Chapter One

0800 Hours, July 23, 2554 (Military Calendar)

Balao Orbital Elevator

Tabah Ocean, Planet Thetis, Itami System

Spartan Morgan had been to plenty of planets over the course of his combat career and each had had their own little quirk or oddity that set them apart from the rest, be they major or minor, but he was certain that Thetis was the oddest of them all because the vast bulk of its thirty-thousand strong population, for the past century, had lived and worked in a number of habitats located close to a hundred metres below sea level.

The CAA factbook for the place said that Thetis had started out as a nature preserve for numerous endangered aquatic species given ninety percent of her surface was covered in ocean, and when that program proved successful she drew the attention of a number of corporations involved in the food industry who saw the economical potential of Thetis, of how they could farm huge amounts of fish in her waters for export off world.

There had been some resistance to the idea at first but an agreement was soon reached wherein the corporations would finance the ongoing preservation program in exchange for exclusive fishing rights on Thetis. Within a few months her population went from a few hundred to a few thousand, all of them living underwater in specialised habitats close in size to a football pitch, with their numbers continuing to swell. Before long, Thetis was to fish as Harvest was to more agrarian foodstuffs, with the occasional shipment or coral artwork and jewellery.

By all accounts that should have led to an ideal situation and they even managed to avoid the worst of the Insurrection, and the Covenant, being one of the few human colonies to come out of the war entirely unscathed, but recent reports suggested otherwise. A submarine used for fishing had suffered mechanical issues less than a month ago, killing all thirty of her crew, and violent skirmishes broke out soon after which Morgan took to mean foul play was at work, alongside a less than stable situation on the ground not mentioned in the CAA factbook.

He and a platoon of Marines had been dispatched to investigate the situation further with orders to restore peace if it were possible, though he had doubts of what they'd be able to accomplish against a colony of thirty-thousand if they were in full revolt. Otherwise they were to locate and secure a small ONI scientific facility, or at least evacuate the seven-person team and their research.

Their only support for this mission was a lone Paris-class frigate coming off the end of a long deployment against Insurrectionist and Covenant holdouts, meaning she was low on vital munitions. Besides, they would be deep under the water where her weapons would be of limited effectiveness and that assumed they'd remain in contact.

Morgan didn't like that fact but did his best to push the thought from his head as the Welcome Wagon finally made it to the Balao Space Elevator's base, the jolt of deceleration far kinder than what he was used to but nevertheless he felt a jolt of adrenaline hit as he pushed the seat restraints up out the way and stood, being the first one out the doors with the Marines close behind.

Like a lot of space elevators, Balao's base station was a vast and open affair with plenty of polished stone and décor intended to impress newly arrived tourists when they first set foot on the planet. As befitting Thetis' status as an oceanic world whose primary export was fish, the bulk of the designs featured ships, seascapes, schools of fish, even bas reliefs of what Morgan assumed were the gods Poseidon and Neptune, both deities of the sea.

One image in particular showed the two gods as they stood with their backs to an archaic lighthouse, hands outstretched towards something as water swirled about their feet. What drew Morgan's attention more was the flight of stairs that came out at the base of the image, and the figure that appeared at the top of them.

It was a woman who looked harried and prematurely aged by stress, but on seeing Morgan and the Marines her demeanour seemed to brighten considerably as she hurried over to them.

'Thank goodness, you're finally here,' she said. 'I was beginning to grow worried.'

She held out her hand for Morgan to shake and added, 'Elaine Pollard, by the way. I'm the deputy director for the Thetis Marine Life Preservation Program.'

Morgan shook her hand before introducing himself and the Marines, and said, 'What's the situation? The report we got was a little sparse on details other than a submarine had been lost and fighting broke out soon after.'

'That's all we know as well, really,' Pollard said. 'Communications were cut between everyone not long after everything went wrong. Please, follow me. I'll fill you in on the situation as we walk. There's a lot about Thetis you need to understand.'

She span on her heel and made for the stairs with Morgan and the Marines following a second later, descending deeper and deeper into the base of the elevator. It only took a few minutes until they were underwater according to a brass plaque affixed to the wall that marked the sea level, and still the stairs went on until they arrived in another large, circular room decorated with murals and carvings related to the sea. Dominating everything was an oil painting of five people, three men and two women, sitting at a dark wooden desk with a piece of paper before them all.

'Our founders,' Pollard said with barely a glance. 'Well, the first director of the preservation program and the heads of the four corporations who agreed to fund us. It's supposed to be a momentous occasion because it marked the start of our growth, but really it was the start of our troubles.'

