(CHAPTER 29) THE GUARDIANS
She had never felt like this before. The amount of power in the underground networks main frame left Yuna feeling ecstatic with power. She had begun her exploration of the system as soon as Eric left the core room and headed back out into the tunnels. This cyber world was much different than anything she had ever been in before in her short life. Ordinarily, the cyber world was a dark place filled with set paths for her to roam around; paths that appeared to her as black walls with strands of light and orbs of power whizzing past her. The cyber world in her eyes, along with any other artificial intelligence would look to the human eye as looking at a three dimensional circuit board; with countless lines of set circuitry, and systems.
This place however was different. Yuna found herself walking around in a dully lit area that seemed to extend out into infinity. Every so often as she explored, she would come across data in the form of an orb of floating light. They wouldn't move, change, or even acknowledge her presence at all as she passed them. They seemed almost ghostly, as if they hadn't even been activated in a millennia.
She came across an orb of light that seemed to bob up and down slightly. This one was different and had a slight red tint to it. Yuna paused and slowly approached the orb. The ball of light, like the others, didn't even acknowledge the presence of the A.I. It was all so strange, even these small areas of the system should at least give some acknowledgement that another source of power was near. Yuna recollected her thoughts. She needed to remember that she wasn't on a starship and that these systems were far different from the technology that she was used too.
She focused her neon blue eyes into the center of the slowly pulsing orb and then reached out her delicate pale hands. She held her palms out and slowly placed her hands on the orb. Yuna gasped and instantly she was pulled into an entirely separate system. The setting around her changed and she was now standing in a dark room with a genteel red flashing that seemed to come from nowhere. She walked into the room and found a data cube floating in the center of the room she was in. It was a black box with red light coming from its eight corners. She gently tapped it with the tip of her pointer finger and a list of systems popped up. The text that popped up seemed to resemble the symbols on the holo panels that Eric had seen on his way down to the core room. She instantly adapted herself and quickly translated the text.
It read…
(WARNING!)
Critical failure in the security matrix-
Containment has failed-
Outbreak risk- (IMMINENT)
Installation's number 1-7 have been activated-
EMERGENCY TERMINATION OF ALL SYSTEMS, FUNCTIONS, PRODUCTION, AND SETTINGS is to be in effect until further notice-
(ENGAGING EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN OF THE FOLLOWING…)
Production facilities- Number's 1through 500
Power systems to the core matrix are to be on –STANDBY- until manual reactivation is engaged-
Further production of -ALL- Bio-Organism's is to be canceled-
Conceal (VEIL) in protective lockdown until further risk is avoided-
(ADDITIONAL SECURITY MEASURES…)
Continued activation of the Sentinels, as well as further production-
Constant monitoring of Installations 1 through 7 as well as THE ARC-
The guardians of this planet are to be released to stop this infestation, Leave the guardians that are not yet prepared in stasis until further notice-
(FINAL ENTRY)
What we have tried to perfect has failed. Those who we have tried to protect are gone. The experiment has failed and now cannot be stopped without the final desperate measure. We can now only hope that we can survive the containment and rebuild. Until that time, I have initiated a total core lockdown until further notice and reactivation. A handful of ship are evacuating to THE ARC in hopes that we will be able to wait this disaster out while a large number of us will remain behind to activate our last 7 hopes for survival.
Know that our intentions were not to harm, but to further improve all of our lives for the better. It is now known that even we were not ready for what has happened. All of our careful planning was drastically flawed. We were so blind by desire for production and power that we were not able to prepare for this.
And so I leave with the survivors with this request. Stop this infestation, destroy all that remains of our failed attempts at power, and above all, -LET NO HARM COME TO (VEIL)!-
I now give word. Activate the Installations. Stop this madness before it can do any more harm.
Remember me always,
Satura-
Yuna closed the data array before her and pulled herself out of the orb. She stood silent and thought. All of the information instantly processed in her mind and she said out loud. "Forerunner's. This whole underground network, even this entire planet was a Forerunner outpost!" She instantly flashed through all of her collected data and came across the files from SPARTAN-117. She immediately opened them and pulled out the files on the virus known as "The Flood." The virus that was kept contained on the ring installations known as "the Halo rings" for study. She didn't know as much about the flood or the Forerunner's as Cortana did and she wished that she was here with here to help with this problem.
