Ariane was fast asleep, she was pretty sure. She, however, did not feel the semi-comfortable bed in ONI's CASTLE Base dorm under her. She didn't even feel the possible slab of titanium that was used as an operating table on which Doctor Halsey had put her in order to check various parameters of her brain activity during further tests pertaining her Bioresonance. No, she was floating in an empty void.
Her limbs were immobilized and she couldn't even look down to se herself. No, no, correction, the young woman could crane her head down. She just didn't see anything. Whatever was happening to her was not normal. Definitely and totally not normal. She should've had a body, at least, or been able to move. She felt her pulse, wherever her heart lay but below her, elevate.
Wherever she was, it did not bode too well for her. This place felt empty, awkwardly dark. She tried to blink away the Darkness, to force herself to wake up. Anything she attempted to do at the moment failed, driving her further into a panic. She blanked, paused and started breathing in and out, or, at least, simulating breathing to try and slow her elevated heartrate and racing mind.
She didn't know what effects Bioresonance would have due to an uneasy mind. She also didn't wanna test it out at this point. Too many variables, especially with the Covenant on the planet. That might've been one of the stress factors. In fact, the Covenant's presence planetside, even in small numbers, made everything feel like it was ending for a good reason. She'd seen the footage of what they did to the planets they 'conquered'.
And she dreaded for Elster... More than anything...
The girl blanked again, for but a moment. Blurry imagery resolved ahead of her, into a rusted-out nightmare. Concrete walls belied structural strength, a floor of steel grates sitting below her bare feet. Her long hair, no longer caught in its ponytail, flowed freely in a breeze that should not exist. On each side of her, rotting pews lay, lined with the shadows of humans and monsters. In the darkness past the grates on the wall in the rear of this strange hall, something pulsed.
The steel grates below her also hid something, deep below the darkness. Umbral, dark, pulsing, a seeming continuation of what flowed behind the Walls. The air felt oppressive, heavy to her. Behind her, she saw a door framed by a cage. It, too, was old and rusting. Oddly, the room was lit just enough for Ariane to see everything. She gazed down at herself, noting the white cryosleep gown she had worn before being taken aboard the UNSC vessel, hanging loosely off her frame.
She looked at her pallid hands, noting minor injuries long-since treated by the UNSC's advanced medical technology. Before long, however, her gaze was attracted to the centerpiece of the room. A mural lay ahead, on the farthest wall in the back the way the pews were facing. She took a step forward, hearing her footfall reverberate with a certain wetness against the concrete archways and walls around her.
In her ears came another reverberation, of a choir. Deep and barely audible, voices sang around her as she took another step forward between the rows of pews. The mural grew clearer the closer to it she got. A lone figure with two hands poking out of the wall stood, clad in a bright white veil. The choir remained at the same volume as Ariane approached it.
A golden halo outline surrounded the figure, the three stars of Eusan spread out at ten, twelve and two o'clock outside of it. The figure covered its face, a black, leaking mass with its right hand, while its left lay outstretched. Both arms resembled the desiccated remains of human ones, stuck in rigor mortis. The pulsing grew louder the closer she got to the wall, to examine the mural.
The white veil that covered the feminine figure's face became all the more torn as it reached its ghostly, pale legs. Despite her self-preservation instincts telling her better than to mess with it, the young woman put a hand on the mural, between the hands. She yelped as both hands suddenly grasped around that with which she touched the monument, the pulsating thump of a heartbeat echoing even louder, mixing with the choir of dark voices in a rhythm.
The figure leaned forward, her two-dimensional form in the frame of the monument pouring out into the distinct shape of a female frame. Her hands morphed, bloody, muscle and sinew visible through strips of flesh as it reformed. Her face was still shaded by the darkness within the veil, but the first to appear was her mouth and nose. She spoke to Ariane with an ethereal, beautiful voice, its words resounding in the deepest parts of Ariane's subconscious, "On the First Day, I was Crowned... And on this First Day, you shall Awake..."
Pressure built up in Ariane's mind as the figure's mouth opened again, feeling the woman pull her closer toward the wall, trying to drag her within it. She screamed and jumped as she felt an electric shock, her eyes shooting open. She grabbed onto her shoulder, panting heavily as the veins in her head thumped, her heart firing off like an assault rifle.
She looked to Halsey, the woman holding what looked to be a small stun prod. The Doctor's shoulders sagged as she sighed in relief, before asking, "How do you feel, miss Ariane? That must've been some nightmare..." as she set the prod to the side. Ariane's mind raced a thousand miles a minute as she got off her bed, before following Halsey almost instinctively to the medical room. Halsey explained, "That was a low setting, by the way."
"Still stinging, doc," Ariane quipped. Doctor Halsey hummed.
