1000 hrs local time, Date Unknown (Timestamp Error, Transporter Activation plus four days)

Near Unknown Forerunner underground structure, currently SPARTAN base camp

Unknown Planet

Fred crouched at the base of a tree, studying a field map laid out before him. Halsey had been right, the device was a transporter. When they had activated the machine, there was a flash of light, a moment in which time seemed to stand still and a feeling of liquid ice covering them from head to foot, regardless of their armor, and then they were in a room similar to the one they had left, with the only indication of the change being in the anchor crystal. It had been replaced with a blue-green, three pointed crystal that was easily recognizable as a Forerunner artifact. Halsey had wanted to remove it at first, but then realized that it was the only thing that might allow them to use the machine again. It was agreed that it would be best to leave the machine as it was.

That was four days ago. Since then, the Spartans had been reconnoitering the immediate area. The Forerunner structure where they had been transported to was extensive, and it had taken nearly a day just to secure it. When they found the front door, they had realized that it was underground, as the door was located in what looked like a natural cave formation on the side of a mountain. After another half day of studying the local computer system, Dr. Halsey had determined that the cave was, in fact, artificial in nature, and that it was shielded against all kinds of emissions, effectively hiding it from anyone searching from space or by long range sensors.

It made it an effective bunker, with one drawback. It was also shielded against radio waves. To remedy this, the Spartans had placed a radio relay post in the ground at the mouth of the cave. It was a small rod-shaped device that was placed in the ground, and then automatically drilled down to a depth of one half meter. The relay posts were issued to UNSC personnel who were consistently sent on missions where they might not have access to satellite communication technology, and as such were capable of relaying a radio signal an impressive distance.

In another room, Dr. Halsey had found a cut-down version of the replicator machine in the bunker. It did the same thing as the one back on Onyx, with one exception. Halsey concluded that it was a severely limited version of what they had on Onyx. It could replicate things, but it lacked any sort of database or other design materials. It could scan things into the system, make repairs to its structure, and then replicate the object, but it didn't store the scan in anything but a temporary buffer, and was incapable of merging two separate scans, like what Halsey had done to make the MJOLNIR Mk. VII. Still, it gave them an excellent logistical advantage.

The map in front of Fred detailed the area that they had explored thus far. Approximately six kilometers to the south was a small hunting village, surrounded by dense forest that was largely uninteresting. They had been keeping patrols around the village for the past three days, trying to find any evidence of other villages, as well as finding out anything about culture. Dr. Halsey had suggested that they avoid making contact with any of the locals until they were certain that the more primitive people would not become afraid and potentially violent at the sight of such advanced technology.

Two days ago, Fred had sent Tom and Lucy further onto the floodplain southeast of the mountains, where Linda had spied movement along some kind of road. There were apparently traveling merchants making their way from the hunting village, and the two former Beta Company Spartans had caught up to them, and had been providing consistent updates back to base camp since then.

Fred looked to that part of the map. It was set apart from the rest, indicating a distance of roughly thirty kilometers. The merchants had been traveling slow, and Tom and Lucy had easily been able to reach them before the end of their journey. The road ended at what Tom had described at first as a set of monuments. There was a small metal pedestal with several symbols etched into it, and had a large blue-green stone in the center. Roughly four meters beyond that, at the very end of the road, was a large ring-shaped structure erected over a set of stone steps.

Tom had provided a real-time report as one of the merchants approached the pedestal, while the others stopped near the base of the ring's steps and looked up at the structure.

"The merchant at the pedestal is pressing symbols… it looks like they're buttons," Tom had said. "He's pressing symbols in sequence, though it looks almost random. There's five, six, seven… now he's pressing the crystal in the center and… whoa."

For a moment there was silence, and Fred said, "Spartan, report!"

"Sorry, sir," Tom replied. "As soon as the merchant pressed the crystal, the space inside the ring filled with some kind of energy. It projected from the ring almost two meters, then retreated and coalesced into what looks like a vertical pool of water. Wait one… the merchants are walking towards it. They're just walking into the water and… disappearing. I've never heard of anything like this, sir. They're all through… the water effect just dispersed. The merchants are gone, sir, and I think it's safe to say that the ring has deactivated."

"Understood," Fred said. "Hold position and await further instructions."

"Aye, sir."

