Chapter 8: The Crystal
Thank you for the reviews, guys. Sorry about how long this update took. I did have tests, which i did decently at, but oh well. Sorry that this chapter is mostly filler as well, but it's still rather important.
UNSC Spearhead of Dawn, Tau Ceti System, 2nd of February.
The return trip took longer than the trip in. They'd jumped 1534 light years in about 35 hours on the first trip. It had taken them 43 this time. Slipspace travel was indeed unpredictable.
Thel watched as the void of slipspace had suddenly unwound, leaving stars winking across space. The asteroids of Tau Ceti flew around the frigate. John had taken Thel immediately taken to medical wing to repair his leg, which had only taken a few hours. Something forbidden by original Sangheili etiquette, but Thel had given up on that.
He flexed his leg from his chair. It responded painlessly. Ironically, he'd injured it more than it had been in the initial assault in the later sprinting.
"Running area scans." Cortana announced.
Thel nodded slightly and rose from his seat. He pulled on a specially made headset for him to communicate with the AI when he wasn't in the bridge.
"Notify me when we are ten minutes out." He muttered, and turned to the doors at the rear of the bridge.
He'd spent a bit too much time alone in the bridge. In almost all bridges he'd been inside, there would have been a crew to converse with on long voyages.
Cortana was not a very chatty person- er... AI. Vala had been quiet the entire trip. Thel wasn't exactly sure what they did when they were silent, but he doubted he ever would. He reached the end of the bridge entry corridor, and pressed a button for the elevator.
There was a ding, and after ten seconds, the doors opened to an empty elevator. Thel stepped inside. His four fingers moved over the buttons, before deciding on which one to pick. The doors closed, and the elevator descended slowly. Thel barely noted the motion.
The doors slid open, and the Sangheili stepped out into a corridor. The lights came on as he walked down it. To the side lay the private quarters of the crew. They'd chosen them when they'd been waiting for a mission back at the hideout asteroid. Their doors were locked to their hand prints, so they were private. But his quarters wasn't where he was headed. Another door loomed in front of him, and it opened as he passed. He immediately took a left and walked down a short corridor before stopping in front of the armory door. He waited for a second while the scanner scanned him, then the door slid open. The armory lights were already on. He glanced around the room to see if there was someone there.
The armoury was divided into two sections. To his right was a long series of weapon holders that extended down the room for around a hundred meters. They had several collections weapons, UNSC and Covenant. He spotted several plasma pistols and rifles, along with two Kig-yar shields and energy cutlasses.
The other half of the armory housed their armor. Cortana used several nanites to repair and upgrade their armor. Giving another sweep with his eyes, he spotted someone at a desk, doing something with a human rifle. He immediately knew who it was. He walked over to John, who seemed oblivious to his presence. John was not in his armor or his under suit, but he was in a navy uniform. As Thel walked forward, he noticed that John had several disassembled rifles on the table.
"Hello." Thel said simply, stopping beside the table and trying to figure out what the Spartan was doing.
The human grunted in reply.
"What exactly are you doing here?" Thel asked.
John didn't look up, but reached over the table and seized a wrench.
"I'm modifying my assault rifle." He replied.
He removed the barrel from a bisected battle rifle that lay on the table, and placed it beside the barrel of the assault rifle, which had been somewhat dissected at its front.
"What are you trying to achieve?" The Sangheili asked.
This time, John leaned back in his chair and looked up at the Sangheili.
"Range." He replied. "Assault rifle rounds tend to spread over a distance. If you fire it it bursts, the effect is somewhat reduced, but it's not a effective way to reduce the spread. If I extend the barrel on the end of the rifle, I can get a bit better range, maybe 150-200 meters. The barrel will somewhat compress the spread effect."
The Sangheili nodded.
"This could be quite a journey with our new squad." Thel remarked. "They're good. You know that."
The Spartan paused, as though thinking.
"Do you know anything about those hunters?" He asked. "I haven't seen them since we first got the Spearhead."
Thel thought back to when he'd last seen them. His jaws opened and closed.
