Chapter 9: TBD

I was barely aware of the sniper dragging me into cover as I struggled to breathe from the impact with the tree. I could taste blood in my mouth, and my side was now slick with it.

I tried to move to check myself, only to feel my ribs explode with pain.

I position her against an upturned tree and crouch down in front of her. I wave my hand twice across her visor then hold up three fingers.

I depolarised my visor as the sharpshooter signaled, and tried to count her fingers, finding it hard to focus on them.

"Th... three..." I half-whispered.

I give her shoulder a pat and move off to rejoin the others. We still had to get Red Team out.

"Red Team. The Lefty's injured. We need to pull back, you have to get over here."

"Got it, Josie."

He wrapped one of the wounded soldiers' arms around his shoulders and helped him stand,
"Ready?"

Quinn nodded in response, and they half-ran, half-hopped towards us.

Jones and I gave enough cover fire for them to get over to us and we beat a hasty retreat back to the pelican, me helping the LT the whole way.

As the pelican took off, I tilted my head towards the opening ramp, looking at the jungle and the rebel base, as Jackson tried to stop the bleeding in my side.

I closed my eyes and addressed the sniper.
"Thank you."

I nodded back to her and closed my own eyes, falling into sleep.

The door closed as the pelican climbed in altitude, eventually leaving the planet and heading back toward the Prowler.

I woke up just as we were docking back in with the Prowler. I stood up and collected my gear.

I stood, being aided by one of the ODSTs, and walked out of the Pelican and onto the Nightmare.

My injury wasn't so bad, just a flesh wound, the medical officer had said. I'd finished my report to ONI, complete with a map of the area.

My armour had been repaired in minutes, thankfully there wasn't too much damage, and I was sat in my quarters, finishing a message to my sister, promising to visit her soon.

"All hands," the captain's voice came over the intercom, "Prepare for slipspace jump."

I'd been readying myself for the jump since I got off the pelican. First off was a short range random jump, followed by two more to throw off any trackers, then a jump back to Earth. I took my station as we entered slipspace. It would be an hour before we arrived.

We came out of slipspace, the ship drifting for several seconds before cloaking itself.

"Captain?" I said through my comm-link. We were supposed to jump, not enter stealth.

"All crew members," came the AI, Forsaken Wynter's, voice viathe intercom, "Report to your battle stations. This is not a drill."

I stepped out of my room, helmet under my arm and ran to the bridge at the front of the ship.

I hear the alarm sound and step out to the hall, people were running in all directions. I didn't really have a station, so I made my way to the bridge.

--Haven, Shell Interior--

(Miranda)
=We emerged in a dimly lit, cavernous room. The glow from teleporter briefly illuminated some of the surroundings, but then it soon faded and I had a hard time seeing. Silver hovered to my right, his eye glowing and offering some light=
"Are there any lights to the place?"

(Silver)
"Certainly. One moment while I access the controls."
=Admittedly the moment was, by an AI's standards at least, only about as long as a fraction of a nanosecond. But I learned that saying phrases such as that were something of a comfort on organic beings. The lights activated, bathing us both in soft white light and letting her see all that was around her=

(Miranda)
=This was definitely better, but I remembered something Silver mentioned and I turned back to face him=
"Okay, you said there are Huragok here on Haven?"

(Silver)
"Certainly. While effective, the maintenance Sentinels you have encountered are sadly nothing compared to the full capabilities of a Huragok. They have remained within the maintenance tunnels here on Haven, as a request from me."

(Miranda)
"Wait, you told them to stay hidden? Why?"
=He seemed floated back and forth, almost like a human shifting where they stood, uncomfortable=

(Silver)
"I was worried that they would be misused. Or harmed. You must understand, there are precisely 700,00 Huragok inside Haven. Mostly they serve maintenance purposes too far beyond what a Sentinel can do, but they still have Forerunner knowledge. Science and technology, how to adapt and improve existing technology. If even one percent were to fall into the wrong hands, they would be able to make whoever controlled them one of the most technologically dominant forces in this galaxy."

