Halo: Feet First

by MikeDice

Halo: Feet First covers the story of a team of UNSC Orbital Drop Shock Troopers of the 7th Battalion, 105th Shock Troops Division. The main character, Duncan Iris, faces the full horror of the covenant war effort against humanity as well as the brave retaliation of outnumbered and outgunned UNSC forces. However, he also witnesses the turning of the tides as the war progresses.

77. Kholo - Chapter 6 (Medicus)

Chapter 6 – Medicus

May 29th, 2545 (14:06 Hours – Military Calendar)

Hicetas System, Kholo

2 Kilometers West of Hayth Township

:********:

Hayth was an Insurrectionist base of operations. By extension, the AMADDS were an organization operating under the umbrella of the colonial insurrection. That made everyone with a gun a rebel against the UEG and UNSC. It also made Duncan a rebel by order of reason.

But what about their families? What about the people not in the AMADDS, not patrolling the walls or munitions depots established across the township? Did they count too?

Duncan was unsure how to explain those questions away. Was it only a base of operations or was it really a town unto itself? Perhaps both, or something new? He definitely wasn't as certain as he wanted to be.

The dilemma left him feeling imbalanced amidst his acts of covering corners, shooting cutouts and jogging under the afternoon light of Hicetas.

Right after the meeting at the auditorium, Ambers along with several other officers led the band of recruits onto another pod of flatbeds. They transported them across town, through an eastern gate and into the outskirts.

Duncan hadn't expected to find the world that existed on the eastern side of Hayth. Instead of a shining desert, there were squarish hectares of farmland spread out around the area with sections of glassland running between them. Yet each plot of land seemingly existed where a vitrified surface should have been present. That would make more sense for it to be a couple tufts of burned grass and nothing more. What didn't make sense was the chance that a glassing beam on a CCS could miss a dozen plots of vegetation each the size of a football field.

The fields were both surrounded and encased in the glass-paneled walls of large greenhouses. Through their transparent panels he noticed how each was specialized for one particular produce. They spanned from north to south hosting rows upon rows of yellow-tipped cornstalks, greenish legumes and golden hay swaying in the breeze of an active aircon. Columns of red tomatoes, half-buried carrots and heads of emerald cabbage added to the effect of an agrarian lifeline.

Suddenly the whole air of self-sustainability made sense.

Workers from the town tilled the fields in groups. They monitored the network of pipes supplying the nutrition rich sediment with water, loaded bundles of ripe produce onto the backs of waiting trucks or raked additional furrows into the soil.

The whole spectacle begged a basic question: this was a glassed planet, so how in the world were they growing food here?

Duncan detected the beginnings of a headache making a move on his brain. Worse, he had yet to recover from seeing the leader of the Insurrectionists close-up. Now a couple minutes later he was dealing with a conundrum that defied science. Defied reality for that matter.

Thankfully the scenery passed by quickly. They continued into the lands beyond them, only to find more and more fields cultivating similar produce. More places whose existence was beyond explanation.

They appeared unceasingly until, more than one and a half kilometers out, they stopped altogether. Several hundred meters of barren ruins later they arrived at a concentration of warehouse complexes packed closely together.

This he would learn was the Combat-Asset Extraction Simulation grounds. Though not on the same level of the RTETC back at Falchion it was reinforced enough to make for a feasible training ground. That was exactly what it became for the more than 60 new additions to the AMADDS.

Over the next three hours the group were re-armed and made to undergo a variety of tests. Their accuracy with assault rifles was assessed at a make-shift shooting range formed out of a dusty alleyway and a handful of pop-up targets. Their speed was put to the test carrying heavy rucksacks over 200-meter distances while under the short temper of a stopwatch. They were getting their endurance examined on a much longer run when they stopped to hang out in a couple of ruins. There they waited out the searing noon-time heat. It really was as blistering as Stewards made it out to be and the world outside became an unexpected lightshow of oceanic mirages and duplicate buildings. Ambers made them hold coordinated hydration sessions every 10 minutes to make sure they didn't pass out from heat exhaustion. Afterwards, the officers overseeing their training sent them into four of the warehouses. The goal of this next session was to attain several important packages from the inside of a hostile facility and to escape with all members. No man was allowed to be left behind. It was easier said than done since the officers themselves became involved. They had them switch out bullets for real TTR rounds which Duncan still wasn't clear on how they got their hands on.

The officers were to act as the patrolling forces against the recruits who would work in pairs of 5-man teams, giving them a slight numerical advantage. Duncan discovered quickly how that advantage was more applicable in theory than practice.

