Chapter 13: Fural
Rahnelo was the planet where both Fural and Dom had been born, and it was where they spent most of their lives as fledgelings. It really wasn't a diverse planet, most of its surface was covered in ice. And every other planet he had been to didn't have very many diverse biomes either. The swamp he was trudging through right now was completely unfamiliar to him. More unfamiliar than the ancient halls of the Forerunner structures on the ring.
Fural hated everything about the swamp. He could barely see through the dense fog around them, even with the enhanced optics built into his combat harness. The overabundance of wildlife, he could hear things moving everywhere, and he couldn't tell if the creatures were native to the ring, or if they were humans moving to a good spot to ambush him. And the simple act of moving there was enough to anger him. Foliage would continuously get in his way, or his feet would sink far into the way-too-soft ground.
He constantly looked around him, waiting for a group of humans to jump out and attack. If everything was going according to plan, no one would even know they were there. But things rarely ever went to plan.
At least if the humans did attack they would have to go through the Kig-Yar and Unggoy around him first. That was what they were there for anyway.
Supreme Commander 'Vadamee had organised several teams to secure the facility they were heading towards. Fural and Dom would get there first, and they would have two more teams follow them in. Another two teams would set up defences around the entrance to the facility. Well, one of the entrances. 'Vadamee would have to shift a lot of equipment to them if he wanted to cover them all, and there was no way he'd be able to keep that under wraps for long.
Quick and quiet, 'Vadamee had said. That wasn't what this was going to be. It made Fural chuckle.
Dom glanced at him, his head tilted in a question. They weren't supposed to speak out loud or make any sounds that could give them away, so Fural just shrugged it off.
"You're close," Jors said over comms. It was on a private encrypted channel, and even if the humans were somehow able to break the encryption, Jors didn't say enough to give anything away.
No one in the group would be able to see the facility through the fog and foliage at their distance, but they knew it was right ahead of them. They were soon able to see lights through the fog as they got closer.
"We made it," Dom said, both to Jors and to the group on the ground.
The structure soon became clear. Just as the group walked through the entrance, which was pretty much just a large hole in the side of a hill, rain began to fall through the foliage canopy. Fural was glad they had just missed it. He had a feeling it would have made navigating it more annoying.
He was also glad that he wouldn't have to deal with the swamp again in general. At least not until it was time to leave. But that was a problem to deal with when it actually was time to leave. Maybe he'll station us here until the battle is over, Fural thought, mostly as a joke. He knew he and Dom were too valuable to waste defending a position for an entire war.
Dom stopped and turned toward the group. It was just him, Fural, three Unggoy, and two Kig-Yar. All were wearing full Spec-Ops gear. If some group of humans did spot them, they would all be able to vanish from sight.
"All accounted for," Dom said, "let's move in. Remember that it's possible the humans may have gotten here before us. Not likely, but possible. Don't let your guard down for a moment."
The Unggoy and Kig-Yar all grunted in acknowledgement. Fural took a position at Dom's side while they went in. The entrance led to a large room with an elevator in the centre waiting to take them down.
The whole room had an ominous feeling. Mist covered the floor, pushing up against the walls. The only lights in there were very dim, they were subtly reflected in the shiny metal surfaces the place was made out of. If this facility was as old as Fural was told, it certainly didn't look that way.
He wanted to strike up a conversation with Dom about the facility, but it didn't feel right with the others around them. He figured he'd just talk to him later. With as big as this facility seemed, he was sure he would get a chance to talk to Dom in private.
The group took positions around the elevator, and they all had their weapons facing the entrance. It was the only way for anyone to come by. Dom accessed the panel next to the elevator, and after a few eccentric taps on the holographic controls, the elevator moved down.
The panel beeped, and the elevator hissed before gliding down the shaft. The elevator went down for much longer than Fural was anticipating. When it stopped and they all stepped off, they were deep underground. Their comms weren't able to penetrate the structure above them.
"Dunyap," Dom said, turning to one of the Unggoy. The Unggoy, Dunyap, turned toward him, seemingly excited to have Dom talking to him specifically.
"You will stay here, stay completely out of sight," Dom ordered, "when that elevator starts moving, you let me know. If you see humans on it when it comes back down, you activate your cloak, wait for them to move on, and you let me know. If it's the second squad, please tell them to start installing comm relays."