(Miranda)
"Technically, we already are, not that we've been flaunting it around. And I wasn't going to suggest that they be used by us. Trust me, I know how valuable Huragok are. But this is something that needs to be known Silver, especially if we are the occupants of this world."
=He seemed troubled, but then again it was hard to tell with an AI with no face. But his lights dimmed a little and he drooped a few inches=

(Silver)
"Very well. But I would prefer they remain here. At least the bulk of them anyway."

"What is it, Captain?" I asked, walking into the bridge.

"A ship, lieutenant," answered Wynter, "It does not match any know signatures and we have been unable to identify it."

I looked at her, she had chosen a purplish hue for her avatar, with hair reaching her waist. It was simple, yet I liked it.

"Have you tried searching ONI's databases for ships that match this one's description?"

"I have," she answered, "I couldn't find anything. The only further action I could suggest would be to contact the Office of Naval Intelligence directly, however, communication could reveal our location."

I walked onto the bridge and stood there, waiting. It wasn't my place to question what was happening.

The bridge fell silent as everyone considered the options we had. None of them seemed appealing.

"We could bug out, Captain," stated the commander on board, "It has no idea we're here."

The captain acknowledged him silently, still considering what we could do.

I looked at the ODST who had arrived.
"What do you think?"

"I don't think a soldier is-" The commander started.

"With respect sir," I replied, "ODSTs make decisions like this every day they spend in the field."

I turn back to the ODST. "What do you think we should do?"

I gave a small salute.

"I don't know much about naval combat, sir. But it seems to me the best option would be to plant a beacon on that ship before bugging out to contact ONI."

"Could we do that, Wynter?"

"I believe so." She answered.

"Captain, if we track this ship, we can find it again if ONI need it."

The captain stood, tapping the end of his cigarette to light it.
"Wynter, attach a tracker to the ship, then take us home."

"Aye, Captain."

=continues engaging the rogues's along with gitz downing at least 3 more=

how you holding up gitz

Gitz fired quick bursts into the Elites down the hall, trying to take their shields offline so Zeru could get the killing blow.  Right as Zeru spoke, multiple plasma shots hit the wall right in front of Gitz.  He brought his arm in closer to his body, to make himself a smaller target.

"Fine.  Let's just get this done quick, I don't like being as exposed as we are in this hall.  Permission to use explosives in your ship, Z?"

(Miranda)
=Shrugging, I spread my arms open in a gesture of acceptance=
"I understand Silver. No need to worry about us abusing them, but you've gotta admit, they would certainly come in handy. Especially with the refits we've been doing."

=As I walked away from the platform, Silver followed me, gaining speed to float by my shoulder=

(Silver)
"Yes, the refits.....I must confess that during the vote, I was the only one that voted against the refitting of the ships you have created. It was a viewpoint shared by the Inheritor. He believed that limitations on the weaponry you could use should have been imposed so that in the event you, or a rogue faction like there is now, ever went, how did he put it, 'Mad with power,' then there should still be hope for them to be defeated."

(Miranda)
=In a strange way, it made sense. Humans were well, Human. We could be kind, generous, noble and pure. But then we were aggressive, ambitious to a fault, almost always unwilling to share or get along with what was different.....basically, we were assholes by nature. The best of us were just those that not only embodied the best, but conquered, and had full control over the worst sides of themselves. So when Jason wanted restrictions imposed on what the humans here could use, he wasn't doing it out of some sense of sportsmanship to the rest of the galaxy. He believed that no one single race was meant to be dominant. At least, I hoped that was it and not him just wanting to be a good sport. The former was more noble=

Gitz nodded to Zeru, before reaching around his tactical belt and grab held of a frag grenade.  He used his thumb to pull the pin from the frag and once free, the spoon from it flew into the air then onto the floor.  Gitz counted to two before chucking it down the hall like a bowling ball, letting it roll to the feet of the Elites.  Three more seconds passed before the explosion erupted and Gitz started moving down the hall, bringing out his shotgun from his belt.

