Planet Sera

Day 43

Auri settled in as best she could atop an old sofa and peered outside one of the gaps in boards covering the windows. Both her weapons laid nearby and her helmet rested on her lap. Old memories threatened to rise up after her brief talk with Baird but she pushed them down. There'd be time enough to deal with those ghosts later.

Much later.

She absentmindedly drummed her fingers softly on her helmet as she watched the dark landscape outside. Nothing moved save for the wind as it stirred up a mini dust devil in its wake. Her mind bounced from one thought to another before finally landing on the prospect of returning home. A little over a week into her stay on the Sovereign, Baird had taken her and Noesis to his temporary lab he'd gotten set up on the ship. The servers were linked up to one he had on the shore and the three of them had gotten to work trying to pinpoint where exactly the commander had landed.

Noesis had reassured the Gear that she wouldn't pry into anything private and Baird had set up a server she could access and one he could transfer unclassified and non-compromising files to. Noesis had flicked through the star maps he managed to find but each and every one had returned with the same blank spot in that portion of space where Requiem and its star, Epoloch, were supposed to be. It didn't make any sense at all but the AI had cross referenced it with the maps she had stored and, sure enough, the shield world wasn't appearing. Sure, there were blips of planets and its local star but there were six stellar bodies instead of four.

Eventually the three of them came to the unlikely conclusion that both Spartan and AI had somehow found themselves in another universe running parallel to theirs. They stayed there in Baird's lab until well past midnight discussing all likely probabilities and Baird had Noesis walk him through the global portal network that spanned Requiem in an attempt to try and understand it and, maybe, eventually, recreate it. Noesis had the coordinates that would drop the pair of them off at the Forerunner facility Auri and her team had fled through. Whether or not it was still full of hostiles remained to be seen. Even if it was, Auri didn't care. She'd fight her way through to find her team again.

Hopefully, with any luck, not much time had passed there and they all weren't getting into trouble without her. Did they even know she was missing? Did they think she was dead? Those thoughts had plagued her since that unfortunate night. Even now, they nipped at her heels. There was no way they could even think to try and recreate Forerunner tech. Not unless a shipment of alien hardware magically dropped through a random portal.

If only, Auri thought dryly. That'd be a damned miracle. Nevertheless, Baird had suggested he keep an eye out for any odd energy spikes in the area using a similar system that detected the Four's arrival. Now that he knew what to look for, it shouldn't be too terribly difficult. The only thing was that there hadn't been any spikes since that fateful day that brought Auri to Sera. She'd only been here a month, give or take a few days so maybe all they had to do was-

Static burst through her helmet's speakers jolting Auri from her reverie. She slammed her headpiece back on and flipped open her COMM channel.

"-der, you -ed me? Baird? Anyone?!"

Relief immediately flowed through her body at the sound of Dom's voice. He had to be just barely within COMM range of them given the feedback. "Dom? Oh, it's damned good to hear your voice," Auri replied, a smile tugging at her lips.

"Likewise, ma'am. Wou- joined with you two -ooner but Locust had me pinned. Whe- are -ou?" The signal kept fading in and out as Noesis did what she could to clean it up.

"There. That should do it," the construct said softly.

"Baird and I are holed up in a residential district," the commander answered as she stood up. While she was anxious to go out and find their fellow soldier, doing so at night with Krill skulking about in the midnight air was a death sentence. They'd have to wake till dawn. "We had to make use of some of the underground tunnels that E-hole dumped us into. One of them opened up into a handful of houses."

"Yeesh." She could practically hear the grimace in Dom's voice. "That sounds… unpleasant. Are you two safe?" As he asked that, Auri heard a pair of footsteps quietly making their way up to her. Baird must've heard her raised voice and had come snooping. She gave him a thumbs up before activating her helmet's external speakers.

"Yeah, we're safe. You?"

"For the moment, yeah." Despite being a jackass, it was hard to miss the relief plain on the other Gear's face at the sound of his friend. "Look, it'll be too risky to meet up tonight. Soon as the sun comes up, give me a holler and we'll try to rendezvous somewhere nearby."

