Chapter 2: Camping Marine Style!

The marines have landed and the situation is well in hand.

-Richard Harding Davis

Part 1

1500 hrs, September 6 2552

As the Pelican rocked about due to the turbulence the atmosphere created, Captain Chapman was slowly locking away his emotions. He was renowned amoung his troops for that special skill. He took, anger, grief, fear and buried it at the back of his mind leaving only cold rationality and a slight sense of curiousity. The mission seemed straight enough and he believed in his men's capability to pull of the op in fine style. However, the signal plagued his thoughts. Just what kind for reception would they get down there? Would it be deserted or would they be putting boots in hell?

"Starbuck to all: ETA in 5 minutes. Better prep your gear boys." The pilot said over the PA.

Checking over his equipment took little time. He did it with the mindlessness functionality of hard training and years of experience. While he did so, he kept an eye on his men who were to his relief joking and ribbing each other. It gave him a lot of information regarding their mental state. Right now it told him that his men were ready for action and that they were not dwelling on Reach nor their fallen comrades. In short, they had their heads in the game and wouldn't flip out. His men were relatively green. They picked some of them up from the training grounds on their retreat.

He turned to his senior NCO SSgt Vasily Markova "We need to get the perimeter secured before we land the rest of the troops."

"Yes Sir. My boys know what to do" the grizzled man replied.

As the pelican landed, the troops were already exiting and headed to pre-planned points around the LZ. They moved like an oiled machine, with the bellows of Markova to chivvy them along. "Section Three move out on recon. I don't want any nasty surprises."

Walking slowly the men kept their fingers on their triggers and their ears open, as they moved through a forested clearing. They'd been together since the battle for Sigma Octanus IV. "You ever wonder what happens to the covvies when they die? Do they get 72 virgins? Or is it just a nightmare of naked moaning grunts?" vocalised Private Michael Chan.

"Ahh shit Mickey! We do not need that kinda imagery. Why are you so messed up man?" yelled Pvt Willis Nunez

"Just makin a little bit of conversation. This place is too quiet. I don't like it."

"Don't like it marine? Doesn't matter; keep your gob shut and your eyes open. The Corp doesn't pay us by the hour." Corporal Locklear growled.

But Mickey was correct. It was far too quiet. He'd been on worlds all over the place and the defining thing in all of them was: in the most deserted of places, especially forested areas; there were birds. It didn't matter what they looked or sounded like. There was constant noise, a soundtrack to the planet's pulse. On this one, there was nothing. Only the sound of the leaves as wind moved through. It was pretty eerie, and made him more nervous than he had any right to be. He gripped his MA5C a little more tightly. This place resembled a description SSgt Markova had of planets that'd been glassed. It wasn't a nice thought.

"Men hold up! We've been walking for the last one hour. We'll take a five minute break." Cpl Locklear said.

"Thank God! I've needed to pee since we came in system. If we had walked any longer, I'd have pissed myself!" exclaimed Mickey. He was hopping on one foot.

"Aww, itty bitty baby Mickey forget to go to the bathroom?" teased Pvt Razak Oldoma.

Mickey headed for a large rock of to their right. "Any chance that signal could be Covenant?" asked Nunez.

"Nah, don't see how so. Cap said it wasn't Covenant. And you know Chukov is rarely wrong stuff like this. I believe him." Locklear opened up his canteen and took a sip.

"Dunno man. Chukov could be rampant. I don't quite trust A.I's. I think we give the glorified memory sticks too much power. Could be trying to get us off the ship then leave." Nunez said.

Oldoma gave his two credits, "Wanna know what I think? I think one day, you're gonna suck a heckuva lot more than you do now."

"Piss off man!"

Just then the radio sprang to life "…get…this…amazing…huge…" came the sound of Mickey's voice. Locklear readjusted his earpiece and said "Mickey say it again! I can't hear you, you're not clear!"

"I said you guys should get over here. There a huge structure. Size of the bloody pyramids!" looking at his canteen, Locklear shrugged.

"Guess our break's over huh?"

Jogging to the rock they found a tunnel behind it. They went through, hugging the curves and checking their corners. It came out onto a hill. Looking up they could see Mickey waving wildly at them. They trotted up and as they came over the top, a huge valley appeared before them. Right in the middle of it, was a gigantic metallic structure. It was angular and definitely not human. More amazingly, there were big shards of the same metallic nature of the structure floating above it, invisible of any means of support. Locklear was dumbstruck. In all the years he'd been in the marines, he'd seen some weird shit, but nothing like this. So weird was it, he gave the call for back up.

1625

Marine camp

"Roughly a kilometre in height discounting the floating things, maybe four hundred metres in width. Don't know how long it is sir, I'd have to go down to check." Captain Jake Chapman frowned. He was in the just setup command tent. This really took the cake. For a second he wondered whether the squad was drunk off their ass. Next, he thought about the strange fact they hadn't seen it coming down. Something that big, they should have been able to see it from orbit. But that wasn't the case. Well first things first.

"Corporal I'm sending another two squads plus the remainder of yours. Lock that hill side down tight. A building means somebody built it. Somebody who might be home."

"Roger that, sir." Locklear replied.

Chapman glared over at his 2IC First Lieutenant Barney Tosco. Barney wasn't fazed. He knew what the captain got like when faced with a difficult problem.

"Barney, head over there and take command. Take a 'Hog with you. You might need the extra firepower. Don't enter the structure till I tell you to. I'm asking the Commander for further orders. Its likely those men just found the origins of that signal." Chapman said.

Tosco wrinkled his face as if tasting something unpleasant. "The Commander won't know what to do. We should just leave a platoon here and send everyone over there. If it is like you say, the origins of the signal, babysitting it won't help us find out who sent it."

