Chapter 16: Brains Over Brawn
-Site 18-
Reggie, an Atlasian Sniper stood guard outside the cave entrance to the site. Well, formerly cave entrance, the cave had been properly opened up with the help of an Atlasian-06 Powerlifter.
His partner, Marco, was sitting in the snow, freezing and bored out of his mind. "You'd think the Camo Cloaks would have some sort of heating."
Reggie ignored his partner's complaints. He rested his hand on one of his pouches. He suddenly remembed he had some cigarettes. He opened the pouch and grabbed one, although he seemed to have misplaced his lighter.
The sniper turned around to see Marco with a lighter, melting away at the snowflakes that fell.
"Hey" Reggie motioned to his unlit cigarette.
Marco waved Reggie to him, lighting the cigarette. "Smoking's bad for you, ya know?"
"And being dropped behind enemy lines to kill a HVT is perfectly healthy isn't it?" Reggie spoke.
"Just saying..." Marco chuckled.
Reggie calmly enjoyed his cigarette, softly kicking around the snow on his boots. He suddenly felt something hit his cloak. He snapped to the source and saw Marco with a snowball.
He sighed and turned back to his cigarette, before again being hit with another snowball. "Come on man, quit it."
Marco leaned back into his snow patch, slowly making another snowball and chucking it at Reggie.
The sniper turned around, putting his cigarette in his mouth. "I'm gonna snap your goddamn fingers if you don't quit that shit."
"Please do! alright? It would be something to do rather than sitting in the snow all day." Marco sat leaned back on his patch of snow, but felt something poke at his back. He turned around to see some small metal object poking out of the snow, he tried to pull on it, but to no avail.
Marco begun pushing snow out of the way, unveiling more and more of the object. It wasn't just an object, it was a metal hand! "What the fuck?"
The sniper kept pushing away the snow, he could just make out a faint glow inside.
"This can't be right." Dr. Myra read the clipboard given to her by Doctor Merlot. "Pure Data? You're saying that the Promethean Constructs are made of pure data?"
"Mostly. The mechanical parts are comprised in the traditional matter, but the inner components, the intricate mechanisms in them are made of pure data…likely made through hard-light" Merlot explained
"Hard-Light Dust?"
"Perhaps, although traces of Dust have yet to show up" Merlot shrugged "Maybe they didn't use Dust at all. They could've made Hard-Light through other means."
"Intriguing, very well. Should you-"
A scientist, Dr. Lucien, walked in "Excuse me, Dr. Myra. I would request Dr. Merlot's assistance on a certain…artifact, for lack of a better word"
"Alright, go ahead Merlot. Help out Dr. Lucien, see what he needs" Myra nodded
Marrow leaned off his wall "I'll go with."
Dr. Merlot gave a grin and followed Dr. Lucien. The trio made their way through the installation, but just across the halls, Dr. Merlot noticed blue armor clad individual. He definitely wasn't Atlasian, maybe he was one of the Spartans he'd heard about?
"Move it, Merlot" Marrow commanded
The doctor kept his pace and finally saw what Dr. Lucien was talking about.
It was a large, Cylindrical object with rounded edges, floating in the middle of the room. Clearly this had some importance in the installation. Atlasian computers and a singular Forerunner console surrounded the artifact.
Merlot also noticed various Forerunner consoles on the edges of the room, they all had a pattern that connected them to the artifact in the middle of the room. "Any ideas on what it is?"
"We presume it's some sort of container." Dr. Lucien answered "Either in a physical or digital sense."
"Have you tried opening it?" Merlot asked. He took his attention to the Atlas console.
"No, we haven't been able to get a reaction out of the thing anyway"
Merlot smiled and gave a chuckle "Then this is going to be fun…"
-Storage Room-
"Ugh, could this uniform be anymore uncomfortable?" Radomira tugged on her newly acquired Atlasian Soldier uniform
"It's either that or you wait with the rest of the White Fang." Ulysses answered "Drakon should be here any second, if we pull this plan off then we'll be able to take the fight to Atlas."
