It was the early evening and R'tas was doing what he almost always did after training, when he could stomach moving. That being awwkingout whatever troves nature saw fit to lay in his path as he walked the beach, looking out along the water and shore as his feet sank into wet sand and clay. It was small comfort after a long day of training, but one he found great comfort in nonetheless as he made his way. Watching the sea, he took a deep breath allowing the cool, salty air to fill his lungs before he continued along the beach, eyes scanning the trove the beach had offered up for… Something worthwhile, at least in so far as such trifles could be called worthwhile at all.
Sadly it seemed that today would be a wash in as literal a sense as one could hope for. At least for the first hour. Then, almost inexplicably, and just as he was about to return him, the tide began to recede. In its wake the water left coral, sand and mud, revealing quite a few objects of at least passing interest to R'tas. And among them even one that seemed to shine in the sunlight, glinting in a muted play of silver and bronze that was at once strange but familiar.
Curious, he made his way over to it and knelt, pushing aside sand and mud to get a better look at the object in the sand. Soon, to his displeasure, he grew to recognize the piece. It was a piece of training armor, light but sturdy, to allow warrior young to fight and learn to endure the weight of metal. Feeling the solemnity of the moment, and knowing that for such a piece to be here it meant its wearer was as well, in one form of another, he let out a small prayer for the lost brother.
Standing, he lifted the broken piece of chest plate and reached behind him for a water skin, using it to cleanse the armor. With his thumb he pried set in mud and sand from the grooves, restoring it as best he could before returning it to its rest. And its owner, failure that they doubtless were, else the armor would not rest here, they had given their life for their people and the Covenant.
And that was to be lauded, if only quietly so.
What was strange was how far out the water had drained, for a warrior's armor to have been here. Surely he would have drowned, and thus the water that had drained would have been a warrior tall. Or likely even twice that. Quietly, he looked up and around, searching for the cause of such a drain while his heart began to pump. Instinctive fear course through him as he rose, looking towards the beach.
And then our, towards the sea.
"By the Gods…" He murmured, eyes roving out and up, along the great blue green swell of the wave of a titan, steadily rumbling towards him.
R'tas quickly turned and ran as fast as his legs could carry him, almost leaping and bounding at times in his flight. As he ran he turned a look over his shoulder to see the wall looming ever nearer, over him, casting his world in a dark shade. As fast as he was he could not outpace the gods' own wrath, be it on him or on some fool in the Keep. Whatever the case, the beach was too far and he too slow, and so he braced himself and sought another way.
In the same instant he saw his fate, the wave slammed into him the wave with the force of a titan, slamming him to the muddy ground and threatening to drown him. Wildly, he fought to escape, swimming against the current as best he could, trying to pull himself up. Towards the surface. As fingers found air he saw a glint and turned, a familiar silver and bronze thing hurtling up and into the side of his head, driving the sense from him as the waves tugged him back under.
Blinking back stars, and chest burning for air, he spun, blinking, through the cold water and blood trickling from a wound on his head that burned for the water.
Turning, he watched the helmet dance in the swirling tides yards before him and then suddenly rocket down. Following it he saw it vanish through something on the sea bed. Something which flickered brightly for the briefest of moments and was far closer than the surface, now. The surface would be safest, he knew, but it was too far. And something was below, something that had taken the obtrusive, assaulting armament and vanished it from existence.
On mad, oxygen deprived, fading consciousness driven instinct, he swam down and forward. And, as his vision began to fade, felt himself yanked down, into the dark and towards the sand.
R'tas groaned as consciousness returned, hearing strange noises around him as he slowly returned to the land of the living. Or at least of the breathing. Coughing and hacking up water he forced himself to look around through vision that was still blurry. He could see something flying around speaking in a panicked yet cheerful sort of voice, almost… Fussing over him, somehow, as strange as it sounded.
The even stranger part, though, was that it seemed to resemble a… Sphere of some familiar sort.
"Hello, hello,- Oh please tell me you understand me!" The little thing said, buzzing around him like some kind of metal insect as he rolled over, splashing down in mud and sand. "Are you alright? Your head is bleeding- Oh my, that isn't how heads are meant to operate. Unless your kind has evolved- Nonsense! No, no, that isn't advantageous at all!"
"Hmph…" R'tas blinked his eyes clearing as he let his head loll to the side. And his eyes landed on a small, once more muddied, metal thing laying beside him.