Fred had then told Tom and Lucy to establish a perimeter around the device and maintain surveillance. They had been there since then, and there had been no further activity around the ring. Tomorrow he would have Ash and Olivia move out to relieve them. Spartans were trained to operate alone for extended periods of time, and with the new MJOLNIR suits, they would be able to function more effectively than they ever had before.

Fred looked at the representation of the distant mystery one last time, and then turned his mind to more pressing tasks. He was in the process of working out the next round of patrols when his radio activated.

"This is Sierra-Bravo Two-Niner-Two to base, over," Tom said.

"Base here," Fred replied.

"Sir, that weird ring thing just started spinning around. I think it's activating again."

"Acknowledged," Fred said. "Any indication of who's controlling it?"

Tom replied, "No, sir. It's being activated from the other side, wherever that is… Standby, base."

Fred waited a few moments, and then Tom started speaking again. This time, however, he sounded unsure.

"Sir, some kind of aircraft just came through. Very advanced, and it activated some kind of active camouflage almost as soon as it emerged. I'm sorry, sir, I have no idea what heading it's on."

Fred replied, "Understood. Send me your armor's video of the unknown, and then maintain surveillance of the ring. Let me know the instant there's any more activity."

"Aye, aye, sir."

Fred then switched to the encrypted squad channel.

"All Spartans, cancel patrols. Rendezvous at base camp immediately, and maintain active camouflage procedures while en route."

Green acknowledgement lights winked on, and Fred pulled up the video of the unknown craft that Tom had sent. It was strange cylindrical shape, definitely an alien design, and from the way it fit through the Ring, it was probably built by the same race. More disturbing, however, was the way it pulled a four-G turn almost straight up, and faded from view as it did. The MJOLNIR armor's scanners were very effective in ground combat, but it had no way to detect a camouflaged aircraft in flight. In fact, nothing the Spartans currently had on hand could do such a thing. They would all have to be very careful until this thing decided to show itself again.

1245 hrs, February 24, 2553

Remains of ancient Forerunner City

Unknown Alien World

It had taken another three days for the Master Chief to reach the center of the city. He had been moving slowly, taking his time, fully aware that no matter how important it was for him to get back to UNSC space, it was more important that he get back in one piece. Nothing on this world had given him much trouble thus far, but in the Master Chief's experience, that didn't mean something nasty wasn't hiding around the next corner.

He was moving down a narrow alley, when he noticed that the area ahead of him opened up into some kind of clearing. He cautiously exited the alley, and found himself looking at a Forerunner monument. A wide street ran in a complete circle around the monument, creating an urban clearing roughly one hundred meters across, with the fronts of every building facing the statue. Inside the circle formed by the street, steps led up to what looked like a circular platform, with the actual statue in the center. The statue's pedestal was square, roughly eight feet in height, and covered in flowing Forerunner script. Atop the pedestal was a Forerunner in shining white full combat armor, feet set shoulder width apart, and arms held wide above its head. Between those outstretched hands was a faint, flickering hologram of the Milky Way galaxy, somehow still partially powered after all this time. The statue's helmeted, expressionless visage stared into that glowing image, and managed to convey a sense of awe or respect for all the space that the Forerunners had held dominion over.

In spite of himself, the Spartan ascended the stairs, entranced by the monument, and stood at the base of the pedestal, looking up at the statue. Great care had obviously been taken in forming this image, made evident by the precise and minute detail of the statue. It was made of silvery metal, possibly the same material that actually made up Forerunner combat armor, and the armor itself held similarities to the MJOLNIR armor that John now wore. There were also many differences to the statue. The plating was obviously thicker, and held odd, possibly aesthetic protrusions at most of the major joints, and the helmet itself was incredibly ornate, almost on par with the unique helms that the Elite counselors wore. It's most haunting feature, however, was its structure. It was obviously made for a humanoid figure, and John's mind flashed back to the control room of the newly-remade Installation 04, when Guilty Spark had revealed what John had already suspected: That humanity was the descendants of the Forerunners.

John lowered his gaze to the pedestal, wondering over the ornate, tantalizing script for a moment, and then looked at a section set apart from the rest, centered above the text. He'd never seen those symbols before, and they called out to him, fairly singing in his mind.

"Can you translate that?" John asked. He left the question open, saying nothing about how familiar the words felt.

Cortana replied, "Most of it's beyond me. I can translate the symbols, but there are a lot of religious and cultural connotations that I have no point of reference for, so it wouldn't make any sense. I can translate the title, however. That section of text separated from the rest."

