Chapter 3: Facility 12, Transient Storage

"WHOA, THIS PLACE IS AMAZING," Sayaka said, awed at the now fully lit hallway, seeing glowing lights everywhere, the archaic symbols, and also got to see several platforms, - literally suspended in mid-air, with see through pathways leading up to the platforms, suspended by what appeared to be anti-grav supports.

"I must agree, this place is something," said Mami, a bit awed at the sight.

"Look, look what I found," Madoka said as she stood next to a glowing panel on the ground, energy coming from it, and she went in …

… and disappeared.

Everyone was now startled and looking around, Homaru looking more desperately, starting to look worried, when, "hey, up here," came a voice.

They looked up to the highest platform and saw Madoka on it, leaning over the edge, and then saw her go back in, and then a slight flash came from the platform, and then the strange panel also flashed and in that instant Madoka appeared, completely unharmed.

"Wow, a teleporter," said Sayaka amazed, Homaru however gained herself back up and said, "weren't we here for something."

At first they did not get what she meant, and then a rather familiar and very inhuman roar came from the halls.

"Oh, right."


Charlotte was incapable of forming a barrier, she felt the energy holding her together slowly blur, she didn't know what was happening.

But its thought quickly turned to what it believed was the cause, the person who tore it up so badly.

Charlotte was going to make them hurt, and bad.

It didn't even see know that every sensor had registered it as a threat, and in a short order, the defenses, came online.


"This, this place, it's a Forerunner installation," said Ari.

"YES IT IS RECLAIMER, OH, AND I AM 569-TRANSIENT VIGILANCE, OVERSEER OF THIS FACILITY RECLAIMER."

"Okay, so first, why is there a Forerunner facility here," Ari asked Transient.

"IF YOU WISH FOR A SIMPLIFIED ANSWER THIS FACILITY WAS BUILT AS A SORT OF STORAGE AREA OVER 20,000 YEARS AGO, RECLAIMER, AS TO WHY, MY MASTERS SIMPLY PREFFERED IT TO HAPPEN."

"No, I mean yeah they placed it here, the Forerunners I mean, but you said they built it 10,000 years ago, even though the oldest of what they built where I came from is 100,000 plus years old," Ari said to the monitor.

"YOU ARE CORRECT RECLAIMER, THE FORERUNNERS, MY MASTERS AND MAKERS HAD ARRIVED IN THIS DIMENSIONAL PLANE, THOUGH DUE TO LIMITS ON MY KNOWLEDGE PROCESSORS, AS WELL AS THE DELETION OF CERTAIN INFORMATION, I CANNOT SAY WHERE THEY ARE NOW, THEIR CURRENT GOALS, OR REALLY MUCH OF ANYTHING RECLAIMER."

"Dang and I thought this would be easy," Ari said under her breath.

"WHAT MY MASTERS TOLD ME TO DO WAS TO BOTH OVERSEE THIS FACILITY, AND IF THE RECLAIMERS EVER LOCATED THE FACILITY, TO GIVE THEM AN ITEM OF IMPORTANCE."

"What item," Ari said, now interested.

"AN INFORMATION INDEX, SIMILAR TO A REGULAR INDEX, BUT IS ENCRYPTED AND CAN ONLY BE ACCESSED BY DECRYPTING THE DATA, WHICH CAN EITHER BE DONE THROUGH THE USAGE OF A HIGH LEVEL & DECRYPTION PROGRAM, OR A HIGH GRADE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE."

"I have an A.I that can do the job, so where is the Index," said Ari.

"IT IS LOCATED ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FACILITY RECLAIMER IN THE DISTRIBUTION COORDINATION STATION AS WELL AS A SCIENCE FACILITY TO STUDY ORGANISMS OF DIFFERENT VARIETIES AS WELL AS CONTAINERS MEASURING FROM LEVEL 5 TO LEVEL 12 TO CONTAIN ANY LIFEFORMS OR MATERIALS AND SEND THEM TO OTHER FACILITIES, HOWEVER THE TRANSIENT PORTAL SYSTEM IS NO LONGER GETTING A SIGNAL FROM THE OUT OF SYSTYEM FACILITIES AND THUS THIS FACILITY IS NOW STAND ALONE."

"Okay then, so how do I get to the Index," Ari asked the Monitor.

"TAKE THE LIFT TO THE TOP, A TRAM WILL FERRY YOU TO THE OTHER SIDE."

"Okay, thanks Transient," said Ari, and she headed for the lift.

She got onto to the lift and traveled all the way to the top, seeing the incredibly large facility from a high place, then the lift stopped and she found a rather large room, and then she saw the large tram, with the distinct triangle features found in all Forerunner technology, and was suspended from a line of energy by struts attached to rings that looped around the energy beam.

