Another chapter that unfortunately took longer than I meant it to. Being away from the computer for days multiple times will do that, also I honestly just ran into a wall for a bit. (Even though I'd had some of the general ideas in this chapter in mind since I started the fic. Such is life.)
I took a bit of liberties with the layout of the Forerunner installations, I assume the structure would be a bit more complex than what was shown in CE.
Standard copyright disclaimer: I do not own Halo or any associated media, characters, or settings which are properties of 343 or Bungie. This is a work of fanfiction written purely for entertainment and not for monetary gain.
1400, 23 August 2550
UNSC Targhee, Iota Horologii System, near Unknown Forerunner Installation
"Sir, Unimak is clear, Test for Echo and Heat Lightning report positive handover of munitions."
Captain Robert Sakai looked expectantly toward Admiral Titus. The ONI officer smiled, and nodded. "You are free to engage at your discretion."
"About time." Left unsaid was that if the prowler had been quicker about gathering data and going to slipspace they might have bagged the crippled CCS that jumped out half an hour before. Captain Sakai grinned wolfishly as he opened communications with Captain Mikulin on the Pillar of Autumn. "Ivan, we're cleared to engage. Ready to go kill some Covenant?"
"My MAC is charged and my engines are ready. As long as they don't run with their tails between their legs."
"Two CCS against only two of us? No split-lip would ever run from odds like that. Colter, Yuri, you have our trajectories ready and jumps plotted?"
"I've got a fine selection for you right here, captain." The Targhee's AI brought up a plot showing the location of the Targhee and Autumn in relation to the pair of Covenant ships, along with a few curved lines leading toward the pair of battlecruisers. The trajectories all terminated just before a cloud of markers roughly midway between the UNSC and Covenant vessels.
Sakai's plan was in some ways simple, but complex. The Targhee and Pillar of Autumn would emerge from behind the gas giant burning at full speed toward the pair of Covenant ships. If they reacted like Sakai thought they would, they'd engage him head on. In a straight fight a CCS would outclass a Halcyon, and the Covenant knew that.
What they didn't know about was the field of stealthy HORNET mines lying between themselves and the human ships. They also didn't know about the upgraded slipspace drives on the Targhee and Pillar of Autumn. If everything went to plan, the Covenant ships would run into the minefield just as the two UNSC ships executed an in-system jump and put themselves behind the Covenant ships. With their shields down and sensors fried by the nuclear mines, they would be easy prey for the MACs and Archer pods on the Targhee and Pillar of Autumn. Or so it was thought.
In reality, there were dozens of unknowns. Would the precise slipspace jump that Colter and Yuri spent hours working on be precise enough? Would the HORNETs do enough damage? How much of a fighter contingent did the Covenant ships have left? Who was even in charge of those Covenant ships – was the engagement they just witnessed an isolated instance of bad blood or the start of a civil war?
Sakai tapped one of the trajectories Colter presented on the hologram before him. "Alright, let's get this started. Let me know once those Covenant start moving." The Targhee shuddered slightly as the engines went to full power, pushing the Halcyon-class cruiser out from behind the gas giant. The Pillar of Autumn followed close behind, staying at small enough separation for their point defense bubbles to overlap.
For a few minutes the pair of cruisers accelerated, heading for the minefield and the Covenant ships behind them. So far, the enemy battlecruisers weren't moving, which concerned Sakai. "Captain, I'm throttling us back us a few percent. Want to be sure we ain't the first ones into the mines." Colter appeared, anticipating the order Captain Sakai was about to give.
"Also, just to keep y'all informed, Red Platoon is starting their approach to the landing zone." Colter added, almost as an afterthought. The three Spartans, along with the best of the Marines, ODSTs, and kig-yar made up an overstrength platoon that was being sent to the probable control center of the ring. Hopefully, this would finally give them some real insight into the purpose of the structure, and let them turn it against the Covenant. It was odd, though, that the 'control center' was in a frozen wasteland, far colder than it should have been naturally. Sakai, Mikulin, and Admiral Titus had all been concerned about this during their discussion yesterday; why had the makers of the ring thought it was so important to modify the weather of this particular area for thousands of years? Still, they all agreed it was worth the risk.
