The Soldier

The population of Thrace was centred on one of the larger continents of the planet, one that was mostly barren desert with some patches of forest land towards the equatorial region. Deckar's Stand served as the capital city and main settlement, an urban sprawl that had sprung up around the first space-port constructed on the world by the original settlers. Beyond it, many miles across the desert, were smaller towns, some of which being only a collection of wooden structures centred around a mine or the like. Out here, about fifty miles or so from Deckar's Stand, was one of the mining settlements that had sprung up and been abandoned as soon as the funding had run dry. That, and the people who had once been in charge of the mine had seen fit to close it upon striking upon something buried and very much alien. Such a find had been kept quiet, at least until recently. Somehow, somewhere the Covenant, or one of the many factions it had broken into, had learned of what was buried here and had come with unearthing the secrets underneath the old mining town their one and only goal.

Leah guessed she had about ten minutes, probably less, before the Colonel's people showed up. They were unlikely to charge into the place right away, certainly not once they saw the Covenant were here, so that in turn gave Leah a bit more time to find out what she could. She had so far done a quick survey of the alien patrols here, and there were very few to begin with. They were not expecting anybody to intrude on their little operation, a fact that worked in Leah's favour. The handful of Grunts and Jackals were no problem to a Spartan, and the pair of Elites she had spotted were unlikely to cause her too much trouble, as long as she kept her wits about her. It had been a while since she had needed to kill any aliens, and in a way she felt more comfortable doing just that. A natural response, but a welcome one. And a welcome change to what she had needed to do the night before, at the restaurant, where the collateral damage had been at a degree she had been uncomfortable with.

Climbing down the hill once she was satisfied with what she had seen, she stowed her binoculars and carefully traversed the rocky slope whilst she kept her battle rifle slung over her shoulder. It took her a minute to get down, and she ducked into the desert shrubs here as she watched the Jackal on guard at the crumbling stone wall. There was perhaps thirty metres of open space between her and the wall, plenty of space for a Jackal's sharp eyesight to pick up on her and plant a carbine shot between her eyes. The armour vest she wore was unlikely to fully stop an energy weapon blast, as it had been designed with more kinetic weapons in mind. Taking her battle rifle from over her shoulder, she levelled the weapon and peered through the scope at the bored looking Jackal, who carried a deactivated shield gauntlet at its left arm and seemed more interested in picking the dirt from the claws of its other hand. After a moment, it turned and started further along the perimeter wall, giving Leah the opportunity she needed.

Lowering the rifle, she got up and ran for the wall, crossing the sandy, gravelly ground at a quick pace that only a Spartan would be able to achieve. She put her back to the brown stone wall, and after a quick glance about she started after the oblivious Jackal. He stopped some distance away, kicking at something in the dirt. One of the native desert lizards, Leah saw, and it skittered off as the Jackal shoved it with his foot.

Within seconds the Spartan was behind the alien, and she set her rifle over his head and against his neck before holding it tight against him, choking him. The Jackal let out a ragged gasp as its clawed hands scrambled for the surprise attacker, but it could do little as Leah's superior strength used the rifle to crush the bird-like alien's windpipe. As soon as this was done, she let the Jackal fall to the ground, its neck bruised and blood trailing from its mouth. It would not be getting back up.

She turned and made her way through one of the broken down sections of the wall, overgrown with dry desert grass. Beyond it was a ditch that she took cover within, as another of the Jackals wandered by before going around a small ruined house ahead. Leah moved to the building's rear, before moving to the other side and waiting for the Jackal to pass before her. He did just that, and she reached out and pulled him into her grasp before she plunged the blade of her combat knife into his neck. Purple blood spurted out of the severed artery and the alien gargled away what little remained of its life as she dragged the body to the ditch and rolled it in. With her rifle in one hand for now, she held her combat knife in the other and promptly wiped the alien blood off on one trouser leg. This left a dark purple smear, not that this bothered her.

The Phantom's engines had been switched off, and the Elite in the crimson armour had moved over to the craft's rear. Leah ducked behind a crumbling old house and watched from some distance as a ramp extended from the Phantom and a pair of blue-armoured Elites emerged. Minors, inexperienced recruits really, and they followed their superior to the tunnel entrance. Leah continued watching as the one in charge seemed to consider their options, before going inside with one of the Minors. The other stood guard outside, plasma rifle in hand, while a trio of Grunts patrolled around the dig site. Leah could see that this would be a bit of a problem, as there was no alternate entrance to whatever was underground, and that she would have to get past the one standing watch in a more direct fashion. She could not be certain just how many alien soldiers were on board the Phantom, so starting a fire-fight could easily lead to a situation that went out of control.