"Lekgolo were never social creatures." Thel replied.
John turned back to his weapon modifying. Something told him that this conversation was over. He turned and prepared to leave, when the Spartan spoke again.
"I hope that's all it is." John murmured. "I really do."
The Sangheili glanced back for a second. Then he walked to the armoury exit and left. He decided that the common room would be his next target of visitation. It was obvious that something was bothering the human, but he looked to want to handle it alone. Thel was fine to leave him to that.
The common room was two floors up, so Thel turned back towards the elevator. He pressed the button to open the door-
"We've got an unknown signature from inside our hideout." Cortana stated over his headset.
He jumped slightly from the surprise of the her interruption. Then he snorted at his reaction. He opened his own COM in response.
"Can you clarify?" He asked.
"No. It's just a small signature on the internal wall of our asteroid." Cortana replied.
"Do you have any idea what it is?" He muttered, pressing the bridge button on the elevator.
"No idea. Could be absolutely anything. A ship's cloaking system failing, a mineral deposit, or even a mistake in our scans." Cortana hesitated on the last one, as though she didn't want to admit that one.
Thel parted his jaws slightly on that one. As soon as the elevator reached the bridge, he wiped the equivalent of a smile from his face. He hurried forward and into the bridge. He looked up at the view screen and spotted their hideout floating several kilometers away.
"Where is the signal coming from?" He asked.
"Right..." Vala began, and then placed a waypoint inside the asteroid. "There."
Thel scratched his bottom right jaw. He reached over and keyed the COM.
"There's been an unknown signature detected inside our hideout. I don't know what it is, so I want two people to armor up and prepare to go EVA and find out the signal source. You'll be launching from the bottom hangar. Bring a weapon." He muttered. "Two people must be ready in three minutes, or else..."
He closed the COM. A second later, he regretted his closing words and reopened the COM.
"I'll be angry. And you guys do not want to see me angry." He snarled, and closed the COM.
Thel sighed, then turned and walked out of the bridge, heading back to the armoury, in the event he ended up having to go EVA.
I+-+-+I
UNSC Spearhead of Dawn, Tau Ceti system, 2nd of February.
As expected, the Hunters did not show up. They weren't the only ones, though neither Liyik, Limid nor Jimaenius showed up, leaving Thel, Zhab and him in the hangar bay. The Sangheili had not armored up in EVA gear, just a combat harness, to apparently exercise his anger if he needed to.
"You two are jumping." Thel said firmly.
"Oh, come on. You and the Human are much better companions for a mission like this! And I hate gravity not being there!" Zhab protested. "I can't even fight at close quarters! If there's a ship there I'll b-"
Thel had evidently grown tired of the Kig-yar's excuses and protests, and drew something from his back leg and threw it at the Jackal. The Kig-yar caught it and stared at it like it was a nuclear bomb.
"What is that?" John asked, leaning forward slightly to get a better look at what Zhab was holding.
"It's an energy cutlass. Kig-yar equivalent of an energy sword." Thel replied. "Now, you two, time to go."
The hangar door rumbled, and then slid open. John closed his eyes and braced himself for the vacuum, but it did not come. He opened his eyes and glanced up in confusion.
"Air shell." Cortana said through his COM. "The shields hold the air in while they're up. When you're clear, we'll close the doors and collapse the shield, so you and Zhab can get to the signal source. Don't sweat, I'll be right in your head."
John grinned beneath his visor.
"Just like old times." He remarked.
"Indeed." Cortana replied.
Thel gestured towards the open hangar door.
"Jump. We'll drop the shields as you go. You two can use the thrusters to get in close." He explained, grabbing a pair of them from a armor rack."
He handed one to John. The Spartan attached it to the back of his armor, where the back hardpoint was located. Zhab had brought out his EVA armor. With a sigh, he attached a thruster pack to the back hardpoint of his armor.
"Let's get this over with before I change my mind." Zhab snarled.
Thel parted his jaws and made for the airtight door out of the hangar.
