Planet Sera

Day 34

Over the blaring alarm, the Spartan could hear both men curse profusely with Baird quickly gathering up his small spread of tools. Her rifle was in her hand without a second thought and was already making her way toward the entrance, taking relative care to step over the tripwire. How they hadn't seen it before now was beyond her. It was a foolish mistake and one that was potentially going to cost them.

"'Ey, Auri! You picking anyone up yet?" Dom called out as Baird worked quickly to silence the wailing.

"Not… Yup. Yeah. Got a handful of contacts coming in from the north side. Best guess is Locust," she replied. The deafening siren above them finally quieted, Baird having cut off a series of wires from one of the nearby wall panels. "Alright, we gotta go now before-" The commander's sentence was abruptly cut off as the building shook violently around them. Cracks spiderwebbed quickly up and down the walls in their immediate vicinity, as did the floor. Chunks began to break off from the ceiling. The whole place seemed ready to cave in.

"Move now! We gotta get clear! They're opening up a fuckin' E-hole!" Dom hollered, instantly making for the vault room's exit, panic coloring his voice. Auri waited a second longer to make sure Baird got free of the room and pulled up the rear when the ground opened up below her. She barely had enough time to cry out in surprise as she fell through the hole and scrambled like mad to grab hold of anything that could potentially take her weight. Hell, at this point she'd do what she could to slow down her descent as much as possible.

One wild swing of her arm allowed her to grab hold of a piece of metal protruding out from the right side of the hole. It bent dangerously, letting out a whine as Auri struck out with her legs, searching for anything else she could use to climb up. Luckily, she wasn't far down from the entrance and, as soon as she looked up, she spotted Baird peering over the side. Relief was plain on his face as he leaned out over the lip with an outstretched hand.

"C'mon, grab hold! Locust are starting to swarm," he called down to her, his voice echoing into the black below. While Auri wasn't entirely sure he could pull her up unassisted, it was still worth a shot. Bracing her feet against the dirt wall beside her, she carefully pushed her body upward and reached for the tech's hand. Loose dirt broke her footing, shifting her off balance and caused both of them to curse. Her heart leapt up into her throat and her blood turned ice cold for a few seconds as adrenaline shot through her system.

"Try again, come on! I ain't leaving you here," Baird yelled, pushing his body over the rim of the hole as far as he could without tumbling downward himself.

"Baird, we need to leave now!" came Dom's voice drifting down to her. "They're already inside." Then came the sound of the steady staccato beat of gunfire and hollows of pain from the incoming enemies.

"Give me. A god damn. Minute, Dom!" Beads of sweat began to drip down his face and he bared his teeth against the strain.

"We don't have a minute, Damon!" The other man swore in a minute of Spanish and English then called out, "Fire in the hole!" A second later, a harsh rumble shook the area, sending more dust and debris clattering against her armor plates; Dom must've tossed a grenade into the mix. Red blips flooded the Spartan's motion tracker as she regained her footing and attempted to grab hold of the Gear once again. She could hear Baird whispering, "Come on," several times over like a mantra as their hands missed once more. Twice again. Then-

"There!" His tone wasn't triumphant. Not yet. He still needed to get her out of the damn hole then get clear of the bank. "'Kay, now try to climb up!" She was still gripping onto the metal rod that had initially stopped her fall as she moved her feet. Just as she began to angle herself upward once again to a nearby ledge that looked stable enough, her left foot slipped. The sudden downward, jerky motion caused the rod to bend fully. Her stomach jumped up into her throat to join her heart as her eyes locked onto Damon's for a split second as the rod came free.

And she with it.

Baird still hadn't released her hand as she went tumbling into the darkness below them. The Gear let out a half choked yell as she pulled him into the hole, Dom's cries disappearing rapidly as they vanished far beneath the surface.

—-

Consciousness began to nag at the corners of her mind. As the Spartan slowly woke back up, she was suddenly aware of just how badly her back hurt. Her shield monitor was also chirping loudly in her ear, notifying her it had broken and was desperately trying to recharge itself.

