2000 hours, August 24, 2555 (Military Calendar)\
South pole, unidentified planet
Location unknown
Akio sprinted through the snow as fast as he could push COBRA to go. After seeing the teenaged girl manipulate the water, without a word he picked up the parabolic dish and sniper rifle and ran down the hill away from the village. He left the crate and duffle under the camouflage blanket at the base of the hill. He couldn't have it slow him down. Akio needed to contact Infinity. Now.
The wind whipped past Tian as he ran at fifty kilometers per hour through the frozen tundra towards the boundary of the dead zone. The young Lieutenant simply didn't know what to think of what he saw. All he knew was that the teenaged girl, Katara, was able to manipulate water through bodily movements.
Tian was now firmly in wonderland.
Akio glanced at the data pad on his arm. He was about a hundred meters from the edge of the dead zone. Akio opened a channel to Infinity and spoke into the COM channel.
"Recon one to Infinity, do you copy? Come back, over." Only static responded. "Nero if you are receiving this respond, over," Akio said.
"Infinity to Recon one, where's the fire Lieutenant, over," Nero said over the COM channel.
"Nero, something's happened down here. One villager…" Akio trailed off not knowing how to tell the AI that he had seen someone telekinetically manipulate water.
"Negative copy on your last Recon one, how copy, over," Nero said.
"Send a Pelican to my position. I'm coming back up to Infinity, over," Akio told Nero.
"Roger that, spinning up Pelican two-one, ETA ten minutes," Nero paused over the channel, "what's happened Lieutenant, over."
"Just send the drop ship, over and out," Akio said curtly as he closed the COM channel. Tian knew Nero would say something about breaking radio procedure and effectively hanging up on the AI. But Akio hardly cared. His mind was still racing from witnessing the impossible.
Tian and Nezha said nothing to each other as they waited for the Pelican. The drop ship appeared as a small black dot in the sky and quickly grew in size as it approached Akio. Snow and ice kicked up from the ground as the cargo hold opened. Akio stepped up onto the Pelican's bay floor and instantly the doors began to close and the drop ship ascended into the air. The young Lieutenant removed his helmet and flopped down in a seat in the hold and looked at his reflection in the visor. Akio noticed his eyes where red and blood shot and bags hung under them. He didn't look like himself at all.
The Pelican flew out of the planet's atmosphere and began to approach Infinity. Docking apertures grabbed hold of the Pelican and drew it into the hanger bay. The florescent lights of the bay where harsh as Akio stepped out of the Pelican's cargo hold and walked across the bay to the exit. He boarded a tram to the bridge and briskly walked into the bridge where Nero's projection was already hovering above the holotable.
"What's this all about then Lieutenant?" Nero said arms crossed. Akio approached a console on the holotable and gave Nezha access to the console.
"Show him," Tian said to Nezha. Over the holotable the video from Akio's helmet camera began to play. It was the group of children finishing their lunch and the two teenagers starting to clean up. On the video the teenaged girl took her stance and began to move and manipulate the snow and water. Akio watched with the same disbelief he had on the hillside. Nezha stopped the video as the picture began to shake from Akio getting up.
"Hmmm, that's something you don't see every day," Nero said almost playfully.
"You don't fucking say," Akio said angrily.
"Now we can't lose our heads here," Nero said raising his hands, "this is a first contact scenario, a tremendously extraordinary one at that considering all the perplexing facts surrounding this place."
"We'll just add telekinesis to the top of the list shall we?" Tian said acerbically.
"Despite this unprecedented finding Lieutenant, we mustn't lose sight of our overall predicament hmm?" Nero cautioned. "Have you forgotten about the radiation center?"
"Of course not!" Akio snapped. But in truth he partially did forget. The sheer shock of what he witnessed ejected all other major thoughts in his mind. "We must investigate this. What if this world is some kind of Forerunner experiment? What if they're here? What if…"
Nezha cut him off before he could say anything else, "As Nero said, we can't lose our heads now. Let's not get a head of ourselves with hypotheticals. What do we know for sure so far about the people of this world?"
Akio ran through his memory trying to remember anything useful. The teenaged girl's story popped into his head and how the planet divides its people. The girl had said Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads. An idea then hit Akio.
"Nero, how thorough is your scans of that walled city we found?" Tian asked.
"Fairly thorough, I suppose. Am I to find something?" replied Nero.
