SHIELD Base, Reach
September 22, 2552, 19:31 hours
Steps echoed in the halls of the alien structure, but the steps were in a pattern, and generated such a specific sound and rythm that the two individuals in the artifact's central chamber knew who it was long before the man came into view "Anything, Petra? We've been down here for almost a month now." Lombardi asked, clearly tired of sitting on his hands for so long. He had come down to check on the two as they've been spending a lot of time with the alien artifact.
"3 weeks, 2 days, and spare change." the A. I. corrected, most of her focus clearly elsewhere.
"3 weeks, 2 days, and we still haven't been able to make heads or tails of this structure." Tom stated standing next to the console, its two screens displaying data and images that flipped by at great speed, Petra still hard at work.
A day after arriving at the Research Station deep within SHIELD Base and discovering this ancient alien facility, Petra had egged her Spartan to take her down to the lower cavern where this structure was located. She wanted to access it, hungry for information, data, for knowledge, but she hadn't been able to make much progress. The scientists that had been working on it for the past several years simply had not been able to do anything significant in the way of unlocking its secrets. From turning on the lights, or to anything else that would have helped them discover its purpose, its builders, or anything else relevant that could explain its existence. With OpSec being in full effect, after their initial escapade down to the chamber the Spartan and Lombardi alike had ordered the Troopers to get work and secure their position, they've spent all this time exploring, getting the lay of the land, setting up defenses against possible incursions, traps, creating chokepoints, etc. They were busy beavers. Petra had helped with bringing the automated defenses online, 6 M41s formed the core of that defense.
But no matter what they did for these past few weeks, it was rare for any soldier to not have one thing on their minds, and one thing only. The structure itself was an enigma, reaching its sizeable doorway- it quickly descended down a long, narrow but tall corridor, made of the same blue-greyish material, the records left in the system that had been under insane levels of encryption had yielded some interesting results, for one- the materials used in the facility's construction did not exist on the periodic table. The carbon in the rocks around it were the only indicators of age, the stratification of sediments over the span of countless thousands of years. Petra was able to discover in Halsey's research files that the rock around the facility was between 367 thousand and 381 thousand years old, depending at which elevation you measured of course. However, the real kicker was that the facility itself could've been way older, or Hell, even younger if it had been buried for whatever reason by its equally enigmatic creators. After the first descending corridor, it opened up into a massive chamber, pathways leading to and fro, you could drop a pin and not hear it hit bottom. And at the center of this massive chamber, 13 symmetrical slivers forming a bubble, itself an isolated chamber, and at its center two floating slabs of the same strange metal upon a raised dais, again with no discernible force or energy keeping them afloat.
"It's like trying to light a match in vacuum.." Petra stated in clear frustration from the nearby console that the Spartan had set up for her. Not getting anywhere after so long a time, especially from the perspective of an A. I. that perceived the world at a much faster pace than any living being- made her efforts seem to span an enormously long period. She had nothing to connect to, no discernible port, no dormant systems, not even any type of jump-start, or cold start system, not even a power supply that she could detect.
"Maybe it's just too old, ya know?" Lombardi guessed outloud "You leave something collecting dust 'n' time for too long.. chances are good it won't start ever again. My great grandad had an old Brook convertible, an Appaloosa '69, and nothin' he tried worked on the old girl. Brook stopped manufacturing parts for 'em back in 2478, as a result pappy had no way of fixin' her. He still kept it, tho." he smiled at the fond childhood memory.
"Not to downplay your great grandfather's efforts, Lieutenant, however I feel we face a quite different animal here, one that is equally cantankerous." Petra stated, turning on the console's holotank towards the officer "But this has to work, this is our last shot." and she resumed her work by winking out.
"How are the men?" the Spartan asked after a moment of silence, his attention still on analyzing the interior of the strange structure.
"They're doing fire, sir. Fortunately ONI designed this base to be a long term research facility, we're still insanely well stocked. Besides, a soft bed and warm food will keep a soldier happy for a long time."
"That's good to hear, but I want them on their toes and ready when the time comes. That means having everyone's bug out bags at the ready."
"Sir? We're leaving?" Lombardi asked curiously, a bit of nervousness creeping into his voice.
"Dr. Halsey and her team didn't waste their time working on this artifact, Lieutenant." Petra clarified "She figured out that it must be some kind of transport or possibly even an FTL device."
Lombardi's face paled at that "You're serious, aren't you?"
"Oui." Petra answered with mirth.
"How do you know? I mean, I don't mean that in a bad way, ma'am, just curious."
"Above your pay grade, Lieutenant." Petra placated with a kind voice "But I will say this, if we make it out of here in one piece, and I'm stretching that if like you wouldn't believe, then ONI at best will make you and your soldiers sign about 45 NDAs."
"At best?" his face paled even more.
"Don't worry, Lieutenant." Petra laughed.
"Kinda hard not to after a statement like that, ma'am." Lombardi just coughed to clear the panic from his throat, hands behind his back as he stood next to the Spartan, who was still focusing very attentively on the floating monoliths.
"Surface scans from the base sensors?" the super soldier asked, changing the subject.
"The surface readings were all over zhe place, I definitely wouldn't advise going up for a picnic." Petra clarified "Maybe we should've started this shindig by telling everyone to get very comfortable."
"Noted." the Spartan spoke, before turning his head towards the Army Trooper "Lieutenant, walk with me." he turned from the dais, Lombardi falling in next to him.
"Sir?"
"What I'm about to tell you is Classified above Level 02/B."
Lombardi shifted his shoulders as he held his rifle "Should I be worried, sir?"
"No, but you need to be made aware. Petra agrees."
"Okay, made aware of what, sir?" Lombardi was nervous now, they stopped on a walkway, halfway between the central chamber and the doorway leading up to the mining tunnels. The chamber around them was so massive, you could barely make out its roof in the dark, blueish gloom, to say nothing of the mist-shrouded bottom.
