Author's Note: Short chapter this time, guys. I'm getting married this weekend so I've been crazy busy trying to get all that together, and I'll probably be MIA for a bit, but I just wanted to post this up before I take off. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter Thirty-Two: Things to Consider

Lieutenant Caleb Lloyd gave a slight bow of his head to Captain Rhodes and said, "Yes, sir." Then he turned to me. "Ma'am, I want you to understand that not even our knowledge of Requiem is complete right now. We're trying to get as much as we can from our forces out there - "

I let out a snort and leaned back against the bulkhead. "I guess that tells me something already. We've got troops there."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Does that mean it's a planet?"

The spook scratched at the side of his head. "In a manner of speaking. The whole story is a little more complicated than that."

"Well, I'm all ears, Cal. Can't be anything weirder or worse than the Flood."

"I...think you'd be surprised, Colonel."

I wish. Not much surprises me anymore, I thought wearily. Not after the war. And definitely not after all that had already happened here on Khan. But I didn't say anything and let him continue.

Lloyd released a sigh, eyeing Rhodes for a moment before diving in. "You know I've read your complete service file before, ma'am. Everything in it, personal to professional. Even the redacted parts."

"I figured as much, Lloyd. You're ONI."

"Yes, ma'am. So...I guess knowing that, you'll probably find this stuff a little easier to swallow since it sounds like you've been in its presence a few times in the past. You just didn't know it then."

I quirked an eyebrow at him. "In the presence of what, exactly?"

"Forerunner tech." He glanced up at the ceiling in thought. "Or, I should say architecture, too."

"What - ?" I started to ask, but Caleb beat me to it.

"Did you ever wonder why the Covenant were attacking the planets they did during the war, Colonel? Granted, a few really were just along their path of destruction, as you found out in your early campaigns on Lacino and Heath. But what about Coristal, and Sigma Octanus Four, and Earth? Did you ever feel that there was something different about those? Like they had a bigger purpose in being there than just wanting to annihilate us?"

I shrugged, struggling with my memory of the events and what that could possibly have to do with what we were talking about now. And I wasn't struggling because I'd forgotten. I was struggling because I'd gone through some pretty horrific things in those years that I sincerely wished I could forget. But I never had, and it was just too hard to go through the pain of reliving it all again.

Something my meds were supposed to help with, but as of this morning I'd run out.

"Ma'am?" Lieutenant Lloyd prompted.

"Yeah. Coristal, Lacino, the Reatan Desert on Heath - and the forest before that - and Cote D'Azur. And Earth." I swallowed. "I remember them, but I'm not sure - "

Then a thought popped into my mind from the depths. The battle we'd fought in Cote D'Azur six years ago - forty days of harrowing combat against the Covenant in the city, where we'd lost both our company commander and XO, and where I'd taken over for Bravo Company for the first time. At the end of it, I remembered wondering why the Covenant had spared the city and glassed much of the rest. I remembered thinking there was likely something they wanted there. I just hadn't known what - and I was too exhausted, hungry, dirty, hurting, and surprised and grateful to be alive by the end of it that I hadn't really cared. But I thought of it now.

"On Sigma Octanus Four, in the city...there was something the Covenant were after. A reason why they spared the place even after destroying a good chunk of the rest of the planet. Kind of like here. I can only think it had something to do with an object or place of religious significance to them."

Both Captain Rhodes and Lloyd smiled slightly.

"You're on the right track, Cooper," Rhodes said. "The Covenant were after something in the city. Sounds like you had good instincts even then."

"So...something there was linked to here on Khan? Linked to the portals, maybe?"

"Sort of," Lloyd answered. "Both were artifacts left behind by the Forerunners. That's who the Covenant - and now the Storm - have been worshiping all these years."

"You mean...that's who built the portals? And the ruins?"

"And tried their damndest to save the rest of us from the Flood way back when. Yeah."

At that I snorted again. "Well, they did a pretty shitty job at that."

"No argument there. So you remember Cote D'Azur then, and thinking there had to be something more the Covies were after there."

"Right. You're saying they were after this Forerunner stuff. That's why the city was spared, and why they fought so hard to take it back."

"Correct, ma'am. Now, what do you remember about Coristal?"

"Everything," I answered without hesitation. "It was my first campaign. I was twenty years old and a second lieutenant in charge of my first platoon, green as grass. Why?"

