"Welcome aboard," Captain Cutter offered, turning to face them. He paused, however, when he saw Sergeant Forge. He spoke, "... Sergeant," and walked up to him. Forge, a little awkward and worse for wear, snapped a crisp salute at the man, smiling awkwardly. Cutter sighed, saluted back and said, "Glad to have you back. Next time, however, don't play the hero."

"I don't plan on dying again, sir," Forge replied.

"Good," Cutter nodded, then looked to Kelly and the others, before telling them, "While I'm aware we won the war, Petty Officer, I'd very much like an explanation for what we've just shot at now. Those things didn't look like Covenant, nor did they look Banished in origin," and he turned toward the Holotable, watching as Isabel pulled up a series of holographic screens denoting scans of the area before their crash here.

Kelly nodded, then crossed her arms and said, "Best brace, sir. This is gonna be a long-winded tale," before starting to explain the whole situation with the Raptures and everything about them, including the Lost Ark they were within, the Ark just over that had been infected by the Flood until recently and so on. In the meantime, Isabel added upon Kelly's story with notes about their arrival.

The ship had slipped into the system, courtesy of a similar Forerunner Slipspace teleport system to that which had brought them to the Ark. That was two years ago. Isabel couldn't wake anyone up for combat duties, so whatever these alien machines had in orbit did the Spirit's engines in. From then, a lot of everything was added by Kelly in regards to the war, the hundred years humanity had been duking it out with these alien Raptures and how alike it was to the Human-Covenant War.

Cutter scratched his chin, murmuring, "This is just getting better by the minute... Can we get the remnants of some of these Raptures down to Anders to study them?"

"We'll get right on that, sir," Forge replied, though he, too, looked dumbfound by what he was hearing. Cutter gave him a nod, dismissing him and a pair of Spartans. Jerome, however, remained behind to listen to Kelly's remaining explanations. The Ark, the Central Government, the Nikkes and subsequent issues. It was a surprising addition to an already confusing cavalcade of insanity.

Johnson remarked, "Least the girls can fight, even dressed as they are, sir," with a smirk.

Cutter nodded in reply, sighing and pinching the bow of his nose. He said, "From one War against the Odds to the next. You said the Chief is here as well, correct?"

"Aye, sir. He's currently away on a mission for the Ark with a platoon of Nikkes and their commander," Kelly replied, then added, "They'll hopefully be back soon enough to make use of reinforcements the Spirit's gonna provide," and she eyed the staff on the bridge. Cutter snorted, then nodded approvingly as he walked back over toward Isabel. The AI herself chuckled.

"Well, another day, another job, eh?" Cutter voiced. Several of his bridge crew turned to face him as he spoke, "Seems as though humanity never catches a break, no matter where we land. First, the Covenant. Then, the Banished. Now, these bastard creatures, the Raptures. They think they have us all at the end of our ropes, stuck in underground cities and barely able to fight back against them even if we tried. I'd say it's time we gave'em a rude wake-up call. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Hoo'rah!" The deck crew called out. Johnson and the others grinned.

"If the Chief needs reinforcements, he's got them. We'll be more than glad to help the man who saved Mankind back home do so again here," Cutter offered, then turned to face Kelly and her escorting Marines, "Just point us in the right direction and we'll do the job. Until then, though, I'd like to get to the human version of the Ark, see it myself. My crew's gonna get the old girl back to working order, or at least as close to it as we can afford."

"We can arrange that trip to the Ark, sir," Kelly replied with a nod, "We'll need the backup anyhow, so I'm sure Chief Deputy Andersen's gonna be happy to see a new friendly face... I've got a bad feeling though," only to see a few of the people stare, confused. She clarified, "Long story..." as she eyed the bow of the ship, wondering just how much damage the old girl suffered when she came down.

"You're now the one with the bad feelings in lieu of Kurt, huh?" Jerome quipped. Kelly let out a snort at that, then shook her head.

