….
0952 Hours, March 23rd, 2683
Prothean Bunker, Beneath Surface of Tornaq
Irin System, Argos Rho Cluster
….
The Prothean elevator finally came to a stop, and the doors opened. Jondum Bau briefly looked over the rest of the squad as they cautiously stepped out. The Dama brothers stayed near the back, fuel rod guns hot and ready. They weren't the only ones. Jorik Zerimar crouched in-between the two Mgalekgolo, not taking out his sword quite yet. Like most Sangheili, Zerimar believed that when a weapon is drawn, it will demand blood. Thus, he never draws out a weapon unless he is sure he's about to put it to good use. Yet another Sangheili tradition that hurts more than helps in Jondum's view. The one or two seconds it takes to draw your weapon gives an enemy with an already-drawn weapon and good reflexes plenty of opportunity to strike. But at least he wasn't as intolerable as the AI.
Priscilla was back in her mech body. It was dressed in clothing more common in youth hangouts on the Citadel than on the battlefield, but she didn't seem to particularly care. She stood with her tempest SMG out and ready for action, should anything nasty lay inside. Jondum had protested the AI's presence on account of her being a criminal, and was promptly ignored by everyone else.
The Arbiter was the first one to step off the elevator and into the room. The walls, floor and ceiling were all made from Prothean metal, varying shades of amber in coloration with a green tint to it all. The team proceeded slowly and cautiously, up until the Arbiter raised his hand, bringing everyone to a full stop. He sniffed the air. Sniffs became deep breaths. He then growled as he exhaled.
"What is it?" Jondum asked.
"That stench." Thel growled. "I have smelled it before."
The Arbiter turned to the party. "Proceed cautiously and remain vigilant." he instructed before resuming his slow march, deeper into the Prothean complex.
…..
Their arrival on Tornaq had been fast and hard. While the Geth on the surface were numerous, the Sangheili had the element of surprise on their side. The Geth were clearly unprepared for an assault as powerful as the one the Sangheili Empire delivered unto them, judging from how swift their victory was. The reason for so many Geth soon became clear; a Prothean bunker-like complex lay hidden, deep beneath the ice. The Arbiter volunteered to lead a small strike team inside to investigate, while the remainder of Tyrannai's forces secured the surface surrounding the complex's entrance as well as the planet's orbit in case Geth reinforcements show up.
Priscilla let out a low whistle as she ran a hand across one of the metal walls. "Not everyday you find a whole Prothean bunker this well-preserved." she commented. "Hell, this is an archaeologist's wet dream we're walkin' around in."
"Indeed." Jondum replied. "Finding a simple pyramid, beacon, even a single data disc so well-preserved is considered nothing short of a small miracle. But all this…..I can see why there were so many Geth standing guard on the surface. This place must be very important to Saren."
"And if it is so important, we must proceed carefully. I am certain that there are yet more Geth deeper inside." Thel added. "Yet we must also move quickly. Saren has a history of destroying that which was useful to him, once it has ceased to be so, to ensure that his enemies do not use it. The fact that this place remains whole implies that his work here is not yet done. If we move quickly, we may be able to discover what interests him so before he destroys it."
For the next few minutes, the team proceeded through the complex. For a while, they encountered a whole lot of nothing. The facility was seemingly dead, not a soul in sight. True, it made sense for it to be deserted. It was an ancient Prothean bunker after all. But still, they were at least expecting some Geth about. The fact that they hadn't even encountered any Geth yet was making the team nervous. Something was most definitely amiss.
"Hold on a tick." Priscilla quietly said, bringing the rest of the team to a halt. "I'm picking up some Geth chatter."
"So there are more of the machines here." Zerimar growled.
"Do you know where they are?" Arbiter asked.