Yuna opened up her own private COM. She called out. "UNSC A.I. CEREAL NUMBER, YND 4521-7 calling long range to UNSC A.I. CEREAL NUMBER CTN 0452-9" Yuna paused and heard no sign of a reply. It wasn't surprising. Cortana could be anywhere in the galaxy and it wasn't even guaranteed that she would receive the message. She continued anyway. "Cortana, its Yuna. I'm on the planet Aurora along with Eric, Devon, and Kalder, as well as with Mitsuki, and Dokuro. I have discovered information regarding the Forerunner's as well as the Flood Virus. You posses far more knowledge on them then I do. I'm requesting any additional information that you can send me as well as information regarding the Sentinels, and an unknown class known as "Guardians." If you are receiving, please respond."
Yuna immediately sent the message and then again checked her surroundings. She was still in the same large white area with the pulsing red orb of light in front of her. She stood silent for a few seconds and waited and just as expected, received no reply. She sighed and thought to herself. "It's alright, you're a big girl, you can figure this out on your own."
She turned and looked at her surroundings. The bright area had countless orbs of light that seemed to extend out as far as the eye could see. She needed to compile as much information as she could to help Eric with his mission. As far as she knew, this area could be a key part in stopping the Covenant. They were hell bent enough getting to this area first so whatever it was that they were after she wanted to get to it first.
The cobalt blue boots of Devon's armor touched down on a metal floor. He folded up the wings of his Angel Pack and surveyed his area. He had landed on what looked like an old elevator that seemed to have been destroyed centuries ago. He saw an exit door that was damaged as well. His guess was this elevator had fallen down the shaft. He walked over to the door and saw that they were left semi cracked open. He put his fingers between the gaps of the two doors and pried them open. The metal doors creaked and groaned as they were forced apart.
He managed to pry the doors far enough for himself to squeeze through. Once past them he found himself in another dark tunnel. The only source of light he saw came from a small orange and purple glow about one hundred feet from his location. He walked towards the light and realized that it was coming from a holo panel that was mounted next to a large door.
Much like Eric, Devon found the symbols on the holo panel to be strangely familiar. He rested his Sniper Rifle on his shoulder and tapped his pointer finger on a center triangle shaped symbol. He heard a large latch move and the door slowly slid open. Ahead of him he saw a curved path that led downward out of sight. This path; however, was illuminated by dull lights that rested against the floor. He held his Sniper Rifle at a lowered position and continued on.
"Whoa!" Dokuro said suddenly. "What is it?" Devon asked. She continued, "I just picked up a sudden energy spike right after we crossed through that doors threshold." "Is it the source we've been after?" Her Spartan asked. She replied, "I don't know. I'll need to interface with the source before I can know for sure. But whatever it's coming from we're close to the source." "Then it's probably at the end of this hallway." Devon told her.
The Spartan continued down the curved path and eventually came to another door. This one was different, and bared no resemblance to the large blast style doors that he had been passing through. This one had no mechanism to unlock it, and was covered in geometric patterns and symbols. Devon searched the door and looked for some way to open it. He found nothing. "Hang on." Dokuro said. She projected her figure to its human height and walked up to the door. She continued, "Let me take a look at it."
The A.I. held her hands up in front of the door. They quickly pulsed with energy and the symbols on the door began to glow a neon blue. Dokuro quickly hacked through the doors security lock down and unlocked it. As she was pulling herself from the doors systems a bright red flash appeared in her vision with black text appearing in the middle. Dokuro gasped and quickly backed herself away from the door.
"What happened!?" Devon asked as he ran to his A.I.'s aid. "Are you alright?" He asked. Dokuro quickly regained her thoughts and stood silent. She knew she had seen that text somewhere before and quickly sifted there her data files and tried to do a match. She quickly found a top secret data file that she had been holding onto from Dr. Halsey's own private files. It was a file containing Forerunner text and translations. It was one of the files that Cortana had compiled from her stay in the Halo ring's control room. She thought to herself, "Forerunner script, here?" She quickly translated the text that flashed across her vision moments before. It read, "DANGER! SECURITY ZONE LOCKDOWN!"