Cutter smiled at the exchange. He turned to his shipboard AI and told her, "I'll get prepped, then. Isabel, you're in charge of the ship 'till we're back. Maintain our usual patrol patterns and, for god's sake, make sure Forge doesn't do anything too crazy," then walked off the bridge while escorted by two Spartans. Johnson and the Marines left next, heading for the barracks deck so they could catch the other Marines up on everything going on with this world. For want of a nail, Isabel thought to herself. At least they'd beaten the Banished back and managed to get Anders home before the Ring took off.

Meanwhile, with Kelly and Red Team, the Spartans prepared themselves for any possible new arrivals and prepared equipment to properly protect Captain Cutter on his trip to the Ark. Alice commented, "We missed twenty-eight years, we hear we won the War and now we see Kelly in her forties. I'll be damned... Kelly, you don't look that much older, honestly."

"Thanks for the compliment, Alice," Kelly quipped, setting aside a box of 8ga. shells for her shotgun. She hummed as she loaded up her pouches and her shotgun, then looked over to the three Spartans and asked them, "What are the Banished? Quick rundown, version, please..." only to watch the trio of Spartans look to one-another. They quickly began explaining the situation that had happened on the Ark. The Banished being a Covenant splinter faction that was fairly strong, the fact that their leader nearly killed Douglas when they first met and so on.

It was a rather quick telling of events that occurred on the second exploration of the Ark. Kelly commented, "Well, that's... Uh..." then blinked and shook her head, "I have nothing to add to this except 'nice work beating them back'?" before she slung her shotgun onto her back. The three Spartans gave nods of thanks, with Jerome crossing his arms and watching the Marines around them already preparing their dropships and equipment.

Kelly sighed, a little happy to see this. She said, "Y'know... Part of me thought we'd never get any form of reinforcements anymore. I thought we'd be the last ones in for the foreseeable future. The fact fate decided to drop you guys into our lap just after we dealt with the Flood infestation the next Ark across-" only to pause as she saw their reactions. Yes, she knew they'd seen the Flood, or at least figured, but...

"How did the Flood wind up in a human settlement, anyway...?" Alice asked, arms crossed.

"The lack of scruples of a corporation, really," Kelly sighed deeply, "Them and the little bitch running the place."

All three Spartans seemed a bit surprised to hear Kelly swear. The girl waved it off and spoke in an accent that was more reminiscent of a Scottsman than a Spartan, "Eh, 't'll be fine. We'll deal with the wee bastard when we get to the Ark," before sighing deeply and shaking her head. She then spoke with her normal, subdued accent and a deadpan, "Apologies, seems that when I get pissed, I switch accents."

"Yeah, we can tell," Douglas quipped.

Jerome added, "Never thought I'd see you of all people get angry, Kells."

Kelly shrugged, "When idiocy is in full display, I can't help but be pissed. That little mistake on the part of the Missilis CEO could've lead to a whole different War. One even the Raptures seemed to understand is not something they want to fight," turning around as she heard the rumble of tracks. She watched a pair of Grizzly MBTs rolling onto the deck for repairs, armor plates marked by bullet holes and burns courtesy of the Raptures' plasma weapons.

"Don't we know it," Jerome replied, then leaned against a box behind him and asked, "So, who else is here beside Chief, Sergeant Johnson and his platoon?"

"Commander Miranda Keyes, Sam and, according to Chief, Linda, plus whoever else we'll happen upon out here, now that the reinforcements are starting to pour in for us," She told them. All four took their helmets off at the mention of Sam. Kelly took hers off as well, then simply smiled. A 'Spartan Smile' was not enough emotion shown for the first time in a while. She spoke to them, "Yeah... Sam... He's here."

Jerome narrowed his lips, while Alice let out a mirthful, if short laugh. Douglas was the first to speak, "Whatever's bringing us here... God bless. Reviving our dead seems like a little something extra. A nice 'I'm sorry for screwing you all' from the Universe," which received a few more short laughs out of everyone. He continued with a smirk, "I mean, hell. It gave us Sergeant Forge back."