"It's fuzzy. Must be coming from further down." Priscilla said. She looked around and found something that made her smile. "There! Further down the hall!" she excitedly stated as she took off running down the hall, the rest of the team in pursuit behind her. She came to a stop in front of what looked like a computer terminal and held her omni-tool, the same shade of green as her holographic form, in front of it. "Perfect! If the Prothean network is still online, I can hack it and get a better idea of where everything is, including our Geth friends."
After a few seconds, Priscilla smiled. "In. Downloading a map of the facility to my database now. Also, I was right. There's a pack of Geth three floors below us. They've formed a perimeter, implying that they're protecting something."
"Where is the nearest elevator?" Arbiter asked.
"Down that way, second corridor on the left, third door on the right." the AI said as she pointed down the hall.
"Come." Arbiter ordered as he began jogging in the given direction. One nerve-wrackingly long elevator ride later, they arrived in yet another empty corridor. They proceeded much more cautiously this time, knowing for certain now that there were enemies afoot.
Thel kept one eye on his motion tracker, and held up a hand as the group came to a corner. "We have enemies around the corner." he said. "I shall move ahead. When the first one falls, that is when the rest of you shall strike." With that, he activated his cloak and turned the corner.
He dashed down the short corridor and found himself in a large circular chamber. There were two Geth troopers standing guard outside a door, and another four just walking in circles around the perimeter of the chamber. It should prove to be a paltry task to take them out. The Arbiter moved swiftly, knowing that his cloak wouldn't last forever. He whipped out his energy sword and stabbed one of the two guard Geth through the chest, tossing a plasma grenade at the other before it had time to react.
The screeches the Geth made was all the signal the others needed. The Dama pair charged around the corner, Bysoti biotically charging into the remaining quartet of Geth, and literally tearing them apart. Needless to say, the aid of the others was largely unnecessary. Priscilla, Jondum and Zerimar all jogged out from around the corner to find the Mgalekgolo surrounded by newly destroyed Geth.
"That's it?" Jondum asked. He shook his head. "We really should've encountered more Geth by now. Something's wrong."
"They were guarding that door." the Arbiter said as he pointed to the door in question. "Priscilla. Can you open it?"
"I'll give it a go." the mech said as she sauntered over, her omni-tool glowing to life. "And we're in." she said as the door opened. The team looked inside.
There were people inside. Scientists, from the looks of their clothes. They looked at the Arbiter and his team, stunned. "Oh thank God, a rescue team!" one of the Human scientists said as he got up. The rest of the scientists' faces similarly went from shock to delight.
The Arbiter was surprised by this development. He certainly wasn't expecting prisoners. He held up a hand. "Who among you is leader here?" he asked.
"I guess that would be me." a Human female said as she stood up and walked over to the Arbiter. She must've been an elder, given the grayish coloration of her hair and somewhat wrinkled skin. "Doctor Sandra Tillson. Archaeologist and project lead of…." she paused. "…What's left of my team."
"What happened here?" Thel asked.
"We were studying this place when the Geth landed a few weeks ago." Tillson began. "Security team tried to fight them off, but the Geth had them outgunned. After they killed most of our security, they rounded us up and held us hostage. The Krogan who was leading them said that if we wanted to live, we'd do what he said. He wanted us to help the Geth look for something here."
"What do the Geth want?" Thel continued.
"I don't know." Tillson admitted. "From what we can tell, this place seems to be some kind of research facility. Perhaps the Geth are interested in whatever the Protheans were studying here?"
"Speaking of Geth, we couldn't help but notice a suspicious lack of them." Jondum commented as he walked up to the Arbiter's side. "Any idea what that's about?"
"Now that you mention it, we have been noticing a decrease in the Geth's numbers the last few days." Tillson replied. "Why that is, however, I can't really tell you. Maybe they're finally starting to leave."
"Tell them about the lower levels, Dr. Tillson!" one of other scientists pleaded.
"This facility goes down for several more levels." Dr. Tillson explained. "Sometimes the Geth take us down to those levels, which appear to be laboratories, and put us to work translating some of the data from the computers. Whatever it is they're after, I'm certain it's somewhere in those labs."