Chapman's glare intensified, "No. That's a bad idea. We still don't know what we're up against. If we leave limited manpower at the only LZ for miles around, how do we evac if our camp gets bushwhacked? Call me paranoid, all right. I'll wait for further orders, you go babysit."

Tosco nodded in acquiescence. He said "Ok. If that's what you want." He walked out of the tent.

Alone except for the command staff, Jake looked at the radio, wishing the structure didn't exist.

1630

High above them the Torn Asunder hung in low orbit. Eiji was looking over the tactical holomap in the middle of the bridge. Noting that the marines had finished with their camp and that the last of supplies had been ferried he switched it off. His repair team had fixed intra-ship communications and managed to meld on a half metre of armour in the time they'd been out. They were also working on opening up the Archer tubes. Not only that, the repairs on the #2 M.A.C was going along at a decent pace. They had replaced 2 capacitors and the gun maxed out at seventy percent charge. No luck on the #1 M.A.C. They still hadn't managed to figure out what was the problem.

Eiji was a little worried. While the destroyer had more efficient capacitors than frigates, having only one operable M.A.C cannon was a serious reduction in the ships offensive capability. While ruminating on the problem he stopped. Turning slowly to his XO he said "Do we still have those upgrades in the cargo hold? The twin-linked Gauss turrets we picked up during our last refit?"

"The Covenant arrived the day before they were scheduled to be fitted out. We never had the chance to dry dock after that, so they should be there." Wallace replied.

"Good. Damned good. Those turrets can improve our point defence by a significant margin. Get the repair crew to concentrate on getting them online."

At that moment, Lieutenant Kory walked up to them from her station.

"Sir, transmission from Captain Chapman. He says he's spotted something."

"Patch it through to the holotank."

Slowly the image of Chapman resolved itself. Fieldwork seemed to have done some good to him. He no longer looked as wearied as he did on the ship. Wariness seemed to have taken its place on his face. He looked somewhat constipated. To Eiji, he had the look of a man with news he wasn't sure would be well received. That wouldn't do at all.

"Ease up Captain. Whatever it is you have to say, know this: I don't shoot the messenger."

Chapman loosened up and grinned slightly. "While I'm sure I'm not important enough to waste a M.A.C round on sir, you're not going to like the news. My recon team stumbled on an alien structure roughly 2 klicks from where the base is. It seems to be about the place Chukov detected that signal. Based on images they sent back, it's big sir. Really big. The problem is we didn't see this place coming in. It's like its invisible from orbit sir."

Not visible from orbit? What. The. Hell. Effing mysteries kept piling up. No wonder senior officers went grey before their time. Eiji wondered what Admiral Hood had seen, that man was bald. Not only that, the man looked like a Brute.

"Captain hold off your men from entering the structure. For now just keep a watch on it while I get more information. Have the men back before nightfall. That is around 1930."

"Will do sir. I'll keep you updated on the situation."

"Ok. Have your Pelican do a recon flypast."

"Yes sir." Chapman's figure disappeared.

"What do you think Chukov, time to wake up our mysterious luggage?"

"I think so Commander. This is right up his alley." Chukov said.

"Then do it."

Part 2

1715

Bridge of the Torn Asunder

As the bridge doors hissed open, a man in a white coat walked in. He was tall with dark complexion, a beard and beetle black eyes hidden behind wireframe spectacles. There was nothing special about the man. You could pass him on a street and forget his face in the next moment. However it would be wrong to dismiss him as nothing important.

His name was Doctor Ariel ben Hagai and he was one of the rising stars of ONI's xeno anthropology department. He also was a protégé of Doctor Ellen Anders. Brilliant with unbound enthusiasm coupled with an unhealthy disrespect for personal safety, Doctor Ariel was a bane to military commanders.

"Ah doctor, how are you? Sleep ok?" Eiji asked.

"Fabulously well. I'm not sub-atomized particles so I'm particularly happy! Obviously you need me for something, how can I help? What can I help with?"

"Slow down Doctor. News first. We exited slipspace near an undocumented moon. I've troops there right now and they say there is a structure there. Captain Chapman sent images .That's not the important bit." Keeping it concise, Eiji relayed what Chapman had told him. Doctor Ariel was quiet. He was staring at the alien building with an unknown intensity.

"Commander, I'll be frank. I think the Covenant will be here soon, if they're not here already. Structures like this were found on Harvest, Arcadia and Sigma Octanus IV. We might see a significant fleet over here if they managed to figure out where we were headed after the battle."

"Of what interest are the structures to the Covenant?" Eiji asked.

The doctor fiddled with his lab coat buttons. "We've managed to gather that the Covenant see them as the equivalent of our ancient pilgrimage sites. They worship the creators of these structures. They call them Holy Relics."

Doctor Ariel straightened his back looking intently at the Commander.

"I'm going to head down there. This is the reason ONI had me join your ship. With the Spirit of Fire discovering something similar, and the instances throughout the colonies, we've been studying. And it's about time I saw a live example."

"Ok Doctor no arguments from me. I'll send you down with the next shuttle."

"Oh and I need Chukov." Doctor Ariel said.

"What! No way in hell-"

"Commander, these objects often have complicated security protocols, Chukov can help bypass them. Also, he can do some data mining. We need more information. Maybe if we understand more about this ancient race and their history, we can end this war." The man was clearly not going to back down.

"Alright doctor. I can accept it even if I don't like it. Get down there."

"Before you go Chukov, activate our fighters for CAP duties. If covvies are around, they'll do more good outside than in."

Like a counterpoint to his words, the proximity alarms blared out as a Covenant light corvette slid out of Slipspace on their starboard and launched fighters.

Expect problems and eat them for breakfast

-Alfred A Montapert

A/N: I'd be grateful if you leave a review.