"Sounds good. Dom, if your situation changes overnight, let us know when you can. I don't know what good we can do from here but we'll figure something out."

"Same goes for you two. Try to get some rest."

They said their goodbyes and the channel cut off. Auri broke the seal on her helmet once more and tucked it under one arm. Her gaze flicked over to Baird, noting he pulled on his damp pants. She didn't envy him that; her suit had already dried off a good while ago.

"Well, it's good to hear from Dom. Knew he'd make it out," Baird said, nodding to himself as he placed a hand on one hip. "It's getting late so we should probably call it, yeah?"

"Yeah. We can move some furniture in front of the door downstairs. I might stay up for a bit longer before knocking out."

Baird lifted his shoulders up in a quick shrug. "Suit yourself. Wake me in a few hours. I'll keep watch. This place gives me the creeps." At that, he cast a look about the dilapidated living room with its peeling wallpaper, cracked walls and boarded up windows. Auri tried not to roll her eyes too much as they both made their way back to the basement where she ate a cold meal as Baird got somewhat comfortable on the basement couch. Before too long faint snores could be heard from his prone form.

—

Dawn came quicker than either of them were expecting. About three hours in, Auri switched out with Baird and fell into a light doze before he woke her. Sunlight streamed in through the broken windows upstairs. Dust mites could be seen floating on an unseen breeze that worked its way into the cracks of the house. Outside, nothing appeared out of the ordinary. They hadn't received any unwanted visitors overnight which was lucky. Baird pinged Dom and the two got to work trying to figure out their locations.

It seemed that Dom was maybe three towns over from their position and a group of Locust were smack dab right in the middle. Dom still had the map Anya provided them with and soon started laying down a path for the pair to take. There were a few times where Auri and Baird had to double back as the path Dom plotted for them led into a dead end due to collapsed buildings or large chunks of debris blocking their way. Other times, they'd nearly run into a grub patrol and they had to silently back track until they were well out of earshot.

During one such escapade, Auri had taken point down a long alleyway that split a residential district from an industrial one. Heaps of trash and litter lined the sides, forcing the pair to watch their step lest they land on a glass bottle and reveal their location to whoever was in the immediate area. As they neared the opening, movement at the corner of her motion tracker. Auri held up a closed fist to Baird and brought her assault rifle up to bear as she slowed in her tracks. Another blip then more were picked up and, before long, she could make out a group of Locust just outside the entrance to the alley. Two of them were big. Bigger than the grubs around them and easily taller than the Spartan.

The pair hunkered down in the shadows with Auri shielding the Gear. Her suit's external lights immediately shut off to further hide them from view.

"Boomers? Aw fuck," Baird swore softly. Auri tilted her visor down in question and Baird's eyes flicked up to hers. "Bad news," he mouthed. Neither of them wanted a fight to break out so they crouched behind an old dumpster and bags of refuse left behind ages ago. She still kept herself between the threat and Baird as much as she could. His armor could take more than a few hits, that was for sure, but her suit was backed by reflective shielding and could buy him time enough to get repositioned.

The Locust hung around the alley's opening, occasionally peering down it but didn't give it much thought until one Boomer took a few steps in. Baird had involuntarily inhaled sharply and the Four pressed him further into the brick wall at their backs.

With one arm stretched out across his chest, Auri carefully craned her neck back and forth until she could physically see the alien grub. That's when they both heard it sniffing. Quick, short sniffs like it was searching for something. That simple act was predatory and chilled her blood.

We aren't here. You don't smell us. It's just trash… Nothing but trash.

The Boomer seemed inclined to press forward when the sound of distant gunfire broke the silence. The thing's head snapped back the way it came and immediately rejoined the others, its heavy footfalls bouncing off the walls. They waited a few moments to be safe before easing out of their hiding spot at last. Baird let out a sigh of relief and shook his head.

"Fuckin' assholes. I thought he'd picked up on us," he said as they left the alley behind. "'Least all he could smell was this crap. Gonna need a damn shower when we get back."