Dokuro turned to face her Spartan. She looked up at him and said, "You're not going to believe this. We're in a Forerunner Installation." Devon replied, "What? The Forerunner's that built those Ring's that John fought on?" Dokuro nodded. "Yeah, those Forerunners." Devon looked around. "But I thought they only existed on those Ring installations?" Dokuro sighed. "No! This is why I tell you to read those mission reports and not just skip over everything! They built those Halo Ring's as outposts. They occupied other planets for their main civilizations. Their artifacts have been found on several other of the colonies as well. That is until the Covenant came to them, took what they want then glassed the worlds. And now, we know why they came to this one!"
Dokuro quickly turned and held her slender hand over a symbol on the door behind her. It slowly began to open and she turned back to her Spartan. "They have something hidden down here. And I think I just unlocked one of their secrets." Dokuro quickly vanished back inside her Spartan's armor and began to compile the small amount of data that she had just found.
Devon held his Sniper Rifle at the ready as he watched the door ahead of him open. Inside was a massive room that resembled that of a museum. Inside was lit by the same dim lights that lined the hallway leading to this room. The walls had large sections of holographic symbols that slowly scrolled along the surface as well as dark statues that lined the main area of the room. In the center of the room was a large holographic statue of what looked like a person standing in a hooded robe and holding an ornate staff. The hologram stood on a large pedestal that was on a small round island of a shallow man made river that flowed through the center of the room.
Devon slowly walked down a flight of large stairs that led to the floor of the large room. Dokuro said calmly, "That hologram of that person, I'm picking up a serious amount of energy from it. Take me to it." Devon walked on ahead and took notice of the statues. They were sleek, jet black creatures with long whip like tails and had large razor sharp looking spines that dominated their bodies. They looked familiar but he couldn't quite recognize what it was. He continued on and came to the small man made river that flowed through the center of the room. It only appeared to be a little over a foot deep and the water didn't seem to be moving fast. He stepped down into the crystal clear water and splashed his way across to the small round island in the center of the room.
The holographic statue was mounted on a round metal cylinder that stood at least ten feet tall. The cylinder was completely covered in lines of metal tubes and wires which extended out from the base of the structure out into the walls of the room. Around the perimeter was a holo panel that circled the entire base that almost looked like a large control pad. Dokuro again projected her figure to its human height and then approached the base of the holograms pedestal. She held her delicate hand out and quickly began to study what she had just found. Instantly, upon her access, she was stopped by a message that appeared in her vision in the Forerunner text which she quickly translated.
It read…
(ALERT)
All Guardians are to be released-
Those still not yet complete are to remain in Stasis-
(VEIL) must be protected at all costs-
(FINAL ENTRY)
(VEIL) has been secured and is in hibernation and securely sealed away. No re-activation of (VEIL) is to be preformed until all has been deemed safe. As a final precaution, my best Guardian has been placed in stasis in this room should any danger threaten (VEIL). With this final entry, I must leave now for the safety of THE ARC to attempt to halt this outbreak.
Last Entry,
Satura-
Dokuro was puzzled. "Guardian's?" She thought to herself. She instantly jumped from the safety of her chip in Devon's armor to the holo system in front of her. Devon felt a sudden shock shoot through him as his A.I. suddenly disengaged herself from him. "What the hell?" He called out. Dokuro again re projected herself in front of the holo panel and turned to her Spartan. She said, "Look, I'm trying to work something out here. Can you give me a second?" Devon shrugged. "Whatever you need." Dokuro turned back to face the holo panel and said, "Good, and please for the love of god, don't touch anything." Devon shook his head and left his A.I. to her work.
Dokuro fully interfaced herself with the system and found herself in an all new cyber world, one by the likes of which she had never experienced before. She found herself in a world of shimmering golden light. In this world she saw rows of countless files of data that were stored in shimmering cylinder shaped objects. She slowly began to walk towards the glowing cylinders to try and sort out some information. Everything she saw was in Forerunner context and it took her a while to translate it all. From what she could piece together, (VEIL) as it was called was a system that controlled this underground facility. A lot of the data on (VEIL) seemed to be missing or in a security lockdown that even she couldn't figure out how to access.
