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"Nothing important." Spark assured the young, confused Faunus. Turning to her, he cocked his head to the smile and glowed a calming blue color. Quietly, he said, "Would you be so kind as to inform the High Leader that Rion and I will be away for some time on business? Now that matters here are settled."
"I…. Guess?" She blinked, flicking a look to Rion. "You didn't answer my question…"
"If Sienna asks, just tell her it's 'Spark stuff' and that we'll be back in…?"
"A few days." He answered, raising a hand as a little cube sprang, sparking with hard light, into life. "Which is very likely too long. Please inform her that she may leave as she wishes. Just ask her to move the Spirit of Fire off and down the coast for us, and leave this on it, while we see to our work."
"She won't like that…"
"It's important." Rion promised her, laying a hand on the woman's shoulder and paying her a warm smile. "Trust me, I'd much rather be heading back home instead of going trekking through the mountains."
"Yeah…" Ilia flushed, grimaced, and shrugged her hand off. Pointing at the two of them, she said, "Wait just a minute, okay?"
"Uh…." Rion blinked, "Alright? I suppose a minute won't hurt us."
"We could just leave." Spark said as the small Faunus rushed off, headed ona bee-line for where Khan was organizing the looting and prisoner trains, while a handful of men and women planted charges all around the main hall.
"We could, yeah." Rion nodded, leaning against the wall beside the downed door. "I don't feel a reason to, though."
"No?"
"Nope." Running off and ditching them would just sour the Faunus to them. And it had been hard enough to get them to like them, Rion didn't want to have to play that game. Still, she had to ask, "Why? Do you have a reason not to want any of them with us?"
"No good ones…"
"Still." She gave him a look and then smiled when he sighed.
"If it is Forerunner, I felt it… Preferable to limit those who encountered it." He answered after a moment of quiet thought. "Forerunner technology is advanced, as you know. Exposing those uninitiated in higher technology to it could be… Less than ideal."
"You mean people like me?"
"No one is like you, Rion." He chuckled, "And when it comes to your people… Well, things accelerated matters, as I'm sure you understand, when it came to your kind's encountering our advanced technologies."
"Fair." The Covenant had kind of ruined the whole 'natural progression' thing, she supposed. "But unless you want to press the issue…"
"It's fine." He shrugged, "So long as she doesn't elect to send a small army with us."
"If she does…?"
"Well, we'll just have to find some way to lose them." He shrugged, "I'm sure my Watchers could pose some kind of distraction."
"Uh huh."
"What?" He scoffed quietly, "They could do the job well enough."
"Nonlethally?"
"I could think of something, I'm sure…"
Rion just rolled her eyes as Ilia came jogging back up to them, smiling thinly. "The High Leader said she'd do as you asked, but she wants me to go along and, uh… Make sure you don't do anything weird? I don't know what she means, exactly, but yeah."
"Well…" Spark sighed, "I suppose it could be worse."
"Um…" Ilia's brow furrowed, "Thanks…?"
"You're welcome."
"Uh, Rion…" She turned as Spark trundled out of the door and raised an eyebrow at the little Faunus who flushed a bit. "Was that… A compliment or an insult?"
Rion thought for a moment and then shrugged and offered, "Yes."
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The mountain Spark pointed out once they were outside was just a bit down the coast, past the villages they'd come by and then further north, beyond a rolling expanse of woodlands and hills. Watchers roaming ahead assured them there was quick running fresh water they could drink, and the Faunus were more than happy to spare a couple small packs and a couple days' food. Most of it came in the form of canned fish, pickled vegetables and jerky, which meant it was probably from the villages, but…
Well, the Fang had already taken it, so it wasn't like refusing would have left it for the villagers.
Still didn't feel great, though…
Between the two battles of the siege and the walking, they only made it about a third of the way through the woods before it got too dark to travel. Or, well, too dark for Rion to travel. Spark's Forerunner frame had 'standard' internal night vision to rival anything the UNSC produced for its special forces - or Spartans! - and Ilia was a Faunus, so she could see, too. Even if neither of them said anything, she could read the smarm from Spark's cocked head all on its own.
At least she could take some satisfaction from sticking him with the watch…
Even if he didn't sleep, it had to be boring.
By noon the next day, they'd reached the foot of the mountain and were working their way up the ever-so-slightly steep, wooded side of it. The terrain was rough going, but the incline was gentle enough to be safe to walk, and Watchers hovered near Rio and Ilia both in case they fell. Though from the way the Fauns was leaping from tree to tree, the odds of that were probably somewhere in the single digits.
