Spirit of Fire
Location: UnknownMilitary Clock: 0125 hours, 23.04.2536
"Captain, wake up. Something has happened."
Hesitantly, Captain James Cutter forced his eyes open. Overwhelming light stabbed into his aging eyes and he was sure tears would form under his gray eyebrows. His cryo-pod cracked open with a hiss, the burning sensation over his covered torso nearly crippling him. He failed to maintain his balance and he dropped to the grated floor. Heaving a chilling breath, he exhaled with a hacking cough, racking his body with even more pain.
His mind tried to catch up with his present state. The Captain had been quick-thawed only once before, and he knew the only reason for such a risky procedure was dire circumstances. And if they were indeed dire, then as captain of the Spirit of Fire, he was needed to be fully functional.
He rolled onto his rear and cleared the moisture from his face with a brush of his hand. He shielded his eyes till they were partially adjusted to the Cryo Room's overhead glowpanels. He coughed a few more times before looking up at a small pedestal stationed at the very end of the chamber. James was expecting to see the glowing avatar of Serina, the ship's on board AI, but the pedestal remained dark.
Nevertheless, Serina's voice echoed though the speaker system. "Captain, I need you on the bridge."
James frowned to himself. Since when did I take orders from an AI? He shook the mildly amusing thought from his mind and lifted himself up off the floor, clutching his own pod for balance. "Give me a minute." He let a quick dizziness spell evaporate before his eyes and started for the exit. James found his locker and quickly got dressed. It would be highly improper for a UNSC Captain to go strutting around the deck wearing nothing more than a body suit.
Placing his trusty cap on his head, James paused in front of the locker's small mirror. His mind was racing with random thoughts, even distracting so-called priorities of dressing one's self, and his gut began to grow cold with worry that any more delay could ultimately effect the Spirit of Fire in the most negative way. He nodded to his reflection and slammed the door shut.
James exited the Cryo Room, taking note that there were no other crew members up and about, and walked down the short foyer that lead to a long hallway. He passed Cryo Rooms Two and One, and he stopped short when he noticed the empty lockers outnumbering the occupied ones, situated along the wall. James sighed as he placed a hand over an opened locker door and shut it quietly. On its exterior, the paint had been chipped and scarred from too many times when the owner had hurried off to battle. The worn identifying label was still attached: Pvt. Gregory Aiken. Cutter didn't recognize the name, and he wondered at what point the marine had sacrificed his life in service to the UNSC. Was it on Arcadia, or possibly on that God-forsaken shield world?
He didn't have the answer, but the memories of those engagements were still vividly entrenched in his mind. His priorities since taking back Harvest had changed suddenly and drastically after discovering the Covenant had found and unlocked an ancient star map deep inside the polar regions. Professor Ellen Anders was able to access the map, albeit briefly, and it led them to Arcadia, the doctor's own homeworld. Cutter pivoted on his right foot and leaned back against the locker's cool metal surface. When we got there, the Covies were just slaughtering innocent civilians. He felt his hands tighten into fists so he forced them open. We saved as many as we could that day.
The Covenant had found something of importance on Arcadia, and after a long battle, Anders and Sgt. John Forge were able to search the devastated area for clues of the enemy's plans. Only Anders was captured and we had to follow her transponder. A security breach like that could have ended the war right then and there. But what Cutter or Serina couldn't anticipate was arriving at an uncharted system. Only it wasn't just another transit stop, but a shell of a world. A shield world, if you will. There they not only encountered a Covenant presence but a new lifeform Serina had classified as parasitic in nature. Had Private Aiken succumbed to the ill affects of this infection? Sadly, James knew that of all the possible ways to die on the battlefield, that would have been the worst.
Following Anders' signal brought them to the inside of the planetoid where the Spirit of Fire clashed briefly with the Covenant ship that led them there. Taking a lot of damage, they were able to achieve some hasty field repairs before clearing the engagement. Miraculously, Professor Anders had escaped her captivity and Sgt. Forge helped her get back to the ship. While he was able to lead the ground forces in establishing a beachhead on the surface, Anders relayed her findings that the Covenant had unlocked an ancient armada of highly advanced ships and were planning to instigate them into their own fleet.
