with a seemingly overwhelmingly advanced society with ships the size of the Red Tear (AN: just wait SW fans, just wait).

It took several minutes for 20 questions time to be done with and I felt sorry for these humans, despite looking satisfied and relieved they also looked to be very stressed with what they've learned, more so with our nature and existence and somewhat for future dealings with the Citadel Council.

But right now, though, Anderson wished to be dismissed so he could relay all he'd gathered here back to his superiors and prepare for the coming skirmishes with the Turin Hierarchy, he also promised he get us clearance to enter UNSC space so a proper treaty with an appointed ambassador could be signed.

Until then we bid him and his team adue.

Once the UNSC personnel were gone and the two large doors were fully closed with an echoing thud, I and my whole family visibly deflated.

"Fuck that was intense, its going to take so long me to get used to these kinds of talks" Kelly moaned loudly out as she slumped herself on the wall near the Throne.

"We all are going to have to get used to it" my Mother said as well slouching into the oversized Throne, though she quickly composed and floated up.

"Come, the day is not over yet and we still have much to do" with those words we all shook off the slumps we had going on and proceeded to make our way towards the bridge as we still needed to coordinate with Anderson once he gained the clearance he needed for us to enter UNSC territory.

Frankly though I was feeling a bit happy and excited for what was to come in the future, this was the first step to something amazing.

Yet I also knew it wouldn't be easy despite having world ending powers, there was going to be many events in the future that all of us were going to have to take seriously even if there was very little to worry about.

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"Admiral we're one Relay jump away from the designated area that the lost patrol operates in, after that just a series of conventional small jumps for us to get to Relay 314, ETA 78 hours."

"Good, coms inform the fleet to move to condition 2 after the 65th hour mark, ops make sure everyone onboard is ready by then."

"Yes Admiral"

"Now then, XO you have the bridge, coms send the good General to my quarters if you would."

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