Marx leaned on the wall. He pondered about what had happened in Daiyu. There was tiny nagging feeling of guilt, crawling up Marx's back, but the Rouge Huntsmen shrugged it off, as if this plan were to come to fruition. They would be able to get Rina back.
"This has to work." Marx spoke "We left Rina behind, we can't screw up."
The doors to the storage room suddenly opened. An Atlasian Soldier walked inside with an empty canister of Dust, he seemed surprised seeing other people inside. "Oh, didn't think people would be here."
"We're just taking inventory, you need something?" Ulysses answered
"Ah, no worries. Just needed a Dust refill." The Soldier walked towards a Dust refill station and placed canister on it.
"Okay…refill…" The Atlas Soldier crossed his arms and waited. The Machine slowly pumping Lighting Dust into the canister. "You'd think they would make this go faster."
"Atlas is an innovator in cutting corners." Marx chuckled
"Ha! You got that right, like why do I not have plating on my hands? What are these hollow squares gonna do to stop bullets?" the Soldier smiled. He kept his stance on the painfully slow Dust dispenser, fiddling with his fingers and looking around the room. "So, what do y'all think about the weird alien temple?"
"It's…interesting." Ulysses rubbed his chin "I mean, it's kind of weird some of the symbols in it are exactly like the ones in some history books."
"Oh yeah, yeah that's definitely weird…you think it's the Springtide Forge?"
Ulysses gave a thoughtful look "Maybe. Stories told of powerful weapons made in the Forge."
"You're right…but the place definitely doesn't look Ancient Mistralian." The Soldier pondered
The door to the storage room opened. Drakon slowly walked in, noticing the Rouge Huntsmen and The Soldier "Damn, Michael needs a refill again Holland?"
"You know how he is Drakon…man is a perfectionist." Holland smiled. The Dust dispenser finished its process and held out the canister for retrieval. "Speaking of which, I better get going."
Holland grabbed the Dust canister and walked out of the room, patting Drakon in the back as he left. The doors closed behind him, leaving Drakon and the Rouges. "Alright, we're alone."
Marx looked out the window, seeing all of the site's fortifications "So, how exactly are we going to capture this place?"
"The site is heavily fortified. AK-200's, Atlasian Paladins and lots of troops, but we know where the control station for the Atlasian Knights are. The building with blue lines all over it, that is first priority for capture."
"I'll handle that." Radomira smiled
"Not only that, but we'll need to deactivate the Promethean Knights, that is from within the site itself. It's a big circular console, can't miss it"
Marx softly raised his hand "I got that covered"
Ulysses crossed his arms "So when are we attacking?"
"Our last teams have already infiltrated the arrival schedules, so, instead of a new batch of Atlas tin men. We'll have a new batch of White Fang backing us up" Drakon explained
"What about the Spartans?" Ulysses spoke, clearly remembering the last time a Spartan had attacked.
"We'll take over the site's communication tower and have our own to pose as if everything were okay" Drakon explained "But, should a message slip through us, we'll arm ourselves with the Promethean Weaponry."
Ulysses pondered about Drakon's back up plan, White Fang reports about the Spartans said that bullets seem to deflect off of them. A sort of yellow Aura like ability triggered whenever they were hit "You think it will be enough to stop them?"
"It'll be enough to even kill them. I was part of the first expedition that went into the site, I saw how the Spartans were cautious with the Prometheans. If we can hold them back long enough to get the Promethean weapons out of here…then we'll be able to take this fight to Atlas."
The Rouge Guardians looked at each other and nodded, Ulysses spoke "Alright, we'll wait for your signal."
Marx and Radomira walked out. Drakon stopped Ulysses before he left "You trust them?"
Ulysses had a confused look "What do you mean?"
"They're human"
"It doesn't matter, they know how the faunus are treated. They'll help."