James pushed himself off the locker and started walking again. He wondered why he didn't dream of any of this while in cryo sleep, but he figured it was for the best. Without Sgt. Forge's sacrifice of personally detonating the Spirit of Fire's FTL drive at the shield world's core, the Covenant could have wiped Humanity off the galactic map in a matter of years with that technology. Sacrifice, James thought to himself. If there were one word that could sum up the actions of the brave men and women who have fought with the Spirit of Fire, it would be sacrifice. Pursing his lips, he shook his head and tried to reorient to his current situation. Get your mind right, Cutter.
His brisk amble down the empty corridors was short lived when he turned it into a flat out sprint. Slightly annoyed at Serina's vague "something has happened" statement, his mind wanted to fill the void with his own speculations. Could we have reached a UNSC outpost already? Did something go wrong in Medical? Have one of the Cryo Rooms malfunctioned? Either way, he would know soon enough.
The bridge door hissed open just as James Cutter stomped his pace down to a fast walk. Catching his breath took longer than he had expected, but he did breathe a deep sigh of relief at seeing Serina's holoform glowing at the central tactical display. He knew she was coming up on the end of her expected lifespan, but as for now, she appeared her usual, bland self. "Serina, status."
She pivoted in place, turning to face him. "Sir, are you alright?"
"Just a little winded," he said, finally able to get his breathing under control.
Serina eyed him closely for a few more seconds before nodding once. "Sir, I've managed to pick up a faint transmission, very dim, but without any FTL oscillations to color the frequencies, I was able to find it under an old broadcast range." The tactical screen flickered to life, its blue grid pattern replaced with a fuzzy image of a somewhat-round, large object with smaller specs littered around it. "The source is coming from here."
The Captain's eyebrows met together in confusion. "What exactly am I looking at, Serina."
"My best guess is that this is a remnant of an asteroid field."
James leaned over the edge of the display, but quickly looked up and started out the forward viewports. He could see nothing but the black velvet void with very few stars sprinkled over its canvas. There was no light coming in from the outside, only the low-lit glowpanels near the floor of the bridge provided any illumination. How can we be anywhere near a system? He pressed a few buttons on the tactical display and brought up a split-image view of Serina's find with that of the local star chart records.
The records simply read: STAR CHARTS UNAVAILABLE/ UNKNOWN.
"So we're still out in No Man's Land," Cutter conceded. "Can you give me anything on where we might be? Even a local star?"
"I've been updating our database on a rolling basis, but without a familiar constellation backdrop, our mapping of this area of the galaxy is really only good for where we've been." Serina switched the error message to a crudely constructed star map that was very cylindrical in nature, due to the never-changing vector they had been traveling.
Cutter chewed on the inside of his cheek. "How long has it been since our departure?" he asked, marveling at the size of the area they had covered.
"Five years, one month, and twelve days."
That long and we're still nowhere near friendly territory. He shook his head wearily, and pulled his attention back to the other half of the tactical hologram. "So what does this transmission say?"
Bringing a hand to her ear, Serina activated the bridge speakers. A burst of static boomed loudly and lasted for several seconds before cutting off abruptly. The garbled transmission started again, but this time at a quieter volume, as Serina explained. "I'm afraid there's not much more to it than that, Sir."
James straightened up and folded his arms across his chest. "And this is what gave you reason to quick-thaw me?"
"The likelihood of sentient life communicating out here in between star systems is infinitesimal. And honestly, Sir, there has been nothing to see or hear since we left the shield world." She gave him a flat smile. "And I knew everyone else would already deem me crazy."
Sighing, more out of contemplation than frustration, Cutter shifted his weight. "Regardless, I'm here." He motioned to the blurry image floating before him. "What's so important about this static transmission? Even black holes emit radio waves, Serina."
She nodded. "Yes, but not with a perceivable pause. The break in the transmission is likely the sender awaiting a response."
"And the message is repeating?" James asked, suddenly feeling his pulse quicken.
"Yes, Sir." Serina gathered her hands behind her back. "The pause will vary in length, so I ruled out an automated signal in the likelihood of it being a pre-recorded message."
"Is there anything in the transmission to make you believe it's Human in origin?"
"I'm unable to tell for sure. The initial run through the audio scrubbers came up blank, but there's no encryption on the signal."
Cutter worked his jaw. "What are the odds this is Covenant lure?"
Serina was silent for a moment. "It is possible, however unlikely. It's too obvious for a trap," she deduced.
James growled to himself. He knew the chances of making it back home safely were small. He also knew that being in unfamiliar territory had forced them to run silent, whereas if they were adrift in UNSC-controlled space they would light up the airwaves like a New Year's celebration. Five years. He shook his head. If this is our chance at contact . . .