"Aspect change on both battlecruisers, coming about to face us and accelerating." The AI highlighted the two vessels on the tactical display, the numbers and vectors attached to their symbols showing that they were now moving. "Adjusting our approach parameters to match."
"Finalmente." Somebody on the bridge muttered, as the Targhee and Pillar of Autumn fired their maneuvering thrusters. The vessel's course subtly adjusted, putting them nearly on a collision course with the Covenant battlecruisers. Both enemy vessels were pushing hard now, their captains clearly eager to get kills on a pair of UNSC ships they outmassed and outclassed. There was no sign they had any clue about the minefield.
The two forces raced toward each other, still out of weapons range. Sakai noticed that the Covenant wasn't sending any of their own fighters toward them; was their complement of Seraphs and Banshees torn up that badly in the initial engagement? Or were they holding them back since he had sent his six surviving Longswords back to provide extra cover over the ring. (His plan didn't make any use of them, aside from mopping up any stray fighters or dropships once the pair of CCS were dead.) Colter adjusted the speed yet again; the Covenant would enter extreme weapons range just as they hit the minefield. There was a small but nonzero risk that they could get a lucky shot off with their plasma lances, but it was worth the risk to bait them in.
Both Covenant battlecruisers fired a full volley of plasma torpedoes at maximum range. The Targhee and Pillar of Autumn continued in at full thrust. They would be gone before the torpedoes hit. Even if the Covenant ships did manage to get the plasma torpedoes retargeted on their new position after the slipspace jump, both battlecruisers would be dead before they made it all the way back to the Targhee and Pillar of Autumn.
The passive sensors on the HORNET mines locked onto the pair of Covenant vessels. Communicating amongst themselves, the simple computers aboard the mines selected which Covenant ship to target, based on their trajectory and the mine's positions. At the same time, , they pinged the pair of ONI prowlers for final firing authorization. Within a few seconds, the weapons officer on each prowler granted it, and the mines were fully armed. Cold gas thrusters fired brief bursts of supercooled hydrogen and sent the mines drifting toward the Covenant ships.
Just as the Covenant battlecruisers were about to get in range of their plasma lances, a pair of slipspace portals opened in front of the UNSC ships. As they vanished into them, the mines went fully active and fired their thrusters at full power, too late for the Covenant ships to respond. A fraction of a second later, each Covenant ship was bracketed by more than a dozen nuclear detonations as the mines exploded just outside their shields. Neither vessel's shields withstood the mines, and the massive pulse of radiation from the mines did severe damage, boiling away armor and frying fragile electronics. Then, as the Covenant ships drifted onwards, trying to assess the damage, another pair of slipspace portals opened behind them.
"Good jump captain, position nominal and all systems green!"
"Excellent work, Colter. Status on the Pillar of Autumn?"
"Yuri reports green as well. Drives are fine but you'd best let them cool down a bit before doing that again."
"Noted." Sakai leaned forward, gripping the armrest of his chair in anticipation. "Put a round through Charlie One." The Targhee's thrusters fired as the ship fine-tuned its orientation, pointing at the further away of the two Covenant vessels. "And send to Captain Mikulin; fire MAC on Charlie One when ready, Archers on Charlie 2 on my mark."
The Pillar of Autumn fired a fraction of a second before the Targhee. Both superheavy slugs slammed into the Covenant battlecruiser Celestial Spire almost simultaneously. One round punched clean through the ship, exiting out the far side of the battlecruiser followed by a spray of debris and bodies. The other dissipated its entire kinetic energy in the battlecruiser's internal structure, doing catastrophic damage. The Celestial Spire shattered under the strain, breaking into five fragments as secondary explosions tore the ship apart. Barely one in ten of the ship's crew made it to the lifeboats, none of the bridge crew among them.