"What was your nightmare, miss Ariane?" Halsey inquired as she tapped away on her tablet. Ariane hummed, then calmly explained the entire ordeal to doctor Halsey, from the strange place that felt eerily familiar, to the figure in the mural, to her becoming real and trying to grab at her. Halsey had taken note of everything Ariane had confessed just now, with Cortana popping in on the medical room. After finally jotting down the last note, Halsey stated, "We'll do a checkup of your neural activity now..." as Cortana began preparing the devices needed.
Ariane hummed and nodded, letting the doctor set up the previously-used device to scan her patterns. She leaned against the table, letting the doctor do her thing while Cortana seemingly looked through a series of programs for the device. As the last sensor was attached, Doctor Halsey turned it on and... She gasped. Cortana herself went wide-eyed at the readings, then said, "What the hell...?"
"These readings are off the charts..." Halsey murmured. She took a moment to remember what Ariane had said about the dream. "'On the First Day, She Was Crowned... And on this First Day..." She looked at the girl and blinked. She kept up the scan for a few more minutes and made notes, before looking at Ariane and stating, "Whatever happened to you in that dream world, miss Yeong, it..."
"It enhanced your cognitive capabilities at least five-fold, not to mention the centers for Bioresonance are... Hyperactive," Cortana explained, turning to the girl and seeing her just as stunned as them. Cortana then murmured, "It's almost like God decided to give you a pass today... Or whoever that weird zombie lady in your dream was..." while working to determine just what could've given such an awakening for a boost. If it was truly a dream, even.
Ariane nodded, "Yeah... Got it..." and she looked at the readings, too. She couldn't understand some of the writings, but she knew, at the very least, that she felt more alert, at least. Her mind seemed to either be working overtime, or straight-up just working at a chunk of its intended power level now, compared to the earlier. She knew she was Bioresonant through reading some of her own medical data, but then why didn't she have the three stars so commonplace for Bioresonant beings?
She looked at her hand as Doctor Halsey brought out several necessary items for the next few experiments. Meanwhile, on another table in the room, there was a strange crown-like device being repaired by Doctor Halsey. Halsey also brought it over, before setting it down next to Ariane. The woman then hummed and handed her various items. She used her powers to lift them telekinetically, to move them around, to just casually do what she could easily do until now.
Interesting was the fact that her powers seemingly manifested more openly, now. She lifted a pot filled with water, a heavy item all-in-all. She felt it, even through the use of telekinesis with her Bioresonance. She hummed and pushed her powers a bit more, glaring at the pot. She gasped as the pot jumped upward, some water spilling from the top after the sudden deceleration.
"Oops..." Ariane murmured. Halsey, meanwhile, still kept her eyes on the neural responses from the use of her powers. She was also comparing them to the previous neurological activity from the girl during her 'first day' here on Reach. There had been a twelve-point-five percent raise in activity, of course, but it was also now a continuous stream of data instead of intermittent usage with pauses in-between, like her Bioresonant powers had been 'let loose' for lack of a better term.
She hummed and looked at the device she had set aside, next to Ariane, then she picked it up and looked it over. She hummed and asked, "Cortana, what are we looking at for projected inhibition and focusing with the prototype so far?" which stunned Ariane. They'd already got a working prototype to help with the Bioresonance issue? If there was something she could say about Doc Halsey and her AIs, it was that they moved fairly fast.
The Doctor loomed over a table with the device, connecting it to a series of wires next to the device. She began to calibrate it as Cortana turned to the girl and said, "Your development feels like it's getting artificially sped-up. Honestly, as long as you get time to learn to control it, I don't think it's gonna be a problem, but you can't blame a girl for being worried." and she shrugged. Ariane chuckled, nodding understandingly.
Halsey added onto the conversation, "I do suppose it's only natural to be concerned about the supernatural... Or the misunderstood," before walking up to Ariane and slowly removing the wiring off her head while the device began to calibrate itself nearby. To be quite fair, the device in and of itself was more of a 'crown of thorns' in design. It was obviously mechanical in some form, formed of wiring and various pieces of technology Ariane couldn't even name off the top of her head, despite hanging out with the doc and Cortana for a little over a couple weeks now.
She watched them with interest as they worked, with Doctor Halsey asking her to do various tasks every once in a while to ensure that her Bioresonant activity was still going strong. Of course, Ariane complied. She thought that if she could help fight the Covenant with her powers, she might as well. Those monsters killed enough people already. If Elster was gonna... No, no time to focus on that. She also needed to figure out who that being in her dreams was...
Elster herself, meanwhile, was tending to a UNSC Warthog in full armor. The ability to keep the exoskeleton on in case of anything was more than useful, honestly. It meant she had protection in case she made a mistake that got some shrapnel flung in her face. Right now, though, as she sat in the motor pool, she hummed and thought about the people back home. She wondered how they'd feel about her and Ariane forming up with the UNSC like this.