Within the first minute of his own team reaching the intersection between the four warehouses they were beset by a hail of TTR fire. It came in thick from every side, forcing them to take cover behind rubble piles and crates. The officers had them pinned early on. Luckily, the five sent into the intersection were merely decoys, including Duncan himself. They'd agreed to draw attention in order for the real extraction team to acquire their assets at the northern warehouse. Then they would come back to alleviate pressure on the decoy team and escape together. Simple.

Simplicity felt far away in the moments that TTRs cracked past his head. It came on heavy, forcing him to duck down behind his crate after another failed attempt to spot the gunners. They were hiding somewhere between the southern and western warehouse. He fired his MA37 over at the source of the shooting without looking. The other side was doing a better job at suppression by far.

Sharing in his cover was a recruit that got nailed in the stomach twice. Technically WIA, the low shorn brunette spent her time gritting her teeth at the pain pulsing through her abdomen.

They sadly didn't have Marine or ODST BDUs, the gear that was superior at absorbing TTR fire. Such an inconvenience of only wearing ballistic armor meant they felt more pain upon impact on vital areas and took longer to go numb.

In basic terms, it sucked.

A few crates behind him were a trio engaging another set of officers hiding in the northern alleyway. He heard one of them experience this firsthand as they stopped firing, screamed and collapsed.

Someone else shouted. "Man down!"

They were losing too many too soon. The extraction team was yet to arrive with the assets they needed and their numbers already were close to being halved. Duncan spared a few frustrated bursts of TTR in the general direction of the officers keeping him pinned. "Come on, where's extraction?"

"They're probably 'dead'." The woman next to him croaked. "Who wouldn't set an ambush for us around our objective? It's just obvious. Me, I'm a pilot, not a shooter. I'm not built for this kind of thing. Honest to God, this was rigged from the sta-"

He interrupted her as he pointed at her head. "Hey, can you do me a favor? Raise up a little."

She gave him an odd look. "Why?"

He shot off another burst of suppression fire to keep the officers at bay. Stooping back down, he spotted the tag on her vest that read 'Langley'. "You want to pass or what, Langley?"

She stared hard at him but broke her hesitation with a nod.

"Good. Raise it."

Not looking fully sold on the idea, she slowly raised her head over the top of the crate.

The shooting stopped. Duncan immediately fell onto his stomach. He rolled out from behind the crate to a stop at the edge of the southern alleyway, spotted a silhouette within the shadows of the closest warehouse aiming at Langley and squeezed off three rounds. He saw the figure stagger then stumble back.

He rolled to cover just as return fire struck at his position. "We got one. Thanks for sticking your neck out."

"My head actually. Just so you know, I'm not doing that again."

"Hopefully you won't need to. Extraction should be-"

Static washed over the team comms. A man's voice spoke over the noise. "Extraction team to Decoy, we've got the assets and are on our way out. Carrying one casualty. We're coming to assist your break out to the western alleyway. Copy, over?"

It was the leader of the extraction team. Duncan didn't waste a second. "We've got two casualties here but we took out one of their guys. We're just about ready to go."

"I hear you. We'll be there in 15 seconds."

"Copy."

Duncan counted off the seconds in his head, letting off three rounds every three seconds at the area nearest to the closest shooter. He focused on holding back the last officer on his side until he heard a rapid increase in shots coming from the eastern alleyway.

Before long, their back-up pushed through from there into the intersection. Three men were carrying backpacks loaded to the seams with equipment. The fourth leading the charge hefted the fifth guy over his shoulders.

The three carrying the packs split off to lay a heavier stream of fire on the southern and northern alleyways, covering the decoys. At Duncan's insistence, Langley threw her arm around his neck. He hefted her onto her feet and pulled her over his shoulder. The other wounded decoy got the same treatment.

Under combined suppression fire on the northern and southern alleyways the team of 10 recruits moved down the western route. The one teammate that wasn't weighted down by either a downed comrade or a heavy-pack continued to fire behind the rest of the group.

They managed to carry on unharassed into the open air of the glassy dunes to the west of the warehouses.

A short walk ahead was a wall of sandbags behind which stood the rest of the recruits as well as a few officers observing their progress. That wall marked their finish line. There, the operation would come to an end and they would win.

Three casualties for three assets, Duncan thought. That was still a win, right?

They had reached within 5 meters of the wall when the world around them turned unexpectedly bright.

The reality of the danger settled in faster for Duncan than anyone else. He was the first to hit the dirt with Langley as a burst of air and thunder whipped over them. The others were thrown down by the blast pressure of what was an impossibly close explosion.

He waited out the brief whirlwind of swirling dirt and heat until it finally wisped out. A minor dust cloud hung over them. Through it he saw silhouettes struggling to get up. Raspy coughing came to slowly replace the high-pitched ringing in his ears.

"What was that!?"