As the Celestial Spire died, both UNSC ships launched hundreds of Archer missiles at the other Covenant battlecruiser, the Triumphant Declaration. That ship was more severely damaged by the HORNET mines than its sister, and was only running on a third of its engines. The Triumphant Declaration's feeble point defenses intercepted only a fifth of the incoming missiles, leaving the rest to slam into its unprotected hull.
On the Targhee's long range cameras, it looked like firecrackers exploding across the enemy vessel's hull. As the wave of missiles rippled across the hull, larger explosions happened inside the vessel, until it suddenly vanished in a titanic blue flash. Not even a minute after the Targhee and Pillar of Autumn came back out of slipspace, all that was left of the Triumphant Declaration was a quickly cooling cloud of incandescent gas.
For a moment, the crew on the bridge of the Targhee sat silently, looking at the destruction the pair of UNSC ships had wrought. As chatter on the bridge picked back up, Captain Sakai began giving orders. "Bring the Targhee and Autumn directly over our ground forces." After a look from Admiral Titus, he added; "Maintain the exclusion zone around the ring." This was one of the few times the UNSC had orbital superiority, and he intended to use it. But still, that mysterious AI that had penetrated his systems on arrival in Iota Horologii was still out there, and dangerous.
"Sir, Pillar of Autumn reports the two Covenant noncombatants are bugging out."
"Noted." Sakai responded to his sensor operator. It would have been nice to bag them, but they'd hidden on the far side of the ring when the Covenant ships started shooting at each other. Likely their drives were spun up and ready to go in case something like this happened.
"Weapons status?" Sakai asked his crew. There was still the chance more Covenant could show up, especially if the incident between their ships was a one off and not part of an actual civil war. (For once, he believed ONI when they said they had no idea what was going on.)
"Archers red, down about ten percent capacity. MAC green, secondaries green." The captain nodded. More than enough to take down any Phantom or Spirit stupid enough to climb out of the ring's atmosphere. Even if they couldn't just saturate the Covenant with MAC rounds, the UNSC would damn well do everything they could to make sure their guys on the ground got the job done.
Iota Horologii, Surface of Unknown Forerunner Installation, Unknown Location
Fleetmaster Thel 'Vadamee shivered as he stretched his sore limbs and exited the crashed Phantom. Considering the situation, the pilot had done a masterful job. His intuition and sharp reflexes let them evade the treacherous attack that destroyed the other two Phantoms in his formation, and his skillful flying caused no less than four jiralhanae dropships to crash trying to pursue them through these canyons. And even with the dropship as damaged as it was, the landing was soft enough that everyone had survived without crippling injuries. Truly masterful piloting.
'Vadamee took in the terrain around him. The Phantom had crashed in a barren, snow-covered gorge, its bottom barely wide enough for two Wraiths to pass side by side. Their original objective was somewhere further along the valley. Indeed, faintly visible through the falling snow was a set of mysterious Forerunner structures, set into the side of the gorge.
"Brothers, we must continue to our objective." 'Vadamee pointed toward the structures. "Regardless of the treachery we face, we must unlock the secrets of this sacred ring."
"Forgive me, fleetmaster, but would it not be better to seek shelter with our brethren elsewhere on the ring? Facing both treasonous jiralhanae and the humans, should we not concentrate our forces?" One of the other sangheili, an ultra, asked. Normally, questioning one's superior like that would be unthinkable, but these were strange times.
'Vadamee waved him off. "Your words have merit, but the jiralhanae will return at any moment. These Forerunner structures will shelter us from their sight, and will be easily defensible. Besides, I fear that the humans too are searching for the same prize as us. We cannot let them get there first!" Judging by the the shouts of assent that followed, his short speech was quite convincing.