Or the decimal points…
Finally, halfway up the mountain, and with the sun starting to set again, Spark called for them to stop in a weird… Indentation, kind of, facing away from the mountain and out towards the ocean. Like someone had taken a trowel the size of a Scorpion and scooped it out, then smoothed it over as best they could. Trees and shrubbery had grown in around the lip of the indention, and a boulder had rolled down to the bottom at some point and lay covered in moss.
It served as a nice seat to plop onto while Spark marched back and forth around the bottom of the indention, eyes roving over the grass like he knew what he was looking for.
"So…"
"It takes as long as it takes." Rion sighed and shrugged, patting the empty space beside her on the boulder. "Take a load off, we've been walking hard for most of the day."
"I'm fine, really…"
"Ilia." She deadpanned, "Sit down."
"Yes, Ma'am." The young Faunus squeaked, scrabbling for her spot and flushing when Rion laughed for it. "Don't laugh…"
"I'm not laughing at you." Rion assured her, more than able to pick up on the tone in her voice. Just how did she always get stuck with people barely into adulthood, anyway?
Was it a curse?
Were curses real?
It wouldn't surprise her…
"Then what's so funny?" Ilia asked quietly, turning a hard side-eye on her. "If you aren't laughing at me."
"This is." She answered with a shrug, waving her hand at Spark and then at the two of them both. "This is all very familiar, you see. Spark goes off on some wild goose chase-"
"That's false!" Her mechanical menace of a companion called over, cutting her off with a wave of his hand. "It would only be a goose chase if we didn't find what we were looking for. And I would remind you, I always find what I am looking for!"
"Sure you do, buddy."
"Do you want to compare notes?"
"No, no, just… Find whatever you're after." She laughed, shaking her head and adding more in a faux-quiet voice, to Ilia, "He's sensitive."
"I am an ancient war machine with a kill count rivalling your DNA count!" He called back to them both, raising a fist and shaking it weakly in the air. "Fear me!"
"Snrk!" The Faunus snorted, covering her mouth with both hands and laughing into her palms, scales flushing a myriad of pinks, reds and maroons as she did. When she was recovered enough to, she hissed, "W-What the hell was that?"
"Peak!" Spark called back, "Comedy!"
"It was something alright." Rion chuckled, shaking her head, "How much longer, though?"
"Just a moment or two, Captain…" Spark hummed, looking around the rim one last time before stepping back to the edge of it and calling the Watchers he had circling above back down to him.
Blue scanning fields swept out from each of them, roving over the ground as the Watchers orbited the little indentation. A couple of moments passed before one of them buzzed suddenly, locking onto a point a few feet below the deepest part of the indentation at its center and hovering while the other two Watchers zoomed back up, into the sky. After a moment, the ground under them groaned, vibrations crawling through the stone and up Rion's spine as Spark turned and geestrued for them to get away.
Neither of the two women thought to question his instructions for even a second, scrambling off the boulder and leaping free of the depression.
The groaning continued for a moment before the ground ripped open, the entire indentation sinking in and opening up like a great iris. The dirt that had built up over it sprayed into the air as it did, and the boulder was sent over the lip of the depression and sent rolling down the hill, as a strange burst of pressurised air burst free. Hot and humid, Rion covered her face and turned away while Ilia's Aura flared to life beside her.
"What the hell?!"
"It's like opening a pressure cooker!"
"Apologies." Spark rumbled as he came to them, hands clasped behind his waist. "I wasn't certain what sort of facility this was. But now I am."
"And?"
"Regional weather control and atmospheric regulation." He explained simply, as though they should be able to understand what that actually meant. Turning, he stepped up onto the crest of the lip and bobbed his head for them to follow him in. As they did, he explained, "These sorts of installations are often dotted around smaller stations in space, and are used to regulate the weather and atmosphere for those living in it."
"What, like-" She cut off, flicking a look at the Faunus beside her.
Ilia returned it, shrugging and holding her hands up in a confused, 'What?'
Finally, Rion sighed, "Like the Halos?"
"What's a Halo…?"
"Yes, similar to the Halo array, but…" Spark paused, turning to Rion when the two women reached him. "Why would a planet need such an installation? Even if the biosphere were decimated, a regulatory installation wouldn't be necessary… Atmospheric restoration is far easier on natural worlds. Even Shield worlds have sufficient space to build a natural biosphere."
"What's a Shield world?!"
"Relax, we'll catch you up later." Rion asked, laying a hand on the Faunus' shoulder and offering her a little smile. Turning back to Spark, she asked, "What does that mean?"