Truly, the gods had a sense of humor...
"Oh! Maybe you need a life worker to look at you- Or, or maybe you're defective?" The Oracle, he could see it clearly now, went on, warbling fretfully as it did. "No, no, that won't do at all! I needed a working specimen, not a waterlogged cretin like the last sample I took!"
"I am neither defective nor a sample, Oracle." He rumbled, rolling over and pushing himself up on sore limbs, spitting the last of the water in his mouth free. "I am R'Tas of Vadum Keep, a trainee of their warriors. And humbled in your presence, mighty Oracle."
"Ah so you are in working condition!" It chimed excitedly, "Excellent, excellent! I was so worried that my placement of this testing site was… Well, nevermind that. As you are in proper, working condition and do not need repairs, I would greatly appreciate your… Assistance in a matter of great importance to my purpose."
"Your purpose?" He blinked, rising to a knee and looking around himself.
His surroundings were simple, scarcely more than a cave, but he could see the markings of the gods. Technology most high, forming a shield to keep the tides at bay and lighting the area. And, distantly, a raised platform with a semi-circle of consoles and, against a wall, a small ring of sorts. One big enough for the Oracle and another half of it besides to fit inside of at best, sparking restlessly.
"You mean…" He blinked, heaving a breath and staggering upright, one hand pressing against his sore ribs. "You serve the gods?"
"I serve… Their ends, yes." It answered, turning to him and looking on him for a moment, its faceplate old and worn but vibrant red, adorned with symbols he didn't know. It was rather like a Sangheili knelt on the floor, head bowed and arms bound behind them, in a way that brought him little comfort for the recognition considering. "You may call me… Passive Bias, I suppose. A Servant of the Forerunners. Your saviors."
"Truly…" Then his duty was clear enough, he supposed. Head bowed, he planted a fist over his heart meaningfully, if a touch beyond what he ought to be doing, and rumbled, "Then I am at your service, Holy Oracle. What need do you have of me?"
"Mhm..." The Oracle hummed gently, floating around him lazily for a moment before bouncing and humming more purposefully. "First, a query, if you do not mind."
"Never." He vowed, "My time is yours so long as you value it so."
"You serve the Forerunners in all things." It said, "This is true?"
"In all my life and in all my blood." He nodded, "If they but ask it of me, it is done or I am dead. There can be no other result."
"Devoted… Fanatically so, in fact." Passive Bias remarked as it wandered off, working at the digital constructs of the console as he lumbered anxiously, but curiously, forward. As the little circle on the wall flickered to life it bobbed, "That will do, I suppose. My luck with sample collection for this task has been so wanting… The odds on that are clear, then. I must proceed as I am."
"Oracle?"
"Hello there!" It cheered, catching the little cylinder that slid forward in an odd sort of bubble and turning to him with it held aloft. "You asked how you could help, yes? Protect this… Creation, I suppose, of your gods."
"A creation?" He murmured, looking down as the Oracle lowered the little thing for him to see. Inside was a child, of sorts, that looked rather like a small Brute with pink skin and messy, pink hair, curled up in the container.
"Yes. A… Well, her species really doesn't matter anymore, I suppose." Passive Bias said, bobbing around him gently and excitedly, "Regardless, she is of my maker's design. And I have done all I can to protect and prepare her for what is to come. And so I come here, to your little… Well, your world, to have someone finish my work."
"You… Wish us to raise her?"
"Yes, please!" It bobbed excitedly, zooming around him, "I want her to live, you understand? I want her to know all that is live life to the fullest. Hate, pain, love, pride, fear, excitement- A trove of emotions that I simply am not equipped to impart. I need her fellow organic people to properly convey this to her. I have done all I can, but… Well, it did not go very well, we shall say, and leave it there."
"I suppose I shall do as you say, then."
"Wonderful!" It said, buzzing over to the console as the little circle again flared to life, as it passed into its light the machine rambled on, "She needs food four times daily, meat and grain and vegetable preference. Also, she has a lot of energy, so be sure to let her run it off. And lastly do not ever, ever let her-"
With a muted whir, the portal closed around it, whisking the eccentric Oracle away and leaving him alone in the strange room.
"Never let her what?" He rumbled, "Eat after dark? Sleep in? I feel that was the important bit… Aside from how I get out of here, at least..."