"What does it say?" the Spartan asked.

"I think it's the name of the statue," she said, "but I also get the feeling that it's got more significance than that. Translated, the first symbol reads 'Behold' or 'Remember', and then 'Our Mantle'. I have no idea what it means, but that's the closest it gets to a normal human language."

John looked back up at the hologram of the galaxy again, and for a single, fleeting moment, he understood exactly what that line of text meant. The terminals on the Ark, the nature of the Halos, the ferocity of the war against the Flood all suddenly made sense. Then, before he could make any sense of it or even put it into words, it was gone, like a dream half-remembered. Shaking his head, the Master Chief turned from the monument and started walking.

"Let's get to the transporter," he said. Cortana said nothing, but dropped a nav marker in front of one of the buildings facing the circle, and the Spartan moved towards it.

The building indicated by the nav point was ordinary; no different than any of the other buildings arrayed around the circle, but the Master Chief's sensors were picking up faint power readings coming from inside, and of course, Cortana had the exact coordinates gleaned from the armory computer.

The Spartan entered the structure cautiously, moving along the walls, never quite touching the faded metal, and kept his weapon at the ready. There was still an active power source somewhere in the building, and if there really was a way to get to a Forerunner safe haven hidden deeper in, then the chances of active defense systems were incredibly high.

Inside, the Master Chief found a series of rooms and laboratories similar to what he had come to expect from Forerunner military installations. The ancient race always seemed to put their most important research facilities in the middle of high-level military installations, for reasons that the Spartan warrior could only guess at. Still, it meant that he was fairly familiar with the general layout of the building. It reminded him of Installation 04, when he had been making his way toward the Control Room. At the end of each hallway was a door, and beyond each of those doors was an abandoned laboratory, its computer consoles long since shut down, and the research conducted forgotten in the distant past. Without the threat of meddling Covenant, rampaging Flood, or irate Sentinels to distract him, the Master Chief found the feeling of the abandoned facility slightly haunting, and more than a little sad. While he had seen many human cities just as abandoned and in worse condition than the one outside, John had lived and worked in the UNSC analogues of this facility. Now, with no war or mission to occupy his mind, the Spartan could imagine scientists working diligently toward some new feature on top of the line equipment, with young, steadfast warriors guarding every door and passageway.

The Master Chief moved slowly, working his way down ramps until he reached the third sublevel. After securing the floor, he came at last to a gravity lift. The lift itself was inactive, but the holoconsole next to it still functioned, if only dimly.

"I think we're getting close," Cortana said. "The transporter should be only a couple levels further down."

Silently acknowledging her statement, the Chief pressed the control to activate the lift, and lights around the edge of the chute lit up. Stepping in, the Spartan felt his stomach rise into his throat as he experienced the now-familiar feeling of a rapid descent on nothing but air. This lift took him down further than any other he had thus far encountered on this world, and the Spartan estimated that he had dropped nearly five hundred meters before he felt his pace slow. As he neared the end of the journey, however, the lift's power grid suffered a small fluctuation, and the gravity field shut down roughly ten feet from the bottom. The Spartan dropped the few feet, his massive form easily absorbing the impact, though the weight of his armor cracked the bottom of the lift, perhaps damaging it permanently.

Shaking his head to clear the momentary disorientation from the drop, the Master Chief commented, "I always knew that would happen sooner or later."

"Quit complaining," Cortana replied. "Look at it this way: at least you weren't at the top of the lift."

John grunted noncommittally, and stepped forward into a large, empty chamber, and found himself standing on a ledge about three meter wide, and extending roughly two meters from the alcove containing the gravity lift. A familiar, two meter wide light bridge extended from the center of the ledge, spanned a chasm that the Chief couldn't see the bottom of, and ended at a nearly identical ledge on the other side. The ledges were the only two features of note in the entire area. There was no other floor, the ceiling was roughly thirty meters over head, and the Master Chief could only see blackness extending beneath him. The walls were covered in orderly, repeating carvings, not inscriptions from what he could tell, but something more functional or aesthetic in nature.