Caleb nodded. "You found something in the swamps there. Walked right past it, but in your after-action report, you noted that your CO didn't let you go near it to see."

I didn't have to think long on that to recall the memory of that very patrol, over ten years ago now. It was all still very fresh in my mind - too fresh. "They were ruins, hidden under the water in some parts and overgrown with vines in others. But I still made them out from afar, and pointed them out to the captain. I thought they might be important to our mission."

"More than you knew, Cooper," Captain Rhodes said quietly. "It's one of the main reasons the Covenant invaded there in 2548."

"No kidding," I breathed. I'd been right. "So that's it for Coristal and Sigma Octanus Four. What about Earth?"

"Earth's the tricky one. Remember your trip to New Mombasa and Voi? Do you remember that your unit got evaced just before the Elites were set to glass the place?"

I took a deep breath. "I sure do. Those last few hours on the ground were the closest I ever came to shitting my pants. I thought we were all cooked for sure before that Longsword swooped in. What was going on?"

Rhodes took over the conversation now, finally stepping closer to us. "There was a Forerunner portal in Africa, Colonel. That's what you and your Marines were really fighting to protect - to keep the Covenant from getting to it and essentially blowing up the whole damn universe. It was called the Ark."

Captain Rhodes and the spook took the next twenty minutes explaining the rest of the story to me, and putting almost everything I'd ever done as a UNSC Marine into true context. By the time they were done I felt like I was in mental overload; now, finally, up to a decade later, I was being told things I hadn't been privy to before at my lower ranks that really put things in perspective. I understood a lot of the decisions made by my superiors more, and got a deeper insight into things I'd experienced for myself and had been present for, but had never really known the larger truth about. Now I did.

It was a lot to take in, but unfortunately for me, there was still much more to come.

"So these Forerunners...they left all this behind to help keep us safe from the Flood. But the failsafes all just boiled down to...'kill everyone'?"

"More or less, but the Ark was the exception. Or it was supposed to be, if used properly. But that part's just a little background for your final mission of the War in Africa. Now that you're familiar with all this, we get to tell you the fun part."

I raised an eyebrow at the two of them. "There's probably no fun part, is there?"

"Sure is," Lloyd answered somberly. "Turning much of the cosmos into a string of giant bombs wasn't the Forerunners' only failsafe against the parasite. They'd...also started converting the food sources to something inedible before they stopped."

"I'm guessing they were the food sources? Along with us humans?" I shook my head, feeling like I was treading water here but also knowing there was no way to get off this damn head-spinning ride until it finished. "What'd they try to turn us into?"

The spook didn't answer me this time, instead looking over at Rhodes. It was the captain who finally heaved a sigh and said the words.

"Prometheans, Colonel. They're Forerunner AIs. And the Forerunner didn't just try. They succeeded."

It took me a while to let that sink in. In fact, I still didn't think I fully grasped it even by the time the conversation resumed.

I wasn't really thinking about being the one to speak first. It just happened.

"So uh, what does this have to do with what's going on on Requiem?"

"Requiem is one of the Forerunners' shield worlds, Colonel," Lloyd responded. "And currently, we have a large ship and forces deployed down there, also fighting the Remnant and Prometheans. It's where we first encountered the latter, and it's where we're getting the majority of our intel about them for now."

Several things clicked into place at once in my mind. "You think that's where they've been coming from, then. We've got a link down in the ruins to that planet."

"Yes," Captain Rhodes confirmed.

Even though I'd learned probably more than I'd ever wanted to know today, I felt that there was something else going on in this mysterious new world that neither were telling me. I could see it in their eyes, their expressions, and even in their stances. Hell, it was almost a presence in the damn room. But seeing as my mind was already going in a hundred different directions at once, I was cautious of wanting to be introduced to more at this point. I let it go for now and was just thankful the briefing was nearly complete.

After an extended moment, I heaved a long sigh. "So what now, sir?"

"Now we do what we've been doing all along, Colonel - keep a tight lid on the situation. We don't want things to get out of hand to the point where the two battles get intertwined via the portals. Understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"And that's also why rigging the chamber down there was exactly the right thing to do. If ever the fight seems like it could be headed that way, that we've got more incoming from Requiem than we can handle here...you don't hesitate. You press that button and you send the bastards to kingdom come."