"They're trying to-...kill us out here man!? I didn't sign up for getting blown up!"

"Recruits, regroup on me!"

The last voice was instantly recognizable. It's unemotive but still somewhat shocked tone was unmistakably that of Ambers. Duncan forced himself onto his feet, a not-so-easy task given the weight of his charge. Coughing out a spat of dust, he asked, "Lang, you good!?"

"Yeah! Can't move though, nothing new!"

"Alright. Let's see what's up."

He got a better grip on the shin and arm he was using to hold her in place. With a huff, he forced himself onto his feet. Thankfully the other silhouettes moving in the same direction were easy to follow. One difficult step after another along a flat landscape soon brought him to a gentle incline.

The dust began to clear. Soon what was left ahead of him was the visible sight of several dozen other AMADDS gathering together atop a large embankment. Several of those who'd gotten paralyzed by TTRs were being placed lower on the incline. A few of those able to move were heading to the very edge of the embankment. But what held his focus and theirs was the menacing plume of dust and smoke hovering over much of the southern horizon. Despite the haze, fires could be seen illuminating the inside of the swirling sediment, as well as silhouettes moving rapidly against the backdrop of the light like a show of Chinese shadow puppets. Several distinguishable groups were carrying long tubes through the murk. Duncan traced the shadows of those devices back outside the cloud to see that they were actually hoses. Multiple lines were being carried in by what looked like maintenance crews: men and women in gray suits. They were all running frantically towards the cloud which was starting to flow across the area. Sirens rang behind them on the concrete walls of four circular structures on whose doorstop the apparent explosion had gone off.

The facility was set in the center of a wide but shallow valley devoid of vegetation or ruins. The valley floor was made of plains that spanned to the east and west. The flat earth there was dissected into a gridwork of long dark lines of sediment that formed extensive networks for kilometers. However, the plains of the valley floor were anything other than vitrified. Besides the lines, the soil overall was dark, fresh and new. Clearly the grounds here were different, much like the greenhouses he'd seen earlier, and clearly there was something beneath them. And part of that something in the east must have blown up.

Duncan set Langley down beside the other TTR-covered recruits.

"Thanks." She groaned.

He nodded off to her and trotted over to the bulk of the gathering. Everyone was observing from the crest of the embankment's southern cliff, a short drop leaning down into the curve of the valley.

Duncan spotted Ambers standing at the head of the group. She looked pale in the face, stunned even. That wasn't a good sign. She looked to the recruits behind her then to the rising smoke then back to them. She tapped her comm piece. "All recruits, listen in. We're going down there to see how we can assist. Whoever can't move, stay here until you can. Everyone else on me."

She turned and hopped down into the gentle curve of cliff.

The recruits hesitantly followed her. Duncan slid down the 5-meter drop with ease and came up dashing after Ambers. The dozens of other new additions hustled alongside him across the plains, headed towards the facility.

Amidst the growing smoke and echoing sirens, he found that the most alarming thing at that moment was actually the normal looking ground. It had an unexpectedly thick, muddy consistency like some sort of dredged marsh. He had to take high-footed steps forward just to avoid falling headlong into the watery earth. Then halfway to the facility's fence he saw part of an exposed metal plate sticking out from beneath one of the dark lines of sediment. The object was red hot and had an audible simmer to it as he ran past. He made a mental to note to wonder about what it was later.

The group flowed around maintenance crews to reach the facility's inner grounds. There they instinctually split up into several smaller groups to head to the fire hydrants stationed nearby. The remaining equipment lockers next to them were opened up. The recruits quickly took out the hoses housed inside and connected them to the hydrants before running towards the smoke.

The group Duncan was with trudged their way in behind an outgoing team of maintenance crew. They were hoisting a man between them with half his face burned to a fleshy pulp. The other half was grimacing in agony. One thing led to another and Duncan now had to carry two burdens: the hose and the faint echoes of his memories from the Molnar.

While it was difficult to see what they running into, they used the rising temperature in congruence with the flickering orange glows to figure out where the closest fires were. They stopped once they'd come close enough to a particularly intimidating gout of flame. The inferno was shooting 20 meters into the air from an unseen source in the mud. One of the guys pulled a lever on the head of the hose which released a high-powered jet stream at the fiery column. In response the mass ejection wailed and hissed out bursts of steam, expanding then wavering under the stream of water.

By then the conflagration had spread to other places. Duncan spotted several more glowing spots to their left and right and could hear the efforts of persons there trying to put them out. But that didn't explain why the fires all shared a columned pattern. They were shooting straight up into the air instead of spreading over the whole area, much like a burst water main. The heat wafting from them as well as the occasional ember falling down onto their clothes comprised most of the threat to their lives. Otherwise, the fires weren't much of a problem. After all, when it came to the land, they shouldn't have been able to burn what was already burnt, should they?