"Thank god you're awake," came a female voice. Noesis. She must've activated the commander's external speakers as a new figure came into view.

"Whoa, hey. Take it easy." A heavy hand rested itself on her right shoulder, halting her movements. Her visor depolarized with half a thought and she met Baird's worried gaze. She then followed his glance upward towards a faint shaft of light drifting down. It struggled to combat the growing darkness all around them. The sounds of a fight could still be heard however faint they were. Dom was giving them hell and would, hopefully, exit the place soon as he could. There'd be no way he'd survive the drop down here. Not without assistance at least. Speaking of…

"Just before we impacted, you managed to put yourself between me and the ground. If you hadn't, well, I'd probably have broken just about everything important here," Baird explained. The commander gave him a short nod and sat up fully. That made sense.

"Noesis must've amped up my shields, too," she replied with a wince. No doubt the AI was already scanning her for any major injuries.

"I did. And your gel layer deployed as well, taking the brunt of the hit," came the construct, concern leaking into her tone. "I'm not detecting anything serious. Nothing above heavy external bruising. Your back will be sore for a few days, give or take."

"Any signs of a concussion?" Baird asked.

"Not as far as I can tell, no."

"I'd still like to get that checked out once we get somewhere safe." He stood back up with a minor groan, pushing off his knees, and offered Auri a hand up. The Four studied it for a moment before flicking her eyes over to his.

"Sure you wanna do that?" She grimaced again as she took in a breath. The air had been knocked from her lungs when she'd fallen. "I might pull you back down again."

"I'll take my chances." Baird gave her a small half smile as she took hold of his palm and he helped hoist the Spartan to her feet. At least the Gear had a good sense of humor about him.

Auri inspected her weapons, her sniper rifle which had been attached to the mag mount on her back was dented slightly - not enough to render it inoperable but it would need to be fixed - and her AR which she'd lost hold of on her way down the E-hole. Luckily it wasn't nearly as deep as some of the openings the Gears had come across and was mostly filled with water from Jacinto's sinking months prior. Why this one had opened up when it did remained to be seen as there were only decaying Locust bodies, a few rotting Glowies near the water and discarded guns lay everywhere.

The fighting above them began to fade away as the Locusts seemed to leave the pair for dead, opting to chase after Dom who proved to be more exciting prey. The COMM channel suddenly burst to life, static filling the air before the Gear's voice could be heard.

"I hope… -ke hell you two… both ki…ing. I'm go…na try… lead th…se bastards out then… -et you." Baird and Auri really only heard every other word from their teammate but it was enough to get his message across. It was only seconds later that the channel cut off, leaving the two in relative silence.

"Unless Dom finds a bunch of fuckin' rope, there's no way we'll be able to get back up the way we came," Baird commented as he threw his gaze skyward. Another chunk of bank floor came tumbling down from above with a resounding crash. He then glanced back at the Spartan. "An' before you ask, no, I don't have any maps of the tunnels on me. If I had Jack with me then maybe…" Baird's voice petered off as he got lost in thought while the Four rolled out her shoulders. She was definitely going to be feeling it later that night.

Auri scanned her surroundings as she looked for an alternative way out but her gaze kept drifting back down toward the water's edge. It had since stilled, the depths bathed in inky black darkness. A shudder ran down her spine as she'd imagined whatever that thing was back at the warehouse making a sudden return. Mentally shaking herself, Auri approached the underground pool and looked about the area.

"Whoa, hey. What're you doing?" Baird's voice jolted the commander from her thoughts and drew her attention back to him.

"Baird, you said it yourself: going back up is going to be difficult." Auri gestured to herself then to water before them. "I've still got plenty of O2 left in my suit's tank and that rip on my biolayer has since been repaired. I'll check out what's below the surface." She held up her hands, palms forward, as the soldier began to protest. "I'll still be within radio range and I won't go far. I just want to see if there's another way out of here."