Already, he heard the sound of another Phantom in the distance, though it was not yet visible through the falling snow. Pushing forward, 'Vadamee frowned as he sank almost up to his knees in the snow. Another reason to get inside quickly. At least the gravity here was lower than on Sanghelios, which made it a bit easier to move through the snow. Still, he would rather have the hot and dry weather of his home than this, regardless of what the gravity was.
The thirteen sangheili and five unggoy moved single file through the snow, with 'Vadamee in the lead. After a few minutes, they made it to the base of the Forerunner structure they had seen. A steep ramp led up to a platform in front of a doorway leading inside. As he struggled up the icy ramp, he heard a strange humming sound, different from the noise from the still-invisible Phantom in the background. Suddenly, three angular, grey constructs appeared from inside the doorway. 'Vadamee and his sangheili easily recognized them as the 'sentinels', the same type as had fought the Covenant at other sites on this ring. 'Vadamee's grip on his plasma rifle tensed, but on instinct, he motioned for his troops to hold their fire. The sentinels hovered in place for a few seconds, as if scanning the group. Then, as quickly as they had appeared, they turned away and headed out into the snow, without firing.
"A good omen." One of the ultras behind 'Vadamee said softly.
"Let us hope the rest of them are so patient." 'Vadamee replied as he nodded in agreement. Not having to deal with the local defenses would indeed make their job much easier. But why were the sentinels being friendly now? Had whatever intelligence controlled the ring seen the battle between them and the jiralhanae and chosen a side? 'Vadamee hoped this was true, but knew he could not rely on it. Either way, they had to get inside quickly; the humming of the unseen Phantom was getting louder now. If it wasn't for the sudden squall that rolled in a few minutes before, they would certainly have been seen.
Just as the last of the sangheili and unggoy made it to the top of the ramp, the snow thinned, and the enemy Phantom came into view. Its pilot had definitely seen 'Vadamee's group, as the dropship nosed down and accelerated toward them.
"Quickly, brothers! Inside!" 'Vadamee yelled as the Phantom opened fire. They had nothing that could seriously harm the dropship; 'Vadamee's complement of unggoy with fuel rods had sadly been on the other two Phantoms that had been shot down. The heaviest weapons they had were carbines and plasma rifles. Their only hope was to get inside the Forerunner facility; inside 'Vadamee could faintly see a bend in the hallway that led deeper into the mountain. The Phantom would be unable to follow them, and there would certainly be a chokepoint somewhere they could use to set up a defensible position.
Plasma splashed around them as the enemy Phantom slowed to a hover and prepared to deploy troops. As the doors on the Phantom opened, 'Vadamee saw movement in the tunnel ahead of him. Suddenly, half a dozen sentinels appeared, along with a larger construct he did not recognized. More than twice the size of the other sentinels and mounting a massive shield on its front, it was still nearly silent as it flew over the sangheili and unggoy running for the inside of the facility.
The massive Forerunner construct and its escorts arrived just as a group of jiralhanae and kig-yar deployed from the Phantom. Seeing the oncoming sentinels, the jiralhanae and kig-yar quickly turned away from 'Vadamee's group and moved to engage the sentinels. Naturally, they concentrated on the biggest target, the unknown, shielded sentinel. Fire from a dozen kig-yar splashed against the front shields, the green plasma seemingly doing little against them. Meanwhile, the jiralhanae tried to get around the sides to hit the unshielded parts with their spikers and plasma rifles, only to be stopped and forced into cover by the beams from the smaller sentinels.
Almost nonchalantly, the large sentinel fired a burst of missiles from somewhere on its upper surface as it hovered in front of the kig-yar. Clustered together to use their shields more effectively, the kig-yar had barely moved from where the Phantom dropped them. The missiles slammed into their midst after a fraction of a second, sending them flying. When the smoke cleared, only a few bodies were left. 'Vadamee watched, briefly stunned, before shaking himself back into awareness as the enemy Phantom finally engaged the sentinels. Wordlessly, he ushered the rest of his group past him into the structure, and took up the rear. The jiralhanae were still dealing with the sentinels; the three of them still alive did not notice as 'Vadamee vanished into the dimly lit Forerunner edifice.
