"Run through it again, Roland," Lasky instructed Infinity's AI. He was looking far more drawn than he had when she'd spoken with him nine hours earlier.
Palmer stood to his left, arms folded and already armored in her GEN2. Her helmet rested on the holo-table occupied by the shipboard AI, who gave a very humanoid sigh before cueing up what appeared to be feed from one of the ship's external monitors. It displayed a magnified view of Sanghelios - from the look of it, the region surrounding Sunaion specifically. Except all was still. No ships patrolling the skies overheard, and no signs of life below.
"At approximately 2300 hours ship's time, an energy pulse of unknown composition knocked out all power on the planet, extending into the atmosphere to a radius of 300 klicks - which, as you probably noticed, includes us. Origination point seems to be somewhere in the Eastern quadrant of Sunaion. Ongoing interference with our scanners and comms is making it impossible to pinpoint the exact coordinates. Obviously, for the same reason, we don't know what the situation planetside is. It looks like, whatever it was, extensity of impact is relative to proximity to the source. Locations on the opposite face of the planet seem to have regained some forms of auxiliary power. But Sunaion itself is still dark at this time."
"We're trying to establish contact with the Kaidon and others, but like Roland mentioned, comms are spotty at best," Lasky tacked on. "As it stands, we've got every available hand working on getting us back fully online, but if we experience another of those pulses-"
"We can't let that happen," Palmer finished for him. "I'm taking a team down to find out what the hell's going on down there and stopping it."
Briar's attention remained on Lasky, however. "What's the latest from Osiris?"
"Caught up in a search and rescue mission. Some university prof who's been studying ruins went missing just after the battle, they got task-shifted to locate him before it stirs up trouble back home. We've been trying to raise them, but no luck yet."
"Brass made the call to put finding a wayward academic above arresting traitors," she clarified, just to be certain she understood correctly.
"It was part of the treaty talks. He was invited back when this all began, sort of an... extending of the olive branch. I was as stumped as you are to get the orders to relay, but there's still a lot of public unease surrounding the alliance. Best guess is government can't afford for word of his disappearance to spread and that to turn to unrest right after sticking our necks out for our new friends."
"Evan Phillips," Briar supplied, memory of the man's incessant chatter resurfacing.
Lasky nodded confirmation. "But they weren't reassigned until a few hours ago."
"Maybe." She shrugged. "Officially.".
"Why prioritize that over finding the two of you before now, even off the record?"
"I know Locke. He's no fool. There's no way he wouldn't have clued in to 'Vadam's stunt long before now." Palmer shook her head slowly. "It never made sense to send Osiris after the Chief, Tom. You know that. They've been dragging their feet down there for days. Why?"
"Sir, it's Dr. Halsey. She says it's urgent," the comms officer spoke into the prolonged pause.
Briar watched for John's reaction from the corner of her eye, not wishing to draw attention to the fact he'd yet to speak a word. His expression remained stoic, but she knew despite the outward appearance of control, he was still very much at odds with himself internally. And yet again he was being drawn into a conflict of someone else's design.
Dragging a hand over his face, Lasky nodded for the channel to be opened up. "Dr. Halsey, if this isn't strictly related to ship's operations-"
He got no further, and Halsey interrupted without a hint of remorse. "I trust identifying the source of our current troubles is relevant enough for you, Captain."
Palmer shot him a long-suffering glance at this lead in.
"I'm listening," he assured.
"It's been long suspected there are as yet undiscovered Forerunner relics and artifacts housed on Sanghelios. As a species, the Sangheili have always been possessed of more advanced technology than humans - but not, as we now understand, of their own development."
"Phillips specializes in Sangheili history. He can speak it, and most likely read it," Briar offered up. The pieces were beginning to click into place. "Whatever ruins he was studying when he disappeared could have pointed him to something better off left alone."
"I'm certain I don't need to impress upon you the dangers of such technology falling into the wrong hands, Captain Lasky."
"And what hands might that be, Doctor? Phillips is one of ours. A researcher, like you."
"Really," Halsey deadpanned. "He's capable of deciphering and comprehending the knowledge left behind by a profoundly advanced alien species, the breadth and scope of which we are still yet to fathom as a modern civilization?" She waited long enough for Lasky to fully realize the error of his comparison. "I would think, considering our current predicament, you may overestimate the professor."
"Fireteam Osiris has already been diverted to locate him," Palmer put in now.
