With everyone in their seats, the Pelican lifted off of the deck and eased its way out the hangar. The space around the Infinity was clear, any Covie ships stupid enough to approach the ship after the immense display of force upon arrival were blasted out of the sky with impunity. For the most part, the ride down from the Infinity to the inner surface of Requiem was quiet and uneventful. We were psyching ourselves up for the mission, nothing unusual. Every group had their different methods, and I seen most, if not all, in my 15 years of service. Ours was the quiet reflecting and thinking, as opposed to the loud, energetic passenger compartments some unit leaders seemed to enjoy.

Once we got onto the ground, the pelican quickly lifted away, dropping our warthogs on the way. Our usual handler, Helinberg, came up through the coms. "Well, Atom, looks like you guys drew the short straw today. Science has requested that you go in and get several scans of a massive artifact that was recently located in a nearby structure. Lucky for you, it's just at the end of the canyon you're currently in. So just drive on in, clear the base of any hostiles, get some scans, and call a ride back to the ship."

Saria instantly realized the hole in the brief. "Why does Science only want scans? Don't they usually send teams down to locations like this?"

Helinberg seemed caught off-guard. "I don't know, maybe they actually learned from that incident with Gagarin?"

Robinson immediately chimed in. "Science learning something is about as likely as ONI announcing their intentions."

Finished prepping the Warthogs, we got in them and drove off down the canyon. The path was fairly narrow, just wide nought for the two Warthogs with just enough maneuvering room. We ran into a couple of Covie scouts, they turned out to be only a little more trouble than speedbumps.

When we got to the end of the canyon, the massive doors were closed, guarded by several Elites, and a couple cowering Grunts. The Grunts were quickly shredded by the two heavy machine guns mounted on the back of the Warthogs, the Elites took a little longer. By the time we got the doors open, the Warthogs had been barely touched.

The doors opened wide enough to let the Warthogs in, and inside, we were all stunned. The interior was a huge open area, roughly shaped like a circle. In the middle of the ceiling, there was a large pillar or something suspended over a round pit in the floor. On the far side of the pit, there was a bank of Forerunner consoles, probably controlling whatever this room was for. Throughout the room there was a large number of Covenant forces, including several Ghosts, and even a Hunter pair.

The two Warthogs quickly split up, circling around the room separately. Stevens brought us around to the left, where the Hunters were, while Robinson and Loman went off to the right, where there was a higher concentration of Ghosts. I quickly lost them as I focused on the enemies ahead of us. Luckily, there were only a few Ghosts, the biggest problem was the Hunter pair.

"Stevens, bring us strait to the Hunters, then at the last second, swerve around the side. Maybe we can get a shot at their backs."

Stevens didn't reply, but he went ahead with my order. It worked perfectly. The Hunters probably thought that we were going to try to ram them with the Warthog, and settled down behind their shields, bracing for impact. They were surprised when, instead of the Warthog hitting their shields, it swerved and bullets bit at their unprotected backs. I managed to bring one down on the first pass, but I could tell that it wasn't going to work. The last Hunter seemed to be more wary now. Stevens slowly turned around, preparing for another charge at the Hunter while I cleaned out some of the Covies shooting at us, taking out the Ghosts quickly. I turned back front, just in time to see Stevens steer the hog head on at the Hunter and use its slightly sloped shield as a ramp. I quickly turned again, and managed to bring down the second Hunter with a sustained burst to its back.

I looked over across the room, and the other two were just finishing up with their side of the room, so Stevens and I mopped up the rest of the Covies on our side before heading over to the consoles. We got there first, an I hopped off the back. As I walked up to the console, a gold-armored Elite deactivated his active-camo, activated his energy sword, and charged me with a vicious roar. Probably something along the lines of "Die, Demon!"

I waited until he got up close, just about to lunge at me with his sword. I quickly sidestepped, and palmed a plasma grenade onto his side. Then, with a small hop, I kicked off of the Elite's knee, sending him stumbling sideways and propelling me out of the blast radius. After the explosion, I stepped over him and gave him one round through the head, just to be sure. I then picked up his sword and put it onto the mag strip on the side of my left thigh. Probably would come in handy later.

My takedown of the Elite gave everyone else enough time to catch up to me, and we walked towards the console. "Alright Saria, any idea what we're looking for here?"

"If I had to guess, I would say it would probably be that giant pillar hanging from the ceiling. You know, in the center of the room above that giant pit."

"Okay, okay. Once we take the scan, send a copy to Science right away. Robinson, you can call in that pelican now."

"On it."

I stepped up to the console, held my hand over it, and activated the scanner. A small bean of orange light shot out of my palm and steeped across the console. I then pointed my hand up at the pillar and scanned that as well.

"Give me a second... There. Scans sent up to Science on Infinity. Lets hope they got what they wanted."

As if on que, Dr. Connors came on the coms, if only to prove Saria wrong. "Actually, Fireteam Atom, looking at the results, it looks like the device is not harmful. Maybe you could power it up, and take some more scans of it."

Helinberg came on after Connors. "Unfortunately, Atom, Science is in charge of this op. If they want something done, you should do it."

"Yes sir. We'll power it up, see what happens. Just make sure that pelican is almost here, we may need to make a quick exit."

I looked down at the control console. There were several large buttons, all in Forerunner script, so I couldn't easily tell which one turned on the machine. "Saria, know how to turn this death trap on?"

"It should be... That button there. Lets hope this thing doesn't blow us all up." Saria highlighted the button in question on my HUD.

All I responded with was a quick "Yeah." I held my finger over the button for a second, gathering breath and nerve, before pushing the button. Suddenly, a deep rumbling sound could be heard, as the pillar started glowing along several lines, before shooting a mass of color into the pit. We looked over the edge, and into a swirling slipspace portal. I quickly remembered to scan the pillar, what I now assumed to be a portal generator.

"Well, that's all we need here. Lets head to the evac point, and get back on Infinity."

Robinson seemed glad to be heading back. "Sounds good to me."

Stevens gave a gruff "Maybe we beat Crimson this time."

And Loman followed up with his usual silent shrug.

Saria, however had something else to tell us. "Heads up, boys. I'm picking up energy signatures all over the place. Prepare for a massive Promethean wave."

"Everyone, back to the Warthogs! Lets get out of here! Stevens, get on gun. I'll drive. Saria, give me Operator."

With Saria's warning, we all sprinted back to the Warthogs. I hopped in the driver's seat, while Stevens hopped on the gun. Just as the hogs started moving again, the Prometheans teleported in. They lined most of the wall, but the door was left uncovered.

As we sped towards the doors, the Knights attacked. The ones with the Scattershots and the ones with the Suppressors got up close, hoping to block the Warthogs, while the ones with the longer ranged weapons stayed back. I managed to splatter a few Knights, but the I hit one off, and bounced into the air. Just as a near miss with an incineration cannon hit nearby, sending the Warthog sinning out over the pit, with the portal at the bottom. A saw a near miss impact with the pillar over the pit, causing the lights on it to flicker, and then we were going down, into the pit. Stevens tried to jump off, but it was too late. The portal rushed up to meet me, and then we were through, the last thing I noticed was that the portal shut almost instantly behind me, and Stevens didn't make it through.

Well, that's another one down. Took me a while, got a minor case of block. Next chapter shouldn't take too long, I've got most of it planned out.