April 7, 2016
1,023 feet underneath southern Kenya
"This is extraordinary," sighed Vera Lorenzo quietly. It was becoming difficult to concentrate on her footwork enough to prevent tripping over. Her flashlight's beam scanned the area, joined by the two beams from her companions, Professor Mark Fleming from Cambridge University and Émilie Houde from the International Union of Speleology. All around her opened the Maw, the nickname given to this magnificent cave system. The trio were in the largest of the tunnels, which was perhaps three miles wide. It gave Vera the impression of being within the belly of a gigantic whale.
Finding the Maw had been enough of a surprise anyway. It must have lain completely undiscovered for millennia, because three days ago a Kenyan farmer had been walking through his field when he put his foot through some hollow earth and found a small cave buried beneath. Using his own initiative he began to excavate the ground around it to find the entrance was far larger than he thought. A few people had ventured in and discovered something vast. This was what they found. A colossal system dwarfing anything Vera had ever seen before. It was full of oxygen so there must have been open entrances to the outside world somewhere, yet this palace had simply never been found, so it seemed. The exploring trio had clambered down an almost vertical incline for a good two hundred feet before squeezing through a narrow, winding tunnel which suddenly opened up into what Professor Fleming had said was "to caves what the Hall of Mirrors is to rooms." Vera had never felt so small before. The Maw was on a slow incline, gradually burrowing deeper and deeper beneath the Earth. They had just passed a thousand feet and it seemed unwilling to stop.
"Do you think it'll go past two thousand?" asked Émilie excitedly.
"God I hope so," Fleming had said with poorly hidden glee. It was entirely possible that this was the deepest cave system on the planet. Just as Fleming said it, he slipped on a smooth rock and nearly fell.
"Watch yourself," Vera said quickly as she grabbed him by the arm to help keep him steady. Fleming stopped walking, instead just looking around once again.
"I'm never gonna get over this," he said, shaking his head and grinning so hard his face was practically making new creases. Vera smiled.
"Beats school," she muttered slyly. She was his top student at Cambridge, and thus at the top of his list when the IUS suggested he bring someone along for the ride. Being the only trained medic also gave her brownie points.
The cave didn't go past two thousand feet. It went past six thousand. After forty minutes of walking the group had passed the mile mark. If it weren't for their flashlights and the glowing markers they were dropping every twenty seconds to find their way back, it'd be pitch black.
"If this keeps going much longer we'll become the deepest humans in history," muttered Émilie. It didn't show any sign of stopping; the structure of the tunnel was unchanged and it kept diving deeper and deeper.
"If I didn't know better I'd say this tunnel was artificial," remarked Vera.
"What do you mean?" asked Fleming.
"Take the biggest drill in the world, stick it in the ground, and turn it on. You'll have a hole that looks a lot like this one," Vera replied.
"I never knew the Bantu expansion involved giant drills," joked Fleming. He was starting to pant. Vera was running low on water; she didn't have the energy to laugh at Fleming's retort. Émilie stopped, catching her breath.
"We might have to turn back if this keeps going, I don't want to step over an edge and fall into the mantle."
"Don't be dramatic, sweet," joked Vera, patting Émilie's back. They soldiered on.
It was another fifteen minutes before something happened.
"Do you see that?" asked Fleming, suddenly sounding alarmed. He shone his flashlight directly ahead. It was reflecting off something, something which glinted like metal. The other two moved their flashlights towards it, only to brush over more of the shiny material. Roving their beams all across they were quick to realise that the tunnel had suddenly ended. They were facing a huge wall which seemed to be made entirely out of stainless steel.
"What the hell is this…?" said Fleming slowly, stepping closer. Vera picked up one of the glowing markers from her bag and threw it ahead of herself. As it flew through the air it spread brilliant green light in all directions, before bouncing off the wall and shining it.
"We've made a discovery," said Vera quietly. The three practically ran towards the wall. Once they were within touching distance they stopped, almost afraid to do anything. Finally, after the longest of pauses, Fleming stepped towards the wall and examined it, shining his torch upon it. It was covered in grooves, strait lines which only went perfectly vertically or horizontally, yet beyond that seemed to be in a rather random pattern. Fleming was breathing slowly. They all were. Fleming turned to look at Vera.
"I bet you're glad you didn't go to Harvard now," he said, smiling. Vera was relieved to have the tensions broken, but that relief drained as Fleming reached to put his hand on the wall. She had no idea what might happen. Her head was spinning, as she was overtaken by the same sensation as when one stands up when the body doesn't expect it. Fleming's hand pressed against the wall, and nothing happened. "It's smooth…" he muttered. "This is artificial. No question." Then, lights.
Within the grooves of the metal, beginning where Fleming had placed his hand, blue light began to shine. Fleming instinctively took several steps back, as the three watched the blue light quickly spread through the metal's grooves from where it had begun, slicing through the metal until it shone from end to end, lighting up the whole cavern.
"I've walked into fucking Prometheus," remarked Émilie.