With a damaged gravity lift behind him, and nothing else to see on his small platform, the Master Chief moved to the light bridge. He looked at it carefully for a full minute, looking for any sign that it might cut out unexpectedly, before tentatively putting one foot on the coherent energy. It felt solid, so he put more of his weight on it. Finally, as one final test, he stomped one foot on it several times. Like similar bridges he had encountered on the Halos, this one dispersed the weight of his stomping boot in a nimbus of white light, but otherwise held firm. Mostly satisfied, the Spartan carefully walked fully onto the bridge, and began making his way across.

Eight feet from the end of the bridge, a horizontal beam of metal extended from the far platform. Rising from the beam was the skeletal frame of a holoconsole. The display activated as he neared, and the Chief looked at it for a moment.

"Any ideas?" the Master Chief asked.

"It's probably the controls for this gravity lift," Cortana said.

"Then why's it all the way out here?" the Spartan said, sounding slightly concerned.

Cortana said, "I have no idea, but whatever the reason, it doesn't change the fact that you need to use this console if you're going to activate that lift."

Mentally shrugging, the Master Chief looked for the control that felt right. As usual, one control seemed to jump out in his vision, and it had always been the right one before, so he pressed it. To his left, the gravity lift started flickering. The console itself went blank, and then several lines of Forerunner script flashed into existence, blinking an angry red.

For a moment, John was confused, and then the script made sense. Something was wrong. Very wrong. He tensed his legs to spring to the platform, mere feet away, but just as he tried pushing off, the light bridge blinked out of existence, and he had nothing solid to push against to propel him sideways. Physics took over, and the super soldier fell into the abyss as some kind of fail safe protocol, enacted by a malfunctioning computer, filled the area around the console with white-hot plasma.

John could feel the heat of the plasma even through the insulating layers of his MJOLNIR armor, and could see hundreds of meters down from the light given off. Looking behind him, he could see the plasma quickly working its way down, raising the ambient temperature in the artificial cavern, threatening to ignite the very air around him. Adrenaline began to surge through his bloodstream, and his mind entered that strange phenomenon called Spartan Time. He knew that this pit had an end somewhere, and that if he hit that end at terminal velocity, then the result would be just that- terminal. Looking around at the walls, John sought a way out of the chasm, and found it. There, almost five hundred meters distant, visible now only due to the artificial sun at his back, was a ventilation shaft of some kind. He activated the zoom feature on his helmet, and could tell that the shaft angled further downward, so he'd be able to slow his fall gradually, rather than all at once.

Using the extensive training he'd received on operating in freefall, the Master Chief adjusted his approach vector to line himself up with the shaft as it rapidly approached. The plasma was reaching closer behind him, so he couldn't risk slowing down, and shot like a bullet toward his one chance of survival. Half a second before he entered the shaft, he spread his arms and legs wide, creating as much wind resistance as possible to slow himself down, and then quickly oriented himself feet first to let his legs absorb most of the impact.

He hit the angled floor of the shaft just beyond the entry point, and almost immediately bounced back into the air, rolling midair and catching the ceiling with his back, then continuing to fall further down the shaft. As he fell, bouncing off the sides of the ventilation duct, he reached out and grabbed the walls whenever possible, trying to slow himself down and regain some manner of control. The duct made several twists and turns, messing with the Spartan's up/down orientation. He did know which way he had come from, however, just as he now knew what this shaft's purpose was. It was a vent for the same failsafe plasma that he had been trying to escape from. Even now, a cooler yellow-tinged version of the super-hot flames followed his continued descent, but by now the Master Chief had regained control of his fall, and wasn't being battered nearly as badly.

After nearly forty five seconds of continuous downward travel through the ventilation duct, the Master Chief found the exit. The shaft leveled out from forty five degrees, as it had been through most of the journey, to a ten degree downgrade, and the Spartan slid the final few feet before unceremoniously falling the last two meters to the floor. He landed heavily, and stayed on his back for a moment, knowing what would soon follow. He did not have to wait long. Three seconds after he landed, the remaining pressurized heat from the failsafe protocol, still yellow-white, blasted out of the vent for a full five seconds. John's faceplate completely polarized, and he flipped onto his stomach and closed his eyes, and could still see nothing but white. His back blistered from the heat, and he was forcibly reminded of the fight outside of the Covenant flagship Ascendant Justice, when he and the other Spartans had come very close to being vaporized by enemy plasma torpedoes. Some of his Spartans had been too close.

After a seeming eternity of heat and memories, the torrent abated. The Master Chief slowly got to one knee and shook his head, clearing his vision.