Their group proceeded deeper into the structure; no jiralhanae or any other Covenant followed. Either they had given up, or the sentinels were still bothering them. A few more groups of them had flown by overhead; all appeared to ignore 'Vadamee's group. Eventually, the sangheili and unggoy came across a vast, seemingly bottomless chasm. A ledge jutted out from one side, but there was still a massive gap between its edge and the platform on the other side. 'Vadamee had seen this type of construction in facilities on this ring before; somewhere nearby was a set of controls that would activate a light bridge to allow them to cross. Sure enough, there was one behind a nearby pillar.
'Vadamee gestured to one of his troops, a major named 'Tosamee. "Go, activate the bridge so that we may cross." The red-armored sangheili jogged away, headed for the glowing console. It would not be an easy task. Before they were betrayed, their exploration of this ring's systems had relied heavily on their huragok, who had a natural understanding of Forerunner technology. But there were none present with them now.
Amazingly, only a few minutes after 'Tosamee made it to the console, the light bridge blinked into existence. 'Tosamee returned to the group, a confused look on his face. "Fleetmaster, I do not know what I did to make it work. I tried to interact with different parts of the hologram many times, and nothing happened. Then, it activated while I was doing nothing."
"Curious." 'Vadamee replied. He supposed he shouldn't have been surprised by this. Even after several ages, the Covenant still lacked a true, deep understanding of how much Forerunner technology worked. He could only hope the humans were having the same difficulties.
The sangheili and unggoy continued deeper into the Forerunner structure. By now they were doubtlessly kilometers deep into the mountains in this part of the ring; they had been walking for hours. Then, they came upon a large chamber, with three doors set into the far wall, each large enough to let a mgalekgolo through. All three were lit by green lights, showing they were open. But which one led to their objective; the control center of this ring?
For a few moments, they sat, looking at the doors in front of them. Splitting the group would weaken them if the jiralhanae caught up to them. But at this moment, it seemed like the only way to fully investigate all paths through the structure. 'Vadamee was about to open his mouth to divide his command when two sets of lights suddenly switched to red. Now only a single path was open to them.
"Truly, the spirits of the Forerunners watch over us and guide us!" One of the sangheili joyously said, as they filed toward the open doorway.
Another was more fearful. "Something knows we are here." At that a few of the more excitable sangheili minors and unggoy began to mutter under their breath, until a major put a stop to that.
Still, there was a sense of unease as they made their way deeper into the facility. Even 'Vadamee himself was starting to get worried. This place was far larger and deeper than any other Forerunner site he had seen, even the ruins on Sanghelios he had seen in his youth. And it was almost completely silent; in a few rooms they could hear the faint humming of machinery, but nothing else. (The sentinels had disappeared several rooms ago.)
After two more instances where the path forward was decided for them, 'Vadamee and his sangheili came upon a large hallway that curved off into the distance. Sighing internally, he began striding down the hallway when he heard something unexpected. Voices, human voices. Quickly, he held up his hand, halting the group. Then, he motioned three of the other sangheili, two ultras and a major, to him.
"We deal with them silently, and quickly. They cannot be allowed to defile whatever is here."
Just as 'Vadamee engaged his active camouflage, he saw movement around the corner.
"Juauro, could you stop humming that damn music for five fucking minutes?"
"What, worried something in this graveyard's going to sneak up you and scare you, Benton?"
"No, it's that fucking 24th century trap hop shit."
"Hey, at least it's not that flip music like sarge likes."
"I heard that, Marine!" Sergeant Johnson yelled, shutting up the other two Marines. "How about you two settle your differences doing some KP back at camp?"
"Aw, man." PFC Juauro sighed, while the rest of the Marines laughed, as they continued deeper into the Forerunner structure. They had three squads of Marines, a squad of kig-yar, and the three Spartans. Their ODST contingent was left behind guarding the massive landing pad their Pelicans had dropped them on. Chac Lon wasn't sure why Spartan-117 (who was leading this operation) had decided on that, but he wasn't going to ask questions.