Unless that wasn't the real issue here.

The question of what they were trying to put out became of greater concern as the flame in front of Duncan's group steadily sputtered away. Soon they were having to lower the nozzle of the hose in an effort to work their way down. Doing so exposed second-by-second the red-hot figure of what looked like a pylon. The more they hosed it down the more he saw its shape. It was 5-meters tall with a half-meter diameter at the very bottom. Beginning from its base it sprouted up into 10 segmented sections that became less and less wide until they reached a silvery disc roughly the size of a dinner plate. From there the sizzling frame expanded outward into a closed V-shape that was corseted by a trio of the same discs, each a degree larger than the first. The entire setup of the machinery was obviously hyper-complex for some extremely important purpose. He just had a hard time figuring out what that might be. Whatever the case, pulling back the last of the veil of flames showed them that the device could never be used again. Much of the metal exterior had gotten peeled away to expose jumbled innards of sparking wires, smoldering components, winking red lights and a waft of smoke.

He was trying to understand what he was even looking at when a figure suddenly burst through the haze behind them.

He glanced over his shoulder to see them rushing over to his group at full speed. The person skidded out of the obscure dust to reveal brown heavy-duty boots, blue jeans, a white lab coat and glasses through which a pair of worried eyes narrowed at the scene, only to widen in shock. It was an older looking man whose hair appeared brown thanks to the abundance of airborne dirt. He came to the group's side, staring wide-eyed at the pylon they were spraying down. Duncan tried at a glimpse of the name tag on his chest pocket but saw only; 'Dr. R-'

A flash of determination replaced the man's look of horror. He rounded on two of the closest recruits. "You two, follow me. I'll need your help with something." He then ran off into the haze before anyone could ask him anything more.

Duncan, one of the two, shared a confused glance with the other guy. Still, they both released their hold on the hose and ran after whoever had just asked them for help.

For an older man, Duncan was nonplussed at how he was able to outrun them. Despite their best efforts to catch up to him he remained a good-way's ahead. The best they could do was to keep his back in their sights.

They trailed after him, maneuvering around groups of maintenance crews and recruits working together to douse flames on other pylons. Many of the 5-meter-tall constructions were burned to sparking wrecks. The sparks though made Duncan conclude the reason for their running: to turn off their power supply.

Soon the thing they were looking for came within sight as they reached a wooden shed. It was set between two intact pylons on a point where multiple lines of black sediment came together, an indication of an as of yet unknown function.

The man in the lab coat reached the door first. He undid the security latches in a blink and swung it open for the two to follow him inside.

A couple of light bulbs was all that lit the small room. At the walls were three fuse boxes: one on the left, one on the right and the last in front, all offline and all surrounding a dead holo-pedestal at the center. The man in the lab coat pointed them to the left and right. "Grab the levers. Pull the ones I tell you to on my signal."

Duncan shot over to the left fuse box while the second guy rushed to the right.

The man in the coat took hold of the first of a trio of breaker handles on his fuse box. "Alright, pull this one down then back up on three."

Duncan and his fellow recruit grabbed the same handles on theirs.

"One...two...three!"

They yanked the first breakers down then back up. Lights and componential modules winked online on the first sections of the fuse boxes.

Moving to the next breaker, the lab coat wearer shouted, "Again!"

They pulled the second breaker then switched to the third. Bringing down the third caused a rurring sound to come from behind them. They turned to the holo-pedestal which had its dais slowly warming to an active state.

With a blue flash, the device came fully online. The figure of a translucent woman beamed into being on its surface, a wrench in one hand and a maroon tool box in the other. She sported blue denim coveralls with sleeves rolled up to the elbows and a red bandanna with white polka dots wrapped around her permed, black hair. Then there was the porcelain facial features of a woman with good make-up. It did little to hide her worried expression.

Duncan took a few seconds to realize that he knew who she was, or rather who the AI had based herself on. She was the famous empowerment figure of the American female workforce in the Second World War: Rosie the Riveter. The man in the coat called her something else as he approached, but she looked less than pleased to see him.

"Athena, we've got you back into the system. The crews and these guys here are keeping the fires out but we still need the coolant systems online if we're to save what's left."

The AI - Rosie the Riveter that was called 'Athena' sighed, shifting her occupied hands to her hips. "Doctor, do you know what I'm going to say to you right about now?" She cocked her head to the side with palpable irritation.

The man's shoulders dropped depressingly. "Just make it quick, will you?"

She smirked. "Come on, take a guess."

The man Duncan presumed to be a doctor breathed out. "I told-"

"I told you so." Athena finished. With that she raised the hand with the wrench and knocked it against something invisible.