"Well, that was quite the ride," Cortana quipped, trying to lighten the mood.

The Master Chief ignored the comment, and took stock of his weapons. His battle rifle and the Forerunner-built weapons had somehow survived the intense heat, and his ammo supplies hadn't cooked off, a testament to UNSC safety engineering, but he had been forced to let go of his assault rifle when he entered the ventilation shaft. Now he looked around for it, and found its blackened form a few feet in front of him, just below the vent. It was scorched in several areas, and the onboard computer and ammo display took some time to boot up, but it otherwise seemed none the worse for wear.

Satisfied with his armaments, the Master Chief then took stock of his surroundings. He was in an antechamber of some kind, he estimated its size at twenty meters square, and he saw carvings in the walls identical to the ones in the walls around the light bridge. He recognized these now as a cleverly disguised form of plasma nozzle. To the right of the vent he had exited was the very gravity lift that he had tried to turn on, and there was another ventilation shaft on the other side. Looking up, the Spartan saw a third of these vents set into the ceiling, although that one was sealed by a solid plate of metal, making it almost indistinguishable from the rest of the ceiling.

As he looked around, Cortana spoke up.

"It looks like this room has a function similar to the one upstairs," she said. "It must be some kind of failsafe device to keep the Flood from spreading to the Forerunner's new safe haven."

"Then why did it try to kill us?" John asked. "I thought Forerunner devices could tell the difference between someone who's been infected and someone who hasn't."

Cortana replied, "Usually, they can. While you've been busy keeping us alive- nice job, by the way- I've been going back over the video logs of that message just before the bridge shut off. Using a growing database of Forerunner script that I've been compiling since we've been here, I managed to translate it. It was a warning of some kind of malfunction, which activated the failsafe protocol, despite the lack of Flood presence, and that caused another power fluctuation that, in turn, caused the bridge to collapse. Lucky thing, too."

"Agreed," the Master Chief grunted. "So, where's this transporter supposed to be?"

"It should be just through that door over there," she said, indicating the only door in the room, directly across from the gravity lift.

The Master Chief walked cautiously to the door and, with a tenuous glance at the nozzles on the walls, palmed the opening mechanism. Thankfully, the door worked, and the Spartan passed into an empty hall, again lined with plasma projectors. After several twists and turns, with no other signs of an exit, the Master Chief came to a door at the end of the passage. Stepping through, he found himself in another empty room. This one was smaller than the antechamber where he had exited the shaft, and looked like it could hold somewhere between fifty and a hundred normal sized humans, perhaps a few more if they pushed. Each wall had two strips of vertical glowing panels bisecting it, and on the right wall (north, if John's assault rifle compass was functioning correctly) was a small, rectangular raised platform, with a console set against the wall. Other than the typical Forerunner markings carved into the walls, the rest of the room was featureless. With no other immediately available options, John walked up to the console. Unlike the typical blue with orange controls that the Forerunners seemed to prefer, this one was orange, and had yellow and blue controls. Again, a single symbol seemed to jump out to his consciousness, almost begging to be touched. Just above the controls was a large socket of some kind, with a very exotic crystal plugged into it. It was made mostly of what appeared to be slivers of orange crystal, with a few red and green ones scattered throughout. The whole gestalt glowed with a dim, inner yellow light.

"What is it?" the Master Chief asked.

"A power source, if I had to guess," Cortana said. "I couldn't say what form of power, though. It's definitely not Forerunner- the design's all wrong. It doesn't look like it has much of a charge left, either. It's probably been running this entire facility for thousands of years. If you turn it on, it probably won't have any power left at all."

"So, this is a one way trip," the Chief said.

"Pretty much."

The Master Chief reached out and touched the activation control, and the door snapped shut even as planes of blue-white light appeared against each wall, as well as the floor and ceiling and started making their way to the opposite wall.

"It's a scanner," Cortana said. "The Forerunners were really paranoid that the Flood would breach their last haven!"

The scanning fields passed over the Master Chief, leaving his extremities tingling slightly, but otherwise he was unharmed. As soon as the scanners reached the wall opposite their starting points, they winked out, and the unmistakable sound of energy building up filled the room.

Just as the sound reached its apex, Cortana said, "Here we go!"

The room flashed white, the machine started powering down, and the door opened behind them. The Master Chief looked around, confused.