"This info is from field reports, from other Spartans, ODSTs, other Special Operations Units from deep behind enemy lines. There's a reason why the Covenant many times bother with ground assaults, even planetary invasions instead of just outright glassing a colony." he then fully turned towards his young XO "It's because they're looking for something, colony after colony. We've even gotten reports of Covenant arriving in systems that were nowhere near their Invasion Corridor, colonies they should not have known about under any circumstances."
"They have captured ships in the past, sir. Taken their NAV data."
"No, ships they could have potentially captured along the Corridor never had any ties to these outlying colonies. It also stands to reason that if they found human settlements on those worlds, they will have deduced that we must be even more spread out than just along their Corridor, as such would have widened their search nets as a result. But it's always the same on those planets, they land, they mine, and only when their search operations are complete do they turn their attention to the colonists." the Spartan clarified, gazing off into the distance.
As fear started to wrap its cold fingers around his heart, an expression of understanding started to form on Lombardi's face, his eyes quickly falling on the alien structure's central chamber "Wait, you mean this? They've been looking for whatever this is?" he indicated with a nod of his head.
"Not specifically this, no, but for technologies, artifacts left behind. Whether by this species, or another- we haven't been able to confirm it yet, but the chances are high that if they haven't detected this installation yet, they most certainly will the moment this artifact becomes active."
"Jesus fucking Christ." the Lt. whispered, eyes hard staring at the floor, worried about the few young men and women who had somehow against all odds still managed to survive, even through the God damn glassing of Reach.
"Meaning, the moment Petra is successful we won't have long before the Covenant find us."
"Sir?"
"The moment the portal opens, we have to go."
"Portals.. reads like bad Sci-Fi deus ex machina shit, sir."
"We can travel faster than light, Lieutenant. That alone should have taught us that anything's possible. We also can't allow the Covenant to follow us through, or to attain even more pieces of this technology, which means one thing: asset denial. As such I've taken precautions."
"The C-12 packs." Lombardi nodded "I fully agree, sir."
"Petra's inventory check confirmed that we have enough C-12 to bring down the mountainside, as such, I'd prefer not to alarm the men unnecessarily, so I need you to run interference while I collect the packs from the Armory."
"Yes, sir."
/
The elevator ride up was quiet, Lombardi was clearly still processing everything the Spartan had told him, a stray thought entered his mind that maybe to the Covenant finding those artifacts was the main prize of the War, and killing humans was just a side benefit, a vacation perk. He'd laugh if he had the mental energy for it.
The two arrived back up at Operations, as they left the main building heading towards the Armory they could hear the rebel rousers talking and laughing all the way in the Chow hall.
"Jesus Christ, Draper, how the fuck did your ass get so fat?" someone asked.
"It's muscle, peewee, pure protein." Draper replied.
"More like protein shots, am I right, boys?" the same offender from before stated with a laugh, a few others joining in.
"Come on, Carmen, stop teasing the poor girl. Not all women can have a frog's ass like you."
"OH-HOOO! No, he didn't!"
"Kids." Lombardi commented under his breath with a huff of a laugh as they kept walking, fortunately most of them were either asleep or stuffing their faces.
"It's good seeing them relaxed, Lieutenant, the mental toll of combat can be sometimes far more dangerous than the physical." the Spartan explained "We'd have a bigger problem on our hands if they weren't joking and messing around."
Lombardi simply nodded in understanding.
The main corridor entrance that lead up to the locked tram tunnel was covered by Sergeant Dillon's squad. His boys and girls standing around in the lit cavern, one standing near one of the automated M41s.
"Officer on deck!" one of them yelled as they noticed the Spartan and the Lt. approach.
"At ease." the Spartan commented and kept walking, with a nod toward Lombardi who just turned and went over to Dillon.
"Everything okay, sir?" he asked with a nod.
"Yes, Sergeant. Grab your squad, I want you to walk me through the traps you've set up in the corridor.
"Sir." the Sergeant nodded "Let's go, people." and the squad along with Lombardi walked off, crossing the same walkway they had crossed over 3 weeks ago, leaving no one to notice a super soldier pass by with several crates.
/
"Charges set, Lieutenant. Here's the detonator." and the Spartan handed it over to the man who pouched it a moment later. He had come down the elevator after having inspected the barricades.
"You sure, sir? Wouldn't you rather hold on to it?" the Lt. asked as they stood in the central chamber, Petra's form glowing next to them, left hand under her elbow, right hand under her chin, the A. I. deep in thought.
"If it'll come down to it, we'll be the last ones through, the charge is set for a 5 second delay. If they come, they'll focus most of their firepower on me, and we can't risk the detonator being disabled or destroyed."
"Copy that, sir." Lombardi nodded solemnly "Do you think there's a chance we'll-
"Hold on!" Petra chimed in quickly "I'm picking up a surge!" and before she could process the information the two pillars started to glow with blue markings and symbols, a field of energy coallescing between them "Move!" she all but shouted a moment before a wave of energy rippled out from the device, fortunately it was harmless.
All around them, the dormant shapes and forms started to glow, some even began to move.
"Petra?" the Spartan asked, DMR in hand, looking around.
"H-hold." she breathed "Th-the amount of information.. overwhelming.. I-I'm.. still translating." Petra's form was on her knees, thin arms closely wrapped around her body, her gaze distant, pupils moving rapidly.
"Petra, sitrep." her super soldier asked again.
"It's- it's-" her gaze sharpening due to something in particular, her mind zeroing in on something specific "Installation 04? What's Installation 04?" she asked herself, confusion etched on her features "Containment protocol? Flood? Conduit?"