"I do not know." He admitted readily, turning away from them and adding, "Shall we find out?"
The open iris let into a long, rectangular, and incredibly Forerunner passageway that lead down at a gentle angle towards another opening, this one closed off by a more typical Forerunner door with glowing orange lighting. As they approached, orange shifted to blue and it opened for them, admitting them to a room half the size of her ship and as tall as the boathouse on the back end. The walls were smooth and seamless, and formed a massive orb they were now inside of, with a translucent, glass-like landing to stand on that bisected it. A massive, column-like Forerunner machine stood from bottom to top of the orb and reached up to the top, waves of rolling blue static rolling up it in a slow rhythm.
And dear fucking god was it humid in here...
"Spark…?"
"This isn't a standard regulatory facility." He murmured quietly, pacing over to the monolithic machine. "This is a remote-use regulatory node…"
"So it's part of a network…?"
"Most likely." Spark nodded, turning back to her and explaining, "There are likely dozens of these, spread across the planet. Controlling weather patterns to regulate biome dispersal, as well as monitoring and if necessary intervening in the gaseous output of the biomes under their purview."
"Okay…"
"None of this makes sense, Rion." He pressed quietly, "These shouldn't be necessary. A planet such as this is ideal for life-"
"I think the Grimm would have something to say about that." Ilia added, waving when Spark turned to her. "Hi. Yep, still here. No idea what's going on but, ya know, figured I should step in."
"The Grimm would be a… Malefactor, yes." Spark nodded, "But how would atmospheric regulation affect that issue?"
"Oh, I have no idea." The Faunus admitted with a harsh little chuckle. "I was just… You mentioned Remnant being 'ideal' and I thought I should maybe, you know, push back on that. Just a hair."
"They wouldn't." Rion offered in the younger woman's place. "For dealing with Grimm, you'd want Sentinels. Right?"
"Among other things." He answered, gesturing to himself with a hand and turning back to the large machine. "I don't understand…"
"Yeah, we got that."
"No, Captain." He grunted shortly, "I mean, I don't understand why I can't access the regulator. Or proxy it to access the Domain."
"You can't…?"
"No." He confirmed, "I couldn't even open the bulkhead that let us in. On a hunch, I ordered my Watchers to seek out a connection point and, if possible, grant us access. That they could, and I could not, speaks to… To something."
"But what?"
"I do not know." He answered, just as frankly as always. "To lock me out… With my intrinsic administrative privileges, I should be able to access local protocols. Use them to gain access. But even that is denied to me. Such personalized defensive measures…"
"How personalized is it?"
"Perfectly so." Spark answered quickly, "And in many ways that outright defy protocol itself. This shouldn't be..."
"Personalized means they know you." Ilia said, flicking a look between Rion and the mechanized man. "I don't get a lot of this, but… That isn't good at all. I can be pretty safe saying that, right?"
"Yeah." Rion answered for him, "It isn't good at all."
Forerunner on a planet wasn't terribly surprising. She'd learned in her time that the bastards had something built just about everywhere. What that was depended on where you went, but generally, it wasn't too shocking to find something. But if what Spark was saying was true, and she had no reason to doubt him, then what they'd found made no sense. And defensive measures tailored to Spark?
What was happening on this planet?
"We should return to Menagerie." Spark answered suddenly, turning and trudging back towards the door. "I need to… I need to do research."
"On what?" Rion asked, jogging to catch up with him and then looking up at his stern, unmoving face.
He wasn't even emulating his emotions, he was so distracted...
"Remnant." Spark answered quietly, pausing suddenly halfway up the passage back to the surface. "A curious name, that… Atmospheric regulation, incredibly stringent defensive measures… No care for Protocol..."
"Spark?"
"We need to return to Menagerie." He repeated, resuming his march to the surface. "If my suspicion is correct, then there will be more installations such as these on Menagerie."
"And what is your suspicion?"
"Yeah." Ilia added, "What are you thinking?"
"Only that this planet is far more important than I suspected at first." He answered quietly, "And that it has suffered devastation before. Devastation that a new, different protocol must be attempting to prevent."
"You think Remnant was-"
"Destroyed, at least once." Spark answered, cutting the Faunus off. "And not by the Flood… No, this must have been something to do with Administrators. Thus the stricter protocols. But what…"
Rion wasn't sure, but…
She was pretty sure nothing good could come of the answers.
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Guest Questioner :
I-I've never heard that, nooo, and, uh, this story has always been M! Yeah, always has. .