"Cortana will drop the airshell when I leave. You can use the initial suction as a boost." He mummured. "Good luck. And try not to get killed. Either of you."
He closed the door.
"Stand by to vent." Cortana whispered over the COM. "3… 2… 1…"
The Master Chief released his mag boots. The Hangar seemed to creak eerily. Zhab snapped his jaw and growled slightly.
"Vent."
He heard an explosion, and then silence. The air was sucked from the hangar and the two were pulled into space. The Spearhead was inside the asteroid, and thus the only light came from the frigate as it floated inside of the asteroid. Cortana placed a waypoint on the point where the strange signal was emanating from.
"I'll guide you two in using your thruster packs." She announced over the COM, and then the thruster pack fired several times, giving a few minor course corrections as they glided towards the waypoint. "The asteroid isn't large enough to provide gravity, so you'll have to use magnetic boots when you land if you want to avoid drifting off."
After a minute, they reached one-hundred and fifty meters from the waypoint, and Cortana fired the engines in reverse to slow them down. They reached fifty meters coming in at around five meters per second. Once they were twenty meters away they were coming in at half a meter per second. The asteroid had enough metal inside the outer layer to allow the magnetic boots to provide around 0.9 gees simulated.
John and Zhab soundlessly touched down. The Spartan turned back to look at the Spearhead, which was floated about five hundred meters away, mostly dark accept for a few lit up windows and the hangar and bridge.
"Cortana," He asked. "Are you still with us?"
There was a burst of static for a second before she responded.
"Here, but there's some interference. I'm guessing that our mysterious source is to blame." She replied.
The Chief turned back towards the waypoint and drew a pistol from his hip. Zhab raised his plasma pistol and the two slowly advanced. Turning on his helmet lights, he noticed that the source of the signal was from a rock which was partially buried in the asteroid. It seemed to have been wedged inside the asteroid for a long time by the looks of things, but that didn't make sense if the signal had only shown up this time.
"We have visual." He reported. "It isn't a ship. It's just a rock."
"That can't be right. A mineral deposit wouldn't simply not show up on our sensors when we came here the first time." Vala noted.
The Chief reached the rock. He paused when he noticed that the rock was not the epicenter of the signal, but the signal was inside the rock.
"It's inside the rock." Zhab growled.
"That means that the rock could have been shielding it from our sensors earlier." Cortana mused.
"But the rock is unchanged. What made it suddenly be detected?" Vala retorted.
"It could have been in standby mode and reactivated when it thought that we were gone." Cortana replied.
Vala did not respond. Zhab reached the rock as well and navigated to the other side of it. He looked up at the Spartan.
"How do we find out what's inside?" He asked.
John placed his palm on the "chin" of his helmet. He mused over that for a few seconds before coming to a conclusion.
"Use your energy cutlass to find out. Cut the rock open." He said.
"But that will destroy what's inside of it!" Cortana protested.
"We don't need to find out what's inside of it, we just need it disabled." Vala replied.
The Spartan nodded to the Kig-yar. The Jackal pulled out the cutlass and ignited it. He raised it over his head and plunged it into the rock. It went in slowly, with the jackal pushing hard as it did. He suddenly met heavy resistance. The blade had not fully extended, so it should have gone further. Zhab turned his head in surprise and tried again to no avail.
"I can't… There is something there that I can't get through." He panted with strain.
"Cut around it." John replied.
"Very… Well…" Zhab complied.
The cutlass slowly cut around the rock until it split in half. John knelt and examined what lay in the center of the asteroid. He frowned beneath his visor as his lights fell upon the center of the rock. A rectangular crystal lay in the center of the rock. It shined under the light, but it seemed colorless. The crystal wasn't exactly a rectangle, as it had slanted sides, but it was close enough to count. He picked it up. He held it closer to examine it, but he couldn't make anything of it.
"What is it?" Cortana asked.
"Some kind of Crystal!" Zhab yelled, his Kig-yar pirate nature taking over. "In a whole piece as well, complete with a respectable shape. It should be worth millions!"
"This is the source of the signal?" He asked.