"Yes. Search for open gardens, plazas, apparent construction sites, places like that with a lot of open ground," Akio told him.
"What am I looking for exactly… ," Nero trailed off as he picked out a stream of data from the STARS that painted a stunning scene. Located in a garden deep within the central ring of the city, the STARS showed a human like figure throwing its arms above its head as large boulders levitated and moved across the ground without any physical connection to anything else. "…Oh," Nero finally said as he brought the ghostly image up on the holotable.
"There!" Tian exclaimed. "He's moving rock telekinetically! Like the girl moved the water! Keep scanning open areas for abnormally high thermal activity or heavy winds."
Nezha began, "Why thermal activity and heavy…" but stopped short when Akio's idea caught up with the construct. He gasped, "Fire and air."
"Exactly!" Akio stated. "Well?" he inquired anxiously.
"You know its not particularly easy managing the fleet of Keepers, micro burns with the emergency thrusters to keep us in orbit, and dissect petabytes of information from hundreds of probes to find people performing telekinesis," Nero proclaimed.
"Nezha can you help him?" Akio asked Nero.
Nezha's avatar looked over to Nero who gave a slight huff and then gestured as if to give the other construct permission to enter a room. Nezha's countenance became one of significant concentration as he merged with the intense processes of Nero's immense hive of data.
After a brief moment Nero's projection looked up, "I'm seeing a few more instances of rock telekinesis, but I'm not seeing any abnormally high or out of place thermals, and I can't accurately detect wind speeds with the sensors on the STARS," he said.
"I got nothing," Nezha stated disappointedly.
Akio thought for a moment.
"What about those other cities? There was that one built into a mountain chain and the other on top of a mountain," Akio inquired.
"Stand by," Nero said as he placed both hands on his holographic temples.
Nezha's dragon projection became coiled and condensed as his neural processes strained to parse the data Nero was sending him.
Nero waved his hands in the air and sent a few ghostly images of more people moving rocks telekinetically onto the holotable and slightly shook his head when Nezha uncoiled and proclaimed, "Look at this!"
The outlined image of a person within a small plaza took shape above the holotable as a veritable rainbow of color ejected from its extremities. Reds, oranges and yellows showed areas of greater heat while violets, blues, and greens showed areas of lower temperatures. Nero removed his hands from his temples and looked to the rough data coming in. He waved a hand and the feed cut to a normal color video taken from a high angle from the STARS. It was a person throwing their fists out as if punching the air while jets and balls of flame rushed out.
Akio involuntarily took a few steps back from the holotable in utter shock.
Nero let out a long whistle, "Well I'll be double dog damned."
Tian collected himself and thought out loud, "So the Water Tribe are the water movers, Earth Kingdom the earth movers, Fire Nation the fire movers, and Air Nomads the air movers?"
"I'd say that's a fair assessment," Nezha said, "there must be air movers out there somewhere. Could they be flying?"
"I'm sure I have no idea," Akio said as he approached the holotable and placed his helmet on its surface. "But now I think we can say for sure that they divide themselves into four cultures based on what…" Akio tried to think of the right word for the situation, "substance, or uh element, or material a person a can move."
"And from the girls story we know there has been a war going on, for a hundred years in fact, that the fire movers stared," Nezha interjected. "But where are the wind movers?"
"I don't know," Akio admitted completely at a loss. "So then that Avatar person must be real then."
"Avatar person?" Nero asked incredulous.
"The girl said that one person, who is the physical embodiment of the soul of the Earth, can master all four elements. And that he would save the world, presumably from these fire movers," Akio explained. "And that this person's soul was in a reincarnation cycle. But he's been missing since the start of the war."
Nero's projection looked out of the bridge's windows and stared at the alien world below. "I wonder if any of this has to do with that Aura I detected around the planet when we first arrived," he thought out loud.
Akio shifted his gaze to the bridge's window as well, "I'm not sure."
The trio gazed out the window down to the mysterious planet in a trance when Akio's was broken when he thought he felt the Forerunner crystal shifting in his pouch. He opened the pouch, removed the crystal and gazed into it. It shone a light blue as it pulsed slowly, the Forerunner calligraphy now gone from its surfaces. Tian looked up from the crystal to see both constructs looking at him with apprehensive faces.
"No sign of radiation from this thing lately?" Akio asked.
Nero shook his head, "No. And the ship, it isn't irradiated. I can't find a trace of contamination anywhere."
