- MaxRealflugel
- |
- Elder Mythic Member
Part Five
November 7th 2552 (Forerunner shield world)
The thick woodland that covered most of the local area gradually began to thin, as Olivia moved silently in her stealthy pursuit. The Forerunners, as advanced as they were, had the wisdom to include a plentiful supply of cattle. But unlike their counterparts on Earth, these Cows were evasive and more intelligent. Even for a Spartan III like Olivia, they were a challenge which seemed odd to her in a way.
She had spent years in training and had fought against the Covenant on many occasions, but here she was having to use all of her skills just to ensure the rest of the team had a reliable food supply.
There were no natural predators that they had seen, and yet the initial presence of Spartans had alarmed the cattle herds. If there was nothing to prey on them, then seeing several Spartans should not have bothered them at all but instead they were keen to stay out of reach of any Human contact.
Fred and Chief Mendez were still going about their usual daily routine of helping out Dr. Halsey, whilst the members of team Sabre were examining some of the removable panels of Kelly’s armour. Although they were more agile than the Spartan II’s their fight against the Forerunner sentinels taught them that additional protection is a must, even Ash and Tom had peeled themselves away from the Cryo-tubes for a more detailed look at her armour.
Kelly went through the main systems of her valuable armour, which was decorated with the scars of war. Kelly had seen a great deal of combat and her armour reflected that. Some of the deep gouges caused by a Covenant plasma rifle were the main areas of interest for the younger Spartans especially as their armour was designed for stealth and not close quarter battle.
“Are there any more Spartans left?” asked Tom
Kelly looked away as though deep in thought or remembering fallen comrades from years that had long since past.
“When the Covenant attacked Reach, blue team was tasked with defending one of the many orbital instillations that made Reach the fortress world that it was, but John our team leader became separated from the rest of us.” Kelly’s eyes glazed-over with the mounting emotion and she paused briefly to compose herself.
Dr. Halsey walked up and seeing the look on Kelly’s face, continued with the account of John’s history. She spoke of the many battles that John had been involved in including the destruction of the first Halo structure and the initial defence of Earth.
“He must have killed thousands of Covenant troops,” interrupted Ash
“Probably more than you think, but he’ll have saved many more lives,” answered Dr. Halsey
Olivia suddenly appeared from a small wood nearby, instead of her predatory stalk she had an alarmed look upon her face and was running as fast as she could towards the group. The other Spartans immediately changed to state of combat readiness, all of them with weapons raised, looking for any possible threat behind Olivia.
Fred was the nearest and he ran to meet her. Kelly was too far away to hear what they were saying but Olivia was pointing over towards an area of the surrounding woodland that seemed to be far denser than the rest.
Fred quickly came over towards the rest of the group before briefing them on the situation.
“Olivia has found a small structure hidden within the wood over to the East; it looks like it could be a doorway of some kind.”
Dr. Halsey’s eyes were suddenly filled with excitement and she immediately started to pack her things in anticipation of some great exploration, but Fred stopped her before she could power-down her portable terminal.
“We need to check it out first doctor.”
Her look of excitement briefly changed to frustration, but she quickly accepted the situation and allowed her Spartans to do their job.
Linda, Fred and Olivia quietly moved off towards the densely packed woodland for a look at the structure, whilst the others gathered the remaining weapons and ammunition.
“Now we all have a mission.” Catherine whispered to herself
May 18th 2866 (Location Unknown)
John walked silently towards the next doorway, hugging the shadows between the countless huge bulkheads in a corridor that better resembled a never-ending hangar bay.
Cortana had concluded that the faint life-form reading was about 4 levels down and had remained stationary since they entered, but beyond that there was little she could find out.
Her attempts at finding out more about this ancient structure had been blocked at every occasion, despite the ease at which she had hacked her way into other Forerunner systems this one was proving to be a much harder nut to crack.
The only hypothesis that she had developed was that the structure was part of a much larger network on the planet, and was designed to help shield the world through a form of camouflage technology. In addition to this there were several weapons pylons scattered in and around the various structures and each one was probably more than capable of destroying a Covenant capital ship with a single hit.
The energy source for all of this firepower was buried deep below the surface, and besides a few isolated pockets of exposed camouflage on the surface it was functioning perfectly, even after all of this time.
All along the vast corridor were dozens of the familiar Forerunner styled doorway’s, and rows of sentinel ports all of which appeared to be sealed.
After several minutes of walking the corridor came to an abrupt end where a single lift shaft was located, Cortana indicated that the only way down was via the lift so John activated the control panel and they were quickly plunged into a huge subterranean cavern that was bathed entirely in blue light.
The route down took them past three other levels all of which vaguely resembled the underground structures in the first Halo, the only difference, as John pointed out, was that they seemed better designed for a defensive fight. Instead of a single winding level there was a multitude of steadily ascending floors for each level and dozens of bulkheads and doorways, all of which could probably be sealed and defended with heavy weaponry.
The ring-like halos were a thing of beauty whereas this structure had been designed with the single purpose of exterminating the Flood, without killing all other sentient life in the galaxy. It seemed that this planet was the prototype in a war with an enemy that could literally devour whole worlds.
The fourth level was almost identical to the other three above it but with subtle differences. Instead of several defensive floors this level had two main floors and was filled with sentinel ports.
“It would seem that this is a command level of some kind, responsible for the floors above it in case of a breach.” Surmised Cortana
“If that’s the case then who’s been left in charge?” enquired John
The lift came to a stop but from the transparent floor, John could see countless levels below that eventually vanished into the distant shadow.
“The life-form readings are about 200 metres ahead chief,” Informed Cortana
John slowly walked from the lift towards the faint reading in the next chamber; rifle at the ready.
After following the waypoints in his helmet display, John entered a single large chamber. Flowing from the surrounding walls were a multitude of cables and pipes that all lead to a centrally located chair. Sat within the chair was a humanoid figure that appeared older than the structure itself.
The figure appeared to be male and was around six and a half feet tall with a slender build and a pale complexion.
John suddenly realised what he might be looking at, but Cortana had already drawn up her own conclusions as soon as they had entered the chamber.
“A Forerunner!” gasped Cortana
November 7th 2552 (Forerunner shield world)
Linda and Fred crawled along the ground towards the area that Olivia had indicated but all they could see was more trees.
Fred opened the secure COM channel “Where is it?” he whispered
“Over there,” replied Olivia with a pointed finger
“I don’t see anything,” said Fred “there’s just trees.”
“Exactly, I wouldn’t have seen it either until I walked into it. It seems to use some kind of camouflage technology.” Said Olivia
Fred crept closer to the group of trees ahead and then suddenly found himself inside a sheltered doorway. He glanced behind and saw Olivia and Linda looking at him, even with their helmets back on he could tell they were puzzled.
To those outside of the camouflage it appeared as though Fred had no torso but his legs were still visible, something which made Linda cringe at the sight of.
Fred stood up and then walked out of the camouflage field and indicated to Olivia and Linda to come forward.
Olivia walked forward first followed by a more hesitant Linda. All of her Spartan training told her not to walk in, but this unusual doorway was the best hope of finding a way out.
The doorway itself was in keeping with the rest of the Forerunner technology that Fred had seen on Onyx, its cool metallic facing was highlighted with wisps of iridescent blue light. To the right of the doorway was a single control panel that was illuminated by a single red light, it did not take much imagination for Fred to figure out that the door was locked.
“Linda, go and get Dr. Halsey. We’ll have to see if she knows a way to bypass the security system.”
Linda acknowledged the order and darted off towards the camp as fast as she could.
To be continued...
[Edited on 05.28.2008 11:46 PM PDT]