Baird's mouth twisted into a frown as he mulled over her idea and crossed his arms over his chest plate. "I don't like this. What if you get stuck down there or what if there's a way out? How'll you get me down there?"

"My suit has built-in thrusters. It'll help boost me and if there is a way out, I'll look around for little air-pockets for you on the way in." Despite her reassurances, the Gear still didn't seem fully convinced but he really didn't have any other choice at the moment.

"Fine," he replied at length, finally conceding, before holding up a hand to stop the Spartan before she dove in and then hooked a thumb over one shoulder. "I'm still gonna take a look around and see if there's a way up while you're doing your little reconnaissance. I don't really fancy swimming around down there without being able to see anythin'."

"Well, you probably would've been able to had you brought a helmet along."

The man scoffed at that. "Have you ever tried wearing one of those things? Your peripheral vision is absolute shit!"

"But they also keep your brains inside your head," the commander countered, earning her a wave of dismissal from him.

"Yeah, yeah. Go do your thing. And keep in touch, alright?"

Auri gave him a short nod of her head before wading out into the water. Ripples rolled across the surface as she walked until she was over waist deep before finally diving in, leaving her companion in relative silence.

—-

While the Spartan was gone, Baird kept a sharp ear out for any unwanted visitors as he carefully approached the E-hole's entrance into the outside world. There were a few large chunks of earth and rock that they could potentially stack on top of each other but, for one, he had no way of truly knowing just how much the commander's suit could help her carry - a lot of those bits looked to weigh an awful lot - and two, what could they use to secure it all in place to keep them from tumbling back down?

He'd attempted to climb a little ways up when the soil began to break off under his hands, leaving him to skid back down to the tunnel floor. Grumbling to himself, Baird tapped on his COMM piece,opening up a two-way channel to the underwater Spartan.

"Commander, mic check. You still good down there?" He held up his pointer and middle to the device as he paced back and forth, feeling a little apprehensive when she didn't respond right away.

"I read you loud and clear, Baird." Her voice came through strong with little interference indicating her AI was probably boosting the signal. Or she was still somewhat close by.

Baird let out a discreet sigh of relief before answering. "How's it going down below?"

There was a brief pause then, "Dark as hell. A lot of debris from the cities seemed to clog up several potential entry points. It'll take too long to clear them by hand. I don't want to waste my tanks doing that."

"More than fair I suppose. Have you come across any caches? We lost a lot of supplies after Jacinto's sinking."

"If there are any down here, I'm not seeing them. Besides, with how long ago that happened, I wouldn't be surprised if the water's already spoiled them." Baird muttered another quiet curse at that.

"Well, keep an eye out. Maybe there's still a sealed box down there."

"Copy that. Hm… I may have found something promising. Wait one."

The channel went near silent after that. The only sounds the Gear could really make out was water being swished around. A minute passed then two. Three. Baird couldn't help but pace now as he continued to wait for a response. He hated waiting. Just as nearly ten minutes had passed by, he'd nearly thumbed the device again to ping the Spartan when Auri sounded off.

"Alright. I think I've found a tunnel we might be able to use to get back topside."

"O-kay," Baird said, drawing out the word's two syllables."I'm hearing a 'but' coming."

"But… it's going to be a tight squeeze in the final bit before you break through to the surface. I'll do what I can to widen it safely before returning. I've come across three air pockets we can stop at."

"Greeeeat. I can't wait," he replied sarcastically. The Spartan huffed a soft laugh before letting him know she was heading back shortly. In the interim, Baird killed a bit of time searching around for that weapons cache they'd been tasked with finding earlier. Unless it was still walled up in a section of the vault that had yet to plummet downward, it looked like the cache must've taken the plunge and disappeared below the surface. While Anya had marked the locations of a few additional caches they could plunder, the bank vault's was by far the largest one next to the warehouse. It was just their damned luck. However, once they linked up with Dom again, they'd double back to the bank, assess the damage and confirm whether or not the cache was still actually there.