"Yes boss!" Dunyap said, making an exaggerated salute. The Unggoy seemed to be making a mental note of everything Dom had just said before hopping over to a dark corner in the room.
Fural snorted. After all the Unggoy had been through to get to where they were now, it still amazed him at how unprofessional some of them could be. He let the thought slide.
"Everyone else with me," Dom continued, "it seems less likely the humans are in here, but just keep your eyes open."
The Kig-Yar nodded in agreement, and the remaining two Unggoy repeated Dunyap's yes boss! Fural gave a curt nod, though Dom didn't need it to know Fural always had his eyes open. The group moved forward.
The weapons facility was both similar and different to the cartographer. It had the same grey metal walls, but most of the rooms seemed larger. And there seemed to be lots of graphs keeping track of things.
And unlike the cartographer, so many of the rooms seemed exactly the same. If it wasn't for the map that Dom was following, they surely would have gotten lost a long time ago.
They were in a large chamber with a light bridge connecting the upper platforms together, the same as several other chambers they'd come through, when they'd gotten Dunyap's call.
"Second squad arrived, boss!" Dunyap's enthusiastic voice came through. It was somehow squeaky and gravelly at the same time, and it was filled with static from the structure's interference. That would be fixed once the relays were set up. "Told them to set up the things you wanted them to set up!"
"Good, come find us," Dom replied, and dropped the connection.
"This place is huge," Fural said. The first words he'd let out since they'd started trudging through the swamp.
"It goes much deeper than this, we're only scratching the surface," Dom said. He seemed to be looking off to Fural's side, but he was really just looking at the map of the place in his heads-up-display.
"Whatever kinds of weapons they're keeping here, it just might be enough to arm up the entire fleet."
The weapons were what Fural had been thinking about on the way there, when he wasn't thinking about how much he hated the swamp. He couldn't stop imagining what they would be.
Fural had seen Forerunner weapons before of course, even the weapons he used every day were based on Forerunner technology, but from what Dom was able to translate, they were specifically mentioned as being powerful. Dom had said that never before had he seen the Forerunners dedicate an entire facility to powerful weapons, at least not in his translations.
"It might be," Dom nodded in agreement, "but we must find them first."
Fural pulled up the map on his own HUD and studied the facility while they waited for Dunyap to make his way back to them. Two more of these light bridge chambers to go and they'd be entering one of the rooms listed to be containing the weapons. There were very many of those containment rooms, almost a hundred according to the map. Fural couldn't wait to get his hands on whatever was held inside.
Dunyap eventually made his return. They all heard the pitter-patter of his feet on the floor before he entered the chamber. He stopped in front of them, panting from whatever run he had been on. Once he started to catch his breath, he gave Dom his exaggerated salute again. Only then did Fural realise that it was actually a human salute he was doing, he didn't know how to feel about that.
"Sorry boss," Dunyap said between deep breaths, "got a little lost on the way."
Dom gave Dunyap a sharp look, but he didn't say anything. "Let us continue," he said before moving on.
Fural could tell Dom was getting impatient. Maybe as impatient as he was getting himself. Fural wanted the weapons, and Dom wanted the ancient knowledge that would come with them. They both had reason to be anticipating what they would find.
The group soon entered an observation room. Large stylised windows overlooked the containment room. Fural gently pressed his hands against the glass. The containment room was long, doors lined the walls to the left and right, and a single door on the wall across from the entrance.
Dom moved down a narrow corridor that led into the containment room, and the rest of the group eagerly followed. The door opened and they stepped inside. The Unggoy bristled with excitement. Something Fural could agree with them on for once.
"Don't get too hasty yet," Dom said, "we don't want to damage anything."
Dom moved across the room to the door on the other side, and Fural followed. The rest of the group stayed by the entrance. According to the map, each of these rooms contained weapons. All of the doors were locked, but Dom had a way around that.
Dom pulled a circular device from his belt and attached it to the door. The top half of the circle shifted and revealed a set of functions. Every time they'd encountered a locked door it had gotten them through it. Forerunner doors, at least the ones they'd encountered, were usually locked by specific frequencies. The device scanned the door, found the frequency, and jammed it.
The red lights on the door flashed green, and it slid open. But what they found inside was unlike any weapon that Fural could have expected, and unlike anything he had ever seen. It moved. They moved. And they moved towards him.