Leah moved from the building and across what she figured to have once served as the main street, before taking cover in the shadow of a slightly larger, but still very rundown, structure. Here, she moved into a narrow alley between two of them, and through an empty backlot that had become overgrown with desert grass. There was a car here, albeit one that lacked wheels and was little more than a rusted hulk of metal. From behind this, Leah was able to get a better look into the dig site, which appeared to be a dug-out about forty metres in diameter and twenty deep. It was deeper at one end, where the tunnel entrance had been revealed, and the other end moved downwards at a gentle incline to allow for movement in and out of the dug-out. The Grunts on patrol were nearby, moving along in their typically waddling steps, oblivious to the presence of the Spartan who watched them from nearby. As they went past, Leah rose to her feet, her knife clutched in her left hand as she moved in the wake of the three little aliens. She reached the rearmost one and plunged her knife into the back of the Grunt's skull, killing it instantly. Its two friends turned to her, but they could do little as she pulled the knife free and lunged for the next one, slicing its throat open before the last one let out a terrified squeal. She only needed to jog a few paces to reach the last one, as it turned to try and make a run for it. She grabbed it from behind and stuck her knife in its neck, silencing it before it could make any further noise. With that done, she dropped the dead Grunt to the ground and started towards the excavation site.

At the edge of it, she crouched behind an abandoned digging vehicle and peered around it at the lone Elite standing watch at the tunnel entrance. Shifting her lips slightly, she let out a loud, long whistle. The kind of call she had done many times during training exercises, one that would often be replied to by other Spartans with an appropriately matching call. In this case, the Elite's head perked up, and the alien looked in her general direction as it attempted to discern the source of the noise. Slowly, he started forwards, holding his plasma rifle at the ready as he neared her position. It was a young Elite, judging by its low rank, and it was unlikely to be entirely up to speed with all the tricks humans liked to play in situations like these. A fact that Leah used to her advantage, and she recalled previous experiences with many of these Sangheili 'Minors'. Some would often rush headlong into combat, keen to prove themselves, so it was not surprising that this young warrior walked right into her clutches.

She stepped out from cover as the Elite neared and pounced upon him, knocking the alien to his knees. With a powerful thrust, she stuck the blade of the knife into the alien's neck, severing an artery before the Elite let out a pained grunt. Purple blood spurted from the deep cut, and the alien's hands scrambled for the powerful figure upon him, only for his movements to slow as blood rushed out of him. Leah climbed off of the alien and pushed him with one hand, sending him falling face-first onto the ground where he remained. Dark purple blood pooled around him, and his body twitched a little as his life quite literally rushed out of his body.

Leah sheathed her bloodied blade before starting towards the tunnel entrance. She recognized the Forerunner architecture immediately, as like many Spartans she had visited some Forerunner sites in the past. She knew the way those ancient aliens liked to build things, all elaborate geometric designs and sharp angles, often with blue or orange lights amongst it all. Just about everything that had happened with the Covenant could be traced back to the Forerunners, as it had been that long extinct species who had served as the basis for the Covenant religion, one that had lead the Covenant to wage war upon humanity. In the end, the whole religion had been proven to be a lie, yet it did not surprise Leah in the slightest that there were still plenty of aliens who still believed in it.

The inside of the tunnel was lit by a series of portable lights that the people running the excavation had placed down. Parts of the ceiling had fallen in, but any such blockages had been cleared out during the excavation, allowing for a mostly clear path inside. The tunnel continued down some distance, before emerging into a larger chamber where at least some of the Forerunner lights were still functioning. Most of the chamber was a mess, clogged with rubble from the ceiling which had only been partially cleared. Leah had to step over some chunks of rock as she walked into the room, her rifle raised. One thing at the far end of the room caught her eye, however.