The newly invigorated lights on the fuse boxes flickered for three seconds then stabilized.

Athena yawned as she stretched her arms behind her back. "Okay, emergency back-up integration is successful. Coolant systems are...active and the temperatures of the connective pylons are coming back down to normal levels. Looks like we can relax."

"Yes-yes, but are they recoverable?" The doctor asked.

The AI ran through some calculations which manifested as a burst of digits flashing through her being.

As she was busy thinking, another realization slowly dawned on one of the other two in the room. Duncan started examining the man that the AI had called 'doctor'. Now that they were no longer busy running after him, he now saw that the doctor was freshly shaven with black but graying hair combed down. His face was that of someone whom life had hardened over the years. That feature didn't seem to match his disposition which was slowly lighting up into a curious joviality before dimming at Athena's pronouncement.

"I'm sorry doctor but these set are simply unrecoverable."

"...The entire set?"

"Just Row A's 1 and 3, Row B's 4 and Row C's 1 and 6. The damage to them is beyond repair. Even with the new replacements, it won't be enough to replace all five. We can expect a reduction in heat output for this grid by an estimate of 10%." Athena crossed her arms and glowered down at him. "It's a major loss to our productivity sir, but it was completely avoidable."

The doctor exhaled in defeat. He ran a hand through his hair, moving his arms out of the way just enough for Duncan to see the full breadth of the nametag on his coat: 'Dr. R. Schonberg.'

Now he watched the doctor much more closely as the man pinched the bridge of his nose in thought, holding up a hand to halt Athena's following accusation. "I get it, I get it, this one's on me. Just tell me this, are the fires out?"

"They're out. The coolant's helping to lower the temperatures on the plates too. That way we won't lose those as well."

"Hey, in my defense, okay, I thought we were getting accurate thermals back there. They should've been accurate enough to be-"

Now it was Athena's turn to cut him off with a raised hand. "The drones can only see so much, and you know that gets difficult to detect after the noon cooldown. The pylons are the real problem here. The older ones can only take so much and you knew that, but you still tried running them at the same capacity as the newer ones."

"I thought we could-"

"Which is why I said we should've replaced them the moment Stewards came with the delivery."

"Yes, but-"

"And you said no."

"Yes...but-"

"You know I'm just going to keep interrupting you until you admit that I'm right, right?"

"...I know." Doctor Schonberg stopped to look pleadingly between the two other humans in the room for some kind of support. Duncan merely shrugged and the guy he came with shook his head, neither wanting to get involved in a feud that had obviously existed on Kholo longer than they had.

In the end, the doctor gave an apologetic bow of his head. "You were right. I'm sorry."

"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to." Athena corrected. "Tell that to the maintenance crews and Kirkley's new recruits whose training you just interrupted."

Schonberg eyed the pair of recruits yet couldn't summon the will to face them fully. Instead, his head hung low.

Duncan saw a look of pity come over Athena. She uncrossed her arms and walked over an invisible surface to rest an intangible hand on his shoulder. "Listen, doc, just stop pushing the grid and yourself so hard. You've already proven that it works."

"Have I?"

The question perplexed the three that heard it, sensing that it wasn't directed at them. Schonberg suddenly turned to them with a newly invigorated smile. "Gentlemen, I hope you're not too tired of running after me. Follow me, please. I need to speak with your superior."

For the second time that day Duncan sat down in a meeting hall that had more in common with a theater. It was less decorative than the one before. However, it had a down to earth feel from the rows of wooden chairs setup in front of a simple stage with a podium. The surrounding room itself had the concrete walls of the original structure from before it was rebuilt. Though the walls and roofing were repaired, they still bore the faint echoes of the firefight that raged through its halls long ago: bullet-riddled cracks and plasma scoring. It was smaller than the last place too but it would serve its current purpose just fine.

After they'd put out the fires, Doctor Schonberg approached Ambers to barter with her for a temporary 'adoption' of the recruits. He believed now was the best time to introduce them to an important aspect of life on Kholo. She reluctantly agreed to the arrangement, albeit under the condition that he couldn't take longer than half an hour.

Twenty minutes later and the entirety of the recruits were assembled in the hall of the southern building at the facility colloquially known as 'Land Control'. Everyone was present except for Schonberg himself. Even his world-war-two-era AI was occupying the holo-pedestal near the podium, tapping an impatient foot on its surface.

Duncan had a feeling he knew what this was about. The containers from earlier along with Athena's conversation in the shed were starting to give him a solid picture of the going's on in Hayth.

The person around which these things connected appeared off to the right of the stage, stepping in through a side-door before jogging up to the podium.