"What the Hell is she talkin' about, sir?" Lombardi was also on a knee, rifle up, eyes on the energies swirling lazily around the two pillars and the dais.
"Th- this! This is zhe Conduit!" she spluttered out in equal amount of fear and excitement "I'm starting to get a hang of zhe system and how it works, this here" she indicated with her arms towards the ceiling, meaning the entire faciliy "is a Conduit outpost- part of a vast array of slipspace translocation hubs! Doctor Halsey was right!"
"Is it safe? Can we use it?" the Spartan immediately asked "And are you all right?" he continued with clear concern in his voice.
"I- I'm fine! More than fine! Y-yes, we can use it, b- but not yet, the Conduit is still locking on to a destination point, I c- can't control it! But I know it needs.. guessing from zhis charge rate a solid 23 minutes before we can access it!"
"A lot can happen in 23 minutes, Petra." the super soldier stated, immediately switching to Company comms "All units! This is-" static.
"Whatever zhe Hell powers this facility, it's blocking comms, Tom." she spoke in his ear on their private channel.
"Right." he said standing and moving towards the exit "Lt., on me! Comms are down! We need to rally the Troopers!" and he ran towards the passage that led to the cavern, Lombardi sprinting behind him breathing hard, his adrenaline pumping already due to knowing what was about to happen.
By the time the elevator reached the top, the mountain shook with a massive detonation, then it shook again, dust and debris from the cavern ceiling raining down on top of them. Even so far underground, it shook them hard, they were being hit with naval fire.
"All units, to Ops! Move! Move! Move!" the Lt. bellowed as soon as his comms cleared "We. Are. Leaving!"
Troopers from all over the Research Station began running, many of them already in gear since the first hit. The station's Sleeping quarters and Chow hall were a spit of distance from Operations, but in the dimly lit cavern the Lt. and the Spartan could see the soldiers run for dear life when an alternate entrance off to the side exploded in purple flames.
'No. Can't be. It's too soon.' Lombardi's throat went dry as he had to squint from the flames, their eyes had adapted to the mostly dark environment over the past few weeks. But no Covenant, where were the Grunts, the Jackals? Then it clicked.
"Troopers, move! Contact right, contact right!" they looked where he indicated but there was nothing, they couldn't see anything in the dark and smoke.
When the Spartan's voice came over Company comms they knew they were in deep shit.
"Zealots! Go! Go! Go!" followed by the rapid cracks of a DMR on the other side of the cavern, 2 Elites with rust-red armor became visible as they fell from a dark overhead causeway. Dead before they hit the floor.
Another sealed door exploded further down the chamber, Grunts, Jackals, Brutes surged forth, seeing the Troopers run towards a central structure, they pursued relentlessly.
Inside Ops Lombardi quickly accessed the defense systems, and 6 M41s jumped from their hidden mounts, immediately zeroing in on anything alive that wasn't human.
The torrent of lead they unleashed decimated the first wave of Covenant, they clearly weren't expecting such heavy resistance. A Brute Chieftain was practically buzzsawed in half across his waist by two M41s, his Gravity Hammer clanking to the floor.
The barrels of the HMG turrets glowed red as they picked off emerging targets in short bursts.
WORT WORT WORT was chanted in the expansive cavern, bouncing off the walls, the Spartan's motion tracker's edges became an ocean of red. The soldiers were being cut down, plasma fire out of thin air felled about a dozen of them who were running in the open towards their Lt.
"Cloaked Elites!" Carmen shouted as she ran for Ops, the Lt. and a few others were busy laying down suppressive fire from the balcony that surrounded the Ops tower. Plasma flew at them from invisible figures, fortunately the M41s' sensors could track incoming fire, releasing long bursts back at the hidden attackers, a few very unfortunate Elites were turned into kebab meat.
"Ramirez is down!"
"Where's Draper?!"
Lombardi's comms crackled "Rally them and get to the elevator! I'll hold them here as long as I can!" the Spartan's distinct voice ordered, his tone brokered no argument.
"Copy that, sir!" there weren't many of them left at that point "Fall back, get to the elevator!"
Enemy fire was as thick as rain, the distinct whine of Plasma Repeaters and Needlers occasionally drowned out by Battle Rifles, Assault Rifles and DMRs.
The cloaked Elites were targeting the HMGs effectively, most of them were either disabled or out of ammo. The Troops had taken heavy casualties by the time the Lt. had managed to pull them back and on to the elevator. There were barely 16 of them left, the Lt. included. Thankfully the elevator's massive doors closed shut, drowning out the noise of battle above as the last M41 was taken out.
"Hold on, Carmen! J- just hold on!" Sasha spoke as tears streamed down his face, holding the small medic, her breathing becoming shallow, her skin cold to the touch, gaze becoming more distant with each passing moment. The hiss of biofoam filled the silence, but it was too late "It's gonna be okay, it's gonna be okay.." he chanted quietly as he slowly rocked back and forth with his wife in his arms. Her entire chest was gone. The others just stood in silence, not being able to look away from their sister in battle, giving her the respect she deserved. Draper's tears stung her bloodshot eyes as she gripped her SAW as tightly as she could.
Up above the Spartan was in the thick of it, Zealots were tough opponents, intelligent, patient, master tacticians, insanely well trained, not to mention equipped, cloak, armor, heavy weapons, Energy Swords. They were the veterans of dozens of battles, masters of infiltration and evasion, but unfortunately for them, they lacked one crucial thing.
They weren't Spartans.
"Wort, Wort, Wo-" another Zealot's head went flying, its flesh seared by the blade of an Energy Sword. The Spartan ducked as another emerged from cloak right behind him, sword coming down hard. The super soldier simply blurred out of the way, grabbing the offending Elite's wrist and with a quick twist breaking every bone in it and with his other hand in a diagonal motion carved the Zealot in half, throwing its arm, half torso and head at another charging Elite who jinked, when he should've janked as the repurposed Energy Sword wielded by the Demon filleted his face from his head, jaws and all.
