0800 Hours, March 31, 2535 (Military Calendar) /
Delphi Noctem System, Big River Valley, Planet Daedalus
Camp Green River
William-043 flexed his hands anxiously. Spending so much time outside his armor was having an adverse effect on his mental state. He felt vulnerable. Exposed. And, on top of it all, if he didn't have something meaningful to do soon, he thought he might explode.
But he knew he couldn't blame his unease solely on his lack of armor and tasks. He couldn't explain exactly what, but something about the whole operation didn't feel right.
Most of the others seemed to be handling their downtime in the regular ways – Linda meditated in the team's barracks, Kelly ran laps in the rec room, John busied himself with running errands for Doctor Halsey whenever the team wasn't helping her run diagnostics on their armor or taking advantage of the facility's training grounds to run extra drills, and Fred – the only other Spartan showing signs of frustration with their situation – impatiently paced his way through the facility.
Will himself had been anxious from the moment they arrived. The fleet in orbit was purportedly doing well, for once, but Daedalus was still a battleground. It wasn't right for the Spartans to be holed up in some defunct CMA base camp when there were Covenant out there waiting to be wiped off the planet. Additionally, he didn't trust the security at Camp Green River. The base was both old and unmanned, which meant that whatever defense systems existed were automated.
And whatever that stone they had retrieved from the Covenant facility was, an entire division of alien troops had seemingly killed themselves over it. That made it important. It didn't sit well with him that the only protection the stone had was Doctor Halsey's watchful eye in her lab. It would be much safer with him.
"Will," a voice said, tearing him from his thoughts.
The Spartan blinked several times before he recognized the sight of his team leader standing right in front of him.
"Did you hear what I said?" John asked. At Will's blank stare, he exasperatedly blew air out through his nose. "Doctor Halsey wants to see you in her office. She wants to ask you some questions about the op," he said, as if it was the third time he'd repeated the information.
Will nodded and quickly marched in the direction of the lab. He wasn't particularly fond of lab work, but his anxious mind needed a job to focus on.
It was something, at least.
He assumed that by the time he arrived Doctor Halsey would be impatiently waiting for him in the doorway, her left foot tapping the tiled floor in the incessant pattern she did whenever she felt like someone wasn't hurrying enough. When he turned onto the corridor leading to her office, however, there was no sign of her. The door stood open several inches, allowing a dim blue light to spill out onto the floor of the hallway.
Curiosity piqued by Halsey's absence, Will slowly poked his head through the door.
A muted hum reverberated throughout the workstation, various machines running through system diagnostics on MJOLNIR armor or scanning through Blue Team's cam feeds or doing whatever else Doctor Halsey needed them for. Most of the lights were deactivated, the only illumination coming from lightstrips that ran beneath each table and counter throughout the room and a single bright light shining from the doctor's desk.
It took a moment for him to notice that the doctor herself was there. Where she was typically energetic to the point of being described as hyperactive, the woman now sat stock-still in her chair, her back to him. Will moved far enough into the room to see that she was staring at a small holopad propped up on her desk, a still image of a young girl staring back through stern gray eyes. Halsey was resting her chin on one hand, and the other subconsciously traced patterns across the rough surface of the stone they had retrieved from the Covenant facility.
She sighed forlornly, and the Spartan thought he heard the name "Miranda" in her long exhalation.
Will cleared his throat to announce his presence. "You sent for me, doctor?"
Doctor Halsey jolted upright in her chair, then deactivated the projector and roughly slammed the stone onto the tabletop before swiveling to face him directly. "William, yes, come in," she said, seemingly missing the fact that he was already at her side.
He bristled at the use of his full given name. He didn't know quite what it was, but there was always something about the name William that he didn't want to be associated with. Of course, she knew that; that was precisely why she used it. Still, out of stubbornness, he did his best not to let his distaste show outwardly.
"What can I do for you, ma'am?" he asked, sparing a glance at the stone.