From what she could piece together, something terrible had happened in this underground world, and to the rest of the planet for that matter. She was unable; however, to completely piece together everything that had happened. She began to go through her own personal data files on what little was known about the Forerunner's from Dr. Halsey's own personal files in an attempt to try and access some of the locked down areas. However, before she could continue on any farther, she felt herself being ripped away from the cyber world. Her hologram gasped as she re focused and again found herself standing in the large room and saw the holo panel before her flashing wildly and streaming data.
She quickly turned and saw her Spartan down on his knees as if he had tripped. She sternly asked, "What did you DO!?" Devon stood and turned. He pulled up a wire that had been severed with a frayed sparking end flickering with small sparks of power. He told her back, "I tripped over this and I guess the weight of my suit kinda severed it." Dokuro readied herself to continue yelling at her Spartan but stopped and slowly turned when she detected movement behind her. She saw the cylinder shaped terminal behind her flash up screens of data and slowly rise up revealing a large tank containing a pale green colored liquid with something inside it.
A data panel appeared with flashing alerts surrounding it. It read, "Primary Sedation Line has been cut. Stasis Main Power (OFFLINE) Engage emergency Re Animation!"
(SUBJECT)
-MASTER GUARDIAN-
STATUS: Regaining normal body temperature and movement allowance-
HEART RATE: 380 BPM
BODY: Unharmed
STASIS EXIT: In Progress-
Dokuro looked on at the massive jet black creature in the tank in front of her. It stood at least 20 feet tall and at 40 feet long. It had massive razor sharp talons on its feet and hands and looked like a sleek stealth vehicle. The creature opened its bright neon green eyes and it raised a row of razor sharp spines on its back. "Oh no! Not good!" Dokuro said in shock as her figure slowly started to back away. In her data files she quickly learned that she had now found herself face to face with a Guardian and quickly realized that the Guardians were Theta's. This one was also noticeably larger than the ones that Eric and Kalder had encountered earlier back in the glass fields. She quickly tried to disengage herself from the terminal but found herself stuck in a sea of data that prevented her processes from disengaging.
Devon quickly ran towards the stasis tank to get his A.I. back into the safety of his armor. As he made it back to the river circling the small island that housed the stasis tank, the Theta moved. Devon quickly pulled out his Sniper Rifle and held it at the ready. The Theta groaned and began to flex its body. Air bubbles poured from its mouth as it began to thrash around inside the solution within the tank. The Theta lunged its large claws forward and shattered the glass of the stasis tank causing the fluid to pour out. The creature quickly forced its body forward and crashed through the jagged edges of the glass still left in the tank. It stood up on its hind legs and let out an ear deafening shriek. Devon instantly dropped his Sniper Rifle to the ground and slammed his hands against his helmet in an attempt to hold his ears.
The Theta instantly took notice of him and went down into a crouched position as if readying itself to pounce on its prey. Devon quickly picked up his Sniper Rifle and unloaded a clip into the Theta's head. The Theta let out several yells as the .50 caliber rounds impacted off of the armor like plating on its head. To the Spartan's shock, the rounds barely left a scratch. He heard Dokuro yelling for him. "Get me back in your armor and get us out of here! You won't be able to kill it without stronger weapons!" He yelled back, "Don't tell me shit like that when I'm staring death in the face!"
The Theta made a quick lunge at the Spartan which he quickly rolled out of the way from. Devon quickly began to regain his footing and instantly felt a hard impact to the left side of his Battle Suit. He heard his suits alarms scream and his shield meter flashed red for both his battle suit and Angel Pack. He had been slammed by the Theta's powerful fist and was sent sliding along the floor. The impact left him with the wind nearly knocked from his lungs. He ignored the pain and quickly inhaled sharply and got to his feet. He quickly pulled a plasma grenade form his armors belt and primed it. He tossed the grenade and stuck the Theta right on the back of its head. The grenade exploded with a brilliant blue flash. Much to Devon's frustration, he had only managed to stun the alien. "Quit pissing it off and get us out of here!" He heard Dokuro yell.
The Theta quickly shook off the effect of the grenade and instantly slashed its razor sharp claws at the Spartan. He quickly flexed the wings of his Angel Pack and folded them around his body as he leapt backwards just barely dodging the slash. He quickly flexed his legs and leapt into the air activating the thrusters of his pack. The Theta growled and leapt into the air with lightning quick speed slapped him out of the air like an insect. He again felt his shields die as he was rapidly slammed down onto the floor below. He grunted in pain as he tried to refocus. The Theta landed in the small river with a splash. It took notice of the Spartan struggling to his feet and instantly sent its razor sharp talons through the black layer of his suit and piercing deep into his flesh. Devon let out a yell of pain and frantically tried to pull himself away from the Theta's claws.