She sighed. She was sure the Protektors would throw a shitfit the moment they managed to read their minds, considering Kolibri units were generally specifically used for mind-reading due to their Bioresonance capabilities. While they were still limited compared to Gestalts like Ariane, or FKLR units, AKA Falkes, which were Commanders for multiple installations, they were still terrifying little bundles of psychic prowess.
Maybe they'd understand that this was about a bigger threat than the Empire, she thought to herself as she patched up the 'Hog's exhaust with duct tape. Maybe they wouldn't and she and Ariane would be gone all the same. Whatever the case, it was something to worry about if they survived the Covenant's deadly onslaught here on Reach and managed to escape.
She sighed and began putting the vehicle's engine bay back together. Seemed like these things had a penchant to break one seal or another every once in a while. Though, to be fair, this one was also hit repeatedly by plasma fire. She saw the carbon scoring on the forward plate, not to mention a needle shard embedded in the gun shield. She climbed onto the vehicle and pulled the shard out, then dropped it to the floor and let it shatter.
Jumping down from the vehicle, the girl walked out of the place and gazed up at the night sky. There was beauty in the stars as usual, but the fact that something else loomed above them, a small Covenant armada perhaps, made the stars all the more terrifying a sight. Which one of them could have been a Covenant ship, waiting, hanging above, ready to kill them.
She sighed and pulled out her canteen, taking an (admittedly unneeded) sip of water, before setting it aside. Her helmet was clipped to her belt, so she had it ready to grab at a moment's notice, should they need to deploy. Her mind wandered off in no particular direction now, as she strolled through this FOB on the Vieri territory, where NOBLE and their Army comrades had been stationed.
Ariane was one of the most prevalent thoughts in her mind, unsurprisingly. She dearly missed holding the girl close, but knew she was better off safe, underneath thick layers of rock, reinforced concrete and titanium plating. Better she be safe than in the middle of this war right next to her. As much as she loved her, Elster knew better than to even remotely question the circumstances. She just hoped Doctor Halsey would keep her safe, like she promised.
She paused and turned as she heard metal boots crunching the dirt below. She turned to face the new arrival and immediately saluted. Carter hummed, gave a salute back and nodded to Elster, "At ease..." before walking up to her. He then asked, "Everything in order, Private?" while the girl fiddled with a piece of equipment in one of her pouches. She nodded rapidly, then hummed.
"All's fine, sir. I just completed repairs on the Warthog that got damaged during the battle for SWORD..." She replied, then admitted with half-a-mouth "It took me a while to source the parts, seeing as this place is remote as is..." before noting that Jorge and Emile were the only others present outside and were talking. Kat, meanwhile, was inside a command post. She hummed and asked, "Take it Six and Three are out on that Recce op?"
"Yeah. Speaking of Six, he seems to have taken a liking to you." The man said as they started walking to the rest of the team. Upon noticing the arched brow of his mechanic, the man clarified, "I don't know many SPARTANs who'd give a SPARTAN Smile to anyone but our own..." and he looked back at her. She seemed to be processing the new information quiet well.
"That's sweet, sir, but I'm taken," Elster replied rather casually, prompting a snort out of the Commander. She hummed, "Though, to be fair, he does seem like an older brother type in behavior. Been making sure I take care of myself..." and she recalled the fact the man and her had even talked a little about the past. Friends and everything. And when both found they had nothing to really recall, they switched to talking about guns.
"Guess the Lone Wolf stuff with him was a bit of an overstatement... Mm, no, not likely," Carter hummed. Six did always operate better as a Lone Wolf, rather than part of a larger team during his own operations. Carter wasn't sure if Six wasn't some sort of special form of HEADHUNTER. Kat had given him files on potential recruits to replace Thom with and one of them was, in fact, a Headhunter.
Jorge greeted them with a wave, stating, "Commander, Seven."
"Nice of you two to join us," Emile quipped, sharpening his Kukri.
"Five, Four," She nodded in greeting to them, then looked at Kat and said, "I take it Six and Three need her for overwatch...?" before noting that Kat was, in fact, talking to both of them. A little squint and she could even see their helmet cameras on the monitor of the computer she was using for the data streaming in from their suits. MJOLNIR was a fancy piece of kit from what she remembered of the specs from Halsey's manuals. She wondered, however, just for how long the good Doctor had worked on the Armor. It was supposedly like a second skin to all SPARTANs, more than a piece of equipment. At least so she'd read in some of the reports.
Halsey had been thorough in making sure it was as impenetrable a Fortress as Mankind could muster for their elite soldiers.