The Arbiter nodded. "My thanks for your help." He keyed the phantom pilot above. "Pilot. The Dama-pair will be returning to the surface to deliver prisoners."
"Prisoners?" the pilot asked.
"The Geth have been keeping several scientists prisoner here." Arbiter explained. "The Dama-pair will escort them to the surface, and you'll be transporting them back to the Glorious New Destiny."
"Very well then, Arbiter. I shall await them." the pilot answered before signing off.
The Arbiter turned to the two Mgalekgolo. "Take Dr. Tillson and the others back to the entrance. The rest of us shall head into these laboratories."
"Your will be done, Arbiter." Cadavu rumbled. As the bond brothers herded the grateful but still nervous scientists out of the room, Dr. Tillson spared the Arbiter a glance.
"Thank you." she said as she followed her team out.
"An entire laboratory further down…." Priscilla commented as Zerimar, Jondum and the Arbiter pressed onwards. "Bloody hell. This place really is an archaeologist's wet dream."
"It begs the question, however." Jondum said as the group arrived at an elevator and pressed the call button. "If this is a lab, what were the Protheans studying, exactly?"
"I fear we are about to find out." the Arbiter replied as the elevator door opened.
…..
One long elevator ride later, the misfit group of four arrived in the laboratory floor. The walls, ceiling and floor here were more of a dark blue than the golden amber of the floors above, but that barely registered in their minds as they heard the distant sounds of battle further down the hallway. There were the distinctive warping sounds of Geth plasma weapons firing, but there was another noise. A roaring. A roaring that put a chill through the Arbiter's very being as nightmarish memories, once dormant, were suddenly brought to the forefront of his mind.
"Ready yourselves." Thel ordered as he withdrew his blade. Zerimar did the same with his own blade, as Jondum pulled out his assault rifle and Priscilla her SMG. Thel charged down the hall, towards the sound of battle, his team right behind him.
Before they could turn the corner, a body flew through the air and landed in front of them. It was a Geth trooper, and a badly-mangled one at that. Its adversary then leapt upon it. The snot-green coloration, the smell of rotting flesh, and a bipedal form that hinted that it was once something besides a monster. It was Thel's worst fear confirmed.
It was the Parasite.
It was the Flood.
Priscilla and Jondum gunned the creature down in short order, the monster thankfully unaware of the group's presence until it was much too late. "What the hell was that?" Jondum demanded.
"The Flood." Thel replied.
"The Flood?" Jondum asked. "You mean the parasitic life-forms that wiped out the Forerunners? That Flood?"
"The same." Thel answered. "Come. This battle is not yet done."
Thel turned around the corner and ran down the rest of the corridor's length into a large chamber. The walls were lined with stasis pods and computer consoles, but more noticeable than that were the dozens of Flood and Geth doing battle with one another in the room. "Zerimar, with me! Priscilla, Jondum, cover us!" the Arbiter ordered.
As Jondum switched to his sniper rifle to pick off stray targets and Priscilla showered the enemies with SMG fire, the two Sangheili charged in, brandishing their swords and leaping into the heat of battle. The Arbiter's blade skewered a Flood that was grappling with a Geth, before pulling out and slicing that very same Geth in half. The Arbiter then reached for his plasma rifle and unloaded into a pair of Flood that was charging towards him. A third form leapt towards him, but he smacked it to the ground with his rifle before running his sword through it. Zerimar meanwhile, threw his energy sword through the air, spinning through the air like a boomerang, using his biotics to guide it in a path that had it cut down many Geth and Flood. It was at that point that a door on the far side of the chamber opened, and a Geth Juggernaut stomped into the room, flanked by a pair of troopers.