The Spartan breathed steadily as a dozen Zealots lay in various states of dismemberment around him, 0.5 seconds later he was already sprinting towards Operations, bursting through the door like a freight train through a cardboard shithouse. Two Elites were working hard at carving up the elevator doors, as they turned from the sound of the reinforced door flying off its hinges an M6G Magnum barked with hatred and two brains were forcefully vacated from their residences.
"Petra! Status!" still static 'Damn it' and without thinking Tom sent two heavy punches at the weakened thick elevator doors, breaking through he simply jumped, slowing his descent by using the walls of the elevator shaft as resistance. As he hit the elevator car it buckled beneath him, and in a split moment he was off, sprinting towards the tunnel, no enemy in sight so far, in the distance he could see the surviving Troopers make their way towards the central chamber. The light emanating from it far stronger than it had been 20 minutes ago.
When he arrived he quickly looked over the dozen or so remaining soldiers, most of them were wounded, one was covered by a rain tarp with Sasha sitting next to it completely lost. The rest were hunkered down behind what piece of cover they could find, eyes on the tunnel entrance. They didn't have a lot of ammo left.
"Sitrep."
"Sir, they came outta nowhere. I think all of them were cloaked." Lombardi reported, out of breath and caked in grime.
"Then this is it, no one else made it. Once this Conduit opens I have no idea what we're going to find on the other side, so I want everyone to quickly grab their bug out bags, we'll carry as much food, water, and ammo we can."
All Troopers did as they were told, quickly shouldering standard Army backpacks that were full of MREs, water, medical supplies and whatever else they might need, including oxygen masks at the ready in case there was no air on the other side of the Conduit, which might give them half a day's worth of Oxygen to figure something out.
The Spartan nodded at the soldiers and walked up to the sitting form of Sasha who hadn't reacted "Your brothers and sisters need you, Sasha." the super soldier stated, kneeling down in front of the seemingly lost soldier "You know what she would've said." that got Sasha's attention for the first time. He looked up, noticing the Spartan.
"Skullfuck the motherfuckers." Sasha ground out between his teeth, thirsty for blood.
The Spartan nodded at him and handed him his loaded DMR and backpack. Sasha stood and joined the Lt. on the line as the super soldier went over to a case behind the dais, opening it.
As he got close to the console his A. I. companion appeared "Finally! Where were you?!" Petra asked angrily, but clearly out of worry for him.
"Zealots." was all he needed to say, the Troopers went pale, a Zealot was capable of making entire Platoons vanish, it looked like he just made an entire Platoon of Zealots vanish.
"Is it ready?" he asked nodding toward the Conduit as he kept placing fresh mags into his chest harness' ammo pouches.
"Almost, I understand so much more now. This Conduit system is roughly 100 thousand years old, but zhis facility itself is much, much older, apparently it was a latter addition to support this so-called 'Installation 04' and its respective network of installations. As far as I can tell it served as a quick slipspace translocation conduit for the deployment of reinforcements in case of Flood outbreak, which I'm guessing is probably code for something else that has nothing to do with water."
"So why did it come online only now?" the Spartan asked for clarification as he grabbed a few grenades and locked them next to the hilt of an Enegy Sword to the magnetic strips on the Mjolnir's hip.
"I have no idea, mon chéri. A lot of data pertinent to this so-called 'Containment protocol' has been forcefully deleted from zhe system, the Conduit should be stable and ready in 4 minutes." she explained, still fascinated by all she had learned, whilst the Spartan pulled a modified long DMR from the case that wasn't a bullpup design, it was half as long as he was tall.
His motion tracker's edges flared red.
WORT WORT WORT
They all turned and tensed at the noise "Weapons up!" the Spartan commanded immediately, pacing quickly forward.
It looked like the Covenant had finally arrived. And arrive they did, Grunts and Jackals poured out of the tunnel entrance, firing as they went, a pack of Brutes pushed through them, a Chieftain in the front with his massive hammer. Distractions for the Zealots. From this distance the plasma fire went mostly wide, pinging, singing or flaking off the shapes and pillars of the ancient structure.
The Spartan stood front and center of their defensive line, he shouldered the experimental grey-green DMR.
"WITH IT, OR ON IT!"
A dozen safeties flipped.
"Open fire!"
And the Covenant line staggered, punched by human defiance. Grunts and charging Jackals were peppered by Draper's long SAW bursts, chunks of blue flesh flew everywhere, the barrel of her SAW glowed red, she screamed at the top of her lungs.
A massive detonation of purple-blue plasma washed over their front line, many of them had to duck out of the way, the Spartan moving as fast as he could to cover and shield the Troopers as they reloaded, but he couldn't be everywhere at once, and they began to pay for it.
Draper reached for her sidearm as a Jackal jumped over a few supply boxes, firing a Needler and filling her with two dozen needles throm thigh to neck, the pain was unbelievable but she managed to somehow will her body to flung itself at the Jackal with a mighty pained cry, the flightless bird only chirped once in panic before the pink explosion consumed them both.
The Lieutenant grabbed a party favor "Frag out!" and another flew from a Trooper next to him. He resumed firing a moment later, catching a Jackal in the brain with a dose of lead.
The Covenant could only advance on the thin walkways, but no one was stupid enough to think that they would only use a frontal assault, and they were right, Plasma Repeaters whined before they fired from both their left and right flanks, Troopers on the sides adjusted accordingly and returned fire.
The central facility had four entrances, and they were engaged on three.
The Spartan and the Lt. along with Sasha were holding the line, they kept up a steady stream of metal death, keeping the pressure on the Brutes in the center, but the Spartan's 6th sense was screaming at him, they're keeping him distracted.