Moments later, a soft noise brought his attention back to the black water and the depths hidden beneath its surface. A hand went to the butt of his pistol out of habit but he checked the motion when it became clear who was resurfacing. Auri slogged through the chest deep water until she finally reached the edge and broke the seal on her helmet, inhaling deeply. She wrinkled her nose against the musty smell Baird had been breathing in since they'd fallen down there and raked a quick hand through her mussed up hair.

She gave him a wane smile, tucking her helmet under one arm as she approached the Gear. "Noesis marked out our path for the way down. We'll encounter the first air pocket about a minute in. Are you good with that?" Baird cast a look around the commander at the water, concern crossing his face. He took in a breath before nodding.

"I'll be fine," he assured her before tapping a finger against his chin in thought. "One issue though: how'll you get me down there? I won't be able to see jack shit."

"I was thinking about that. Noesis suggested we use one of my mag mounts on my back plating. Your bracers are metal, right? I'll up the magnetic field strength on the mount so there's no chance anything will shake you loose. Connect one arm to it and wrap your other arm around my neck. That way, if there's an issue, you can get my attention."

Baird pursed his lips together. There were still so many ways for this to go horribly wrong but, unless they came across a fuckton of rope and a grapple gun, they were going to be hard pressed climbing back up that hole. Plus. They still hadn't heard back from Dom. Baird knew his friend had gotten himself out of worse situations but that still didn't stop him from worrying.

"Alright. No time like the present. Let's, uh, let's just get this goin'," the Gear said, clapping his hands together with a sense of finality. "Sooner we get this done, the better."

Auri slid her helmet back on, the seal schicking softly into place. They tested out the mag mount on her back armor, with Noesis increasing the magnet's intensity. Baird held up his left forearm and was suddenly jerked forward as the bracer clunked loudly against her suit. He tried yanking it every which way possible but his arm remained glued to the Spartan until the AI shut off the mount's connectivity.

Once it was assured he wouldn't somehow get shaken loose, Baird walked with her to the pool's edge, the water barely lapping at his boots. He checked and double checked his own gear was secured before going to stand behind the commander.

"If you feel yourself running out of air, try waving your hand in my face or click your COMM piece twice," she told him as his bracer clung to her mag mount and she hoisted the soldier onto her back in an awkward piggy back ride.

"Let's just hope it won't come to that," Baird muttered as she waded out further and further. He shivered slightly as the cold began to instantly leech into his clothes and skin. "Fuck…"

"The next tunnel looked to open up into a residential district. There should be some blankets and maybe a fireplace we can use to get you warmed back up," Auri said as she stopped at a point where the water was nearly chest deep. "I'll go when you're ready."

"Alright." Baird exhaled hard a few times, clearing out as much of the CO2 in his lungs before taking in a large breath and holding it, his lips sealed tightly. At that, Auri quickly plunged beneath the surface, ensuring the Gear's arm was wrapped enough around her neck.

One.

Two.

Ten.

Fifteen.

Eighteen.

Twenty five.

Baird cracked his eyes slightly against the murky water and could make out the Spartan's helmet lights paving a way through the darkness, no doubt being guided by her AI's map. What felt like seconds later came that telltale burning in his lungs. Auri had said that the first air pocket was about a minute out from their starting point. A few air bubbles escaped from his mouth as he felt the Four begin to swim upward and soon their heads broke through the surface. He inhaled sharply, relishing the fresher despite the musty smell.

"You okay?" Auri asked, craning her helmet back to look at him. Baird patted her shoulder once, nodding.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm good," he panted.

"Next pocket will be a bit further. Maybe seventy seconds at the most. The final pocket before the surface will be the farthest out. Nearly ninety seconds. At that point, I want you to hold onto me as much as you can. I'll be using the thrusters to speed it along and I don't want you getting too jostled."

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Let's just go."