"Zerimar! Slay that juggernaut!" Thel barked as he unloaded his plasma rifle on one of the troopers. Zerimar biotically charged into the juggernaut, sending it staggering back. With a roar, he swung his sword, slashing huge gashes into the synthetic's abdomen, biotically yanking out the internal circuitry. With the juggernaut disemboweled, the zealot made short work of the remaining trooper, slicing its plasma rifle in half, followed by the trooper itself.
Another half-dozen Geth troopers entered through the doorway, hoping to stop the rampage of the two Sangheili swordsmen. A hope that was for naught as Priscilla lobbed a tech grenade into their midst, which detonated and shorted out their shields, allowing Jondum to pick off the Troopers one at a time as they spread out in search of cover. Only three of them made it to such cover, a large crate on the far side of the chamber, but they didn't last long as Thel threw a plasma grenade at them, the detonation destroying all three of them. The Arbiter casually walked over to one of the downed Geth and stabbed it through the chest with his sword, ceasing its twitching. As he pulled out his sword, Thel looked around. The chamber was empty now, strewn with the bodies of machine and parasite alike.
"Priscilla. Seal that door if you can. We can ill afford to be ambushed." Thel ordered, pointing to the door from which the Geth reinforcements just a minute beforehand. The AI nodded and trotted over to the nearby controls. A couple of seconds of typing, and the door was closed and sealed with a dull thud.
"I say we start searching through these computers." Jondum said as he walked over to the Arbiter. "Find out what the Geth are after here."
"Priscilla?" the Arbiter asked.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it." the AI replied as she walked over to another terminal and activated her omni-tool. "Suppose you'll want to me to do your laundry too." she grumbled to herself. Thel turned back to Jondum.
"Do you have any incendiary mods?" he asked.
"I believe so…." Jondum said as he checked his pockets and fished out the appropriate mod. "Why?"
"A single Flood spore can wipe out a species." Thel said. "These parasites may be dead, but I believe we should incinerate the remains to make certain."
"Alright then." Jondum said as he slapped his mod into his pistol before tossing another one to the Arbiter. "Let's get to work."
"Zerimar. Watch the other corridor. Alert us should more machines or parasites arrive." the Arbiter ordered. The zealot nodded and walked over to the corridor the group entered through.
"Looks like we now know what the Protheans were researching down here." Jondum idly commented as he fired a few rounds into a particularly large Flood body until it caught fire.
"They foolishly toyed with powers beyond their understanding." Arbiter concurred. "The Citadel Races venerate them, but it would seem that they made their share of mistakes, no different than us."
"You think the Flood wiped them out?" Jondum asked.
"Doubtful." Arbiter said. "The Flood would not have stopped at just the Protheans. If the Flood did indeed roam the galaxy unchecked fifty thousand years ago, none of us would be here. Our homeworlds would've surely been consumed. What I wish to know is where the Protheans found the Flood in the first place."
"Same place we found them, I would guess - in Forerunner ruins." Jondum proposed. "I once heard a theory that the galaxy is based on a cycle of extinction, each civilization using the ruins of the previous as a blueprint for their own technology. It's possible that the Protheans studied the Forerunner ruins just as we studied their ruins."
"And in them, they found the parasite." Thel huffed. "The one great mistake of the Forerunners - keeping the parasite alive. They should've wiped out every last trace of it when they had the chance."
Once the Arbiter and Spectre had immolated the last of the Flood, they walked over to Priscilla. "Anything?" the Arbiter asked.
"A bit." the AI replied. "This is a research facility alright. Specifically one that researches Forerunner relics, which explains what the Flood are doing here. They're technically Forerunner relics themselves. Tilson says the Geth have been here for a while, and their log history backs it up. Take a look at the records they accessed."
Thel and Jondum walked over and inspected the screen, the latter pointing at a particular file. "That's a description of the facility the Master Chief encountered on Eletania. I recognize it from the mission reports."
"So this place is where Saren found out about Eletania, as well as where he originally found the Flood." the Arbiter said. "I wonder what else he found."