"Glad to know I was that missed, Douglas," Forge quipped as he walked up to the Spartans, arms crossed. All four stood at attention for the vet, who crossed his arms and told them, "Captain asked us to be his escort to this other 'Ark' thing, right? What kind of heat should I be packing? Johnson's telling me my stuff's okay as is, but I wanna make sure I don't seem too threatening to those 'Nikkes' you mentioned."

"Shotgun with slugs will do just fine, Sarge," Kelly replied.

"... Come to think of it, what do we do if John sends for backup?" Jerome asked, causing everyone to pause. He continued, "All four of us, plus Marines, leaving for the Ark to meet the Commanders and the Chief Deputy you mentioned leaves the ship with little command authority beside the Captain's XO and Isabel... Should we tell the Captain to give them clearance to deploy troops?"

"Won't be needed, Jerome," Cutter replied, hands behind his back and back straight as he approached, "They already have that clearance and we have patrols guarding that hole up top. If the Master Chief sends for reinforcements, he'll have anything he needs. In the meantime, I asked Isabel to start deploying drones and mining Cyclopses to get us more raw materiel we can process aboard. A surplus of materiel never hurt."

"Agreed with you on that one, sir," Kelly nodded, "We got the crew ready?"

"All here," Johnson laughed as he approached. He said, "Gonna be good to go home with a lot more guns backin' us up," before adding, "I'm gonna radio Andersen when we're nearin' the Ark... Gonna probably scare a few people, though, seeing as we're about two platoons' worth of Marines and a bunch of extra Spartans heavier than when we left."

"A little tour de force never hurt anybody," Alice commented as they grabbed the vehicles they were going to be using to get to the tram station. Rolling off out of the Hangar, the convoy moved past the barricades and extra ground defenses being set up by the Spirit of Fire's complement with one intended mission. Reaching the Ark Rail and starting talks with Andersen and his allies.


The Forerunner Structure in the North

Rapi, Neon, Anis, Pinne and Niner all stared up at the massive building ahead of them. A rising spire of intertwined beams, rising almost 139 meters into the air, to the point part of its peak was obscured by the clouds. Niner spoke warily, "It feels like this is how most horror movies start, honestly... Just a bunch of dummies walking into one giant alien structure, trying to poke whatever bee hive is in there."

"Anyone here ever seen 'The Thing'?" Quipped Neon, racking her shotgun. Everyone else looked at Neon, dumbfound, with Anis growling as a reply. It was one of the movies that had actually managed to scare the everloving hell out of the buxom Grenadier, even more so than anything like Alien. Alas, no time to dilly-dally and think about all the horrific stuff probably buried in this place.

Chief, who was in front of them all with the Commander, was sat by a holographic display that Cortana was working to access. The Spartan turned back toward the group and watched them scramble back to their posts. Delta, meanwhile, walked up to the Chief and said, "I and Signal found no trace of hostile contacts. Alva particles are still relatively high, but we should be able to get a message through to Shifty."

"Do it. Give her a SITREP and send a call over to the Northern Base as well. Tell Ludmilla we made it safely," He ordered, while the Commander watched quietly. Cortana seemed to be an adept at cracking stuff, her holographic avatar flaring and dimming with each 'brick' of code she managed to remove from the layers of defense of this place. Delta gave a nod and stepped off toward her and Signal's part of the perimeter to use Signal's boosted radio.

Pinne approached, however, leaning her shotgun onto her shoulder. She spoke to Chief and the Commander, "Doesn't this place feel weird to you, sir?"

Chief nodded. It had a certain air of strange familiarity to the Spartan. He watched Cortana as she wrote up a few lines of Code extra, then turned to him and gave him a nod. The Spartan then gently set a hand on the holographic display. The building trembled, then hissed as the main door ahead split open, seams finally showing in the alien alloy. Pinne whistled, then said, "Woah..."

Drawing his rifle, the Spartan peered inside first. The walls of the station glowed in the light. Sarcophagi lined the walls as Sentinels floated about the place, each of the containers bearing the markings of the Forerunner military on them. Sam and Linda pushed up to the Chief, with Snow White close behind. One of the Drones swiveled about and sputtered over gently, then scanned the Chief and the Spartans. This drone's eye glowed red and it wore gold-plated metal with inlaid details.