Akio hadn't allotted any serious thought yet as to how he had survived the Slipspace anomaly. He still knew that he hadn't even begun to process it rationally or emotionally. All he knew was that the fate of Infinity and quite possibly the security of the weakened UNSC rested on his ability to bring the ship back.
The young Lieutenant weighed the crystal in his hand for a moment and said, "I need to go back down there and find that radiation source. Not only could it point us to a way to get us home but maybe an insight as to what the hell is going on here."
"I'm with you Akio," Nezha announced as his avatar looked at him confidently.
"Dump all the data we collected to Nero, I'm going to put this," Akio motioned to the crystal, "back into containment."
Akio picked his helmet off of the holotable and slid it over his head as he walked briskly to the exit of the bridge. A tram was waiting for him at the station that took him to the engineering block. Moving at a quick pace trying not to take in his surroundings, Akio walked through the door that the Keeper had tried to cut open and where Palmer and fire team Romeo had died. Inside the spacious engineering room he noticed Professor Bartlett's lifeless body still leaning against the computer console. Tian approached the corpse, which had lost all color at this point and a sizable pool of crimson blood collected around it. He fought the urge to strike the saboteur's corpse as he stood over it.
The young Lieutenant keyed his COMs to the bridge, "Nero, did you forget to have the Keepers take the trash out in the engineering deck?" he asked.
Nero came right back, "Oh, yes I suppose I have."
"Jettison him from an air lock. No bag or capsule," Akio instructed with venom in his voice.
2230 hours, August 24, 2555 (Military Calendar)\
Aboard Pelican drop ship, en route to unidentified planet
Location unknown
After returning the Forerunner crystal to the containment chamber, Akio traveled back to the hanger where he boarded a Pelican and traveled back down to the surface of the planet. The drop ship remained outside of the dead zone on account that the craft's autonomous system would have minimal functionality within it as it approached the surface to deposit Tian. It was a little after midday as the Sun hung deceivingly close to the horizon due to the continent's low latitude. The wind had died down drastically compared to the blizzard Akio had landed in the darkness of the early morning. The landscape in the sunlight beckoned exploration despite its obvious inhospitable nature, a concern that didn't bother the Lieutenant as he trudged through snow back to the hidden container on the side of the hilltop that over looked the village.
By the time he had made it back to the base of the hill the icy horizon was near to cutting off the bottom section of the Sun. Akio activated COBRA's VISR and took in the immediate surroundings around the container. There were no new tracks in the snow and a near invisible trace of the path he left in the snow remained from earlier that morning. After checking his M7S and Sniper Rifle, Tian checked the gear in the duffle and crate for any damage from the harsh elements.
"Nezha, in what direction is the radiation spike?" Akio questioned.
The construct brought a map of the immediate area displaying the village, the general location of the radiation epicenter and himself, "Here, about 1 kilometer to the North, North West."
"Where's the UAV?"
"Laying in the snow here," Nezha displayed on the map, "using its solar panels to recharge its battery."
"Get it up, I want eyes on the village."
A small video feed appeared in Akio's HUD as the quadrotor lifted off the ground and began its lazy orbit around the village. He collected the hyperbolic dish and belly crawled to the crest of the hill where he deployed the device. Akio flicked the safety off of the rifle but kept his finger off the trigger. He scanned the village for activity. The young girl who had manipulated the water was not in sight but the teenage boy was. He was standing in front of a group of much younger boys showing them how to tie what appeared to be a knife made of bone to a pole. Adult women of varying age went about daily tasks; preparing meat, washing clothes, and weaving baskets.
"Find the girl who moved the water," Akio commanded Nezha. The UAV's video feed switched to infrared as Nezha controlled the craft's flight to gain a better vantage point to read the heat signatures within the tents.
"Two possible hits," Nezha reported as he marked two different tents on Akio's HUD. Nezha then went back internally to the video of the teenaged girl from earlier and derived a series of possible silhouettes that could match the girl. He then compared it to the two hit within the tents. "This one most likely," the construct said and flashed one of the markers.
As the young Lieutenant laid in the snow, fixated on the village, he failed to notice the hulking white mass that lumbered its way through the snow at the base of the hill by the box of equipment. On its four legs, the creature was a little over a full meter tall. Its large front legs where all muscle, claws, and sinew while its hind legs where a bit skinnier and narrow. It seemed to be a cross between a polar bear and a dog such as a German Shepard or Labrador. The beast sniffed and poked the box with the radiation detection equipment in it and tipped over the duffle that rested on top of it.