"Did it work?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," Cortana replied. "I would have expected transit to take at least some time, and there should have been some noticeable change in scenery…"

"There was," the Chief said as he looked down at his assault rifle. Whereas before the compass had indicated that the control station was against the north wall, it now indicated that they were facing the south wall.

"So either it worked as advertised, or it just fried all your electronics," Cortana quipped.

"You're still here," the Chief shot back.

"Touché."

The Master Chief stepped out of the room, and now knew for certain that the device had worked. A spiral ramp led upwards from the door to a point roughly three hundred meters up. Without preamble, he readied the assault rifle and began walking.

1725 hrs, August 16, 2006

Native Hunting Village

Planet M2R-753

The last few hours had passed too quickly for Sheppard and his team. They had spent several hours talking to Belleron about what the hunters had seen in the wilderness, and trying to gather more intel on what they were up against. Ronon had spent a considerable amount of time speaking to the Runner, a man by the name of Effriit, learning what he could about the specific Wraith hive that was on the hunt.

To Sheppard's annoyance, intelligence was scarce. The villagers had been seeing strange specters flitting about in the trees, and had described them as "shadows in daylight, bending the light as if one were looking through water." That didn't sound like Wraith images to John, but the villagers wouldn't take them to the door until the specters were gone. Still, something didn't feel right about the whole situation.

Time was also against them. While they were sharing an evening meal with Belleron and the other hunters, dusk had fallen. Belleron explained that the days were getting short with the onset of winter.

"It's good for hunting," he had said, "the larger game animals tend to start bedding down as soon as the sun sets, which gives us the advantage. Especially this year, as the land indicates it could be a rough winter."

That, however, did not help the Atlantis team as they stepped outside the village boundaries, led by Kallar.

Grabbing the team's attention, Sheppard said, "Alright, here's what we're going to do. First, we'll head to the Jumper and get the night vision goggles; I have a feeling this could take a while. Then, Kallar, I want you to take us to where the hunters have been seeing these 'Wraith'. Understood?"

Kallar nodded gravely. Sheppard could see the nervousness in the young man's eyes.

"Relax, Kallar, you've got us with you," Sheppard said, trying to calm the hunter's fears.

"We will not let any harm come to you or your village," Teyla added.

After a moment Kallar took a deep breath, exhaled, and then said, "We have been seeing the specters a ways west of camp. Where is your ship located?"

With a sinking feeling starting to take form in his gut, John said, "West."

Ronon and Kallar took point, Teyla took the rear and the team moved off into the quickly darkening forest.

Approx. 1730 hrs local time, Date Unknown (Timestamp Error, Transporter Activation plus four days)

Near Indigenous Village

Unknown Planet

Ash watched as the off-worlders and their native guide trooped into the forest, passing mere meters from his position. Once they were out of earshot, he activated his active camouflage systems and started to follow.

"Sierra Golf Zero-Nine-Nine to base, over," Ash said, activating his comm as he trailed the newcomers.

"Base here, report," Fred replied.

"Activity at the southwest corner of the indigenous village," Ash said. "Four new contacts. Clothing and equipment is more advanced than that of the locals. Possible pilots from that alien craft. They've entered the forest on heading two, three, seven, direction west. Orders?"

"Maintain visual contact," Fred ordered, "but do not, repeat, do not make contact or risk detection. Just follow them. Use active camouflage sparingly- we believe the locals may have taken notice of our activities."

"Aye, aye, sir," Ash replied as he shut down his camouflage and dropped back another couple of meters. He would have to rely on his training to remain unseen.

1755 hrs, August 16, 2006

1.6 kilometers west of Native Hunting Village

Planet M2R-753

Teyla was becoming increasingly nervous as the team moved through the darkness. Full night had come, and the shadows made it difficult to see. This was no hindrance to her, Ronon, the native Kallar, and even Sheppard to a lesser extent. They were used to relying on their other senses to tell them what was hiding in the shadows. Rodney, on the other hand, for all the experience and training he had gained during his time as a field operative, did not trust the darkness or know how to become one with it. He crashed and stumbled through the underbrush, not as badly as he had a year ago, but still more than enough to give away their position to the Wraith, if the creatures were indeed in the area.