It let out a low buzz, then spoke, its voice monotonous, robotic, "RECLAIMER"

He nodded. Hesitating now against these things probably meant getting shot at. The machine scanned all of the Chief's surrounding companions, then spoke again, "SYNTHETIC SECURITY ELEMENTS? SAFE?" only to receive a nod again. The Machine spent a picosecond processing. It spoke again, "FOLLOW. MONITOR WILL REPORT INSTALLATION STATUS."

The Spartan whistled and rallied up the teams, watching them 'fold in' from their half-circle formation and join the group at the door. He ordered, "Signal, Delta, remain outside. I want eyes on in case Chatterbox decides to tag in," only to get salutes from both. The two women scrambled over to the highest snowed-in hill and set themselves up within moments.

"Anis, Neon, security. I want you two covering Delta and Signal. We'll set up the ambush when we get out of here," Alyosha told them. He then added a warm, friendly, yet concern-filled "Stay safe..." and got smiles and nods from both girls. They ran to join Delta and Signal. The man then faced the Chief, telling him, "Lead the way in. You guys seem to know your ways around this stuff."

Chief hummed in approval, then marched into the building. Cortana spoke, "I've got no radiation or ALva particles in here, but I am detecting something familiar:Promethean signatures..." which caused the Spartan to tense up a bit. Sam, Will and Linda, to whom Cortana had transmitted this information, prepared for the worst. Linda had faced some Prometheans while they were out and fighting.

The place seemed to be bigger on the inside. Chief noticed that the hall they had entered stretched much farther out forward than its exterior appearance would have let on. Alyosha himself commented, "This place is huge..." in a murmur as they did the walk-around, past the sarcophagus room. The various containers for what Chief assumed to be Promethean troops glowed, energy flowing through them and up into the rising ceiling of the place.

Forerunner symbols and consoles flashed on and off around them as they walked, Pinne commenting, "This place feels incredibly freakin' familiar for some reason..." as she held her shotgun at the low ready position by her hip. She watched drones of a similar model and make, but silver-plated and with blue eyes, skimming past them. A few stopped to scan the Nikkes, then sputtered away on their antigravity engines.

"I don't even wanna know how," Layla commented as she scanned the place, utilizing her visor. She hit the visor and murmured, "Great. My damn visor's on the Fritz," before looking to Sammy, who stared with a little confusion. The girl then explained, It's showing an infinite distance on my rangefinder whenever I look forward at the main chambers we're wading through. Almost like this place stretches even wider in every direction than just up..."

"Getting the same here," Niner reported, her Machine Gun stowed on her backpack. She had a pistol drawn, just in case.

"Forerunner technology," Chief told them all, "Doctor Halsey did say it has some paracausal properties," as they approached an area of clouds and tall, rising towers of ancient alien technological advances. Holographic symbols floated overhead as the sky around glowed blue through the dark clouds. The group walked over a light bridge toward a central pylon where a small, floating ball of armor and light buzzed left and right.

Pinne looked down at the ground they were walking on, then blanked. She narrowed her lips and jumped once, feeling the hardness of the transparent material they were walking on. Niner spoke, "Yeah, I tried not to register it. Just keep going without thinking of any imminent fall to our doom..." which caused the blonde shotgunner to rush forward and join the Chief and Commander.

Alyosha whispered to himself, "Don't look down, don't look down, don't look down..." as he and Rapi held onto each-other. Cortana giggled at that. Upon reaching the other side of the light bridge, they saw the strange Monitor humming a tune as he danced around the consoles. He stopped, then turned around. Chief saw his eye glimmer a contrasting white in comparison to 343 Guilty Spark's deep, dark blue.