"Hey, Elster," Emile started, "We never got to ask you, where're you and your girl from? We read some of the interviews and somesuch, but we never got the point... Eusan Nation?"
"A conglomerate of planets in our Solar System that has spawned out of a revolution against the oppressive Empire," Elster replied as she sat herself down, "At least that's what they always tell us," and she looked around. All three men hummed and looked to one-another, before looking to the girl. She shrugged, "The posters we had on our walls, the pictures of the Revolutionary and her Daughter on our walls... We were the Eusan People's Nation. It was a decent place to live, from what little I remember of it. Of course, shortages happened due to the War and all that..."
"Civil War that's still ongoing, I presume," Jorge hummed. Elster gave a nod, to which the group collectively seemed interested.
Elster hummed, then took a stick off the floor and started drawing the Solar System and its multitude of inhabited planets and moons. She pointed at the closest planet to the sun and said, "This is Buyan, the capital planet of the Eusan Empire and home of the Imperial Palace," then pointed at the next planet over, "A bit farther from the sun is Vineta, the ocean world ravaged by our war. Next is Kitezh, the world of Red Deserts, occupied by the Imperial Navy who are cutting off supplies for Vineta's rebuilding. Then there are the two gas giants around which Rotfront, one of our most populated moons, and Heimat, the center of AEON and the Revolution as a whole, orbit. Finally, Leng."
"Boss, doesn't this seem a little familiar?" Whispered Emile. Carter shrugged, looking over the detailed drawing of the System itself. It did have a certain resemblance to a certain human system that was of even higher importance than Reach, but it missed a few planets and moons, unless they only tagged the colonized ones. Even Leng looked like it was in the same position as a certain planetoid.
"And... No FTL?" Jorge asked. "No Slipspace, no nothing to explore the rest of the systems around you?"
Elster shook her head, "Penrose project ships get fired via a large mass driver from Heimat toward the outer areas." She then replied, making the group pause. She continued, "We hit somewhere around ten percent the speed of light thanks to the Mass Driver and our ship's engines were mostly for direction changes and orbital burns to keep us steady when and if we ever found a planet... Of course, that never came to be..."
"So, how'd you wind up over Reach, then...?" Carter asked with half a mouth.
"Didn't have that much time to check the navigation computer. If I did, I might've gotten some info over how we skipped our way over to a whole new Solar System in one go..." Elster replied, putting the stick aside and looking down at the replica of their home she had drawn so calmly in front of a squad of people she barely knew. She sighed deeply, rubbing her eyes, then stated, "Everything about me and Ariane clear now?"
"In a way," Jorge nodded, "Your Nation. Was it open to your relationship?"
"... I don't know. I never got to read the laws before I was deployed on the Five-Twelve," Elster shrugged, "I know the basics and I know Ariane was told to interact with me sparingly, but more than that pertaining to the relationship between Gestalts and Replikas is a blank for me. Probably for good reason, too..." and yet another memory flashed, this one her own, of how she and Ariane had spent their days aboard the ship. A faint smile appeared on her face, "Yeah... Not like it mattered."
Jorge gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder, which the girl accepted calmly. Sure, Eusan was a mess of a place, but at least it was home to some degree. She knew Ariane wanted to go home with the UNSC ASAP, to introduce them to the Nation and its people and, if possible, to help the UNSC induct their people into their wider empire. Honestly, Elster couldn't see that happening. What was more likely was a War breaking out.
Honestly, that was the last thing anyone ever needed, both here and back home. The UNSC was already dealing with a massed Covenant attack on Reach, presumably coming in hard and fast. She paused as she saw Kat stand up and walk up to them. The tech SPARTAN spoke, "We have a situation, sir..." as she handed her tablet to Carter. The rest of the squad gathered 'round, to see footage from Six and Jun's perspective.
A sea of purple lights filled their VISR displays. Images taken of a Covenant Strike Force. Carter murmured, "An army deployed on Vieri... You-"
"Already sent it to command. Holland confirmed that all troops are to enter High Alert. We're not sleeping tonight," Kat quipped. Carter hummed and nodded in agreement, looking to the rest of NOBLE. Elster tensed. That meant something big was coming up. A massive battle, presumably, if the Covenant were mass-deploying this large a force. Kat hummed and said, "We haven't figured out where they're deploying these units from."
"I feel like we'll find out early in the morning," Carter noted worriedly, "Pack your gear and load up on ammunition. If you want to sleep, do it now. Soon as Six and Jun are back, we're heading to the staging area..." to which the Group of SPARTANs and Elster nodded, already re-packing their magazines. This was gonna be it. Perhaps, they'd be able to throw the Covenant off Reach, buy themselves a little more time.
Elster felt a pit in her stomach, though... Something was gonna go really wrong...