Aside from Shaon Tol, Chac Lon had the most experience in Forerunner ruins of anyone here. But while he wouldn't admit it to the humans, there was definitely something strange about this place. They were finally deep enough into the mountain that there was no more drifting snow blowing in from outside, but it was still freezing. And not just for a kig-yar like him; even the humans were shivering.
That was unpleasant, but not as unnerving as all the doors that seemed to magically open for them. Clearly, something was watching them. A few sentinels made an appearance right after they landed, but none of them had shown up in the last several rooms and hallways. Even so, Chac Lon knew from experience that the constructs the Forerunners left behind had ways of keeping an eye on them. And whatever monitor they left in charge of a massive site like this ring would be powerful indeed.
Chac Lon hoped it would be in a friendly mood when they found it.
The UNSC force methodically crept forward, moving through more seemingly deserted but still-lit hallways. At a few places, the path split, and the Marines and kig-yar divided up to scout different directions. So far, they had not found much in the way of answers. The only interesting thing was how quickly Forerunner systems responded to the Spartans; if a bridge or door didn't open before they arrived, it would after only a few seconds of the Spartans messing with it. One of them, 005, had commented offhandedly about how "intuitive" the systems seemed. Had the Spartans been to sites like this before? Shaon Tol had said that the scientist she worked with before had experience with Forerunner artifacts, but they obviously hadn't told her everything.
Half an hour later, and the partly eaten ration in Chac Lon's pack was smelling awfully tempting. As they headed toward a split in the hallway ahead of them, he was starting to feel through his pack with his off hand when the Marines started arguing again.
"Dude, I told you to stop with the damn humming!"
"That's not me, man! That's coming from somewhere up ahead!"
Just then, Spartan-117 halted and drew his hand across his throat, signalling them all to halt and be quiet. Chac Lon backed against a pillar and listened. Faintly, up ahead, it did sound like somebody was humming. The voice sounded strange; almost organic, but also robotic. Quickly, the T'vaoan shouldered his rifle and looked down the scope toward the source of the humming. For a moment he saw a floating blue light, but he blinked and it was gone. He focused, wishing again that he had his needle rifle, but couldn't see whatever it was.
"Spartan, I think I saw something down there. Caught a glimpse of a floating blue light." Chac Lon said to 117, as he gestured with his rifle down the hallway. The Spartan looked at him for a moment, before turning to talk to his compatriots and Sergeant Johnson. After a minute, he pointed at Chac Lon. "Take your kig-yar and scout the left fork. I'll take front. Johnson, cover us."
Sergeant Johnson nodded as he hefted his assault rifle. "You got it. First squad, get behind those pillars and watch our asses. Second squad, keep an eye on those jackals and the Spartans."
As the Marines moved into position, Chac Lon slowly made his way forward into the next room, followed by four more kig-yar. It was a large, curved hallway, that he could only see partway down. At least the strange humming had stopped; he could hear the faint humming of ancient Forerunner machinery, but other than that it looked empty. Stepping forward cautiously at first, after a bit he sped up.
Suddenly, he saw a faint distortion in the air ahead of him. Sangheili, active camouflage. Time slowed down as adrenaline flooded Chac Lon's system. As he desperately swung his rifle forward, the invisible shape charged toward him. It was barely half a dozen paces away, and Chac Lon was out in the open.
Chac Lon heard the sound of an energy sword igniting as he dove to the side and squeezed the trigger of his rifle, firing blindly down the hallway. He knew he almost definitely dead; a single burst from his rifle wouldn't take down the shields on a special-operations sangheili, and even if he dodged the first strike from its sword it would get him on the second on third. The only chance he had was to stay alive long enough for the human Spartans to intervene.
Then, just as the first rounds left Chac Lon's rifle, a shimmering blue wall of energy appeared between him and the sangheili.