Ari got on and the lift was soon going.

Ari gazed over the facility, seeing uncountable numbers of crates and containers of advanced design, some pulsing with energy, some the size of a bus, some as small as small desk, but Ari saw one blade, one huge container that seemed to dominate the whole facility, and appeared to be the size of a city bus that was made to point straight up.

Then …

BOOM

BAM

KER-BLAM!

The whole facility started to shake and shudder, explosions suddenly erupted from a side wall, and a large gout of flame came from an energy core before it exploded outward, sending out a shockwave that blew away many of the containers.

It was the witch, and it looked like hell.

It was bleeding out a strange black energy that was quickly being diffused in the air, and it had lots of burn and blast marks on its body, Ari wondering what had happened as they appeared to be scars of battle, although they could have been from the witch barging through the wall.

Then she saw the robotic machines that flew in, firing beams of bright orange energy.

Forerunner Sentinels, robotic guardians used to defend all Forerunner installations from attack by hostile forces are firing their sentinel beams at the witch, blasting it from every angle.

But the witch is not about to give up, in fact it only attacks harder, smashing more of the containers and sending several containers flying at the sentinels, smashing several of the drones, but more quickly come into play.

The witch thrashed around among the cargo containers, lashing out and smashing the Sentinels, trying to get rid of the numerous attackers.

Then it looked up, and saw Ari in the tram.

The witch then coiled its whole body, looking straight at the tram, then a beam from a sentinel hit its head, and it instead shot itself up, 5 meters ahead of the tram.

When the witch hit the beam, it burned the witch in an awful way, but the beam then fizzled out and the witch then opened its enormous mouth to swallow the rather large tram.

Not knowing that by accident that when the beam went out, it caused a distortion in the trams accelerator, causing it to go five times its regular slow speed.

The tram sped off like a missile, and it slammed right into Charlotte (the name of the witch, though Ari does not know that yet) and this broke many of Charlottes teeth and sent both Charlotte and the tram straight into the ground.

Charlotte smashed her head right onto the giant container that was larger than the rest causing it to fall over.

Ari herself has fallen out of the tram, near a large container; she gets up and finds her rifle had been smashed to pieces when a large piece of metal fell on it, now she has no weap-, hold that thought.

She finds two long, rifle looking devices that had fallen out of a container, both with a sleek yet durable design, and look loosely like Covenant Carbines.

Ari picks one up, finds what looks like a trigger and squeezes.

The center of the weapon splits open a bit, giving it a two pronged design, both prongs separate by a mere two inches, and then a ball of energy forms at the tip of the prongs, energy pumping into it.

Ari aims at the witch, who was starting to get back up, and releases the trigger.

The ball launches out, arc's of energy, at the witch, hitting its side, and exploding like a plasma grenade, the explosion knocking the witch onto the giant container, causing it to open, revealing …

… a FREAKING HUGE SWORD.

The sword was angular and had a silver shape, patterns similar to forerunner structures, a hilt that was made of a lighter silver metal, the grip looked like it was made to be held by a statue, as it was bare except for a few place to grip the blade, and had a large Forerunner Glyph in it.

The witch saw the blade, got a wicked grin on its badly scarred face, and gripped the handle of the giant sword in its teeth, and it turned to Ari, sword in its teeth, lifted its head and the blade, and swung down.

Ari moved just as the witch slashed the ground, the impacting the ground, leaving a very deep crater and deeper indentation in the ground.

Now the fight was getting serious.


Mami, Homaru, Sayaka and Madoka had finally reached the end of the long hallway, watching many robotic machines go by, all of them with a single minded purpose, and went through a large gaping hole in the wall …

… barely avoiding a large container that smashed into the ground mere inches from where they were, spilling several large amounts of components.

They saw the fight happening.

The SPARTAN called Ari was in pitched combat with Charlotte, who was now starting to blur a bit, as though she was disappearing, showing extensive injuries and between her teeth was a very large and ornate sword.

Charlotte swung the giant blade at Ari again, but Ari immediately dodged out of the way and brought up two strange devices, both of which fired of two spheres of energy, both impacting Charlotte and exploding in a large blast, knocking Charlotte down, and causing the witch further damage.

Then as Charlotte was stunned, Ari immediately ran for what looked like a large structure at the other end of the container filled room, while Charlotte got back up and continued pursuing.

Only to be hit by beams of orange fired from the robotic drones, all firing continuous streams of energy into the witch, which looked like it was warping and shuddering in pure pain from the attacks.

But then Charlotte shot up and slashed with the blade in its mouth, and the blade sliced through several drones and then continued to pursue the Spartan.


Ari finally reached the structure, entering the doorway as it closed, but was quickly pounded to down by the enraged witch, the sword still in its mouth.