Dokuro gasped in fear and instantly searched for options to help her carrier. She quickly took notice of the power lines running through the small river and instantly did a power surge. The sudden increase in power quickly over loaded the lines sending power out into the river. The Theta felt the electricity surge through its body and let out another ear deafening shriek. It lunged its talons out of Devon's body, tearing the flesh as they went. Devon yelled out as his blood poured from his body and onto the floor. The Theta fell over stunned and Dokuro quickly yelled out. "Get me back in your armor, NOW!" Devon quickly stumbled to his feet, fighting off the pain the best that he could. He ran to the stasis tank and quickly pulled out Dokuro's chip and held it out. Dokuro quickly re interfaced herself with her chip and her Spartan instantly put her back into the safety of his armor.
Dokuro quickly scanned the room for an escape route. She took notice of the river flowing into a small tunnel that was just big enough for Devon to fit his armor through but left no room for the massive Theta. She quickly put a NAV marker up on Devon's HUD and said, "Get there now! That's our exit out of here!" Devon grinned in pain as he stumbled forward and splashed down into the stream as he headed for the tunnel. He heard the Theta behind him begin to regain its footing and begin to give chase. He quickened his pace to a sprint and made a diving leap for the tunnel and slid inside just as the Theta's large jaws bit the air where he just was.
He crawled in a few more feet then turned around to see the Theta trying to reach for him with its massive claws. Devon frowned under his visor and held up his middle finger at the massive alien. "Right there buddy!" He said as he quickly began to crawl deeper into the tunnel.
Sever hundred feet in, his adrenaline levels began to level out and his pain returned. Dokuro quickly deployed a round of Nanites to close off his wound and seal the black layer of his suit. "Did I not specifically say to not touch anything!?" Dokuro scolded. Devon shot back. "I tripped. I wasn't paying attention!" "You nearly got us both killed…, Again!" She yelled. Devon sighed and said, "Look I'm sorry, I was just trying to make sure the area was safe while you did your scan. I didn't mean to fuck it up like that. I just wanted to be sure that you were safe." Dokuro sighed and sat quiet for a few seconds. She then made the gel later of Devon's suit constrict slightly around his torso. It was an A.I.'s way to give their Spartan a hug. She calmly said, "It's never a dull moment with you, you know that? I just didn't want to be the one to tell Anna that you died doing something stupid." Devon laughed lightly to himself and patted his hand over his freshly healed suit and skin. The area felt stiff and numb but the pain was gone which was nice for him.
He turned on his visors night vision and said, "Well, any idea where this tunnel goes?" Dokuro quickly did an area scan and said, "This tunnel continues for about five hundred feet, after that we should be back in another area of the tunnels. Devon sighed. "Not much of a change." "Don't be so sure." Dokuro told him. She continued. "When I was in that terminal, I found out that the Theta's or the Guardians as the Forerunner's call them, are scattered all through the deeper areas of the underground network. From what I found out, their guarding a system called "VEIL", I don't know what it is or what it does, but whatever VEIL is, I'm guessing that it's what the Covenant came here for, and what the Theta's are guarding." Devon sighed and said, "You told me earlier that I don't have the weapons to stop those bastards. Any ideas on how I'm supposed to get passed them if we find them?" Dokuro replied cheerfully. "Easily! You go stealth!" Devon sighed. "Stealth really isn't my thing." Well good news then!" Dokuro chirped, "You're about to make a change in tactics!"
Devon sighed and continued crawling through the dark tunnel. "I don't like stealth! It's boring!" "I choose boring over death!" His A.I. replied sternly. She continued, "You want to see Anna again don't you?" Devon sighed and said back calmly, "Fine… I'll do some stealth." "That's what I thought!"
Dokuro quickly scanned the area ahead. She wasn't picking up any movement coming from the exit of the tunnel. For the most part it seemed like they were alone again; but for all she knew, the Theta's could use stealth to their advantage as well. She cautioned. "Just be careful up ahead. I don't really know what all we're going to have to be dealing with."
