ODST: Shattered Glass

PROLOGUE

1855 HOURS, 23 November 2554 (UNSC Military Calendar)

EPSILON ERIDANI SYSTEM, PLANET REACH

Cyrus Lyster pulled the cloth mask over the bottom of his face, obscuring it from the worst of the storm. A macabre mixture of ash, snow and crystal whipped and swirled around him, engaging in an endless howling dance across the seemingly endless flat surface of the planet Reach. A slight incline in front of him was the only landmark visible- Menachite Mountain. But aside from the lone silvery mount, the land around him was all the same- flat and translucent.

It seemed hard to believe that less than three years ago the mighty and indomitable Reach had been the nerve center for the UNSC's campaign against the United Rebel Front and the Covenant Empire. Seven hundred million had inhabited this planet, or so the files had read.

And for a great many of those millions, the world of Reach had become a massive crystalline tomb. It was incredible to think that the husk of the planet had already developed a weather system, and fitting it was- the endless snow and glass fragments buried the remnants of the UNSC presence here just as the new and rising United Independence Coalition- the latest incarnation of the rebels- buried humanity's relief following the conclusion of the Human-Covenant War.

Cyrus shook his head, clearing his thoughts. Taking out a small hand-held communicator, he yelled into it against the sound of the roaring wind.

"Looks all the same here! This whole damn place is a great big chandelier! Let's go already! I said before- this is a waste of time!"

A voice came out of the com unit's speaker, cutting through the wind like Covenant plasma through armor plate.

"Not a chance! You wanna tell command we finked out, be my guest. I'm gonna look until I find somm'in."

"Fine! Meet up at the dip! That's probably our best spot!"

Cyrus pocketed the communicator with some relief. His voice was hoarse from screaming into it all day, and yet all his teammate had to do was speak normally, and he was crystal clear. Cyrus had never figured that one out.

Several hours later, Cyrus stood in what appeared to be a valley of glass. The terrain rose to one side, and rose slightly more sharply to the other. The deeper section of the glass ran in a straight line with the incline to both sides. Cyrus thought of a gargantuan rifling groove.

Slowly, a figure approached. Black against the swirling grey-white snow, Rey Bolt wore the same cold-weather poncho as Cyrus did, marking him out as the only other living thing on the whole damn planet.

The sooner Cyrus could convince Bolt that it was just the two of them, the sooner they could get off this ball of ice.

"You remember the spot?" Rey asked calmly through the turbulence.

"Yeah! Right around here! Test with the reflectors to see! We'll check there and then go! I ain't searching the whole planet!" Cyrus coughed, and then massaged his sore throat.

"Fine!" Rey drew a small device that looked like an obese pistol. The optical reflector shone a beam of light on a surface, and a small light-absorbing panel collected reflected light. A minute data processor did the math.

Rey pointed the reflector at a very specific spot in the ground, giving a thumbs-up gesture two seconds later, satisfied with the reading.

"Yep. It's this spot. You got the charges?"

Cyrus nodded. Pulling out a C-9 high-explosive bomb, he walked over to the spot where the reader had shown the glass was thinnest, flicking the detonator switches as he went. Placing the bomb on the silvery-white ground, he wound the timer up to 10 seconds. Plenty of time to get away.

As the telltale tick tock of the timer resounded in his ears (all despite the biting wind), Cyrus and Rey rushed away from the bomb. You didn't need to be a genius to know what happened if you stood right next to the big boom.

The boom itself reminded Cyrus of nothing so much as a hundred amplified gunshots. The cacophony of noise increased rapidly as the glass surface of Reach cracked and crumbled in the spot closest to the explosion. Then came a noise Cyrus had not been expecting. Several dull thuds and cracks resounded, as if the chunks of debris had fallen into something.

Rey was already at the blast site, looking down in abject shock at the scene. The wind seemed oddly quiet to Cyrus' ears.

Looking up, Rey spoke with a voice at once both dumbstruck and curious.

"I think we've blown through a cave roof."

Peering down, Cyrus didn't see much. It was mostly black- but that wasn't anything a little light couldn't fix.

Pulling out a high-powered flashlight, Cyrus flicked the switch and once again looked down into the cave. His jaw dropped.

Mushrooms, some a foot tall by the look of it, grew in colonies across the cave floor and walls. One of the far walls was slick and green with algae and lichen. Growths of moss and fungus littered the cavern floor, with barely a bare patch save where the glass and rock had fallen in.

Cyrus looked up. Rey was looking back at him, just as ecstatic and surprised as he was. The two exchanged a high-five and a brief celebratory hug.

"Yes! Yes!"

"We actually found something! And you wanted to give up!"

"I take that all back, man! We gotta get to the ship and call command! Mission accomplished, Rey. Mission accomplished."

Cyrus looked back into the cavern one last time before turning away and heading back to their adapted Longsword-class ship, shaking his head in wonderment all the while.

There was life on Reach.