"All the more reason for us to get a team on the ground," Halsey insisted. "The only thing worse than your 'researcher' accidentally triggering further pulses would be for the source to be claimed by those who might exploit it for nefarious purposes."
"Just to be clear, Ma'am, you're suggesting-"
"I'm not suggesting anything. As you know, since the fracturing of the Covenant forces and the tentative ceasefire between our kind, the Sangheili have made significant progress in their spacefaring technology. The common belief is, now that they're no longer at war with us, nor repressed by the constraints of religious dogma, they've begun truly studying those Forerunner relics they'd already discovered on their planet."
"And because of that alliance, we've been directly benefiting from their progress," Lasky reminded her.
"Directly, but the fear - if you wish to call it that - is, not proportionally. And in light of this suspicion, ONI has been quietly stoking the flames of the Sangheili civil conflict for years, to attempt to both slow the widening of that perceived knowledge gap, as well as to buy time to make discoveries of their own."
The bridge fell silent at her casual delivery of what amounted to a perhaps existence-threatening bombshell in which a sudden return to hostilities with the same aliens who'd been glassing entire worlds and murdering millions seemed very possible.
Briar turned to John and he held her gaze, but there was no spark of interest or even determination in his eye now. It was as though he was present in body and mind, but not spirit.
Lasky was the first to recover from the stupour of this revelation. "That sounds like a lot of conjecture. Since what we're discussing here amounts to subverting the government's authority, I have to ask - do you have any proof?"
Although her insides were twisting into a painful knot at the numbness she sensed John was utilizing as a coping mechanism, Briar forced herself to focus.
"Why is it you think I was sent along with you, Captain?"
"I'm guessing you're going to tell me to deal with whatever it is that's down there."
"Which is precisely what I need to be doing unless you'd like to experience an uncontrolled drop from orbit. And since Osiris is now unable to retrieve me, I'm going to require an escort."
Seated beside John on the prowler, Briar did her best to push down her mounting apprehension over his demeanor. Once more encased in his Mark VI, he appeared every inch the warrior who'd saved humanity numerous times over. She didn't question whether he was combat ready. He was a Spartan. But she didn't know what sort of unanticipated reactions Halsey's presence on the mission might elicit in him.
Sitting across from them with Palmer to her left and Spartans Kamber and Lightfoot to her right, the gray-haired doctor's composed features provided no clues as to what went on within her brilliant and callous mind.
"T-three minutes to the search zone," the commander of the Winter-class stealth ship announced from the bridge. Lasky had assigned the craft manned with its full five member, highly specialized crew in the hopes its hyperscan capability would aid in narrowing down the search area. Fortunately, all equipment Infinity carried which had been powered down during the pulse, including ground and air vehicles, seemed to have been unaffected.
"And only a few dozen square klicks of haystack to slog through to find this needle if these guys can't pull off a better reading than Infinity could," Kamber grumbled.
Lightfoot punched his comrade's shoulder. "I know you're not whining already, Snoop. Why'd you even pick recon variant armor, all you do is bitch about it."
"Makes me look badass."
Both of them proceeded to shoot dubious glances in John's direction. Reconsidering that proclamation, Briar wagered. It might have been entertaining at any other time.
"Can it, both of you," Palmer warned them.
Between them, Halsey's expression was now one of distaste. Obviously, she was disenchanted with the comportment of the Spartan-IVs. And likely their selection criteria as well.
Before anyone could say anything else, the overhead lighting was extinguished and the prowler's interior fell ominously silent.
"We've lost engines - nav's down," the pilot apprised either them or his commander of the situation, as though it weren't plenty obvious.
"Everything's down," another of the crew blurted, sounding decidedly less calm than his counterpart.
"A second pulse," Halsey concluded, the eerie sound of air rushing past the hull the only noise now discernible apart from some frantic discussion and button pushing going on up in the cockpit.
Palmer cursed. "What's our status?"
"Bringing us down with manual flight controls, but it's not gonna be pretty. We weren't built to glide," came the eventual response.
"How far out from the search zone? Did we get any usable data?"
"Three klicks, give or take. And that's a negative, Ma'am. Now'd be the time to strap in back there."
"Fasten your seatbelt, doc, ride's about to get bumpy," Lightfoot chirped cheerfully as he and Kamber both donned their helmets and he reached out to help Halsey into her seat's harness.
For her part, Halsey slapped his hands away and proceeded to buckle herself in with no visible signs of anxiety over their impending rough landing.