Akio jumped at the noise behind him as the duffle fell off the create and landed in the snow and saw the creature that had taken a curious poke at the bag. Now on his knees, rifle at the ready, Akio looked dumbstruck at the creature as it returned the stare. He realized he could now be easily seen by the villagers like this from the crest of the hill and stared to slowly make his way down the side to regain concealment. The polar bear like creature snarled as Akio began to move towards it.
"It's ok big fella, I don't wanna hurt you, be still," Akio said half to himself.
The creature bared its fearsome row of teeth at Akio and snarled.
"Calm down now big guy," Akio said as he began to raise his rifle cautiously. He knew that if he fired a shot the sound would be heard for potentially miles. It would be a safe assumption that the people in this area, or this entire planet for that matter, would not know anything about firearms and would come to investigate the sound.
As Tian approached the beast it started to calm and began to lower its guard. He was now within a few meters of it when the creature stuck its nose out and sniffed the air.
"See buddy I'm friendly," Akio said soothingly and stuck his hand out in a friendly gesture, "come on."
The polar bear like creature took a final sniff and looked Akio square in the visor when its demeanor changed suddenly. The beast displayed its teeth menacingly and snarled loudly.
"Wow now, calm down!" Akio exclaimed. But this seemed to anger it even more as the beast let out a blood-curtailing roar.
"Shit."
The creature was faster than Akio expected and closed the short distance between them faster than he could bring the rifle up. With one of its front paws it slashed viciously at Akio impacting his chest plate. His shields strained from the blow and collapsed, the momentum sending him backward into the snow. The impact had knocked the hand that held the grip of the rifle and caused the trigger to engage as an errant shot rang throughout the tundra. The sharp crack of the rifle enraged the beast more as it fell to the ground.
Akio laid with his back in the snow and tried to clear his vision from the blow as the creature roared again and brought its two front paws down on Akio. He raised his gauntleted arms to block the blow. Tian willed his strength to fight against the pressure of the creature as he grit his teeth and pushed back. His armor engaged and he began to push the beast off him when it jumped off him and tried to bite down on his leg with its vice like jaw. Akio kicked the creature with his other leg in its chest and it howled in pain as the bone underneath its skin fractured from the strike.
The beast backed off slightly to regain its footing as Akio leaned up and reached for the silenced SMG on his thigh. Tian flicked the safety off and leveled it at the creature in one deft motion. He squeezed the trigger and the SMG coughed out a few of the relatively small caliber rounds. Crimson blood speckled off the beast and it again roared in pain as it charged Akio. It slashed at the SMG and Akio's arms and knocked the weapon away into the snow, the force of the blow caused a twang of pain to shoot up his arm. From the kneeling position, Akio threw his weight into the creature and tried to grapple its hulking form, searching for an opening to slide his arm around its neck or head.
The beast roared and swung its head and tossed Akio off. He landed in the snow with a thud a few meters away next to the dropped rifle. Tian fumbled for the grip of the rifle as the creature began to charge towards him. He found purchase and leveled the rifle in the creature's general direction and fired. The round tore into the beast leaving a neat entry hole and a grisly exit wound as blood and gore splattered across the snow. The creature moaned and fell into the snow with a thud, steam from the creature's body rose from the fresh wound.
Akio sat on the ground as his shields recharged to full with the rifle pointed at the beast's head. The creature didn't stir but only laid lifelessly in the cold.
"Akio! The villagers!" Nezha cried, as the video feed from the UAV grew larger in his HUD. The teenage boy was on the edge of village beckoning to the adults. A few of the middle aged women came to him and the teenaged girl who had manipulated the water stepped out from a tent. They all began to walk towards the hill Akio was hiding behind.
xxx
"Now you gotta be sure that when you lash your whalebone to the staff it's as tight as you can make it. Be sure the lashings are close together," Sokka lectured to the young boys of the tribe, "If it's not tight enough, when you try and hunt game for the village it'll fall apart, or worse, when you're defending us from the Fire Nation." Sokka went from boy to boy showing the proper way to affix the sharpened whalebone to the staffs. He has been conducting lessons like these frequently for the past few years. As the oldest male member of the Southern Water Tribe, it was his responsibility that these boys learned to hunt and defend themselves in a manner befitting the proud warriors of the tribe. Such as his father.
