A/N: I'm back with Chapter 20! This one may be a little longer than the others, but I'm not sure. As usual before we go on, I need to make somethings about this chapter clear first. 1. The information on Arcadia is correct and can be found on Halo Nation and even Halopedia, BUT, the year in which Arcadia was established/colonised was 2529 not 2527. It's only 2527 for story reasons. 2. Paradise and Artemis are my own locations for Arcadia, whereas Pirth City and Caledonia are actual locations on Arcadia. 3. Because we don't know the time zone for Arcadia, I have gone with Arcadia being one hour behind Reach. Hope you enjoy, chapter 22 was my favourite one to write (so much so that I was physically shaking whilst writing it) so I hope you'll enjoy reading it. Have a good day/afternoon/evening and I'll see you all on the flip side. - LegendsOfOnyx

Chapter 20: Arcadia's Silent Facility

Pillar of Autumn

Procyon system

In orbit of the planet Arcadia

April 21, 2529

23:21 hrs Reach time

Pillar of Autumn's Hangar Bay E-5

"Minnie, can you access and records on Arcadia?" Violet asked.

"I can indeed. Whatcha need to know?" Minnie replied chirpily.

"Details on Arcadia itself would be a great place to start Minnie." Clementine said, coming up to stand next to Violet.

"Coming right up. Ok so: Arcadia is a tropical planet with many jungles, it's considered a resort world and even has many farms on the planet. Established in 2527 it's capitol is Pirth City. Arcadia also has three orbital elevators and has a population of 2,998,230 as of January this year. It has a breathable atmosphere and a gravity of approximately 1.02 G, very similar to Earth's 1 G. Arcadia has a diameter of 8,090 miles or 13,020 km." Minnie informed them, she'd also caught the attention of the remaining members of Indigo and even Unity.

"Can you get anything on the attack on the research facility that was hit?" Violet asked, who received an approving nod from Clementine.

"Umm. I think there's som- ahah! Found something." She cheered, cutting herself off. "Ok, I found the location of the facility. It's rather secluded, not surprised there was nothing but rumours first. ANYWAY! It's located in Paradise, which is about 5km away from the nearest town, which would be Artemis. Other than that, there isn't much here... BUT the report does say that the Rebels did attempt an attack at 12:30 hrs Reach time on April, 18, however, that attack failed, and another attack took place at..." Minnie paused, and reread the information three times thinking she'd misread.

"Minnie? We need to know." Clementine said, verbally nudging the AI.

"Well that can't be right." Minnie muttered to herself.

"Minnie!" Violet called, regaining the attention of the puzzled AI. "What 'can't be right'?" Violet asked.

"The time of the second attack." Minnie said, looking rather worried, which began to worry the rest of the Spartans.

"Hey little one, we kinda need to know." Mason, Unity 1, encouraged.

Minnie sighed. "The second attack started at 26:40 hrs Reach time."

"So?" Mitch asked.

"We lost contact at 26:50 Reach time!" Minnie emphasised. The realisation suddenly coming to the other Spartans.

"That means..." Ruby trailed off.

"The attack took ten minutes." Marlon finished.

Violet and Clementine looked to each other with worried expressions.

"Who could cause a heavily defended research facility to fall and go dark within ten minutes?" Louis asked.

Suddenly, Fiona's voice came over intercom.

'Alright Spartans, deployment is a go! Get to your dropships and prepare for take-off!'

"Well Louis, guess we get to find out personally." Mitch said, as he moved up the ramp and into the Pelican, followed shortly after by the remaining members of Indigo.

'Unity 1 to Indigo 1. We're ready for lift off. How copy?' Mason called over the shared COMM.

"This is Indigo 1, solid copy Unity 1. Prepare to follow us out." Clementine responded, then she turned to Violet. "Violet, can I take Minnie up front?" She asked.

Violet nodded her confirmation, removed Minnie's Chip and handed her to Clementine.

"Thanks Vi." Clementine said. She turned around and entered the Pelican cockpit and seated herself in the co-pilot seat. "Ok Minnie, give us the coordinates to the facility." Clementine instructed, inserting her Chip into the co-pilot's control panel.

"Coordinates locked Clem." Minnie informed her after a few seconds.

"Coordinates on screen." Notified the pilot.

"Take us out." Clementine ordered.

Planet Arcadia

Continent of Caledonia

Paradise

5km away from nearest town: Artemis

22:36 hrs (23:36 hrs Reach time)

Attacked research facility

The Pelicans came into landing a few meters away from the facility, their engines violently blew the relatively long grass about wildly. Clementine removed Minnie's Chip and exited the cockpit, handing her back to Violet as she went passed – their fingers lingering for a few seconds before Clementine exited the Pelican. Both Fireteams exited their respective Pelican to see the heavily damaged facility in front of them. Each Fireteam member activated their newly installed helmet flash lights and saw that the facility was in awful shape. The outer concrete walls had been blown up or out right smashed through. The once white facility building was peppered with burn and scorch marks, ranging from big and small. There were, however, no bodies. No scientists, researchers or guards. It looked abandoned.