Athena gave him a hard glare that he shrugged off as he flicked on the comm-piece attached to his collar. His voice came loud and clear through the PA system. "Good afternoon everyone. It's good to see some new faces around here. I'll be getting straight to it. Now believe me when I say that what I'm about to tell you is of pivotal importance to the longevity of this settlement and your time in it."

His smiling demeanor mellowed out into a genuine seriousness. "Truthfully, this is one of the most pressing discoveries of our time if not the most pressing in history that I am about to unveil to you. First, I want a show of hands. Who here has been on a glassed planet before?"

The recruits looked amongst themselves. No one raised their hand.

"None of you? Interesting. Let's try something different. How many of you would think that naturally a glassed planet is too far gone to be recovered?"

This time most of the hands around the room were raised.

"I see. And what if I told you that that simply isn't so, not anymore?" His eyes scanned across the room which quickly fell to quiet murmurings and confused glances. "This isn't a hypothetical. Not by any means. Perhaps I'll break it to you right here as plainly and simply as I can." He paused to take in a breath. "We here have in our possession a technology that enables us to not only regenerate glasslands, but to do so in weeks rather than centuries."

The murmurs flatlined, leaving the room in a heavy silence. The air of disbelief among the audience soon became palpable. Schonberg smiled over at an equally anxious Athena. The AI snapped her fingers.

Immediately a three-dimensional holograph snapped into being above the stage. The image was an immense projection that took up much of the room's width, showing the topographical layout of the valley they were in. The four circular structures of the Land Control facility were highlighted like everything else in a translucent blue. The holograph tilted sideways to show the fullness of the valley. A second later a latticework of lines was highlighted in a brighter blue hue, forming a network that ran to the east and west of the facility along the valley floor. Next, two rows of six bright dots appeared, each a short distance to the east and west of Land Control. These were joined by two more rows, then two more. Labels appeared. The rows to the east from the facility's inner grounds to the outer valley were named 'Row A', 'Row B' and 'Row C'. Those setup in a similar fashion to the west were labeled 'Row D', 'Row E' and 'Row F'. The problem seemed to be with the first set of rows since A had two of its dots blinking red, as did one in Row B and two in Row C. To Duncan, he knew it couldn't be anything other than a real-time depiction of the unknown mechanisms hidden beneath the ground. A name winked into existence above the map which instantly brought everything into clear definition.

Schonberg proudly cleared his throat. "In the ancient traditions of the Polynesian culture that thrived within Earth's Pacific Ocean, there was a mythical being whom that group of people worshipped. One of many I assure you. Her name in ancient Hawaiian chants passed down through the generations was Pele, 'She who forms the sacred land'. In their creation myths, Pele was the goddess of volcanoes and fire that was responsible for creating the Hawaiian Islands. That's right, even thousands of years before our time there were people who understood a secret that would ultimately be the key to our continuation as a species. They knew that fire and heat held the potential to create the conditions necessary to facilitate life as well as to destroy it. In more recent times we've seen an irreconcilable abundance of the last one. Now, we're exploiting the first part of that principle; creation. More specifically, restoration. Here at Hayth we are committed to restoring dead worlds lost to the Covenant. We are using Kholo as a starting point, aiming to repair its damaged lands and eventually the whole planet overtime. That is our indisputable goal here at Land Control."

The doctor pointed back over his shoulder to the name 'Pele - Verson 5 Land Reformer' branded over the main diagram. "Take notes people, because that just so happens to also be where I drew my inspiration from to create this miraculous technology. Pretty soon you all will be helping me to maintain and expand it. Before I let you know how it works though, I want you to know this." He took off his glasses and cleaned it with his coat-tail in an attempt perhaps to look more personable. Duncan wasn't sure if it worked or not for everyone else but he was certainly listening more intently now.

"At first I was a scientist and researcher for the UEG's colonial conservationist society. The CCS treated me well for a time and it was their resources that allowed me to develop this technology. So, in part you have them to thank for it. In-part only because as soon as they discovered what I was developing, they tried to shut me down, cutting funding for what they believed was a less than worthwhile venture and a misallocation of their research capital. Yes, that is correct, this device that is doing so much good today was nearly sabotaged out of a sense of inconvenience. Between you and me though, I think they outrightly disbelieved what I was doing as even a remote possibility." He grimaced. "I'm telling you this because I want you to help me make this technology more efficient for the deserving people of Hayth than it ever could be for the earth-headed bureaucrats that scoffed at its potential. It's keeping so many people fed as we speak and yet it was deemed insanity by both my financiers and my betters. However, I have colleagues and connections still in high places that helped me finish this technology in secret, to gain access to whatever was needed. You have people such as the major to thank for that. He went the furthest out of anyone, going so far as to give me a chance to turn what was a hypothetical innovation into a real-world revolution. In saying this, you at least have the back-drop for understanding how resourceful we are here at Hayth, how determined we are to survive separate from the control of distant dictators, and finally how this all came to be that I'm going to show you."

