0600 Hours 2567

UNSC Destroyer Magnolia

Unknown System

As Captain Macmillan sat aboard his vessel the UNSC Halberd-class destroyer Magnolia, he couldn't help but stare longingly at the stars. When ONI had roped his vessel into a small taskforce that was to search the surrounding systems for forerunner artifacts he was excited. But as the ships in auxiliary taskforce Leviathan had followed the strange forerunner signal on a wild goose chase for days now he was beginning to regret his earlier excitement.

Of course every captain in the UNSC knew of the legendary forerunner artifacts and the technological wonders they often contained, but was it worth his and his bridge crew's sanity? "Lieutenant Ford report" he half muttered. As the com officer listed off the as usual boring data she mentioned something that caught his attention. "Captain, sir, I'm picking up a strange frequency of some kind on coms, I'm trying to isolate it but it keeps bouncing around the system. Strange, from what I can tell it seems forerunner in origin but it's a garbled mess, might as well be alphabet soup."

He then turned to his close friend and sensor officer Lieutenant David Heart, "David can you locate the signals origin?" "Negative sir, there's just too much damn interference, we could try scouring the system manually but that could take days, even with other ships" Replied the Lieutenant. The captain though for a minute and then looked towards the center of his bridge at the holo-table. He addressed his ships resident AI, "Jay launch some probes and see if we can set up a grid around the solar system to triangulate the source." Jay appeared on the holo-table as a small blueish figure in the armor of a sixteenth century knight. "Aye sir, and may I suggest roping the Blackwater into our little operation as well?"

Macmillan took a moment to respond, the Blackwater was a relatively new Autumn-class heavy cruiser that was searching one of the many systems in the area for Forerunner artifacts. "Contact Captain Evelyan I'll talk it over with her." Then on the bridges main display screen the middle aged face of Captain Evelyan appeared. "Captain Macmillan, I understand you could use some help?"

"Ahh, Captain Evelyan, yes we've detected what we think is a forerunner signal in system but were having trouble locking it down, we are about to deploy a number of probes, but with our combined sensor readings it would go much faster, is your ship available to assist?" As the conversation between the two captains continued Captain Evelyan revealed that they too had been extremely bored and had already finished scans of their assigned system without finding much of anything, so they jumped at the chance for some "action."

As he ended the transmission Jay let him know that the Blackwater would arrive in a little over an hour. "Very good, now we have some space junk to find, let's get to it." The crew heard a soft "thump" sound as a number of probes launched from the destroyer.

0900 Planet Reach

Classified ONI Facility

Meanwhile as the Magnolia set up its many probes to help triangulate the strange message, Commander Hearthgrove of ONI Section III was busy trying to get to a meeting, a meeting she was very much late for. "Incoming, move out of the way!" She yelled as she half sprinted down the halls of the ONI facility.

Commander Hearthgrove was a little of an oddity in ONI, when it was revealed that the forerunners had left the mantle to humanity some took it seriously, almost like a religion, and Maria Hearthgrove was one of those people. She wasn't overly crazy or forceful with her beliefs, but she earned some eyes from a number of her higher ups concerning her views on forerunner tech. She was a self-proclaimed "expert" on the stuff and she didn't often disappoint.

Combine that with her belief that as the forerunner's chosen inheritors all forerunner technology was rightfully humanity's and ready for the taking she was the perfect fit for a great many projects involving the recovery and research of forerunner artifacts. After arriving in the meeting room she immediately took her seat, her long blonde hair swinging in the wind as she hurriedly sat down. Her superiors eyed her suspiciously but they didn't mention her tardiness. "Ahem, now that we're all here let us begin. Now this particular committee was formed just under 13 years ago to discover and research the forerunners and the benefits their technologies can present to us.

Some of you have been here since that time and some of you are new. But our hard work has not been for nothing, humanity is reaping the benefits of forerunner technology, and I'm not just talking about civilian technologies. Our military has recovered tenfold since the end of the war, and not just in numbers. Technologically we are not just a match; we are ahead when compared with the Sangheili or the others former covenant races. This last decade has been an unprecedented technological golden age, and I have someone here who wants to thank you for your efforts.

As everyone looked around confused the image of Admiral Serin Osman appeared on the holo-table facing the now shocked group of people. "Ladies and gentleman, I know some of you may be confused right now, but I wanted to thank you all personally for the great work you have been doing these last several years."

Of course everyone knew who Serin Osman was, the head of the Office of Naval Intelligence, their bosses boss. No one messed with Osman, she was known as a cold and often heartless soul, but she did what was necessary to protect and advance humanity. "Your work has helped us recover from the war quicker than ever thought imaginable, now this isn't just praise to boost your ego, I'm also here to tell you that you have a new job, but before I start with that I would like an update on your efforts on recovering forerunner technology.

Commander Hearthgrove please inform all of us on your most recent project." Maria stood up somewhat shocked by the callout. "Uhhh yes admiral!" She hastily said. "Last week the light frigate UNSC Glass Cannon detected a strange signal thought to be originating from a cluster of about 2 dozen star systems while on patrol at the edge of our space. The signal was reported by the ship's commanding officer as it seemed to resemble forerunner signals we've encountered in the past, but the ships AI couldn't make heads or tails of it.

When analyzing said signal I was only able to narrow down the signal to about a dozen star systems. Considering the importance forerunner technology represents I got permission to assemble a small task force to search these systems for the suspected forerunner artifact. This task force, auxiliary battlegroup Leviathan, is made up of 2 Halberd-Class destroyers 3 heavy frigates and 2 autumn-class heavy cruisers."

This made Osman speak up after taking in what the commander had said. "Commander that seems like a large amount of ships and firepower, even for forerunner artifacts, I hope you have a reason for this seemingly misallocation of resources?"

"Why yes admiral I do, you see when I first examined the forerunner signal something happened to peak my interest. It was different from other signals we've encountered before, nothing like I've ever seen, and I've examined a great number of forerunner artifacts. My bet is that we're looking at possibly another shield world or more likely something else entirely, what it is I can't say but it seems to be important, but in my opinion any piece of forerunner tech is important." "Noted commander, if you believe this is important then I'll take your word for it, but be advised I'm watching you." This made Maria gulp, she knew she was viewed as a rising star in ONI but she didn't know she had caught the eye of someone as high up as Osman. Normally having someone like Osman watching you was never a good thing, but she hoped that her hard work may have earned her another promotion.

Although she was a little young to be a commander, at 34 she had proved she was a hard worker and quite brilliant. She stopped this line of thinking almost immediately, self-flattery was enjoyable and all, but never let it get to your head lest you become arrogant, and in her line of work arrogance could be a death sentence. As the meeting was finishing up she took a quick glance at her data pad and read over a few messages, what she saw excited her. "Does anyone else having something to add" Said another officer.

Maria spoke up, "yes I have something else to add; I have just received word that the Halberd-Class heavy destroyer Magnolia has isolated the forerunner signal to a single system. They are having difficulties getting an exact position but the Autumn-Class heavy cruiser the Blackwater is on its way to assist and I suspect they will have something in about a day. I would like to request to go and research whatever it is they find."

"Excellent news commander, very well I will authorize your request, but be careful, you don't know what they could find, god forbid it's the flood, last thing we need is an outbreak of that damn parasite."