The super soldier turned to the right, throwing a frag long and actually hitting a cloaked Elite with it who managed a grunt of surprise before the 'nade detonated in his face, spraying his comrades with Sangheili guts.
"The Conduit is stable! Run!" Petra yelled into their comms just as another Elite jumped from the side, killing a Trooper, their right flank had immediately collapsed.
As quickly the Covenant charge on the front had been stunned they redoubled their efforts a second later, Brutes charged ahead, weapons firing wildly, the Spartan's DMR barked rapidly, one shot one kill every time. He turned to his right, taking down another two Elites and behind them an eager Grunt with activated plasma grenades, the detonations of which washed away anything behind their push on the flank.
More Elites appeared on the opposite flank, firing plasma at the soldiers, the Spartan shifted his aim around 180 degrees in the blink of an eye, firing at the Elites as they charged in, indigo blood spraying on the walls of the chamber. One Zealot got too close and was rewarded with a kick to the chest that shattered its rib cage, a Trooper finished it off with the remaining 2 rounds in his mag.
"Last mag, last mag!" the Trooper shouted whilst reloading, he caught a Spike in the neck and just dropped.
"István!" another soldier shouted as his friend fell.
"Fall back! Fall back and go through!" the Spartan yelled, switching to his Magnum as his tracker now was completely awash with red.
The results of the Zealot charge were horrific.
Most of the Troopers died in seconds, the Zealot's sword cut a path of destruction through the few remaining soldiers, only a few of them were still in the fight. Sasha ran toward the Conduit and was grabbed by a Brute that flung him back towards his pack mates who tore him apart, he screamed in agony as his right leg was ripped out of his hip. The Lt. caught two Spikes in his shoulder from behind, spinning him to the ground, the man was spitting up blood as one had pierced his right lung.
The Spartan breathed one long steady breath and his pupils dilated.
Spartan Time kicked in full force.
The Elites and Brutes saw the Energy Sword ignite in his hand and for the first time in their long lives of savage merciless annihilation.. they knew fear. Many tried to get in the Spartan's way as he dashed toward the console.
But the Zealots should've brought more friends.
The Spartan's movements were so incredibly fast, precise, violent and strong that the blue plasma of the Energy Sword in his left hand turned into a wave of light and fire as he carved through a dozen veteran Covenant warriors. Berserking Brutes could barely slow him down as he decapitated one after the other, his movements were continuous, as one long coreographed move, training, experience and instinct had taken over completely, and nothing could stop him. He was here, and now in this moment- mankind's avenging angel.
Petra appeared on the holotank, extending an arm toward him, desperation on her face, she didn't want him to die, he didn't want her to die.
Before the last Brute's headless corpse had hit the ground the data crystal was already in his right hand and extended to Petra, half a second later he had reinserted it into his helmet, and he could feel her presence embrace his mind, her fear abating.
"Go, sir! Go!" Lombardi screamed in pain, blood pouring from his mouth, sluring his words, his right hand holding the detonator.
Tom took one step toward him "Don't! He's doing it for you! Don't think! Just go!" Petra yelled in his ear. Lombardi looked at him from across the chamber, giving a final weak smile as he mouthed 'It's been an honor, sir.' the detonator held in a death grip to his chest.
The Spartan nodded once before turning to the dais, and flung himself into the black swirl of energy.
"Ah, a survivor.." a Brute breathed, other Brutes and Elites closed in around him, Jackals and Grunts chirping with joy "Did you really think your pathetic kind could defile the relics of the Gods and live?!" he bellowed in his deep, gutural voice.
Lombardi slowly turned over, bloody grin on his face.
"The Great Journey.. ends here." click
No one understood why he laughed, and they didn't need to. For they would be forever buried under a mountain.
Unknown planet, unknown system
Unknown date and time
Brightness, a powerful bright light, that's all he saw, just as he had jumped into the black void he was already feeling something solid beneath him, the light still blinding him, but he wasn't in pain, he could feel himself lying on the ground.. somewhere.
"Petra?" was all he could croak, his mouth and throat dry, whatever had happened, it knocked the wind out of him.
Silence followed, but the Spartan slowly started to regain his senses, his hearing slowly coming back, if he could hear his own voice then that must've been a good sign. Turning over he tried to stand, shaking his head, his vision started to return, slowly making out shapes and shadows, but it was still fuzzy. Blinking rapidly didn't seem to help the matter.
"Petra, you there?"
Still no answer.
Just then he started to see the outlines of his HUD coming back online, the familiar dull load of his shields, his vision getting better and better with each passing second.
Suddenly he felt a presence in the back of his mind, one he knew extremely well "I'm here, Tom." she finally answered "I think we both got knocked out for a moment." even her voice sounded groggy.
"Lieutenant Lombardi, the others.." he hated himself "I should've stayed.."
"If you had stayed you'd be dead, and you'd be a trophy!" she rebuffed angrily "Maybe for once in your life think about yourself." her voice was clearer now.
"Petra.. I-." he steadied himself as he stood to his full height, stretching out his shoulders and neck "I- where the Hell are we?" the Spartan inquired as he finally noticed their surroundings.
"That.." she fidgeted as she appeared on his HUD's upper left corner "..I- wait, there!" she indicated with a waypoint marker "Take me to that port! The Conduit is still active, if the one on Reach wasn't destroyed, we could have Covenant pouring out at any moment, go!"
"The amount of C-12 I planted should've buried the entire facility, Petra." the Spartan jumped to the platform she indicated, placing her data crystal to it and she jumped into the alien system "But better safe than sorry."
Holograms started to appear and along with them so did Petra as a life-size hologram of her form appeared with a height of 171 centimeters. She was moving the alien symbols around, manipulating shapes, her brows knit in deep concentration "Hmm.." she hummped "..maybe this?"