Athena made the diagram diminish in size, making way for another holograph.

It showed a device that looked like a dozen individual square plates. They were connected via pipelines in an honest tic-tac-toe fashion. "These are Heat Emission Plates." Schonberg explained. "They comprise the overwhelming bulk of the 2-suqare miles of grid that you see here. They form part of this area known as Grid-19 which is what we like to call an Expansion Zone, a place where we are preparing the ground in order for it to be utilized for future crop cultivation. Understand this, When the Covenant glass a planet, they vitrify the soil at a deep level, thereby making it unusable."

The main image of the valley was suddenly glazed over by a bright red hue that swept over its entire surface, representing a glassing.

"However, this process can be undone by devitrifying the soil at high temperatures. That can be brought about by using these plates buried in the ground. There are hundreds of them spread out across Grid-19. Essentially, they heat up the area of the soil in which they are planted past the degree that it took for Covenant glassing beams to destroy it."

The image of the plates warmed to a dull red. In response, the depiction of the main valley slowly cooled from red to its original blue.

"Temperature recordings taken of planets being glassed by the Covenant show that they keep their beams at a uniform level of heat, meaning that they are aware of the appropriate level of vitrification. Glassing beams, particularly those of low orbital bombardments, are purposefully kept at a certain temperature. That is because any hotter and they would risk causing the soil to not only vitrify but to devitrify as well. Burning planets for too long actually undercuts what they're trying to do. Their glassing beams are so advanced that, if used for too long, they can cause the creation of unique crystals in devitrification which can only exist at exceedingly high temperatures."

A new image flickered into being showing a cross-examination of several layers of soil. An abnormally high concentration of sparkling materials progressively appeared at the top layers, forming around the sedimentary barriers of vitrified earth. These became less and less dense going further down the diagram.

"Should those high temperatures be suddenly removed, the over-crystallized areas will actually undergo a rapid process known as "cold melting". This is where the unsustainable environmental conditions cause the molecular bonds of the crystals to break and drift apart."

The corresponding depiction showed the numerous crystals in the top soil gradually dissolving away into the dirt itself. "What this leaves behind is a watery substance that turns the ground muddy, yet leaves it very much intact. Better yet, the ground actually becomes more nutrient rich than it was prior to vitrification. It was this aspect of glassing that I hoped to exploit by using the plates to heat up the damaged soil to a temperature even higher than that of glassing beams, thereby causing it to devitrify. So far, this tact has been met with major success. When the job is done and the area is sufficiently cooked, Pele-5's Grid is switched off, allowing the crystalline layers to melt. Then we leave behind ground that can be dredged and later cultivated for agriculture."

The amount of information zooming into Duncan's brain through his eyes and ears was starting to give him a headache. He was tempted to stop listening completely less the long-winded man of science finish him off with a good physics lecture where plasma bolts couldn't. He knew Schonberg wasn't finished. He needed to hear everything that he could, but the data he'd been given was already proving too much to process.

The next holographic image to appear showed the very same pylons the recruits had just finished tending to outside. The device was enlarged to the exact same 5-meter proportions.

"It's probably not incorrect of me to say many of you have gotten well acquainted with this piece of the puzzle." Schonberg laughed nervously. "Well, I'll explain why it is that you got your hands dirty. This here is a Connective Pylon. They help relay data back to the control station regarding the progression of the devitrification process as well as the status of assigned sectors of plates. However, today we had an... incident. The pylons are meant to keep a heat conductivity relative to the measurements being taken of heat levels coming from the plates at any given moment in time. But the pylons that went up in flames were...older and less efficient than they used to be. Today they failed to get an accurate measure of the temperature. Because of that, their systems didn't auto-adjust the coolant levels required to keep them from going up in smoke. Even worse, the noonday heat was so severe that it increased the subterranean temp well beyond what the pylons could handle. That brings me to my follow-up."

Schonberg looked to Athena, prompting her to reel back and hurl forth a projection like a spear. Well into the air it enlarged into the two wings, sleek body and dorsal stabilizing fin of a drone. It's landing struts were extended below it which added to the guise of an insect in flight.

"These are our unmanned aerial vehicles or drones. We use them to fly over the grid to scan thermal levels on the ground. That way we acquire a more accurate view of the whole area. They're a contingency policy in case the pylons are not as able to provide good views of the temp, mainly at noontime. However, the drones had been grounded for repairs yesterday after many of them were damaged in last evening's dust storm. Because of that, the noon heat and the malfunctioning pylons, we failed to get an accurate reading of a row of plates that were overheating. These plates rely on compressed deuterium fusion cores for power. When one of those batteries went critical, the rest of the row quickly followed suit in a chain reaction that channeled its way into the pylons. That was the big bang you heard earlier. It would have taken out the entire grid had Athena here not intervened."