The crimson armoured Elite was over there, as was his young blue-armoured colleague. The one in red was looking over a Forerunner terminal, its holographic display flickering as he tapped his fingers against the mostly unresponsive holographic keys. Neither of them were aware of the Spartan's entry into the room, and Leah thought she ought to rectify that. Had her foes been human, she might have tried talking them into surrendering. Of course, Sangheili were not big on surrender.

As she was about to start shooting, something at the far end of the chamber stirred. Nestled against the wall was a spherical object of some kind, several metres in diameter, with glowing orange lines across its form. However, the sphere remained inert for now.

Like most Spartans, she had been briefed on what had occurred on the Forerunner shield world of Requiem. She had seen images taken by expeditions there, in the wake of what had happened, and she had seen descriptions of a Forerunner 'cryptum'. The sphere at the end looked like a scaled down version of the one that had been found on Requiem, and there was no doubt in her mind that this had been what had brought the Covenant here. Did that mean there was something inside it? Leah's curiosity had certainly been piqued, the only issue being the presence of the two Elites.

She opened fire, hammering the shields of the Elite Major before he was even aware of what was going on. The shields failed under the withering fire, and as he turned to face her he let out an angered roar before a burst of battle rifle rounds caught him in the face. The bottom part of his head disappeared in an explosion of purple chunks, and his Minor colleague turned and opened fire.

Leah ducked behind some of the rubble as plasma bolts shot overhead. She kept low as she moved towards the Forerunner terminal, the Elite Minor sending plasma rifle shots flying in her wake. Leah leaned around the Forerunner terminal and hammered the Elite with battle rifle bursts, emptying what remained in the weapon's magazine as the Elite's shields flared and failed. The Elite Minor began to charge for her and Leah swung her rifle around, bringing it about in a wide arc that sent its butt-end colliding with the Elite's head. The alien stumbled, and she followed up this blow with a kick to its stomach. Pulling her knife with her free-hand, she plunged it into the Elite's chest around its armour chest piece, and the alien let out a huff as the blade pierced one of its hearts. It fell backwards, as Leah pulled the knife free, and the alien landed in a heap before her.

With this done, she stowed the knife and reloaded her rifle as she approached the terminal. Something the Elites had done had brought the sphere to life, and she could almost feel the energy emanating from the object. A red light was blinking on the dysfunctional terminal, and a series of buttons had appeared that glowed orange. Leah felt something in the back of her mind tug her empty hand towards the panel, and without even thinking about what she was doing she began to tap at the keys. Somehow, she knew exactly what buttons to push, as if somewhere deep in her mind the answer had been there the entire time.

The sphere reacted accordingly, as the final necessary command was entered. The side facing into the room began to shift, and an unseen joint began to slowly split open. No light flooded out of the ancient construct, and even the glowing orange lines upon it did not change. Instead, the whole thing slowly opened up with little to no fanfare, revealing a smooth and empty interior. Leah looked towards it, realising that she may have made a serious mistake, playing with Forerunner technology. Nonetheless, she had not been able to prevent herself from doing so.

Her mind was diverted from further thought on the subject, however, when she saw what was lying in the middle of the sphere.

It could only be described as a large, armoured figure. This figure lay spread-eagled on the floor in the middle of the sphere, encased in elaborate blue-grey armour that covered it from head to toe. The armour itself appeared inert, and Leah could easily have imagined the visor glowing with some kind of light. Was this a Forerunner? If so, it must have been long dead. Humanity's one and only encounter with a living Forerunner so far had lead to an entire city on Earth being wiped out, so Leah remained cautious as she approached the motionless being, her rifle raised. Something told her the rifle would do little against the armour the figure wore, but nonetheless she kept it up, more for the feeling of security it gave her than for anything else.

The armoured being did not move. Lying down as it was, she could determine its general form. Bipedal, and bulky, and very tall. Well over seven feet, taller than she would be had she been in her MJOLNIR armour. Each of its hands carried six digits, and its feet appeared to be comprised of two large toes. Coming to a stop near it, Leah knelt by the seemingly dead Forerunner and put a hand to the armour. It was a hard metal, one she could not identify. Her fingers went to the face-plate, and they found a catch of some sort that she pulled on with some effort. Somehow, this Forerunner had been preserved, perhaps because of its armour, Leah did not know. As for the face-plate, this came away with a subdued hiss, and Leah was surprised to see a youthful, if somewhat pale, face looking back at her.