Before anyone could reply, in the very centre of the wall the lights began to converge to form a rectangle. Within one quick movement, the material within this rectangle rose effortlessly and noiselessly to reveal itself as a nine foot tall door. White light poured out, blinding the trio to what was inside. No words were exchanged between the three. Vera's heart was in her mouth. Yet in unison all three stepped towards the door, despite the pain which the light brought to their eyes, and the destiny of their entire race was sealed.
Gradually, Vera's eyes grew used to the light and she began to look around. They were in a hallway, but one unlike any she'd ever seen. It was inhumanely clean, a passage of silver metal broken only by straight grooves, lacking either colour or ornamentation. The corridor was vaguely triangular shaped, marked by arches which more took the form of the Chrysler Building than a simple, rounded arch. Perhaps five hundred miles ahead, after some twenty of these arches, there appeared to be an open room. Slowly, Fleming stepped forward.
"No point dawdling," he said quietly. His mouth was dry. All their mouths were dry. Slowly they began to walk down the corridor, taking in every nook and cranny. The aesthetic was stunning yet forlorn, with the same blue lights from before shining from the bottom of both walls to light the way.
"What've we gotten ourselves into?" asked Vera, trying not to stutter.
"I think we're witness to the rewriting of everything we know about this planet, and our history," replied Fleming. He let his hand slide down the incline of one of the arches, his fingers stroking its smooth grooves. "I've never seen anything so beautiful. Don't tell my wife that." Finally, Vera laughed. It felt such a relief to do so. Eventually they reached the end of the corridor, slightly haunted by the silence it carried, to find the open room ahead. There were three more corridors leading in different directions, but in the centre of the room stood a circular table like object. It was filled with blue light as though it were a bowl holding soup. Fleming practically ran towards it, and peered down into the light.
"Don't touch it," warned Vera. Fleming replied by touching it. He pressed his hand into the light, and nothing happened. But as he removed it he saw that an imprint of his hand remained, marked now by white light. All expected something to happen, and indeed it did.
From the ceiling suddenly popped a sphere. It was clearly made of metal, a bit bigger than a football, and had large holes in its sides and rear which allowed a second sphere within, glowing blue, to be visible. At its front was a single great blue light which Vera immediately recognised as some kind of eye. The sphere, still floating seamlessly in the air, made right for them. All three backed away until it spoke.
"Comment puis-je t'aider?" it asked, its voice smooth yet clearly synthetic, putting Vera in mind of an autotuned singer.
"A floating ball is speaking French to me, I'm losing it, I'm so losing it," said Fleming quickly. Vera was starting to agree, but couldn't get a word out before the ball responded, this time in English.
"Oh, excuse me, I could only guess at your language," it replied apologetically. "I intended to ask how I may be of help." The trio looked at each other. Vera felt close to crying. This was too much. Just too much. Apparently it was worse for Émilie, as she suddenly collapsed. The other two snapped out of it and went to her, as the floating sphere also approached cautiously, perhaps sensing the fear of the people it had come across.
"Is she okay?" asked Vera.
"She fainted," said Fleming, not taking his eyes off the sphere.
"I'm truly sorry if my presence is disturbing," said the sphere. It sounded sincere enough.
"What… who are you?" asked Vera. She felt idiotic to be actually addressing this thing, but perhaps some conversation would help the massive culture shock that was hitting her like a freight train. She could feel adrenaline bubbling through her every vein.
"I am 672 Eager Glass, monitor of this installation," responded the sphere.
"Okay… okay, what is this… installation?" asked Vera, trying to ignore her shaking hands.
"This is the Portal, which provides direct access to the Ark." Vera wasn't even going to try to interrogate Eager Glass on that.
"Are we trespassing? Are you going to harm us?" asked Fleming, still knelt down next to Émilie, who was watching the floating Eager Glass as she lay on her back.
"Oh my, certainly not!" cried Eager Glass. "My instructions are to assist you in any way I can. Speaking of which, are you feeling okay?" it asked, turning to look directly at Émilie. She nodded rapidly. "Splendid," it replied happily, and it turned its attention to Vera. "I see that you are rather confused, which is understandable. I am happy to provide all the information you require." Fleming slowly got to his feet.
"Start from the beginning," he said, his voice a little more confident. "What is this place? Why is it on Earth? Who built it?"
"As I said, this is the Portal. When activated, it will create a gateway directly to the Ark. The Ark is a facility from which the Halo installations can be fired simultaneously, while also providing a safe haven from their effects." Glass was talking about things which were going right over Vera's head. "All of this, including myself, was built by the Forerunners." Over the next twenty minutes, Eager Glass told them everything. The Forerunners, Halo, the Flood, the firing of the rings and the repopulation of the galaxy. Then he wrapped up with the biggest news of all.
"My creators, never to return, chose to bequeath all they left behind to your species. You were judged the best suited in the galaxy to inherit the legacy of the Forerunners. Thus the name they christened you with; Reclaimers."