"I'm wonderin' the same thing. Hence why I'm combing through the recently accessed files." Priscilla replied. The computer beeped. "Hello, what have we here?"
"What?" Jondum asked.
"The most recently accessed file, just a few hours before we got here." Priscilla replied. "It was an encrypted file. They decrypted it, accessed it, and were apparently in the middle of re-encrypting it when something stopped them." The AI spared the nearest pile of ashes that was once a parasite a glance. "Guess we know what stopped them."
"They were trying to cover their tracks." Jondum said.
"Can you open the files?" Arbiter asked.
"Should only be a few minutes." the mech haughtily said.
"We may not have a few minutes." Zerimar announced aloud. "I'm picking up something on long-range motion trackers. Something is heading our way."
"Geth?" Jondum asked.
"Flood?" Arbiter asked.
"Hard to tell. Motion tracker has marked the target as neutral." Zerimar said as he kept a hand on his sword handle, ready to unsheathe it the moment he would need it. Jondum and the Arbiter took point beside the zealot, bracing themselves for whatever was coming.
"Priscilla! Continue unlocking the data! We shall keep this new threat at bay in the meanwhile!" the Arbiter shouted. The trio of warriors stood, bracing themselves for whatever came.
What came was, oddly, a Turian.
A Turian being chased by a pack of Flood.
"DON'T SHOOT! DON'T SHOOT!" the Turian yelled as he threw something over his shoulder at the parasites, a grenade if the subsequent explosion indicated anything. The parasites reeled from the detonation, allowing the Turian enough time to close the distance between himself and the Arbiter, skidding to a halt by his side as he withdrew his assault rifle. "NOW SHOOT!" he shouted before pulling the trigger himself, Thel and Jondum following suit while Zerimar struck the monsters with a biotic shockwave.
Dealing with the Flood thankfully did not take long. The Turian's grenade stunned the creatures long enough for the group to gain the upper hand over them. "Thanks. I owe you one." the Turian replied.
"Jondum, immolate the corpses. Zerimar, watch his back." Thel ordered before turning towards the Turian. "Who are you?"
"Preitor Gavorn, soldier of fortune, at your service." Gavorn introduced himself between pants. He was wearing black armor and, unlike most Turians Thel had encountered, his face bore no obvious tattoos. The only marks he could make out were faint blue lines on his mandibles.
"What's a mercenary doing in a Prothean bunker?" the Arbiter asked.
"Security job." Gavorn replied, sounding like he had finally caught his breath again. "My men and I were hired by ONI to babysit their science team. You know, deal with any pirates or scavengers, make sure the scientists don't blow themselves up, that kinda thing."
"ONI hired you?" Arbiter asked. "Strange. They don't often employ mercenaries. Especially not for archaeological projects."
"Yeah, I figured it was kinda weird, but I've never been one to argue with a paycheck. Especially big ones." Gavorn explained. "ONI was paying me a small fortune just to babysit a bunch of geeks. Seemed like easy credits." he spat on the ground. "Nobody told me about fucking zombie monsters or Geth though. Last time I take a job from Humans."
"You mentioned your men. Where are they now?" Thel probed further.
"Dead. Either zombified or shot up by Geth." Gavorn answered.
"Can you tell me what happened?" Thel asked.
"Well, let's see." Gavorn began. "Geth showed up a few weeks back and completely overwhelmed us. Everyone who survived the slaughter took to the elevators and retreated deeper into the complex. This place is huge. Plenty of good hiding places further down, even food stores to sustain us for a while. Every so often, a pack of Geth would come down looking for us, but never in really large numbers so we were able to avoid, or failing that, eliminate them."
"Course, that all changed when those…..things came along a couple of days ago." Gavorn went on. "They killed what was left of my battalion. Would've gotten me too a few minutes ago if I hadn't found you guys."