He and the other adult men of the tribe left two years ago to travel to the Earth Kingdom to fight the ruthless Fire Benders. Sokka had not yet been of fighting age, though he had learned much of self-defense and survival tactics from his father before he departed. He had even gotten extremely proficient with the use of his grandfather's boomerang, which had passed to his father, and used it regularly for hunting. None of the boys of the tribe were old enough to hunt just yet, so he normally went with his sister Katara, or some of the fitter more athletic mothers of the tribe.
"How's this Sokka," one boy asked as he held up his lashing.
Sokka inspected the handy work, "It's good but this knot could be a bit tighter. Try and pull this a bit more," he instructed as he pointed out the bit of string to pull. As he gave his instruction, what sounded to Sokka as an iceberg breaking apart, cracked through the air. The young warrior raised his head in curiosity trying to hear any follow up sounds.
"What was that?" one boy asked.
"Sounded like ice crashing together," another boy said.
"No that was too quick. And glaciers breaking apart don't make one cracking sound," Sokka noted. He attuned his ears in the general direction of the sound and listened.
"I think it could have…" one boy began to say.
"Shhhh," Sokka said cutting the boy off. He closed his eyes and listened intently to the sounds of the tundra. He could hear the wind, pots and cooking utensils softly clanging in the village, the light rustle of the pelt tents, and what sounded like the roar of a polar bear dog in the distance. "Sounds like a polar bear dog," Sokka said hesitantly.
"Yea I hear it too," Ming-Ja said. She was one of the mothers who came on hunting trips with Sokka regularly. She was nearby preparing some meat with salt and pepper that they acquired from Earth Kingdom sailors last month.
"It sounds like it's fighting something," Sokka said to Ming-Ja. "It definitely isn't calling out to its mate."
The group of boys and some of the women, now concerned about the possibility of a polar bear dog in proximity to the village, stared off into the distance. Another sharp crack echoed over the village, and the moaning of the polar bear dog could be heard.
"What the…" Ming-Ja mouthed.
"Could it be Fire Benders?" Miya, another mother asked with apprehension.
"It could be," Sokka said with resolve and turned to Miya, "Get everyone in their tents. Ming-Ja, Tonya lets go check it out."
"Katara!" Ming-Ja called out.
The young Water Bender poked her head out of the tent she was busy sowing pelts in, "What is it?"
"Did you hear those noises? It could be Fire Benders," Tonya explained.
"Oh no," Katara said as she climbed out of the tent and joined the group.
"Gran Gran, make sure no one else leaves the village while we're gone," Sokka said to the elderly woman who was sitting by the fire. She nodded in response. Sokka collected his spear and patted his boomerang that was sheathed on his back as he led the party from the village.
Katara jogged up next to her brother, "Sokka, what are we gonna do if it is Fire Benders?" she asked with fear in her voice.
Sokka looked at Ming-Ja and Tonya who both carried spears tipped with sharpened whalebone, "We defend the village."
"With just us?!" Katara replied.
"We have to try," Sokka said resolutely.
The group trekked through the snow, senses tuned to any other sounds. As they approached the crest of the hill that over looked the village Sokka motioned for everyone to lay down low. They belly crawled to its zenith and surveyed the other side of the hill. Katara let out a small gasp when she saw the corpse of the polar bear dog at the base of the hill. Sokka observed with a determined demeanor.
The polar bear dog laid at the bottom of the hill with a grisly wound about a foot in diameter surrounded by crimson stained snow. There were three sets of tracks easily visible that led away from the dead beast. One track lead to the South East, another lead up the hill side and terminated close to where they laid now, and another track led off to the North. Sokka couldn't see anything or anyone else in the area so he stood and approached the nearest tracks that ended at the crest of the hill.
"Whoever or whatever it was, it watched us from the hill here," Ming-Ja stated with a sense of violation.
"Could it have been the polar bear dog?" Tonya asked.
"I don't think so," Sokka said, "part of the track looks like a person belly crawled. And here are some deep foot prints." Sokka observed pointing to the track.
"Very deep prints," Ming-Ja added.
The group walked along the track leading down the hill to where the polar bear dog laid. Sokka approached the corpse and studied the area around the creature. He tried to employ all the knowledge of tracking game, and people, that his father had taught him before he left to fight in the war against the Fire Nation.