Yet even McKay, with his lack of forest knowledge, was aware of the wrongness of the situation, though he knew not why. Teyla did. She had noticed it first, as the disturbance came from the rear of their formation. It was too quiet. Even as loud as McKay was, the nightlife usually resumed their song shortly after the group had passed. Now, however, there was something amiss. Every time she looked behind the group and strained her senses, she could tell that not all of the insects had begun chirping again. She couldn't pinpoint where the problem was, but it seemed as if there was a pocket of darkness a short distance behind them, always moving, where no natural life stirred.

If it was a normal person, even one of the experienced hunters of the village tailing them, Teyla would have been able to locate where they were hiding. A curious child would have been even easier to pick out, as she had done so many times when her native Athosian children would follow the hunting parties, not wanting to wait for the day when they could join the other hunters in providing food for the village.

Here, however, Teyla could sense the general area of silence, but she could see nothing in it. The trees and plant life moved as normal, and the shadows did not appear to conceal any strange shapes. Even to the Athosian warrior's combat-trained eye, there was no abnormal shape in the shadows. She knew well what a human and even a Wraith looked like when one hid, but here there was nothing out of the ordinary. Except for the abstract lack of a fundamental, primal part of the forest. The further the team progressed, the longer the feeling stayed with Teyla, and she became increasingly uneasy.

As Teyla watched, the others became aware of the problem. Up ahead, Ronon looked like a cornered animal, covering every possible angle with his field of fire, trying to see everywhere at once. Kallar was scared out of his wits; the native man had never experienced what it felt like to be the hunted, rather than the hunter. Sheppard was the calmest of them all, maintaining a cool and professional air even as he shifted his stance into a combat crouch, presenting as small a target as possible while still maintaining full mobility.

Conversely, Rodney was fearfully peering into every shadow, not understanding exactly what he was looking for, but knowing that there was terror present. Thanks to his training and intelligence, however, he managed to keep calm and stay with the group, rather than trying to strike out on his own and try and outrun their unknown stalker. Still, the way he gripped his pistol was always a source of worry to the more seasoned members of the team.

There! Teyla halted and raised her weapon as she happened to glance behind them at just the right moment. It was almost impossible to know what she saw, however. It was too big to be a man, and large for even a Wraith. Its shape was also indistinct- it moved like a shadow over a shadow, almost identical to the movement of the foliage around it, and it made no noise as it moved. The glimpse lasted no more than a split second, and the shadow was gone almost before it was there. After a moment, Teyla wasn't even certain she had truly seen anything at all.

Still, she had learned long ago to listen to her instincts on such matters. Cautiously, she activated her radio and spoke softly into it.

"John," she said, "I do not believe we are alone."

After a moment's pause, Sheppard replied, "What is it?"

"I am uncertain," Teyla returned, "but I believe I saw something following us. It does not look like any Wraith we have encountered before, but I would not want to take chances. We should increase our pace and keep a watchful eye on our surroundings."

"Agreed," Sheppard said. "Alright everyone, we're going to speed up. We've got to reach the jumper before whatever's out here decides to stop toying with us."

The team increased their speed immediately, jogging through the night as quickly as the scant starlight allowed. Something knew that they were out there, and the element of surprise was against them. Caution and stealth were no longer their primary concerns.

Approx. 1755 hrs local time, Date Unknown (Timestamp Error, Transporter Activation plus four days)

1.6 kilometers west of Indigenous Village

Unknown Planet

Ash silently cursed himself. He had been too slow! Their rear guard had seen him! He was fairly certain that the sharp-eyed warrior woman at the back of the small formation had only caught a glimpse of his shoulder as he moved to new cover, but it was still too close for comfort. They were already instinctively aware of his presence, and thus on a heightened state of alert. He couldn't risk being discovered before he knew where they were going.

He began following more cautiously as the group broke into a jog, confirming his fears, when his comlink activated.

"This is Green One," Tom said, using the new team organization that Fred had issued after the arrival of the alien craft. "I have activity at the Ring. Standby… Count two aircraft and incoming infantry. Ground troop count pending full force deployment, over."

"Green One, this is Blue One," Fred replied. "Requesting any additional information on incoming forces."

"Definitely not human, sir," Tom reported. "Not Covenant, either. Alien forces are humanoid, green skin, white hair, little-to-no armor on most. Weapons are of unknown configuration or capability. Recommend caution if they become hostile.

"Sir, the Ring has deactivated. Alien force count confirmed at sixty infantry, two aircraft. End report."