Athena had her arms crossed over her chest again, eyeing the doctor with that same 'I told you so' expression. She stepped in as Schonberg finished.

"This meeting is to debrief you on what you can expect to deal with when you come here to assist us. The platoons you'll be assigned to will have to conduct rotational duty here at the Grid when they're off-duty. To keep this already long story short, you will be helping us as additional maintenance support, for expanding the grid or for moving equipment to the next expansion zone. All that aside, do you have any questions for us?"

The room remained quiet. No one moved to ask anything, so Duncan tried his luck and raised his hand.

"Ah, yes." Schonberg said. "Mr.-…"

"Duncan."

"Ah, Duncan, go ahead."

The recruits all turned a little to look at him as he talked. "About this Pele-thing, you said the pylons get outdated. So how do you replace the equipment you lose, especially since you're isolated out here?"

The doctor finally put his glasses back on to get a better look at him. He smiled, impressed. "That is an excellent question. Actually, we do have persons like I said earlier who work in secret to provide us with what we need when we make requests. Then we have AMADDS regularly go out to acquire these materials and bring them here to Kholo. Usually though, they aren't told if that's what we're sending them for and only let a few select personnel know, usually the ones working transportation. It protects us in the case that the delivery team is ever compromised and captured for investigation. Some of you might have even experienced that 'flying blind' lifestyle firsthand before coming here. I can assure you that it is indeed a necessary precaution when it comes to our most vital assets."

Duncan's jaw locked in consideration of the mission on Tribute. Now things were starting to make an uncomfortable amount of sense, especially about when the captain himself admitted that he had no clue where they were going. "And the containers, sir?"

"Excuse me?"

"The containers that are brought back here marked 'Pele-5', is what you need inside of those?"

"Sounds like someone was on a recent delivery team." Athena remarked.

Schonberg rubbed his chin contemplatively. He locked gazes with Athena, nodded and turned to Duncan. "How about I let you see for yourself? Believe it or not, the crews are doing change-outs right now."

Change-outs? Duncan's unasked question was answered by the collapse of the various holographic images in front of the room. They coalesced into a single, flat screen. The display switched on to a feed of the shallow valley floor to the east of the building that they were in.

The area of Row's A through C which were once covered in roiled earth were now completely visible. Maintenance crews were out by the dozens in hardhats. The majority of them were gathered around three specific points of space.

Athena zoomed them in to one such area. There, Duncan could see quite clearly that they were gathered around one of the same mobile platforms with the containers that Gypsy had secured. A guy standing next to it typed out a sequence on a datapad that caused the platform to steadily rise on its hind wheels. The container slid down to the ground. Several crew members hefted it into a small hole where a pylon had probably been minutes earlier. The abscess fully encased it in the dirt. The guy carrying the pad typed a few more sequences. A second later the top of the container popped open. A shape arose from it, stretching up towards the sky like a rapidly sprouting plant. It became more segmented while it stretched into the air until before long, a whole new pylon was standing full-grown in the place of the damaged predecessor.

Athena zoomed back out to show that two more pylons were also being planted, one in Row B and one in C. There remained a pair of deadened pylons among those from the original set that the crews were working to retract back into their bases. Once that was done, they plucked them up in their housing containers like dead weeds. Saying it was an interesting sight was an understatement.

"Does that answer your question, Duncan?" Schonberg asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, that about settles it."

"Good to hear." The doctor held out a hand to address the entire group. "Alright guys, that's all the questions we can answer for today for the sake of the clock. We'll catch you next time when we put you to work. See you later."

The recruits bubbled up onto their feet. They kept their eyes on Ambers who nodded them to the doors on the left side of the hall. No one dared move in any other direction. It was that will of obedience that made Duncan think if Schonberg really didn't have time for more questions, or if he was too scared to go over the time he'd agreed to with Ambers. He made another mental note to write down everything he'd heard here, by whatever means he could find. This truly was revolutionary information in every sense of the word. But it was being restricted to a single planet lost behind enemy lines. He sensed it would prove to be something that he would need to be prepared to engage with later.

Headed to the doors, he imagined that New Memphis and High Mediolanum looked a lot like the glassed ruins he'd seen on his way to Hayth. Maybe the same principle applied. Maybe if they were glassed just like Kholo, then they could be restored just like Hayth. Maybe there was a chance that places like those weren't lost causes after all.

Maybe.

Medicus – The Doctor