"Serina, set a course towards the source of that transmission." He circled around the other side of the tactical display to find an operable terminal.
"Aye, Sir," Serina said assertively.
"Have Cryo Rooms One, Two, and Four queue for a quick thaw." Cutter narrowed his eyes. "And wake the Professor. We might need her help on this one."
Professor Ellen Anders wiped the last lingering bit of tiredness from her eyes and straightened up when the lift doors chimed open. She walked into the small personnel lift and pressed the button for the Bridge, closing the doors.
Once she was released from her cryo-pod, Anders had raced to her lab down on the observation deck only to find most of her equipment on a hard restart. She knew her things were safe from other crewmembers meddling with the delicate artifacts, but it didn't rule out Serina poking her head in and turning off Ellen's computer gear. She had silently cursed the AI, knowing full well that Serina would just as soon wipe all of Ellen's recent findings just to spite her, let alone use some rant about shutting off the power to unused decks as justification.
The doors chime again, this time opening up to a fully lit corridor and other crewmembers in a state of self-collection. Anders let a smile tug at the corner of her mouth. She had always prided herself in combating the ill effects of cryo-sleep. She was even able to adapt her own cryo-pod to apply a thin layer of specialized coating to limit the itchiness and discomfort prone to one who wore clothing during the flash-freezing. It most likely was illegal to tamper with UNSC surplus, but the Captain had never voiced his concerns to her.
She moved quickly now, abandoning her hold on her white lab coat, and started for the bridge. She kept her pace somewhere between a trot and a fast walk. It wouldn't do her any good to look foolish in front of others, for that matter. The crisp sound of synced footsteps turned her head partway around.
"Excuse us, Ma'am."
It was the trio of Spartans that marched past, and Ellen mentally kicked herself for not picking up on their orderly gait. They, unlike every other person— save her, appeared fully functional and walked with a purpose. She reckoned they were headed for the bridge as well, providing her with a little more data on the current chain of command. Forge was the leader on the ground, but now . . . Ellen frowned at her recollection. That damn sergeant had to go be a hero and save us all. She let out a sigh. Just when I was starting to like him. Well, if the Spartans were going to head up an assault team, it was fine with her. They had definitely proven themselves time and time again on that shield world.
Up ahead, the bridge doors hissed opened for the three soldiers, the two in back judging the distance so as to clear the doorway with a centimeter to spare on either side. Anders quickened her pace, hoping to make it through the door while it was still ajar.
Nope. It slammed shut and she took a sudden sidestep to avoid activating the sensor to open the door. She was sure the Captain was already filling the Spartans in on what Serina deemed important, but she needed to make her own entrance. Not in an arrogant way, Ellen explained to herself, just so everyone on the bridge knows that I'm as important as the next person. She cringed at her own semi-delusional thoughts and entered the bridge.
And was greeted by the most annoying sound she'd heard since her youth when she was pulled to a local dive and forced to listen to the stuff they called music. But unlike the rhythmic pulse of long ago, the static blaring over the bridge's speaker system seemed almost mathematical, binary. She saw Captain Cutter wave her over towards the tactical display, and noticed that the three Spartans huddled on the nearest edge were studying the floating blob before them. Serina stood on her pedestal, lifted chin and all, and smiled as the Professor took the only available spot around the tactical display.
The static cut off and James Cutter nodded to Anders. "Good to see you're not suffering too badly." His right eyebrow arched up. "Though I didn't expect you to take that long to get here."
Ellen pursed her lips. "I wanted to stop by my lab," she said, mechanically rotating her head to stare at Serina. "But someone already beat me there." She was pleased to see Serina frown, though briefly, and the AI opened her mouth to speak. But Anders cut off any side comment. "It doesn't matter. My equipment needs to have diagnostics run on them anyway." She pointed to the holoform before them. "What's this?"
The Captain sighed, more audibly than usual. "The source of that signal you just heard. But other than that, we don't know."
One of the Spartans, the biggest one, spoke up first. "Could this just be an interstellar outpost stationed by the Covenant?"
Serina shook her head, keeping the rest of her body completely stiff. "Highly unlikely. The transmission I just played was not under any of the usual Covenant frequencies, or UNSC frequencies. It's very weak and very low-fi." The image on the tactical display flickered once and the fuzzy image became slightly more detailed. "We're on an intercept course with it, thus the visual and audio scanners are updating every few minutes. But there's a very good chance we won't know what we're dealing with until we're right up on it."