Mitch whistled. "Well... this is really fuckin' weird." He said, moving up to inspect the walls. "Yup. Really fuckin' weird."

"What is?" Mason asked moving up behind Mitch and ordering his Fireteam to investigate the area in front of them.

"This," Mitch said, running his hand over the edge of where the wall used to be a whole wall. "This wasn't caused by and explosion, nor was it caused by a Scorpion Tank OR a Warthog."

"How can you tell?" Marlon asked, moving up to Mitch also.

"Well, because obvious answer A. being it's too fucking small to be a Scorpion Tank and answer B. being a Warthog can't break through a wall this thick. But what's even weirder is that from the way the wall's broken, no explosive did this either. It's like it was broken through."

"You mean like someone physically broke through that wall?" Ruby asked.

Mitch shook his head. "No, I mean something broke through this wall."

Then, just like a cliché moment in a film, it began to rain, with the occasional thunder clap and flash of lightening.

"And, queue the ominous music." Louis joked.

"Not funny Louis." Clementine said. "Alright, we have our orders. Let's get in there and get this over with as soon as possible." She commanded. She watched her HUD as five status lights turned green.

"Guys, I hate to say this, but this building has no power at all." Minnie said over the shared COMM between Indigo and Unity.

"Thanks little one." Mason praised.

"It's Minnie." She huffed.

"Thanks Minnie." Violet applauded. "Where would we be without you?" She asked.

"No where fun." She responded, as Indigo entered though the main doors.

"You mean to say this is fun?" Louis whispered over Indigo's private channel.

"Yeah." Minnie answered. "Haunted houses always looked exciting in those old vids way back when."

"Funny, you pronounce 'terrifying' differently than I do."

"Please focus you two." Clementine asked.

Indigo eventually came to a cross junction constructed of burnt white hallways, with the odd spatter of blood painting them. The rain storm outside had increased quite a bit whilst they'd been walking in the dark, with the only light source in front of them thanks to their flash lights.

"Well this is shit." Mitch said, lowing his BR55 and sighing.

"We have no choice but to split up." Ruby said, next to Mitch. "C'mon you, we'll go right." She said, giving Mitch a nudge to get moving.

"Careful, I'll make you take point if you keep this up." Mitch teased.

Ruby gave him a playful shove. "I'm the medic, you're not. That makes you expendable, therefore you take point." She teased back.

"Jesus Ruby, put the claws away." Mitch said, his voice getting quieter the farther they went from the group.

"Well, Louis and I will go straight. Let you know if we find anything." Marlon said, moving forward with Louis.

"That means us three get left." Clementine stated.

With Louis and Marlon – 5 minutes after splitting up. Current Location: Unknown.

The pair had begun to pass a lot more scorch marks and blood as they walked. They even took note of the few bodies they'd passed, and how their injuries looked to have burn marks and different sized cauterised holes.

"Louis, none of these injuries match any UNSC weapons." Marlon told his friend.

"As Mitch said, this is fucking weird." Louis whispered.

The two turned right to see windows lining the wall on their left. Heading over they could only just make out what could have been a small research lab. Marlon backed away from the window and noticed a door that looked like it lead into the room they were outside. He elbowed Louis on the arm and pointed to the door. Louis nodded and they made their way down the dark corridor until they reached the door. It was a door that split in two down the middle to open, meaning it would be easy to pry open.

"You know there's no power right?" Louis asked.

"I know. Help me open this manually." He said, finding a gripping point on the right side of the door whilst Louis shook his head and did the same with the left.

"On three?" Louis asked.

"On three." Marlon confirmed. "One. Two. Three."

With a heave the duo forced the door open to reveal the pitch black lab.

"Hm, atmospheric." Louis commented.

There was the sound of clattering and what sounded like the patter of feet and the squawk of a bird coming from down the hallway they'd yet to progress down.

"Ok, a bit too atmospheric." Louis corrected.

"Yeah, no way I'm going in there," Marlon said, pointing into the dark lab. "And leaving by back exposed to whatever is out there."

"Agreed," Louis said. "Have fun guarding the door then." Louis whispered quickly, rushing into the lab and leaving Marlon to guard the door.

Marlon just stared at where Louis had been standing before sighing in frustration. "Clem? We have a problem." Marlon whispered over their COMM.

'Go ahead Marlon, what's wrong.' Clementine replied almost instantly.

"There's something in here with us."