Ari finally came to a very large room, and dodged another swipe from the sword, but then the witch twisted violently and the sword came around again and slammed Ari into a large device at the back of the room.

Now the witch had Ari where it wanted her, and was ready to swallow her whole and grind her to nothing in its stomach.

That is until a large cargo arm comes down and grabs Charlotte in a stasis field.

"I AM AFRAID I CANNOT ALLOW HARM TO COME TO THE RECLAIMER, CREATURE, HOWEVER IT APPEARS THAT YOU FIT WHAT MASTERS TALKED ABOUT ALL THOSE CENTURIES AGO, SO REJOICE FOR IF THE PROCESS SUCCEEDS YOU WILL GAIN BACK WHAT YOU HAVE LOST, AND MORE"

Then Ari and the recently arrived group of magical girls watch as the cargo arm takes the struggling Charlotte to a large open area, and then several beams of energy come together and trap the witch in a giant sphere of clear energy.

Then as Charlotte struggles to break out, the sphere starts to shrink, and soon Charlotte is being slowly crushed by the sphere, and once it realizes that it can't get out, and its form is causing it pain, it retreats back into its doll body, and soon the sphere shrinks to the size of a large tire (tractor tire sized), then the bubble is filled with a glowing white energy, one that makes the Puella Magi in the room feel a sense of pure calm and peace, and it completely fills the sphere.

Then large amounts of components are brought in, and it all forms around the sphere in large amounts, and it forms a large box, with lights running all around it, showing a continuous flow of energy as power cells filled with the energy are also put into the box.

Then the box shrinks, its size soon becoming that of a small house, then to the size of a truck, and then the box finally stops shrinking when it is the size of compact car, and it is floating using anti-gravitation systems.

Then it floated in front of Ari.

"What happened to it," said Madoka.

"WHAT NEEDED TO BE DONE," came the voice of the recently arrived Transient.

"IT WILL REMAIN SEALED IN THE MATERIUM SYSTEM, BEING SCANNED, ANALYZED, AND WORKED ON, IN ORDER TO FULFILL WHAT MY MAKERS DESIRE, IF THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN, THE CONTAINER WILL DESTROY ITSELF, KILLING THE CREATURE, AND LEAVING WHAT MY MAKERS TRIED TO ACCOMPLISH, A FAILURE, AS THE CHANCE OF THE PROCESS SUCCEEDING, WILL BE BASED ON THE CREATURE ITSELF, ALL AND ALL IT IS, AS YOU RECLAIMERS PUT IT 'A COIN FLIP'."

"ALSO, YOU HAVE COME FOR THE INDEX YES"

Ari nodded yes, while others only looked confused.

"FOLLOW ME"

Ari and the others soon followed behind, and soon walked the hallway to a large room, and there, floating in the middle of a large ring, was the INDEX.

Ari approached the INDEX, and it was soon sent to Ari by a Sentinel drone that guarded the room.

Ari soon grasped the INDEX and put it in a large pocket in her suit for safe keeping (thank god for compartmentalization).

"Excuse me," said a black haired girl in the group to Transient.

"WHAT IS IT RECLAIMER"

"This place, it has many weapons and those drones correct," said the girl.

"THAT IS CORRECT, RECLAIMER, MANY OF THE CONTAINERS CONTAIN MULTIPLE TYPES OF WEAPONS, LIGHT AND HEAVY, THOUGH THE SENTINELS IN THIS FACILITY COMPRISE OF A SINGLE TYPE, BEING THE STANDARD MODEL, THOUGH THERE SHOULD BE A FEW SHIELD EQUIPPED UNITES IN STORAGE."

"Could you show me," said the girl to the Monitor.

"A SENTINEL WILL GUIDE YOU, FOLLOW IT IF YOU PLEASE."

Ari, Sayaka, Mami and Madoka watched as the girl, whom they knew was named Homaru Akemi followed the Sentinel out, wondering what Homaru is planning on doing when she actually finds the weapons and drones.

"AS FOR YOU, ARMORED RECLAIMER, THE CONTAINER CARRYING THE CREATURE IS AS OF NOW, ALONG WITH THE INDEX, YOU'RE POSESSION, KEEP IT WITH YOU."

"You are asking me to keep the box, currently carrying the thing that tried to make me its meal, and now I have to take it with me," Ari posed the question to the Monitor.

"YES"

Ari just stared at the monitor, for a long while, and the three girls who were there just looked at the two, their eyes shifting from the Spartan to the Monitor, then Ari just sighed in defeat.

"I doubt I can win in a argument with you," Ari grumbled, and then said, "fine, I'll take the damn box, but how can I get it out."

As if in answer, a device activated, and a blue rimmed portal opened up, showing the top of a tall building, and then four Sentinels flew to the box, used energy tethers to latch onto it, and flew through the portal and onto the roof with it.