"This is a new look." he indicated her form.
"Just testing things here." she said, not taking her eyes off of her work "I almost got it.. there!" and the Conduit almost instantaneously winked out, even the power to the two pillars and dais winked out, as they crashed to the bottom of the chamber with a loud bang "Woops."
"I hope that wasn't our only way back." the Spartan noted with a touch of sarcasm.
"We'll figure it out, don't worry, either way, zhe Conduit doesn't work like that, at least, I don't think it does." Petra replied whilst giving him a good look "Hmm, I'm going to bring the rest of this facility online, see what we can find out. There must be more here." and with that the entire chamber started lighting up, Tom could feel energy faintly pulsing through the structures, like before, they were in a chamber, but this was much larger "Hmm, strange, 13 perfectly symmetrical sides here as well, I- I wonder what they mean, if anything.." and she kept sorting though the data.
"Just how far are we from UNSC space?"
She stopped for a moment "Of that I am not sure." and continued.
Just then a thought occured to the Spartan "Does this facility contain any sensors, scanners, long range communication? Anything we could use to make contact?"
"Sensors, yes, scanners, yes, communications? No. I will need a bit of time to set and calibrate them, they haven't been used in.. well, a long time." Petra expressed with mirth.
Grabbing his new DMR and placing his bag on the ground near the terminal, the Spartan looked for a way out, behind them a long and wide causeway lead to an exit.
"Petra, I'm gonna scout ahead, keep comms open just in case. Let's see if we can determine just how far we're from home."
"Copy that, I'll keep sifting." her voice drifted, the A. I. still clearly engrossed in her reading material.
He nodded and was off, the Conduit's dais that had spat them out was set on a much larger platform than the one back under SHIELD Base. This was a dome-like structure that was connected to a long passage, massive columns on both sides of the causeway holding up its roof. The same architecture as before, cold, alien, and very old.
From the dais to the exit the Spartan walked a rough distance of 250 meters, climbing another set of stairs, once he reached it, he could see it was nighttime outside, the exit itself roughly 17 meters in height, it almost seemed to be carved out of stone, if it wasn't for the same blue-grey texture as everywhere else.
Once outside he could see they were close to the edge of a cliff that ran both to their right and left slowly turning outward, forming a gigantic U-shaped ridgeline, a forested valley below, great evergreen trees for miles and miles.
Petra appeared on his HUD for a moment "Let's see here, oh, this looks interesting." she added "Reminds me of High Cup Gill on Earth. Scale's way larger here, though."
"I'm not picking up anything on the motion sensors, looks like we're clear for now." the Spartan informed, noticing the tall cliff face above the outpost's entrance, rising a solid 400 meters or more above them.
The forest was quiet, but the most amazing view was the star-filled night sky above, no light pollution like on a built up colony to muddy the view, even nebulas could be made out in the distance.
"Give me a good 360, Tom. I have a hunch I wish to confirm." Petra asked nicely and he complied, slowly looking up and turning on his axis "There!" she highlighted with a designation marker on his HUD. it would seem she had found something.
"Care to share with the class?" he asked good humorerdly.
"Those double binary stars! I have good news and bad news." she spoke in a timid voice, waiting for his reaction.
The super soldier just hung his head before lifting it back up "Bad news first."
"I'm afraid we're quite far away from UNSC space, over 5729 light years to be precise." she explained in a quiet voice "I have a bearing, but that would require a ship.. which we currently do not possess.."
He just sighed "When it rains, it pours. And the good news?"
At that she lit up like a Christmas Tree in New Alexandria Square "I found something amazing in the archives, hurry back to the chamber!" she then started accessing something that immediately grabbed her attention, still up on his HUD. A moment later her eyes widened in revelation, smart A. I.s after all were very fast learners.
Tom made his way back at the pace of a light jog, it didn't take him long to reach the dais, she appeared once more in her human-size form.
"Mon Dieu, Tom, look!" and as she pointed off to his right, he turned, and they saw groups of lights appearing on each of the 13 walls except for one.
Something clicked in his head "That can't be right, are those.."
"Constellations, yes! And not just any constellations, they are the 12 constellations of the zodiac, as seen from Earth!"
That revelation was earth-shattering and in equal measure unnerving "How accurate are they?"
"Oh, they are accurate, if you calculate for a little over 2000 years of stellar drift!"
"Wait, are you telling me this species has been to Earth 2 millennia ago?"
"Apparently so." Petra replied with fear and trepidation in her voice "There's still a lot of information in this.. record.." she kept reading, drawn in by the information "This is incredible!" the A. I. stated with amazement "Translating- phrases, terms, okay, I believe I have a good enough translation of the record, listen to this!" and with that the hologram of some kind of massive machine appeared floating in the tall chamber, it possessed one red eye and a large metalic form that was silver-grey.
Its voice simply boomed "I, 08-145 Offensive Bias now vow and affirm to maintain the sacrosanct toil of the Lifeworkers, seeders of life, Lifeshaper among them- First Light Weaves Living Song. The children of Erde-Tyene will be protected, and the ministrations of 12-041 Methodist Bias will be permitted to flourish in this garden system he had wrought for his 12 tribes. His work, whilst in direct violation of the Librarian's edicts, will not be put to the sword. However, I shall maintain my watch over them from here in the Asteios System.." and the recording cut, the holograph vanishing.
"And that was the good news?" he asked her, slight tinge of exasperation in his voice.