"These tracks are the oldest," Sokka stated pointing to the ones that led to the South East. "It was a person, not wearing snow shoes, who pulled a sled." Sokka walked around the area like a crime scene investigator. "The person left the sled here," he said pointing to the general area by the corpse, "and then went up the hill for sometime."
Tonya chimed in, "So it was one person? Did the polar bear dog sneak up on 'em?"
Sokka studied the corpse intently and looked up, "Yea, one person. And I think so. The polar bear dog snuck up on 'em, they tussled here, the polar bear dog lost, and the person took the sled went off in this direction." Sokka explained and pointed to the tracks that led to the North.
"What could have done this to the polar bear dog?" Katara questioned with fearful awe.
"Fire Benders are disgusting savages," Ming-Ja said, venom in her voice.
"I don't think a Fire Bender did this," Sokka said simply.
"Look at this," Tonya said and held up a metal cylinder that was a dirty gold color about two inches high and a half-inch wide. It narrowed on one side with a hole at the top that revealed that the object was hollow. What appeared to be small patches of soot stained the narrow end of the object. On the wider closed off end, in the center there was a small divot and around the edges where strange markings that they could not decipher. It read:
'M232 APFSDS 14.5x114mm UNSC'
They each took a turn examining the object.
"Where'd you find this?" Sokka queried.
"It was lying in the snow by the polar bear dog, right here," Tonya said pointing.
The group looked around the area with their heads down, searching for more objects in the snow. When they couldn't find anymore they congregated around Sokka.
"Anybody find anything else?" Sokka asked.
They returned his query with blank stares and shaking heads.
"We need to follow these tracks North. Find out what did this and if it's a danger to the tribe," Sokka stated.
"I don't know Sokka," Katara said hesitantly.
"What if it is Fire Nation Katara, we have to warn the tribe," Sokka retorted.
When no one else protested they began to follow the tracks that led to the North. Looking ahead they could see that it snaked around another hill in the distance. As they rounded the next hill the group could see up ahead that the tracks terminated at the edge of the ice and lead into the icy sea.
Sokka walked up to the edge of the ice and looked into the water, "Damn it. The trail ends here. They just jumped into the water."
"Well if it's a person, unless they have some friends nearby who can dry them off, they're as good as dead," Tonya said.
"Wait where's the sled you said they where pulling?" Katara asked Sokka.
"The tracks of the sled lead right to the edge. They must've pushed it in," Sokka noted.
"If this person did have friends nearby and they are Fire Nation, we need to get back to the village," Ming-Ja said.
"Right let's go," Sokka agreed.
0200 hours, August 25, 2555 (Military Calendar)\
South pole, unidentified planet
Location unknown
Akio watched the video feed from the UAV as the group of villagers moved away from the edge of the ice and started to walk away. He was submerged in the water, under a nearby chunk of floating ice hiding. COBRA had internal ballast that allowed him to not sink too far under water and change his position at will.
Once Tian seen that the villagers where coming his way, he had as quickly as he could, collected the duffle, crate and weapons and ran for cover behind a nearby hill. He was able to find one of the brass casings of the sniper rounds he shot but couldn't find the other before he had to start moving. Luckily the silenced SMG fired caseless rounds so he didn't have to bother with collecting them. When the villagers began to follow him behind the other hill he knew he was going to be seen. Even if he had activated the active camouflage of COBRA the crate and duffle would have been seen. So he packed as much of the equipment into the duffle as he could, which was waterproof, and pushed the crate into the water to avoid the villagers finding it.
He had lost the radiation detection equipment, hyperbolic dish, and some rations but was able to save most the equipment. Most importantly the high power transmitter he'd need to contact Infinity was stuffed into the duffle.
"Looks like they're moving off," Nezha noted.
"Engage active camouflage," Akio said.
Akio waited for COBRA to adjust to the surroundings and then swam up to the water line. He poked his head out of the water a few meters from the edge of the ice. The villagers began to round back around the corner of the second hill and went out of sight. Tian climbed out of the water and tried to dry off the duffle as best he could. He confirmed that the equipment in the duffle was dry and removed the transmitter.
"Can you raise the Infinity Nezha?" Akio asked.
There was a pause as the AI scanned the radio frequencies, trying to find a band that may punch through the dead zone around the radiation anomaly. "No, I've got nothing. It's the dead zone."
"Damn," Akio cursed. "Where's the edge of the dead zone?"