"Report received, Green One," Fred said. "Alien aircraft sighted moving toward the village. Green Team, maintain surveillance on the Ring. Red One, continue following unknown human factor, and have the rest of your team establish a secure perimeter around the indigenous village. All Spartans, stealth is paramount at this time. Do not expose yourself unless you receive clearance or your position is compromised. Blue Team, out."

Ash flashed his acknowledgement light, then contacted Red Team, the surviving members of Team Saber.

"Red Two and Three, this is Red One," he said, "Set up a perimeter around the village as you see fit. Do not compromise stealth, but keep those people secure."

Two acknowledgement lights answered him, and Ash continued to follow the strange human team, trusting the safety of the village to Olivia and Mark. He wished Holly and Dante were still with them, or even Team Katana. Back in the structure on Onyx, they had found a sublevel that had a set of stations similar to the room where they had originally found Katana. There were consoles set up to monitor their vitals while in that weird stasis chamber, but Dr. Halsey had been unable to find any way to disable the field and wake them up.

With no small amount of regret, Fred had deemed the location secure enough to leave them, and Doctor Halsey had left detailed instructions on how to run the transporter and contact the rest of the Spartans in the event that the stasis fields shut down on their own. Ash knew that the plan was to get help and then find a way back to Onyx to free them, but it still didn't feel right to leave Katana behind like that. Shaking himself out of his musings, the young Spartan continued to cautiously follow the unknown humans.

They had traveled no more than a hundred meters further west when the large man on point held up his fist and the others froze. Ash was surprised. That was a standard Earth hand signal, and the rest of the team had responded accordingly. It seemed highly unlikely that another people would develop the exact same hand signals for their military operations, though it was hard to make any kind of real estimate based on that one hand motion.

The others heard the noise moments later- a high pitched buzzing sound, skimming low over the treetops. The human team broke into a run shortly after that, becoming even more alert than they were before. To Ash, it looked like they expected combat, and wanted to get somewhere before they made contact with their enemy.

Moments later, Ash heard something approaching from both his left and right, and moved further behind the team, melting into the underbrush. Two alien figures were sneaking around to the rear of the human formation. They were too quiet for the humans up ahead, but Ash's enhanced senses easily picked up on their movements. Switching over to infrared, he counted six of the aliens total and easily tracked their body heat through the cool forest ground foliage. Based on Tom's descriptions, these were members of that new alien factor. How, though, did they manage to cover almost thirty kilometers on foot in the span of a few minutes? Unless…

"Red One to Blue Lead, over," Ash said.

"This is Blue Lead. Report."

"Sir, alien ground troops present at my location. Be advised; suspect the aircraft have troop deployment capabilities, over."

"Acknowledged, Red One. Main alien force is moving toward your position. Blue Team is pacing them. We should be with you shortly."

Ash flashed his acknowledgement light, and then Olivia activated her comm.

"This is Red Two!" she said, sounding uncharacteristically concerned. "Those two alien aircraft just buzzed the village, and deployed ground troops inside our perimeter via some kind of energy transporter. They have begun a full assault on the village! Count six infantry, and it looks like that's more than enough. Weapons appear to be some kind of neural disruptor. They don't leave any marks, but the villagers are dropping like flies. The aliens are going from tent to tent; it looks like they're searching for something. Request permission to engage, over."

"Blue Lead," Ash said, "Indigenous village is under attack. Aliens appear hostile and are exhibiting Covenant-like tactics. Red Team is in position and requesting permission to engage. Orders, sir?"

"This is Blue Lead to Red Two and Three," Fred said, jumping the chain of command and contacting Olivia and Mark directly. "You are clear to engage, but do not, repeat, do not compromise stealth or reveal your positions. Do you understand?"

Two acknowledgement lights winked on, and Ash refocused on his situation. On his motion tracker, the yellow dots representing the unknown aliens turned red as Fred updated the tactical situation, indicating that they were now considered hostile. This was the first combat situation that any of the Spartans had encountered in months. To Ash, it felt like he was finally home.

Up ahead, the large human on point must have caught sight of one of the ambushers, because he opened fire with an energy weapon unlike any Ash had ever heard of before. The aliens returned fire, and the small team immediately realized they were surrounded. Their formation shifted slightly, the rear guard pulling up closer to the front of the formation, while the point man seemed to lose all semblance of military bearing and discipline, and simply charged the nearest alien, firing as he went…