She turned to the monitor atop the desk and began scrolling through Blue Team's collected mission recordings. "I've been going through your cam footage, and I wanted to confirm something with you." She finally turned in her chair to look directly at him. "Did anyone other than yourself and Fred come into direct contact with the stone?"
"No, ma'am," he answered. "Even I only had it for a few seconds. Fred kept a hold of it for the majority of the mission."
Almost of their own accord, Will's eyes rolled heavenward. He had been holding the stone in his hand. It would have been just as easy for him to carry it as anyone else. But for whatever reason it was decided that Fred would be a better guardian of it.
He was as capable as any of them, but at times it was like the rest of the team didn't trust him to perform even the most basic tasks.
"Good," Halsey answered, completely oblivious to his frustration. "Until I can get a more comprehensive understanding of just what the artifact is, I'd like to limit the team's exposure to it. But I still need someone to guard it." She took the stone from her desktop and turned in her chair, holding it up to him.
Will hesitated a moment. Slowly he reached out and took the proffered rock, weighing it carefully in his hand. "Yes, ma'am," he said. He couldn't quite describe how he was feeling – this "assignment" was even worse than a typical babysitting mission. Halsey had just asked him to play caretaker to what was most likely an ordinary chunk of rock.
And yet, there was a significant portion of him that took pride in the fact that she had asked him to do it. It was no question among the Spartans that John was the doctor's favorite. Furthermore, she typically entrusted assignments of any importance to one of the more frequent members of Blue Team. Will felt that he was usually left to pick up the scraps on these joint assignments.
It felt good to be picked first.
As he turned to exit the office, Halsey held up a hand to forestall him. For a moment there was something strange in her eyes – something almost akin to nervousness. Or perhaps guilt. But only for a moment. "And William," she said as she turned back to her monitor, "make sure you get that stone right to Fred."
Later on, Will would blame the fist-sized hole in the wall of the rec room on a malfunctioning piece of exercise equipment.
The Ossoona Ruka 'Karomee was not one for waiting.
It had been nearly two full planetary rotations since he discovered his prey's temporary staging point. In that time, he had been relegated to nothing more than observation – an assignment that had proven difficult given the subject he was sent to deal with.
Communication from the Minister of Absolution was practically nonexistent – any transmission from 'Karomee's position to the Triumphant Faith ran the risk of detection. The Minister's standing orders were to observe the Demons – though for what purpose 'Karomee did not know. Were it up to him, he would have called down a bombardment on the entire valley and melted the Demons in all of their unholy filth, relic from the ancient gods or no.
The heretic facility was mostly silent. The Ossoona's field sensors would detect the ghost of a heat signature or a spike in energy use now and again, but nothing more than that. That in and of itself gave him two important pieces of information. First, the Demons were intentionally laying low for some reason. Second, the facility was devoid of other personnel.
That was good. It meant there would be fewer distractions when the time came to put an end to these heretics.
Still, 'Karomee's mind was disquieted.
Major 'Nunamee's full division had been wiped out. No, the division had wiped itself out. He had never seen such bloodshed among his own troops before – not even the savagery and largely unchecked stupidity of the Jiralhanae accounted for such destruction.
No, something else was at play. Something he didn't understand, which made it far worse.
His mind was drawn to the relic. 'Nunamee protected it with his life. Guarded it. But that wasn't all. The major hadn't simply protected the relic, as was his duty. His motivation was . . . less pious than that. The major had been defensive of the relic. Possessive of it.
'Karomee still hadn't shaken the feeling that came over him the instant he saw the relic. Something had gripped his hearts in an ice-cold hold and was refusing to let go. Something sinister.
His ruminations were disrupted by the beep of his armor's internal communications suite. The Minister of Absolution wished to contact him, which meant that soon this waiting game would end. The Demons would die, the Minister would receive his relic, and 'Karomee would cast aside his shameful title and return to his position of honor.
A rare smile crossed the Ossoona's face as he prepared to receive the Minister's transmission. Soon, everything would be back to its natural order.
But first, he would hunt.