"Yes… You are holding the source in your hand." Vala replied.
John was suddenly reminded of the Forerunner crystal that they had found on Reach. Thinking back, he realized that that had happened only a few months ago. It felt like it had been years ago.
"I don't like it." He said. "It could be dangerous."
Zhab turned and looked at him like he was insane.
"It's a crystal. It's not dangerous." He laughed.
"I've had a few encounters with crystals that warped the fabric of slipspace itself." John growled. "I'm not taking any chances."
He couldn't see Zhab's face, but he was sure that it was a mask of disbelief.
"There's no energy emanating from this crystal, Chief. It shouldn't be dangerous. Maybe it was just a tad reactive to the scanners." Cortana replied.
"Bring it on board the hangar at least. If it proves dangerous on board, we can jettison it immediately." Vala offered.
"If not, we can sell it for a BIG profit!" Zhab laughed. "And I know just where to do that."
Jimaenius joined the COM.
"And how, Zhab, would you know that?" he rumbled, his voice deepened by the COM.
"In my travels as a fugitive of the Covenant, I learned the best Kig-yar black market merchants." He replied.
"That's if it proves safe on board." John remarked.
"Well, then let's find out if it is!" Zhab retorted, crouching his legs to prepare for launch. "Let's go!"
"Stand by. Firing thruster pack in five seconds. Prepare yourselves." Cortana announced.
The Chief leaned forward in preparation, attaching his pistol to his side and tightening his grip on the crystal. The thruster packs ignited as he releaed his mag boots, and him and Zhab slowly climbed away from the asteroid back towards the Spearhead. The ship was nearly indistinguishable from the black of the asteroid excluding a few lit up patches, but Cortana led both of them back into the hangar without fault. He heard a the hum of the Spearhead's shields reenergizing as they entered their limit, and then, with a final burst from the thrusters, they slammed onto the hangar floor.
The entire crew, excluding the Lekgolo, were waiting. John touched down upon the floor and straightened, raising his hand that held the crystal. He opened his fingers and showed it to the crew. Behind him he heard Zhab touch down, then the Jackal hopping around behind him, trying to remove the EVA armor.
The other members of the Squad widened their eyes as they looked upon the crystal. The crystal was around a foot long and half a foot wide and a third foot thick. It seemed almost magical. Zhab appeared again, staring at the crystal almost manically, or at least as manically as a Jackal could look compared to their normal look.
John offered the crystal to Thel. The sangheili held the crystal up to his face, when suddenly, the grey crystal flared with grey, blinding light. The Chief's visor automatically adjusted to protect his eyes, but the rest of the crew excluding Thel, turned away. The Sangheili remained almost fixated on the crystal. After three seconds, he dropped the crystal, and it clanged upon the metal floor. The light died the moment that he released the crystal. He stepped back, looking as stunned as a Sangheili could.
"What the…" He began.
Thel was silent.
"Significant amounts of unknown radiation detected coming from the crystal!" Cortana shouted.
"Unknown?!" The Chief asked, turning around. "We need to get rid of that crystal."
"The radiation isn't fatal, however, it's just… remarkable." Cortana said.
He reached down and picked up the crystal. He moved to throw it out of the ship, when suddenly Thel stopped him.
"No." He uttered. "The Crystal stays."
"It's dangerous! Who knows what it could do in slipspace!" John replied.
"It's important. Very important." He said, grabbing the crystal. "It only reacts if I try to examine it closely. It only reacts to me. I'll keep it safe."
John frowned beneath his helmet.
"Are you su-" He began.
"Yes." Thel interrupted, heading for the elevator. "I'm sure."
John didn't like it, but he let the Sangheili take the crystal to wherever he put it. He asked the Sangheili about it several times later, but he got no response.
I+-+-+I
So, That's it. A filler chapter, but an important one. I have some plans for a large interconnected universe after this fanfic, and this chapter is one of the foundation pieces.
Anyway, sorry about the long update time, I wanted to enjoy Christmas fully, plus I've been very busy with another non-writing related project.
Anyway, Happy new year and all that.