'How so?' Morgan said. 'Their funding helped boost your work.'

'And it did,' Pollard said. 'No doubt about it. But what the factbook didn't tell you is that the new habitats were horrifically expensive and the only ones who could afford them on the regular were the corporations. Being the owners meant they could dictate who and what got set up inside them.

'As you might imagine, they only let their people do that so before long, you've got a company town feel going on here on Thetis.'

'And that's bad how?' Morgan said.

Pollard sighed and shrugged, and said, 'Because that's how it's been for a hundred years. Everything the colonists could want or need, including the air they breathed, has been provided for them by their employers. After a couple of generations, a sense of brand loyalty became deeply ingrained in them.'

She came to a stop and threw an angry gesture at the painting before throwing her hands up in the air, exasperated.

'Like, just mentioning the idea of using a product from a rival is considered taboo for them,' Pollard said as she resumed walking. 'It's like they stopped being companies and became religious cults. They're fanatical about it. They live, breathe and die by their employer.'

'But not you, though,' Morgan said as he slowed his pace enough for Pollard to pull ahead, hand drifting close to his pistol.

'No, thank god,' Pollard said. A moment later she turned around to see the distance being put between her and the Spartan, and where his hand was, and hurriedly added, 'Oh, no, nobody with the program was born on Thetis. We're all on five year placements. We cycle in, do our research, then cycle out. It was deemed to be better for everyone if that were the case, once we saw how things were going elsewhere.'

Morgan cocked his head to the side as he looked Pollard up and down, and a number of other people filling the room. Judging by the makeshift cots and open crates they had retreated here after whatever trouble within the colony reared its head. To the last, they were stressed looking and dressed in grimy clothes that likely hadn't been washed for quite some time so he thought it doubtful they were colonists. Besides, if they were with one of the corporations down in the colony proper, why ask for outside help?

Involving the CAA would all but guarantee the end for these corporations once word got back to Earth. They couldn't allow this kind of situation to continue and if Pollard's words were to be believed, the colonists wouldn't take the dismantling of such an important part of their lives to be removed and replaced, assuming the colony itself wasn't just shut down and returned to a marine sanctuary.

'Okay,' Morgan said, forcing himself to relax. 'So the fighting. Tell me about that. What was the cause?'

Pollard gestured for him to follow her to some of the crates that had been arranged in a circle with a another sat in the middle, serving as a table, perching herself on one. Morgan did the same alongside the Marine's CO and her platoon sergeant, and they were soon joined by another of the researchers though unlike the rest of them he was armed, having a pistol strapped to his thigh.

'This is Thom,' Pollard said, waving to the newcomer. 'He's the chief of security.'

'And a bang up job I did, huh?' Thom said.

'I'm sure you did what was best,' Morgan said. 'One guy against thirty-thousand? Long odds.'

'Same odds for you, Spartan,' Thom said.

But Morgan shrugged and said, 'I'm not planning to take them all on. Our job is more recon than direct action. Evaluate the situation, act accordingly, plus rescue a small ONI unit. If they aren't already here.'

He looked around at the people in the room but none stepped forward to announce themselves, and his armour wasn't picking up any IFF tags beyond those of the Marines.

'Still, if what you're saying is true then we've got what, thirty-thousand people engaging in a civil war?' he said. 'That's going to need more than a platoon of Marines and a lone Spartan to deal with effectively.'

'Much more,' Thom said in agreement.

'Depends on how you define 'dealing with them',' Pollard said as a dark expression swept across her face. 'They're all crazy, Spartan. I don't think rehabilitation is even possible. They're five generations deep in worshipping fish companies. They're a lost cause.'

'Maybe,' Morgan said. 'But I'd rather avoid being responsible for the deaths of that many people, including children, without knowing for myself that they're truly lost. So, if you'll please. Tell me about how we got into this mess.'

'It started when the preservation program proved to be a huge success,' Pollard began, spending the next fifteen minutes giving an abbreviated rundown of the colony's history.

For the vast bulk of the past hundred years, Thetis had operated and grown much like any other colony. She exported her goods to planets that needed them, and in turn put the proceeds back into the colony itself to fund further expansion. The only real difference was that her population lived underwater, and was more beholden to companies than the CAA than other colonies seeing as how they and their approved subsidiaries were the only ones allowed to operate there.