Waiting for the Gear to get in another gulp of air, Auri pushed them back beneath the water, heading for the next checkpoint. They managed to make it to the second pocket with relative ease. Auri waited a few additional seconds to let Baird catch his breath. She braced a hand above her head against the tunnel ceiling, quietly treading the water until the Gear signaled he was ready to go. Clearly he wasn't but the only way forward was to go underwater. Baird inhaled deeply and the Spartan dove back in.

He clenched jaw tightly and screwed his lips together as much as he could, holding onto the commander as she pushed off the floor and used her thrusters where she could to speed them both along. Baird could feel his oxygen starting to run out. He hit her shoulder three times in quick succession as bubbles started to escape.

Fuck!

She seemed to get the message as Auri picked up her pace, kicking hard off one side of the tunnel wall. Baird felt the water drag on him as the last bit of O2 finally eked out of him when his head finally broke through the surface. He coughed violently and tried to suck in fresh air but only coughed more.

"F-f-ck… G-god… damn… it…" He spat out a bit of water as the Spartan pulled them both to solid ground. His bracer disconnected from her back plating and he hauled himself up onto the water's edge. "That… that… was a terrible… fucking… idea." He weakly held up one finger. "It worked… but… let's never do that… again." Baird waved her off when heard the Spartan approach. "I'll be… fine. Just gimme a minute." Sitting back on his haunches, Baird rubbed at his neck then grimaced before standing slowly and shook himself like a dog.

"Okay. Where are we?" he asked, taking a look around.

"Another E-hole entrance," Auri supplied. "Or exit? Anyway, it looks like it opened up into a residential district like I mentioned before. I think we came up into somebody's basement." Most of the ceiling had collapsed providing them with a ramp up into the rest of the dwelling. The Four went first, scouting out the immediate area before motioning to Baird to come up. "I'm not picking up anything on my tracker and Noesis has already tried to reach out to Dom. Either we're out of range for the moment or he can't chat right now. We'll try again later."

"In the meantime, we should look for a place to crash for the night. We don't have much daylight left and we've got cloud cover rollin' in." Baird gestured out the nearby remains of a window. "Krill might be moving around early at this rate and I really don't think either of us wants to deal with them right now."

"You won't get any argument from me," Auri muttered. "Let's check out one of the homes next to us. I doubt anything'll be swimming up after us after all that but-"

"Well, let's go. We're losing enough light as it is." With that said, the two soldiers exited the disheveled home in search of better accommodations. They found a place about three houses down. It was in complete disarray but it appeared that no one had been here since E-day or so Baird thought. It almost looked to be a McMansion with how large the home was but it had very little by way of a yard.

They entered through a side door cautiously, the Spartan's helmet light catching the dust motes floating aimlessly in the air. Most of the windows had been boarded up, the planks slowly rotting away over time. There were a handful of bloodstains but they were so old the red turned an ugly, dark brown. Once Auri seemed to be relatively satisfied with their search, the pair finally went down into the basement. The window egresses were shored up here, too, and there was an intact fireplace stuck to one wall.

"We may be able to use that once nightfall hits," Auri pointed out, gesturing to the fireplace with a hand. "I doubt anyone will be able to see the smoke. I'll take a look around for some firewood and maybe see if there's some clothes around here that you could change into."

Baird was about to argue but conceded. The cold was starting to really seep into his bones now that they were out away from the sun. He could hear the Spartan rummaging about in a separate room before returning with a couple bundles of firewood. The wood in question looked to be dry enough and the bits of paper scattered around would act as makeshift kindling. She set their supplies off to one side before scouring the rest of the level before coming up with a moth-eaten flannel shirt and baggy jeans that were a size too small.

"This was all I could find. I can take another look around…" she'd offered after handing over the musty smelling clothes.

"Eh, don't bother," Baird replied as he took them, lining up the pants' waistband with his own. "It'll be a squeeze but it's just for one night till the rest of this crap dries out. Now, uh…"

"Right. I'll… check to see if the previous owners left behind anything important. Just let me know when I'm good to head down," Auri said quickly before exiting the basement, leaving Baird to his own devices. Once he was certain she'd gone, he started stripping. Like most others, he was no stranger to nudity but he felt a bit weird to be doing so in front of her. He took a few moments to warm up his numb fingers, cursing quietly as he fumbled with the clasps holding his armor in place.