"Where did the creatures come from?" Thel asked, wanting to know how the Flood got out. The Flood's presence on the Citadel implied that the Geth had been harvesting Flood from this place for a while, but it sounded like the Flood breached containment only recently.
"Hell if I know." Gavorn shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."
"I just incinerated the last of them." Jondum said as he walked up to Gavorn and the Arbiter.
"Priscilla. Progress report." Thel commanded aloud.
"I'm translating fifty-thousand -year-old data over here." Priscilla replied. "So yeah. Shouldn't be surprised that it's takin' a while."
"Hurry. I sense that we don't have much time." Thel said.
It was then that a guttural roar was heard from further down the corridor. "You're not wrong….." Gavorn said as he withdrew his assault rifle again and pointed it down the corridor.
"Brace yourselves!" the Arbiter called as the parasites rounded the corner and charged. A dozen combat forms and, even worse, a carpet of infection forms skittering towards them and a tank form leading the charge. "Fire everything you have! Burn their rotting hides!"
The team opened fire. Gavorn threw a frag grenade into the crowd, taking out three of the combat forms, Arbiter's plasma grenade taking out another three. Jondum's assault rifle was still loaded with incendiary rounds, allowing him to burn the infection forms to cinder before any of them got too close. An energy sword being his only physical weapon, Jorik relied on his biotics to keep the Flood at bay from a distance, biotically pushing any Flood that got too close for comfort. As the parasite's only strategy was to charge blindly down the corridor, the group's victory was, in hindsight, inevitable.
"Fuck off!" Gavorn cursed as he threw another frag grenade into the pile of now-dead Flood bodies, blowing them into chunks. "Damn, that felt good."
"Jondum-"
"I'm on it." the Salarian grumbled as he walked over to the corpses. "Suddenly I'm a janitor now….." the Salarian grumbled to himself.
It was then that the elevator doors opened and out came the Dama-pair, fuel rod guns brandished and ready to fire.
"Where is the enemy?" Cadavu asked, ready for battle. Arbiter gestured to the corridor full of Flood and Flood body parts, casually being immolated by Jondum. "….Ah." Cadavu said.
"We heard you over the com." Bysoti clarified. "We thought you'd need help."
"Well…..we don't." Gavorn replied.
"…Hrm." Cadavu grunted.
"I take it the science team is safe?" Arbiter asked.
"On a phantom bound for the New Destiny as we speak." Cadavu replied.
"Wait, the science team is still alive?" Gavorn asked. "Actually, scratch that, you guys have a ship? Well what are we waiting for, let's get out of here!"
"Not yet." Arbiter replied. "We still have a job to do."
"What job?!" Gavorn demanded.
"A job's that's about to be completed because I've fully decrypted the files over here." Priscilla said. "By the way Arbiter…..you really want to come look at this."
"Watch the corridor." Arbiter ordered the Dama pair as he walked over to Priscilla. "What is it?" he asked. Priscilla silently typed a few commands into her omni-tool. A holographic image of a ring appeared above it. An all-too familiar ring.
"….Halo." the Arbiter breathed in awe. "The Protheans knew of it?"
"They also knew where it was." Priscilla said. "This particular ring is located within an area of space we call the Hades Nexus."
"That's actually not too far from here." Jondum noted. "If we leave ASAP, we could make it there in a couple of days."
"Yes! Leaving! Good idea! I vote yes!" Gavorn chimed in.
"Priscilla, package the data." Arbiter instructed. "We'll take it with us and study it in more detail once we're back aboard the New Destiny."
…..
"By the Gods….." Tyrannai breathed in awe as he saw the massive, holographic image before him, that of a massive ring emitting from the CIC's hologram projector. Arbiter couldn't blame him. Even after the lies about the Great Journey were brought to light more than a hundred years ago, the rings still filled the Sangheili with a kind of superstitious awe. "You actually found it, Arbiter. Halo."
"I did not find it first." Arbiter replied. "The machines, unfortunately, had accessed this information before I did."