Minor crisis averted for the time being, they got back on track and soon located one of the landmarks Dom could see from his position. It was an old vinyl records store sign bent at one angle and missing the A and R in FRANK'S RECORDS. They let Dom know where they were and, before long, the sound of footsteps announced the Gear's arrival. Now, they had to decide whether or not returning to the bank vault that started all this mess was worth it. The Locust should've cleared out by now but the worry was that the grubs either stole the cache stored inside or had set up a trap on the off chance the soldiers would return. It was a risk they'd have to take. Otherwise, it was off to the Stranded camp with them.

Dom had been wise enough to subtly mark his way over and led the way back to the bank. It was slow going but they arrived at their destination without too much of a fuss. They carefully scoped out the area and, only once they were certain there were no signs of an ambush, did they push inside. There were obvious signs that Locust had been there, along with several spent shell casings and scorch marks from grenades. Nothing pinged Auri's tracker thus far but they proceeded carefully nonetheless.

The bank vault was an utter mess.

The floor leading up to it had fallen entirely into the E-hole. Light struggled to illuminate its depths to no avail. Dirty footprints marked the area. Clearly the grubs had attempted to make their way to the vault overnight but didn't have much luck. A few errant chunks of foundation broke away from the floor along the edges and tumbled downward.

"Just putting this out there: I am not inclined to repeating all of… that," Baird said, gesturing to the hole with one hand.

"Believe me. Neither am I," the Spartan replied, glancing briefly over her shoulder at him. She then cast a wary glance down into the hole but nothing stirred in the blackness. At least, not as far as she could see. Her attention soon fell on the stacks of munitions stored at the back of the vault. Clearly, it was just out of range of the E-hole and wasn't in danger of tumbling below yet.

"Any idea on how we'll get this stuff outta here?" she asked the men. Dom already was pursuing his lips together in thought and rubbed a hand against his chin. Day old stubble dotted his cheeks and he looked tired as hell. It was going to be a welcome relief once they were all back in friendlier territory.

"We might not be able to move the heavier crates but the smaller stuff like ammo and rations we should be able to grab," Dom mused aloud. "Obviously, there isn't a back door to the vault."

"Not unless we were to make one," Baird chimed in, "but we'd run the risk of weakening the place even further."

Dom motioned to the Four to stand near him. "Commander, the ground's pretty stable here. You think you'd be able to jump across and toss over whatever you can lift over to this side?"

"Hm, maybe. Will the Raven be able to carry all this without hooking onto a pallet or something?"

"They've got webbing we can use. We should be fine. I'll put in the call if we're able to do this. Otherwise, we might have to get a hold of Anya and see if there're other places we could hit up."

"Alright. Let's try this then. Even if we have to leave behind the guns, what good'll they be to the Locust without ammo?"

"Fair enough."

With that said, Auri tested the outer edges of the hole where it ended right behind the clerk desks. Once she was certain it wouldn't crumble right away with a bit of extra weight pressed on it, she took a running jump and landed on the other side of the fifteen foot wide hole. She'd almost missed a step and stumbled forward instead of back. Still, it sent her heart racing with its implications and, rather not wanting to think about tumbling into the opening once more, she got to work.

She started with the lighter, more important crates first, chucking them into the Gears' awaiting arms. Dom had since pinged their Raven for another pickup. At least this time, they wouldn't have to deal with Lambent. Whatever that massive gunker was, Auri hoped they wouldn't be running into it anytime soon. Though, knowing their luck… She didn't want to continue that thought. The Raven arrived in record timing and the Spartan was able to toss over most of the crates. It was only when she started working on a box of RPGs did a small crack start to appear on the floor near her foot. She didn't notice it at first but only when it began to spiderweb up into the wall did it finally catch her attention. Auri froze in place as she watched the crack slowly branch out further into the ceiling and bits of drywall broke away.

"Hey, Commander, is that everything or-?" Dom called out as Baird was in the process of hefting a couple of stacked ammo crates into his arms. Dom halted in place when he spied the frozen Spartan and it didn't take him long to figure out why. "Oh crap…"

"Why? What's…?" Baird's sentence petered off as he glanced back at the soldier who was ever so carefully inching her way back to the edge of the hole.