Ari looked at the portal for a bit, and then said, "okay, that works."

"I am done," said Homaru as she returned, causing everyone to jump in surprise and shock.

"You weren't gone even ten minutes, and you're done," said an exasperated Sayaka.

"SHE APPEARS TO HAVE A DIMENSIONAL POCKET WITHIN HER TEMPORAL MANIPULATION DEVICE, WHERE SHE CAN STORE COUNTLESS TYPES OF WEAPONS AND DEVICES, AS WELL AS SUMMONING THEM WHEN NEEDED, SIMILAR IN NATURE TO OUR SHIELD WORLDS, AS WELL AS ANOTHER ITEM, THOUGH INFORMATION ON THAT ITEM IS UNAVAILBLE TO ME, SO I CAN NOT SAY."

"I think we will just leave," said Ari.

"MY MASTERS ALSO TOLD ME THAT I AM TO JOIN THE ONES WHO LOCATE THIS PLACE AS WELL, SOI WILL BE JOINING YOU WHILE A SPECIAL AI PROGRAM RUNS THE FACILITY IN MY STEAD."

"We could use someone who knows what may or may not be going on, so welcome aboard," said Ari to Transient.

"I ACCEPT YOUR INVITATION, AND I WILL WAIT WITH THE CONTAINER UNTIL YOU ARE DONE"

Transient soon left through the portal, and Ari turned to the girls, three of whom were staring at the conversation, while a final teal-haired girl looked at a Sentinel as it moved to and fro.

"Everyone ready to go," said Ari.

"Yes, I believe we are, though I can't believe a place like this was buried underneath the city," said the girl Mami as she looked at the room, and out to the facility where Sentinels and Constructors were busy repairing the damage.

"There are many things people do not know, and sometimes we either have to find it, figure it out, or simply ignore it," Ari said, "me, I intend to follow this whole thing to the end, and right now, I need to get the others on the line."

Ari soon activated the comm. and spoke to her remaining two crew members, and after giving them the co-ordinates, as well as the tale of the facility and the monster known as a witch, they agreed to meet up with her after going to get the Prowler (as well as hear all the details of what had happened after the barrier disappeared, leaving them in the alley behind the building, in which they had to get to the top of the building, while not attracting attention by using their cloaking systems).

Afterward, Ari, Mami, Madoka, Homaru and Sayaka all left the facility through the portal, which soon closed up, leaving the facility alone.

But not inactive, as a program soon came up on a screen, followed by a large image of schematics, that if looked at the right way, was similar to, if not the same as the Voi portal system.


"Ah, my rides here," said Ari.

The groups was on the roof, and were puzzled by her statement when in an instant, a large ship appeared right in front of them, and it was big, to the point where even a moron should be able to see it.

Then they realized that the ship was hidden via a cloaking field and that there was a hole in it that allowed them to see inside while the rest of the field was still online.

Then Ari got on the container and the Sentinels brought it up to the ship, and a bay opened up in the bottom, and they saw a young looking woman in the armor of the other man holding a very big rifle and what looked like a big rocket launcher with two barrels on it.

The container and Ari were soon in the ship, Transient joining them soon after, then Ari looked to them and said, just before the ship took off:

"We will be seeing each other again, because if there are more of those things out there, then expect me to be there when they start making trouble, but for now farewell."

Then the cloaking field fully covered the ship, and soon they heard a powerful whoosh, knowing that it was the sound of the ship leaving.

After a day of revelations, discoveries and more, they chose to go home, though when Homaru and Mami looked at their Soul Gems, they found that the gems were clear as shining glass, not even a hint of darkness within them.

If they had looked closer, they could have noticed the soft motes of pure shining white light that moved about their soul gems.


The group arrived at the Dusk, where Ari broke to them the death of David, and everyone became very sad about it, especially Amy, who was considering being David's girlfriend.

Then they heard about what Ari had found out, as well as the data to go with it.

The magical girls and magic existing in the dimension had been a shock, but it was another dimension, so such a thing as magic existing was a possibility (even if the Logic Core started to smoke a bit), but learning that the magical girls had to fight inhuman monsters called witches was a big shock, as well as the fact that they now had one in a Forerunner container in the cargo bay.

However the biggest shock, was that 'They' were here.

The Forerunners were in the dimension, and not only could more of their creations be around, but the Forerunners themselves could also be around, alive.

The revelations went on for a while, and they agreed that it would be best to see things through to the end.

Tomorrow they would head out again, and find out more of the mysterious witches, and the battle taking place.

As they went to rest, Pace got busy decrypting the Index, but found it would take a few days to fully decrypt, and continued on, not knowing of what would happen when she fully decrypts it.