Minutes later, he'd buttoned up the flannel and struggled to get into the pants. When it became clear there'd be no doing the fly, Baird opted to just throw a somewhat clean blanket over his lap as he took a seat on the couch. He'd draped his gear and clothes near the fireplace. Peeking through the cracks in the boards over the windows, he guessed they had maybe another hour or so of sunlight before they'd be able to get a fire going.

Clicking on his COMM piece, he let the Four know she was free to head back to the basement whenever. He listened to the floorboards creaking overhead, indicating her approach and, before too long, Auri returned with a cooking bowl in one hand and her helmet tucked under the arm of the other.

"Pantry's already been raided but I think I found a couple cans that might still be good," she said, setting the bowl down on an old coffee table. Baird leaned forward to pick up a can, turning it over in his hands as he searched for the expiration date. They still had their ration packs though Baird's was a bit soaked through after their latest stint.

"Were you able to find a can opener?" he asked, peering over at the Four who nodded. "I mean, we might be able to brute force this crap but-"

"It's in the bowl."

"It i-? Dumbass. Staring me right in my face," he grumbled to himself as he scooped the tool up. "Looks like a couple of these might be good but, uh, do a taste test before shoving the whole thing down." He paused before opening up a can of what looked to be peaches if the label was to be believed. "Hey, you manage to raise Dom at all?"

Auri waggled a hand back forth in a so-so gesture. "The channel was open but all I got was static on my end. If Dom was talking, I couldn't hear anything. I let him know we were all right and had holed up for the night. We can reconvene in the morning."

"That reminds me. I know your AI said you weren't the side effects of a concussion but just humor me, 'kay?" He set aside the can and opener, motioning her to take a seat before grabbing his kit which he'd laid on the couch cushion next to him. "So, since our graceful fall into all of that underground bullshit, your vision's been fine? No nausea or brain fog? Headache? Anything weird like that?" He procured a small flashlight and waved it back and forth over the Spartan's eyes to check her pupil dilation. As far as he could tell, Baird couldn't see anything outwardly wrong.

"I've got a minor headache but nothing other than that," she replied, blinking away the light's afterimages.

"O-kay. You should be fine to sleep tonight but let me know if any of that changes."

"Got it, Doc." That earned her an eye roll as the Spartan dug around in her own pack then fished out a protein bar and munched on it.

"So," the Gear began after a couple minutes of silence. He picked up his can once more and cut into it. "Back at the warehouse…" He watched as the Spartan stiffened a fraction and her gaze flicked over to his before she glanced away, staring intently at the food wrapper in her hand. "Like, don't get me wrong, that bulky effer would've rattled Cole. We haven't seen anything like it yet and we didn't even get a clear look at the thing. But it seemed to freak you the hell out." Her lips twisted at that as she took another bite of the bar, jaw working mechanically.

Baird knew he was getting onto thin ice right now and had to either back up or continue pushing forward, albeit, carefully. "What happened?" Auri exhaled heavily, the air hissing softly through her teeth. "Even back aboard the Sovereign when we had all those Lambent swarming us a while back and you standing between them and the civvies, you were pretty collected."

The Spartan let out a mirthless bark of laughter at that. "Baird, I was anything but collected during that skirmish. On the outside, yeah, because we had a bunch of people depending on us. Internally, I was scared. You should know that."

"Okay, I kinda walked into that one, I'll admit that, but still. You're avoiding the question."

Her hands dropped into her lap and she leaned back against the decaying cushion behind her, staring up at the ceiling. "Why is this so important to you? I already told you bullshit happened and I made a bad call. I know my team'll never say it but… I know they still blame me for what happened. I'm still trying to make up for it and keep it from happening again." She looked over at him sideways without turning her head. Baird remained relatively quiet, leaving the choice up to her.