"Patience, my sweet!" she waved him closer "Allow me to explain! This record? It goes on and on like that, for hundreds of years.. countless data points!" Petra went silent as something new and interesting caught her attention once more "Oh- oh my, this- this Methodist Bias was a busy beaver! As far as I can tell, these two, Offensive and Methodist, are- or were powerful A. I.s created by this.. precursor species tens of thousands of years ago, they might be much older than that. Now, from what I am able to discern, this Methodist Bias seeded a planet with human life, a civilization that flourished under his guidance, a planet he called Kobol. These tribes, 12 of them, they were his way of ensuring the continued survival of the human race, in case anything ever happened to Earth. But here's the kicker, and it's a doozie, Methodist Bias told his 12 tribes of a 13th! He told them of Earth, their "cousins" of us, who had long 'departed' from Kobol! I guess it would've been too much to tell zhem that they were a beta project, a backup for the real deal.." she chuckled.
Tom turned from the display to his A. I. companion, her face still focused on the data.
"I'm sorry, Petra, but this is all just a little bit hard to believe. Are you trying to tell me that an ancient alien A. I. took humans from Earth to create another world to protect humanity from extinction?" the Spartan shook his head in disbelief, looking away, his gaze falling on the shifting constellations displayed.
"He didn't take them! The humans of Kobol were brought to their new home from a separate Index!"
"What do you mean separate Index? You mean these humans, the ones created by Methodist, were not taken from Earth? That can only mean that at an even earlier point in time, someone had to have gone to Earth to take humans.. somewhere else.." the giant soldier mused "..just what the Hell is going on?"
"The humans of Earth, your ancestors, for a lack of a better term, they were protected by these ancient aliens, and clearly, people must've been taken from Earth by them in order to protect our- your species from complete extinction in case a catastrophic event ever occurred on Earth, something that fortunately never happened."
"Lucky us." the Spartan monotoned "So did this Methodist teach and give these taken humans advanced alien tech?"
"Methodist never engaged directly with the humans of this second world, no, he- he guided them from a distance through human-like sentient machines that he fashioned, who acted as the gods of these 12 tribes, each imbued with a specific role in this.. 'machine' pantheon. With his guidance this world flourished, Tom, I mean, they had FTL capabilities over 2000 years ago! Unfortunately due to some unforseen calamity they were forced to leave this world in an exodus, and settle in this artifical system called Cyrannus that Offensive Bias mentioned. That's astroengineering, Tom! It's unbelievable, to be so technologically advanced to not only build worlds, but entire solar systems!" Petra was like a kid a toy store "And the cherry on top of it all, their gods were the Greek gods! Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Artemis, Athena, et cetera!"
That got the Spartan's attention "How is that even possible?" he shook his head again rethinking their priorities "Let's table the theology for later, could we somehow contact them? Who knows how advanced they might be at this point, we sure as Hell could use all the help we can get." the Spartan mused aloud, frustrated by the losses of the War.
"I believe I can explain the Greek pantheon connection-" Petra continued, still riveted by everything she was absorbing from the records "this A. I., this- Methodist Bias, he visited Earth over 3000.. almost 4000 years ago here" and a map of Earth appeared and she pointed to a very specific spot in the Mediterranean "the Aegean Islands." Petra explained, continually skimming the records "He would make sporadic visits, sending his 'gods' in the hopes of teaching the people of Earth about the 12 tribes that he had created on Kobol, but- not directly, he wanted to guide gently.. not force humanity on Earth. I believe it was his way of somehow keeping all of humanity connected, so that we wouldn't forget about each other, even if all this doen't make any sense to us, it made complete sense to an intelligence vastly greater than our own. And it's highly likely that that's how the Greek pantheon appeared."
"And it clearly didn't take." he noted as there was no evidence in human history of a 'sister colony among the stars consisting of 12 tribes', nothing besides the stories of Greek mythology remained, something all Spartans were very familiar with.
"And their names, Tom, zhe names of the tribes and their Colonies, they're the same names as the 12 sings of the zodiac, it might be that Ptolemy's Almagest was based on even earlier forms of the zodiac, which was based on the Babylonian star catalogues during the first half of the 1st millennium B. C., which very well might have been a creation of Methodist himself! And the fact that these.. Kobolians now speak a hybrid derivation of Proto-Hellenic and Mycenaean Greek is nothing short of tangible proof!"
The Spartan carefully considered his companion's words, but he felt like they were really getting off track "Whilst that's interesting, Petra, that still doesn't help us find a way back home, which I think is the more pressing of the two matters." the Spartan intoned "We'll have time to unravel this later, especially once we've made contact with SPECWARCOM, so one thing at a time, okay?"
"I understand, Tom, forgive me, I have always found history and human myths fascinating." Petra apologized, but her gaze was still locked on the enormous amounts of data pouring by on a holographic display in a very alien language "I just find it so incredible- that while humanity on Earth didn't retain any knowledge, written or otherwise of the 12 tribes of Kobol besides of course of the Greek pantheon, an earlier influence on our zodiac, and the 12 constellations.. it still leaves me with zhe sense that we're missing a bigger piece of this pie." Petra noted with dissatisfaction, but with a snap of her fingers her happy demeanor returned "However, zhe 12 tribes did remember us, I mean Earth! The last record Offensive Bias added to this archive was a little over 3 centuries ago, 336 years ago to be precise. And these people, these Kobolians, who now called themselves the 'Colonials', whilst still fighting one another from time to time in horrible wars, they- they never forgot about their so called '13th brother', somewhere out there" she finger quoted "lost among the stars. Earth has an almost mythic status in these 12 Colonies." his A. I. companion explained.
"Well, let's hope that's still the case then." he replied, whilst going over the inventory of the backpack he managed to somehow save, two dozen or so MREs, 7 litres of water, medical supplies, etc.- supplies that would last him a solid month. After placing the pack near the terminal that Petra was currently using the Spartan continued to pace the chamber, checking over his long DMR variant, holding it in his hands, getting a better feel for it "If we somehow manage to make contact with these people.. do you think we might be able to somehow leverage that? And get help for the UNSC?"