Briar did likewise. They all did.
"Here we go. Brace, brace, brace," was the last thing she heard before all hell broke loose.
A cacophony of wrenching metal and jarring clangs accompanied the bone-rattling impact. They struck something of more substantial mass than they were and the ship was launched forward over its nose, slamming down onto the roof of the fuselage and entering a violent roll which threw Briar this way and that against her restraints. Objects torn loose by the crash flew around the cabin, battering her. Her HUD was throwing up one warning after another. Daylight suddenly pierced the darkness, disorienting her further as the prowler broke apart. The section she remained locked inside skid to an abrupt halt. Her own breathing was harsh in her ears. She turned her head to take in the situation.
John was already unstrapping himself beside her. The other side of the fuselage had been ripped away, Palmer, Halsey, Kamber, and Lightfoot nowhere in sight.
She reached for the buckles securing her and fumbled for a moment before successfully releasing herself and staggering up.
John had moved towards the cockpit, but there was nothing left of it. A jumble of warped steel jutted back through the bulkhead which had separated it from the cabin. None of the five person crew could have survived that.
Briar initiated a diagnostic run on her armor as she panned across their immediate surroundings. "Over there."
The other section of fuselage was just visible through a copse of spindly trees, both wings missing and barely recognizable as a spacecraft. They'd touched down in the forest bordering the city's Eastern quadrant, it seemed.
Starting in that direction, she dismissed the remaining warnings flashing on her HUD as the report came back listing only superficial damage to her MJOLNIR. It'd likely just saved her life again. And unlike the Spartan-IVs, Halsey wasn't wearing any.
John was following her, and she wondered what it would do to him if they found the woman dead.
Palmer was the first to come into view, looking none the worse for wear as she turned away from the wreckage at their approach. "Crew?" she prompted as she took in the two of them.
Briar shook her head.
Behind Palmer, Kamber knelt on the ground beside a reclining and pale Halsey. He was affixing a tourniquet to her arm, which even from a distance, appeared to have been mangled particularly badly. Blood soaked the side of her face, originating from a wide gash at her hairline.
"How bad?" Palmer questioned of Kamber as he attempted to doctor her wounds.
"She's stable, but-" Here he glanced back, jerking a thumb to Halsey's arm.
Briar was no medic, but she could hazard a guess about the limb's fate.
"What now?" Lightfoot put forth the question which was on all of their minds.
"Now, you do what we came here to do," Halsey answered, her voice much less tight with pain than one might expect. She pointed with her good hand to the satchel she'd carried onto the prowler when they'd boarded, and which she'd somehow retained possession of during the crash.
Lightfoot stooped and opened it, digging around inside a moment before drawing out a capsule. One which Briar immediately recognized the contents of. He glanced to Palmer uncertainly.
"That is the means by which you complete your task." Halsey's arm had dropped back to her side. It was evident she was weak despite her mental fortitude. "John-"
"No," Briar interrupted her, stalking forward. She snatched the capsule from Lightfoot. "I have the package." She stared down at Halsey, daring the woman to object.
Her eyes flickered to where John stood motionless, observing them all in silence, and then back to Briar. "Have you been paired with an AI before, Spartan?"
"No. And I have no intentions of this being a first."
Halsey's brow furrowed. "If you don't link up, she'll be going in blind when you interface her with whatever it is we're dealing with to neutralize the threat." Seeing that Briar remained unmoved by this information, she switched tactics. "Assuming auxiliary power is now offline, as is most assuredly the case after that pulse, Infinity has a limited amount of time. No propulsion systems and no environmentals. Any delays could have detrimental impacts on the crew's survival."
"Sounds like we best get a move on, in that case," Lightfoot reasoned into the ensuing lull as Halsey and Briar regarded each other with equal indomitability over their respective standpoints.
"Your highest probability of success involves pairing with and utilizing that AI."
"Lots of bridges to cross between here and there," Palmer unexpectedly reminded.
Kamber groaned. "Don't remind me."
"Turns out it's your lucky day, Lightfoot. You get to stay with the patient." Stepping over to the crumpled section of the craft they'd been strapped into, she forced the armory compartment open. Pulling out a weapon, she tossed it to him. "Find cover and sit tight until contact with Infinity's reestablished."
"Copy that."
"Don't move her too much," Kamber warned him as he straightened up and accepted a rifle as well.
Once they were all armed, they set out.