Drakon frowned and patted Ulysses' shoulder. "Alright. If you trust them, then I do. Now go, we don't want to attract to much attention"
The deer faunus smiled and walked out. It was going to be a busy week. They have plenty to work on before they can start their take over.
-Beacon Academy-
-Ozpin's Office-
Obbleck inspected the strange tree like artifact Damian had brought him. It had some relation to nature for sure, considering its tree like shape. "You say it was in an altar, overlooking a colossal tree?"
The Spartans, along with Glynda, Obbleck and Ozpin stood around the office.
"Yeah. Take a look" Damian transmitted his helmet recording to the room's projector.
The recording displayed Damian's view of the Colossal tree he'd seen. Glynda was the first to ask "What is that?"
"Let me forward a bit" Damian fast forwarded the recording, just before he reached for the artifact. A figure motioned Damian to grab it. It was the Promethean soldier that he'd encountered in the site.
Jirou focused on the strange soldier "A Soldier, yet…"
"Is that how Promethean soldiers usually look?" Ozpin asked
Jirou shook his head "No, they aren't usually made of wood."
The group saw how the Soldier wanted Damian to take the Artifact, then saw the beam emitting from the altar deactivate as soon as he took it Xavier looked at Damian. "It wanted you to take it?"
"Yeah, I think we have our first clue on why we ended up here" Damian said, he pointed to the screen again as a he skipped over some footage "But look at this"
The group saw the room prior to the Altar. It was overgrown, yet artificial. Vines riddled with flowers covered the walls in an artistic fashion. The footage continued into a room with a massive Holographic decoration on the wall, looking more like stained glass, rather than a traditional Holographic monument
"I know all forerunner installations are built differently, some more than others…but this is way out for them" Damian mentioned
"Let's not forget part we were in looked completely normal. So why would they create an area like this? Why would they plant a giant tree?" Hannah asked
"The door was locked…" Magnus stood up "What if it was a bunker?"
"A Bunker?"
Magnus nodded "That area of Mistral is the only one that has snow, nowhere else in the Continent does Mistral have snow."
"He is right, that area of Mistral has been considered an Anomaly for decades. There's always snow there." Glynda pulled out a map of Remnant
Obbleck stared at the paused footage, noticing the depicted art at the top. It was some sort of spherical object with a singular eye, surrounded by two symbols. One colored yellow and one colored purple. "You mentioned a Monitor a few weeks ago, correct?"
The Spartans nodded. Obbleck zoomed in at the top of the hard-light sculpture. "Is this it?"
Damian stood closer to the screen "You're kidding, we need to find it"
"How? We don't know where any other Installations are located." Magnus spoke
"Ironwood may be of assistance." Ozpin mentioned "If his interest has shifted to the Forge in Mistral. You may be able to convince him to engage in more expeditions and possibly find the Monitor."
"Yeah…" Xavier said, but he had a lingering question in his head "But why is this Forerunner Installation so different? All Forerunner Installations have been mostly similar…but why does this one have a giant tree? What's it for?"
"This mystery may just unveil the very origin of Remnant" Obbleck held the artifact "if there is no issue. I would like to keep the artifact with me, maybe I could find out what sort of significance it holds."
Xavier nodded "Of course, keep it safe"
Obbleck nodded and walked out the room. The rest of the group followed suit, all except Glynda and Ozpin. They stood in silence as the Spartans left to their warehouse.
"Do you think the Forerunner Forge is related to the Spring Maiden?" Glynda asked?
Ozpin sipped his coffee "Yes, we need to find her…and if there is a Fall Forge, we'll need to find that as well."
Glynda looked at the Headmaster "Why not inform the Spartans of…well…"
Ozpin walked to the window, gazing upon the school grounds "Wherever they came from, they have their wars…they don't need to get involved in ours."
A/N:
Halo Infinite do be fun.
Wish I could say the same for the Monetization