The eyes were closed and the nose was very much non-existent, and instead two narrow slitted nostrils were where one would expect it to be. The skin was a pale blue in colour, and the face she saw before her was very much male. Leah had basic medical training, as did every other Spartan, and with this in mind she put her fingers to one eye before shifting the eyelids apart. The eye behind was slightly upturned, and the iris was a startling blue colour. Leah let the eyelids close again, and she went to the base of the neck to check for a pulse. She was assuming that such a creature would even have one to begin with, but Forerunners did have hearts, and they did have blood, at least according to what she had read. Information was still very sketchy, even after what had occurred with the Didact months before. They still knew so little about the Forerunners in general…

There was a pulse. She could feel it, just under the chin, where she assumed a vein or artery was located. This discovery made her heart skip in her chest, as she quickly realised what it meant. She placed the face-plate back over the youthful male face, and considered her next move. A living Forerunner made for one of the most important discoveries in recent history. At least, that was what she imagined her higher-ups would say about it. A long extinct, hyper-advanced alien race had left its mark across the entire galaxy before vanishing overnight. Of course, she was one of the few who knew why and how they had vanished. Somehow, this Forerunner had lived through it. She could only assume it had something to do with the sphere, and whatever exotic energies it had contained. The Forerunners were certainly advanced, who knew what else they had been capable of?

Leah figured she had only a few minutes before Carson's people showed up. She knew that leaving a living Forerunner here for them to find would be a bad idea, and if anything that would only complicate matters. So instead, she slung her rifle around her shoulder and then grabbed the armoured being under his arms and began to drag him. His size and armour gave him a significant bit of weight, but it was not anything a Spartan could not handle. Leah moved at a fast pace, dragging the Forerunner along as she made her way for the exit and then up the tunnel to the surface.

Some conflicting thoughts buzzed about in her head as she moved. Questions, mostly, some she knew would never get any proper answer. Had the people here on Thrace known about what was buried here? The excavation site certainly suggested so. And had the Covenant known what they would find, or had they simply come here seeking Forerunner artefacts? It was not unheard of for them to do so, and presumably in this case it had been only a small force, hence their complete ignorance to the human settlements dotted across the desert. They had likely wanted to come here, dig up what they could, and then leave whilst keeping their interactions with the humans to a minimum. They simply had not counted on a Spartan being present, or one of the humans here sending out a cry for help.

As for the Forerunner, Leah could only guess as to what he might be like if he ever woke up. Would he be intent on destroying humanity, like a certain other Forerunner had been? Having seen his face, his features had appeared almost youthful compared to what the Didact had looked like. The Didact had been almost monstrous in appearance, yet here, this Forerunner looked as if he were no older than twenty. Again, there was so little they knew about this species…

Leah emerged onto the surface and into the sun, dragging the unconscious ancient alien behind her. Somewhere above, she heard the whine of a Phantom, and in the distance, coming from the east, came another of the Covenant craft. Apparently there had been far more than a 'token' Covenant presence here, and this only spurred Leah to move faster. She was in the middle of a place that would likely become a warzone in short order, as soon as Carson's people arrived.

Getting to the Warthog, hauling along an unconscious armoured alien, did cause her to break out in a sweat. The heat was intense, as it so often was in this barren land, and Leah's uniform clung to her sweat-slicked skin uncomfortably. She was across the open ground around the perimeter wall before the Covenant Phantom moved into position over the ruined town, and she saw, coming from the opposite direction, a pair of Pelicans that closed in on the old mining town as they zoomed in from the west. Her time here was up, and just as well, as she neared her Warthog and lifted the Forerunner so she could pull open the door of the back-seat. Shoving him inside, she left him sprawled along the backseat, cramming his legs in underneath him to better squeeze him into the civilian Warthog's confines. She felt strange doing all this, treating the unconscious ancient alien as if he were luggage, but how could anyone have anticipated such a find? She half-expected him to wake up and start strangling her.

Closing the door once the Forerunner was packed in, she climbed into the driver's seat and started the engine. Nearby, the pair of Pelican drop-ships, rugged and desert beaten as they were, turned and started to land on a clearing well away from the abandoned mining settlement. As for the second Covenant Phantom, it had started to deposit its passengers via gravity lift into the excavation site. Leah did not stay behind to observe, and instead put the Warthog into gear and sent it racing off into the desert.