"That's not very comforting," Anders murmured. She let her eyes fix on the semi-transparent blob and ran a thousand images in her mind in which to compare. While resembling a chewed-up asteroid, there was one side that was smoother than the others, as if worn down from thermal reentry. "What's your take on this thing?" she asked, partially wanting to see if her deduction was an original thought.
"Serina believes it to be an asteroid of some sorts," Cutter offered.
Anders eyed the Captain. "But that's not what you think," she inferred.
Cutter placed both his hands on the edge of the display, gently supporting his weight. "I'm not sure what I think now. With everything the Spirit of Fire has been through over the last few engagements, I doubt I'd be surprised if it was a Covenant Prophet heralding a peace treaty."
That remark earned an abbreviated shoulder bob from one of the Spartans, the other male, Anders noticed.
"Either way," Cutter continued, "it has to be some type of sentient lifeform."
Ellen felt a wave of stiffness shoot down her spine and it straightened her up. Thoughts of those parasitic beasts they battled on the shield world came right into the forefront of her mind. The new categorization of that species was still, since her freezing, being debated by a collection of medical officers on board. It was another wildcard to throw in the deck, but after dealing with both the parasites and the Covenant, Anders knew there was no way the two could have anything to do with one another. Still, it was unnerving to think they could run into those interesting specimens again.
"You alright, Professor?"
Ellen snapped out of her daze and gave a lopsided grin to the Captain. "Yes, Sir. If it will help, I'd like to run a few tests of my own on the signal." Out of the corner of her eye she could see Serina turning to face her, but Ellen avoided making eye contact. "I have some analysis equipment down in my lab that could clean up some of that noise."
"Sir, with respect, I believe that will not be needed," Serina chimed in. "As we get closer to the source our chances of interpreting the signal increase. We are still well outside weapons' range for any known capital ship, and if my calculations are correct, our sensors should be able to make complete sense of the anomaly in approximately 2.2 hours."
"We're still that far away?" Ellen blurted out. She studied the floating holoform again, trying to find some hidden detail she had not seen before.
"Yes," Cutter confirmed, "and we're going to need everyone ready when it comes time to deal with this." The Captain looked across the tactical display at the three soldiers. "I can't thank the three of you enough for sticking with us after evacuating the Arcadian civilians. None of us could have anticipated the path that has lead us here— wherever 'here' is." He sighed and pushed himself upright. "After loosing Sgt. Forge and over half of my officers, I need some leadership my guys can follow on the ground. I know it may seem unorthodox, but ONI brass isn't here to debate with me." Cutter gathered his arms behind his back. "If you'd be willing to lead the taskforce team in the Sergeant's wake, I would greatly appreciate it."
The center Spartan remained unmoved for a few seconds. Anders tried to stare past the golden visor of his helmet to see the man's expression underneath, but she failed to do so. She could image the thoughts swirling about his mind.
Ellen, like the Spartans, was commissioned by the Office of Naval Intelligence, and knew the various protocols, or sometimes lack thereof, given on each assignment. But Red Team was a special case, being hauled off to track down Anders herself. I had gotten them into this mess in the first place. She dismissed the guilt within half a second, realizing that without the Spirit of Fire following and rescuing her, they never would have halted the Covenant from using those ancient ships.
While she assumed that Dr. Halsey was soaking up most of ONI's funding, she couldn't deny the valuable resource these super soldiers had become. She may be a total bitch, but she knows how to get things done. She smiled internally. If Catherine ever heard me say that about her, things might get even more heated between us. Even with a compliment thrown into the insult.
The Spartan— Jerome 092, Ellen finally remembered— turned his head to his left then right, catching the glances from the soldiers at his sides. "While I feel we function better as a support group, I understand the circumstances." He straightened himself up to his full height. "Duty accepted. We are in your command, Captain." In unison, the other two Spartans snapped to attention.
Cutter nodded solemnly, and Anders could almost see a weight lift off of the older man's shoulders. "Thank you." He held his prideful gaze a moment longer before nodding once more. "We still have a few hours before we can make any real judgement, so Professor," he said, turning his head to Anders. "You have that time to run your analysis."
"Thank you, Captain," Ellen replied, anxious to begin her work. "If there's nothing else, I'll go ahead and start."
James Cutter gestured to both Anders and the Spartans. "Then if there's no other questions, we have some preparations to make. Dismissed."