"Dom, Baird, I think this place is going to collapse," Auri said, trying to keep her voice as even as possible. "The vault, at least. I'm going to try and jump back but you two need to clear out in case everything goes with it."

"Baird, drop off the rest of the stuff now. Commander, just try to turn around slowly. That section to your right hasn't cracked yet. Jump from there. If you fall, I'll pull you right on back," Dom replied. Baird quickly left the two but returned in a blink, standing behind Dom.

Doing as he said, Auri began to make her way toward that particular section of flooring but even that soon began to crumble under her extra weight. She wouldn't be able to take a running leap but if she used her suit's thrusters…

"Get ready to grab me if this all goes to shit," she said, bracing herself for the leap. She took in a few short breaths before jumping forward. A loud crack sounded as the added pressure from her jump caused the floor to buckle. For a heart wrenching moment, Auri almost thought she wasn't going to make it or they all were going to tumble back down the tunnel but a heartbeat later, Dom hands clasped around her forearms, tugging her forward and out of relative harm's reach. However, the rest of the vault soon began to crumble and, a blink later, fell below the earth.

Not wanting to stick around to see what else would be next, the soldiers quickly left the vault behind. As they got outside, Auri could hear that familiar sound of rotary blades growing louder with each passing second. The Raven had arrived and they loaded up the webbing with as much as it could carry before getting aboard themselves.

"Alright. No more holes, please. Or crumbling buildings or anything of that nature," the commander weakly joked as she buckled herself in across from Dom. Baird sat down beside him and let out a laugh that was drowned out by the sound of the blades.

"Hate to break it to you, sister, but that's all you're gonna get out here," he replied over the noise. A half grin pulled at his mouth. Auri rolled her eyes. Despite her face being hidden by her visor, Baird could definitely tell what she did.

—

It was a short and, surprisingly, uneventful trip back to the Sovereign. What they pulled from the second weapons cache was quickly offloaded and inventoried. Marcus met them when the three got below deck. Baird broke off, announcing his need for the showers before anyone could snark at him over the smell. Dom filled out a mission report to be handed into Michaelson soon after, noting the appearance of Krill still in the city. That and the Locust. It was clear they were looking for some place to set up shop. Jacinto's sinking had wounded them but they were in this fight. High water had already come for them. Hell was bound to be on its heels.

Auri relayed the events to Fenix as she made for her own room. It was a subtle thing but she began to notice his air of hostility toward her had lessened. Clearly, being out there in the field with two of his closest teammates and returning alive and relatively unharmed had earned her a few brownie points in his book.

Marcus had his own bit of news for her. Baird had clued him in on the search for odd energy spikes. Anya had been monitoring the equipment when she could and had picked up two low level bursts. They were only flare ups and lasted no more than five seconds each before disappearing from the radar. If they were able to predict when and where these spikes were happening then maybe they'd get somewhere but that wasn't going to happen right off the bat.

Noesis had suggested fiddling with the tech herself and see if she could create an algorithm for just such a thing but Marcus wanted to hold off for now. While he appreciated her help with the ship's engines during the previous Lambent attack, he didn't want a sentient intelligence poking around in the systems just yet. Despite her annoyance at his statement, Noesis eventually conceded but that still wouldn't stop her from creating the algorithm all the same. She, too, was eager to return home.

Now that she'd earned Marcus' trust and, subsequently Michaelson's to some extent, Auri was sent out on more field missions with Delta. Delta squad became less and less of a babysitter for her and the Spartan gained more freedom to move about the ship. The civilians grew a bit more accustomed to her presence and saw her even less as a foreign entity and more as a woman just trying to get home. That's what they all wanted in the end.

Home.

A home where they wouldn't have to fear the Locust and worry the grubs were going to come banging down their doors at any given moment. Some place safe where one could raise a family and start anew. It would be hard work but it would be worth it in the end, especially so once they got completely rid of the Locust threat.

If only it were that easy.