"Foolish of them to leave it intact after finding it." Tyrannai chuckled.
"Yeah, I think I can explain that part." Gavorn threw in. "I saw the Geth setting up what looked like a nuclear bomb down in the lower levels of the Prothean complex and they were setting it up when those…..'Flood' showed up. They wiped out the Geth before they could put the bomb together."
"Speaking of Flood, I would propose that we glass this planet, or at least the area surrounding the Prothean research complex." Arbiter suggested. "The Flood on the planet's surface are numerous. We can not risk them spreading."
"Tornaq is basically a lifeless rock devoid of any real value outside of that Prothean complex, which is officially FUBAR on account of all the Flood." Priscilla added, her holographic form standing next to that of Halo. "So yeah. Doubt the Council would mind too much."
"Glassing would be excessive in this case." Tyranny evenly said. "There are no ships on Tornaq's surface, which means there is no way for the parasite to get off the planet. And with no remaining food source within that complex, or indeed the entire planet, it will only be a matter of time until the parasite starves itself out." The kaidon punched in a series of commands into his computer. "But just in case, I will inform the Fleet of Divine Wills of this development. They're patrolling nearby. Once they arrive, we'll be free to leave. I trust them to make sure that the planet be properly quarantined."
"We can ill afford to wait!" Arbiter barked. "As I have said before, the data was already accessed by the Geth by the time we found it. That means Saren and his Geth know where Halo is now. They are probably already there! We must glass the planet and leave as quickly as possible! Time is of the essence!"
"Forgive me, Arbiter, but glassing an intact Prothean research complex does not strike me as wise." Tyrannai said. He narrowed his eyes at the Arbiter. "Unlike you, I am not blind to opportunity." he quietly added.
"What are you - "
"We will wait." Tyrannai cut off the Arbiter's question. "Until this star system is properly secured and then, and only then, may we leave. Do I make myself clear, Arbiter?"
Arbiter just stood there and growled at Tyrannai. Although he technically did not outrank any military leader within the Empire, most of them never ignored the Arbiter's advice, much less give him a direct order that contradicts that advice. But then again, Tyrannai was never most military leaders. He turned on his heels and stomped out of the CIC, leaving an uncomfortable silence in the air. Priscilla quietly disappeared from the projector, her mech body whirring back to life as she re-entered her body.
"…..Soooooo…" Gavorn replied. "You guys gonna drop me off somewhere or…?"
"Contact ONI, Turian. You are their responsibility, not mine." Tyrannai replied. "But while you're at it, inform them that I plan on keeping the science team aboard my ship for the rest of this mission. The archaeologists may prove useful on Halo."
"Er, okay." Gavorn uncertainly replied as he walked out of the CIC, followed by the rest of the Arbiter's team.
"Don't worry, new guy." Priscilla said as she slapped Gavorn's shoulder. "We'll find ya a bunk."
….
Yeah, not gonna lie, didn't really enjoy writing this one. And I think it showed in how I hurried along the plot - truth be told, I just wanted to get this chapter over with.
Granted, I COULD have made the fight scenes longer, but I had the team fighting mostly in corridors that made ideal chokepoints for enemies whose only tactic is "charge forward until you get close enough to eat them." So yeah. Not a lot of ways to write that firefight as anything resembling interesting.
And finally…..I just haven't been feeling any Mass Effect and/or Halo mojo lately. As Titan Shock indicates, I've been on a superhero kick lately, so trying to force myself back onto a space opera kick is kinda like taking a mule to water and making it drink.
And no, I can't even honestly say I'm that excited about Mass Effect: Andromeda or Halo 5. Mostly due to lingering skepticism regarding EA and the Xbox One respectively.
Yeah I know. A five-month hiatus and THIS is what I came back with. Hopefully the next chapter will be better.
Emphasis on Hopefully.
Like, a lot of emphasis.