The Spartan closed her eyes and shook her head. "Fine. I won't go into all the details. Some of it's…" Her sentence petered off, lapsing into silence for a moment before continuing. "About maybe four or five months ago, give or take a couple weeks, my team and I were deployed to a facility that had reportedly gone dark without warning. Their last recorded message update had been three days out of date. They were supposed to report in at the end of every solar day on that planet.

"There had been a few instances where they'd lost power for maybe a day, day and a half at most for whatever reason. Messing with alien tech can be finicky sometimes. That's why a team hadn't been dispatched right away. When it became apparent something was wrong, me and another former squad mate of mine who headed her own team were sent out. Why they chose to allow so many of us to head in is beyond me. I guess they were expecting the worst." Auri's shrug hardly lifted her shoulders.

"There were ten of us. We were split into two teams of five, one to head inside the facility and the other to check out the perimeter. We only realized too late what they had been studying. With these places, there are obviously protocols set in place to leave nothing, and no one, behind. Noesis checked the log and it looked like the purge had been started but was shut off. Why it was being kept from being wiped off the planet's surface was only revealed later. There's something in my… universe that reminded me of the Lambent but were much worse to deal with."

"Hold up. You've got something that's worse than them?" Baird searched her face but it was clear she wasn't lying and he swallowed past a sudden dry patch in his throat. What if those things could somehow make it through one of those random portals that spat her out here? Fuck…

"There haven't been very many, if any, signs of them that we could see but space is big," Auri continued. "And it looked like these fucking scientists found them and were playing god with the spores they trapped. Obviously, from what records we could find, there'd been a containment breach and the purge was shut off, like I said. If there's any sort of containment breach, the purge activates automatically and it looked like this had happened before. Those brief blackouts I'd mentioned before? Containment breaches. Researchers were trying to cover it and fudge the records. They didn't want this operation shut down. They tried to pass the blackouts off as minor glitches or whatever it was. Anyway." She waved a hand, trying to get herself back on track.

"The spores they caught belonged to a parasitic life form called the Flood and… they were trying to create a cure for it by doing human experiments. From what the records told us, the facility had received a shipment of the most heinous criminals. Rapists, pedophiles, murderers. You name it, they had it. These people were then infected with those spores inside some sort of vacuum sealed room and then tried to work on a cure from tissue samples and blood work. Like with the Lambent, once you start turning, there's no going back. There was security footage and it… it wasn't pleasant to watch. And it only got worse the further we went down inside the place.

"I don't know how it happened but… those things must've picked us up and… They got to our medic first. Then our demolitions specialist. Then our CQC officer. Our… suits have measures set in place so that the Flood can't successfully infect Spartans, our armor can essentially turn into a bomb, but it happened so fast they didn't get a chance to flip the switch. We-we managed to activate the facility's purge, Noesis found a way around the block, and holed up deep underground in a… a panic room of sorts but…" The Four fell silent again as Baird stared incredulously at her, taking a moment to find his voice.

"Shit. I'm sorry." The words felt hollow in his mouth but he still felt the need to say it regardless. "I, uh, hate to ask this but you don't think those things would, I don't know, find a portal and wind up here?"

"I can't guarantee anything," Auri answered quietly. "I don't think so but I don't know for sure. We haven't seen those things since but, again-"

"Space is fuckin' big," Baird finished for her. It seemed, at least to him, that she'd been carrying that big ol' bag of trauma for a while and he felt guilty for pushing her. He knew he had to apologize but would do so later once she came back out of those memories.

The Spartan craned her neck back a bit, peering over at one of the nearby windows. During their talk, the basement had grown darker and darker until they were bathed in a dark gray. Seeming to note this, Auri heaved herself up and began to stack blocks of wood in the fireplace, setting the kindling on top after lighting with a few sparks from her combat knife.

"I think this should last us for a few hours, maybe more. If you need additional stacks, there are a couple more in that room at the end." She hooked a thumb at the designated door. "I'm… going topside and keep an eye on things." The Spartan then left before Baird could say anything more to her.