"Here," Nezha showed on a map on Akio's HUD, "about a kilometer to the east."
"We gotta get another radiation detector down here, let's go."
Akio trekked through the snow and ice as the Sun began to set on the frozen land. At the edge of the dead zone he radioed Nero on Infinity and had him send a Pelican with extra supplies and a radiation detector. As he waited for the drop ship Akio rested and eat from his supplies. When the Pelican landed a Keeper exited its bay with the equipment in its mechanical arms. Akio removed a crate and metal ski's another Keeper prepared for him from the drop ship's hold and fashioned a similar sled. After making the makeshift sled the Keeper boarded the Pelican.
"Recon one to Infinity, Pelican is ready for dust off," Akio reported over the radio.
"Rodger Recon one. Try not to loose this one," Nero jested.
Akio grumbled a bit and watched the hold of the Pelican close and lift off into the sky. The sun was now set and the tundra settled in for the long cold night.
"Recon on to Infinity, how have the scans of the planet gone? Can you give me a weather outlook for the night?" Akio asked.
"Infinity to Recon one, scans are going well. Most of the planet has been mapped. More cities have been detected but not nearly on the scale as the one with the walls we initially found," Nero explained. "As for a weather report, looks like clear skies tonight with high winds."
"Rodger Infinity, Recon one out," Tian said and closed the COMs channel. "How has the village been Nezha?"
"Take a look," Nezha said as the AI brought up the video feed, "That young man is still patrolling the area around the village." Ever since the near encounter the teenage boy has been walking the perimeter of the village, scanning for threats. He occasionally had again gone to the site of the polar bear dog attack and looked around alone. "Everyone else that we've seen so far is accounted for and in the village."
"Good. Lets go find that radiation site," Akio said determinedly.
Through the night Akio hiked back to the general area of the village, this time keeping clear to the South and then turning back to the North when there was a fair bit of distance between them. He took sometime to stop and deploy the radiation detector. Once he had a better reading on the location of the radiation source he was on the move again.
About 300 meters from the supposed center of the radiation, he came to the icy shore of the tundra. Akio stared across the frigid waters.
"The anomaly is about 300 meters to the North right?" Tian confirmed with Nezha.
"Yup, and it seems like it's a few meters down as well," the AI reported.
Akio scanned the water. Except for a few icebergs, some huge, the size of a house and some a few meters in diameter floating around, there was nothing that indicated there was any type of potential Forerunner tech in the area. Or anything that could possibly be the source of the abnormal Neutrino radiation for that matter. The pit in Akio's stomach began to form at the thought that there was nothing out here to help him repair Infinity and get back to the UNSC. He squelched the thought but the rock in his gut still turned over.
The full moon now hung high over the frozen tundra and the sea appeared to be a solid black mass expanding into the horizon. Stars and one of the arms of the galaxy stretched across the night sky. The snow an eerie shade of dull silver, like the hull of a starship.
"Get the UAV here and watch the crate, I'm gonna see what I can see," Akio said as he approached the water line. "Ping the general area of the epicenter," with that he jumped in the water.
"It's about here," Nezha said and dropped a waypoint on his HUD.
Akio swam through the cold inky black water towards the maker, and activated his VISR system. However, when it couldn't make heads or tails of the under water surroundings he deactivated it in favor of switching on an external light attached to his helmet. As he swam towards the marker a large iceberg, at least 30 meters wide and just as high above the water and too large under the water to see its bottom came into sight. He kept swimming right up next to the iceberg.
"Is the epicenter on the other side?" Akio asked Nezha.
"No, I think it's in the iceberg," Nezha answered.
Akio went to the surface to take in the iceberg from above the water. It looked like any other iceberg, nothing special about it. He swam around to the other side and watched the waypoint of the epicenter stay within the iceberg below the water line. He completed his circuit around the iceberg and found nothing out of the ordinary. Again he dropped below the waterline to inspect the ice.
"See anything I'm not?" asked Tian.
"Negative," Nezha replied.
"Shit."
Akio ran an armored hand along the iceberg and thought. Could there be another Forerunner crystal lodged inside this iceberg? Could it be a Forerunner vehicle or something? Or could it be some strange new element that simply radiated Neutrinos and would be useless to me? The pit in his stomach rolled over and over. Tian surfaced and swam back to the crate on the mainland of the tundra.
"What do you want to do?" Nezha inquired.
"Crack this sum' bitch open," Akio said.