The AI caused Chief to tense nonetheless. It spoke, "By the Forerunners!" with the most pomp Chief had ever heard. The AI moved over toward Chief and spoke, "Greetings to thee, Reclaimer! Mine mind thought that mine sentinels hath exaggerated! By jove, 'tis good to see thee, Reclaimer!" and the old-timey English hit a little too hard. "Hark, though hath arrived far too promptly for mine preparations to come to fruitions."

"... Oh, joy, Scarlet's friend," Alyosha chuckled.

The AI then turned toward a confused Snow White, scanned her and spoke, "Ah, thou," With a surprisingly regretful tone to the Nikke. He continued, bowing what passed for his head at the girl and stating, "Mine apologies for the unkindly welcome mine drones provided. We are wary of machines ever since His toys hath pushed to try and enter this most safe Relic."

Snow furrowed her brows and said, "Alright. Apology accepted, I suppose..." before turning to Chief, "Reclaimer, huh?"

"Long story," The Spartan replied, then looked over to the floating Monitor and asked, "You have a name?"

"Ah, yes! Pardon mine manners! I am 085 Joyful Revitalization, monitor of Recomposition Installation-001, the sole installation of its kind with approximately two-point-three trillion uses simulated and..." He paused to make a calculation, "... Huh. Concerning, thine number of revivals fails to come to mine mind. Alas, I assure you, we have had a 100% success rate in return!"

"... Recomposition station?" Chief, Cortana, the Spartans, the Nikkes and the Commander all spoke at the same time.

"Indeed! Much like thine friends, thou are a reconstituted Engram, Reclaimer! Brought over upon the activation of this station nearly one full orbital cycle ago! Though mine sensors detect thou hast been here for less than that given time..." The AI replied as it sputtered over to everyone else and performed scans. It spoke, "Curious. Thou mark the signs of the Composer's effects."

"... Your station helps rebuild human Engrams from the Composer," Chief immediately figured, "How? And why everyone else? None of the people here have actively touched the Composer, save for me and my AI companion..."

"Mine diagnostics come up empty in answer, Reclaimer. Nary a year ago, the station surged to life suddenly," The AI replied as it led them to the consoles. It turned toward Chief and offered, "If thine Construct wishes, they may come into the system and verify it by their own volition," to which Cortana immediately confirmed. Chief pulled the chip out of his helmet and slid it into the console's hardlight hologram ports, watching Cortana as she materialized beside Revitalization. He spoke, "Ah, milady."

"Heh. Gentlemanly for an AI that's been here for a few hundred thousand years..." Whispered the AI as she started tapping into the databanks. She furrowed her brows, then murmured, "Okay... Lot of this stuff is locked behind some of the strongest encryption I've ever seen. It's gonna take me a long while to crack, but what little I can read right now... Confirms what Revitalization has said, Chief. And..."

She gasped. Pulling up a map of the Earth, the woman opened it up and revealed a multitude of contact points, multiple scarlet dots flashing on the planet's many continents, with most focused fairly close to where the Ark and they were. It was still an area of thousands of kilometers to search, but the AI spoke, "My god... We've got a lot more ground contacts here than we thought, Chief... I can pinpoint where we found just about everyone we found now, but there's... Much, much more..."

"You're telling me... More UNSC personnel are out there?" He inquired, "How?"

"Going by the few things I can scrape together, John? The Forerunner structures on multiple of our colonies have been sequencing humanity's signatures for centuries at this point. Most of the more recent data, however locked it is, is from the period of the Human-Covenant War. And it's at the front of whatever list of revivals is in this Station's Request Database..."

"We're getting revived based on a list," Sam commented, arms crossed, "From least to most prioritized."

"Indeed," Revitalization spoke, "Though we seem to not only affect those of your kin, Reclaimers..." then turned to Pinne, who raised her brows. She was about to ask what that meant before alarms began to blare across the Station. Revitalization barked, "Damnable devils! We've a contact approaching, Reclaimers! Familiar signature as the last attempted breach!"

"Chatterbox..." Snow scoffed.

"Combat positions!" Chief and the Commander barked.

"Get an ambush set up! Delta, confirm?!"

"... Affirm, Chief. He's here." Delta responded fearfully.

It was time.