"Time will tell, Tom. Although I'd be personally adverse to exposing them." Petra went with a diplomatic answer, too many variables and unknowables still hanged in the ether of it all.
"You're right.. " he continued to pace, placing the DMR down next to the rest of his gear "Some lost cousin we'd be.. we don't even know if they could hold off the Covenant in the first place, or if they should." he sighed "We don't have the right. Hell, we might just scare 'em off." he turned back to her "But first thing's first, are there any records about this place? This world? Or how we could get out of here? Rather not spend eternity on this pretty rock."
"Hey, I'm wonderful company!" Petra teased and smiled kindly turning back to the readouts "This planet is called Asteios, 5th planet in the Asteios System, it's roughly 2 weeks by slipspace from the Cyrannus System. Lucky for us this planet has mild weather, no extreme seasons and is comfortably able to sustain human life. However what could be considered edible or not, not to mention nutritious.. there's no record of that unfortunately. So unless we get incredibly lucky.."
"Yeah.." the Spartan nodded once.
"We're boned." she concluded.
He just nodded, resuming his uneasy pacing, like a caged animal that couldn't run, but letting out a long breath he walked back toward his gear. He hadn't eaten in 3 days.
"Any luck with the sensors?" he asked while sitting down on a large slab of metal in front of the dais, pulling out an MRE from his pack. Pulling on the release zip, the heating filaments lining the pack began heating up the food in seconds. Digging in he wolfed it down as fast as he could.
"Don't forget to chew." the A. I. jabbed.
He only looked up from his grub, raising an eyebrow "Sensors?"
"Never any patience, tsk, tsk, one day you'll-" Petra's voice stopped her gaze going up toward the ceiling of the dome.
"One day I'll what?" he smiled as he worked on quickly finishing his hot food, helmet next to him.
"Sensors!" her eyes widened her face turning toward him "I'm picking up ships in geosynchronous orbit!"
"Covenant?" he immediately stood.
"Definitely not Covenant, can't find a match for a single Covenant design, thank God for these advanced sensors." she replied tersely "Nothing of UNSC make either." she locked eyes with him "4 small craft have broken atmo and are bearing right for our position, it would appear zhe activation of this facility might have released an energy signature. Which also means that they've been here for a while."
"You were saying something about luck?" the Spartan replied, locking his helmet back in place and picking up his DMRL "I'm surprised the sensors picked up anything at all, considering the age of this place, not to mention distinguish ship designs." his hot ravioli MRE finished.
"This is a facility capable of personal slipspace transport without the need to generate a quantum field for the traveler, mon petit.. I'm surprised the sensors couldn't tell us what color their ships are, or what their occupants had for lunch." she laughed with a touch of sarcasm in her voice "This civilization.. if they're still around, they would be very advanced."
He just nodded turning his head back towards the sensor display "How long before they arrive?"
"They should be here in 13 minutes, the closer they'll get zhe more I'll be able to triangulate their probable landing zone." she noticed how he was going over his weapons "Expecting hostile contact already?"
"Better safe than sorry." he replied as he turned to face her, the outpost going dark and silent as she shut everything down.
"Okay, yank me." and a moment later she was back in her data crystal, locked into his helmet. Her familiar presence once more brushing against his conscious mind "Wait. Something's wrong.." she appeared on his HUD, her brows furrowed.
"Petra?"
A moment later her eyes went as wide as saucers "The facility! It has a failsafe! Its core is going into overload!"
"What?! How?!"
"Offensive Bias must've placed a tripwire in zhe core! If any system was brought online and deactivated without his direct command codes the system would create a closed loop in zhe energy capacitors of the outpost!"
He was already walking and with a swift move picked up his backpack heading for the exit "Just how big of a bang are we talk-"
"RUN!"
She didn't have to say it twice and a split second later he was already sprinting down the causeway, by the time he'd crossed a third of it the super soldier was close to clocking his top speed. A powerful light began to glow behind him, illuminating the long hall, growing brighter with each passing moment.
He practically flew out of the massive entrance at 107 km/h, his feet hitting dirt and without breaking his stride he turned right- continuing along the natural causeway formed by tens of thousands of years of erosion, sprinting along the spine of the cliffside. The forested valley down to his left spreading far off into the distance.
"Next time you stick your nose in someone else's pie, make sure it doesn't have rat poison in it."
"Just run, smartass!"
Fortunately the cliff's edge began to curve to the right, thinking of putting some solid cover between themselves and the outpost's entrance he leaped over the edge, going straight down roughly 70 meters, hitting an incline slope of 43 degrees, sliding for another solid 15 meters before resuming his mad dash still going at full tilt.
"12 seconds before it goes!"
He had just reached the treeline when a massive detonation sent out a compression wave, blowing trees to pieces around him as he ran, kicking up earth, dust and shrubs alike. He just caught the back end of it as he jumped into a dry riverbed. Dust and debris flew around him as he slammed his back against the side of a massive boulder which shielded him from the worst of it, even so his shields had dropped down to 63%.
He stood there for a moment, and he heard the dull noise of his shields rise again to a full 100%.
The dust slowly settled around him, still making visibility beyond 30 meters difficult, fortunately he was a Spartan, his eyesight was incredible. Looking around, the place looked like Tunguska. The trees that hadn't been flattened were blown to splinters.
"That probably woke the neighbors." he commented, standing to his full height. No gear missing. The system's sun shining through the rapidly dispersing gloom of dust.
"Always a thrill riding with you, Tom." the A. I. laughed.
Their moment of levity was cut short by the telltale sound of a couple of sonic booms in rapid succession.
"I've triangulated them, they're not far now. Setting a waypoint." Petra notified, a marker appearing on his HUD.
"Pretty sure they saw the detonation, so they won't be landing too far from here."
"Let's go say hi, then." the A. I. laughed "Can't be much worse than our last first contact."