And, through some loophole of dubious legality, they even managed to wrangle it so that the director of the preservation program served as the governor of Thetis but it was something of a meaningless title. Thanks to another questionable loophole, or creative interpretation of laws, because the habitats were considered to be private property rather than public, and the people living in them employees, the corporations could run them as they saw fit.

They were still required to abide by certain labour laws but it didn't take a business degree to know that paying and treating their employees fairly was a surefire way to retain their loyalty, and by all accounts even the lowest paid worker still had a well furnished apartment to stay in, plus full medical coverage and free education for any children they had.

Beyond that, the only stipulation for their continued use of Thetis was to avoid overfishing, or the fishing of certain species that called the ocean world home.

'Sounds nice,' Morgan said.

'It was,' Pollard said, nodding. 'For a time.'

'But then they really started getting into the 'us versus them' mindset,' Thom said. 'Each new generation was more committed than the last, more convinced that the other three corporations were terrible, terrible people, even if they couldn't say why. They just know is what they say if you press them.

'So they started sabotaging each other. Some vandalism here, a little corporate espionage there. Hell, they've even managed to cut power to entire habitats before, flooded some, too.'

'People died,' Pollard said. 'And when we asked about it they just shrugged and said industrial accidents, like they thought we were too stupid to know otherwise.'

'And the CAA didn't step in to stop this because…?' Morgan said. 'If you knew they were deaths caused by deliberate acts, why were they allowed to continue?'

He paused then added, 'Did you know?'

Pollard took a moment to consider her answer before offering a dejected shrug and shake of the head.

'No,' she said. 'They were always careful enough to cover their tracks, not that we had the capacity to investigate each death. We're just a research outfit, you know? We're not homicide detectives. Besides, they always handled it internally with their own security forces.

'Industrial accident was always the official line but then two or three weeks later, maybe a month, and there'd be another incident, in a different corporation's sector, that'd get ruled an accident. Like clockwork.'

'Still,' Morgan said. 'There had to be somebody who believed otherwise.'

'There probably was,' Thom said. 'But investigating Thetis meant risking losing her food production. That wasn't going to happen, especially after we lost Harvest and so many other breadbasket worlds.'

Morgan opened his mouth to argue to closed it quickly enough. It wouldn't have been the first time an important investigation into something or someone was quietly ended before it could go anywhere and cause disruptions down the line, especially when those disruptions would effect dozens of worlds and tens of millions of people.

But at the same time, that apathy to the situation on Thetis had allowed the tension to grow and grow until the whole world was a giant powder keg, with the latest act of sabotage being the final straw. Morgan said as much, getting nods from both Pollard and Thom.

'Once word got out, it was like a flip was switched,' Pollard said. 'It didn't matter that nobody knew who had done it, or if it was even an act of sabotage. The colonists just… snapped.'

The chaos that followed sounded like nothing more than the frenzied lashings out of wild beasts than coordinated fighting, but that soon came to an end. Within two days the four groups got their acts together, becoming more selective in their strikes with one of the first being the disabling of the communications link between them and the space elevator, leaving a basic sonar set as the researcher's only means of monitoring the situation.

All they had been able to pick up were the occasional explosion and, potentially, the flooding of two, maybe three habitats judging by the sounds of screeching metal and rushing water. It frustrated them, Morgan could see, to be less than a kilometre from the colony yet wholly unable to know for certain what was going on, doubly so because the majority of their fellow researchers were still trapped inside.

'We've only the one operational submarine,' Thom said when pressed on why that was. 'And there's no telling if or when they'll turn on us. I made the decision to retreat here as quickly as possible once they cut our link with the tether, which meant leaving a lot of us behind.'

'Do you think they'll turn violent against your people?' Morgan said.

Thom shrugged.

'They've been tolerant of us so far,' he said. 'But they also haven't been this violent before. I really couldn't say.'

Morgan nodded in response to that as his mind drifted towards his next steps. He had no inclination to conduct any kind of large scale warfare against the people of Thetis for the simple fact that they grossly outnumbered him and the sole platoon of Marines under his command, none of whom were equipped for underwater operations, and based on what Pollard and Thom had told him he could safely say the reconnaissance part of his mission was complete. That left the recovery of ONI's assets from their research facility, though Morgan imagined the members of the preservation program would appreciate a timely rescue as well. That, and it could give him a more firsthand look at the state of the colony if things went his way.

'Let's see if we can avoid them being hurt, then,' he said after a moment. 'I'm going to need access to your submarine and any other information you have on the colonists, particularly where your people are.'