=continues following gitz and shooting at any unshielded elite he saw=

to himself(where the hell did the others vanish to?, we could use help to get this done quicker)

(Miranda)
=As we moved through the large hallways of the shell, I soon came face to face with my first Huragok. At first, I thought it was frightened, the way it had it's back to us. But then I realized it was actually busy, tentacles dancing over a panel on the wall, each one splitting into hundreds of finer tentacles. Silver made a sound, a sort of chirping noise, and the Huragok turned to face us. It reminded me of pictures of a Portuguese Man of War, the way it's own tentacles hung beneath its floating body. Its blue head, something like a glowworm with six eyes, stretched out and shifted so it could get a loom at me. It made a few chirping, gurgling sounds, and extended a tentacle out to me. At first i thought it wanted to shake my hand, but instead it went past my outstretched hand and grasped my data-pad, pulling it away from me=
"Hey, that's mine!"

=Taking a step forward, I reach out for the pad but Silver stopped me, floating between me and the Huragok. He made a few more of the chirping sounds, to which the Huragok responded. Silver then turned to face me=

(Silver)
"He apologizes for taking your belonging, but he only wished to upgrade its software. A moment, and you will have it back."

(Miranda)
=Upgrade it? I knew that Huragok had remarkable engineering capabilities, but still....software upgrade? That seemed a bit new. It's tentacles once more split into hundreds of finer strands and soon it actually opened the data pad, sets of tendrils holding onto different pieces of the data-pad. One of them glowed rather intensely as it touched down on one of the circuits of the device, and soon began to....well, pulsate with the same glow. The pulsating stopped after a minute and then it reassembled the pad, and handed it back to me. Then, he made some more chirping sounds, and my data-pad sprung to life, an electronic voice coming from the speakers=

(Huragok/Electronic Voice)
"Greetings. I am called Balanced Buoyancy. Who are you?"

(Miranda)
=Okay, I was not expecting that. Plus I had no idea Huragok had names, but I guess it made sense. Still, weird name=
"Hello, my name is Miranda Moreau. Nice to meet you."

(Balanced Buoyancy)
"What are you?"
=It drifted around Miranda, getting a look at her from all angles=

"You are not Forerunner, yet....you resemble them. They were taller though."

(Miranda)
"I'm a human. My kind comes from Earth."

(Balanced Buoyancy)
"A human? Interesting."

An Elite groaned as it fell dead from a shotgun blast from Gitz.

"Hall looks clear. Got any intel on where more are?"

they're basically in the rooms so we need to check every room

=gets a private comm saying that a ship had exited slipspace and it's occupant was transmitting a unique signal and requesting permission to land=

-replies to allow and patch the current situation to the the ship and have it's occupent assist in dealing with the rogues-

"Switching to thermal.  I'll watch for cloakers as we move."

Gitz whispered commands and his thermal vision flashed to life.  The hall now appeared dark grey to Gitz, while Zeru glowed white hot.

"After you."

=comms the bridge and has them alter the lighting in the area to put the elites at a disadvantage while the ship lands and it's occupent steps out and immediately heads to the R&D area and starts to get to work=

oh yay follow the leader

=chuckles as he says it and heads into the nearest room and and dodges an elite rushing before spinning around to shoot him in the head before diving to dodge plasma shots impacting the wall=

ole!

(Miranda)
"What were you just doing there?"
=To clarify, I pointed at the panel it had been working on. Balanced turned and twisted his head to look, and then made some clicking sounds=

(Balanced Buoyancy)
"Ah, that. I was performing maintenance on one of the slip-space shield generators for this installations shell."

(Miranda)
=I blinked, mouth slightly agape=
"Slip-space, shield generator? What exactly does that do?"

(Balanced Buoyancy)
=He looked to Silver, who simple made his own clicking sounds. Then Balanced looked to Miranda=
"Prevents anything within slip-space from passing through the shell of this installation. A security measure, to ensure the safety of the inner layer."

(Miranda)
=The amount of gawking I was doing was rather embarrassing=
"Are you telling me the Forerunners had the technology....to block, slip-space travel?"

(Balanced Buoyancy)
"Yes.....and no. The technology itself was limited to whatever installations or ships it was installed upon, and even then was restricted to the structure. It could not create a field or region of space where slip-space travel is not possible, unless one was willing to create a structure of equal size."

The Elite Zeru killed impacted the ground with a heavy thud.

"Nice one."

Gitz smacked a closed fist into the button that opened the door he was close to, then brought his shotgun up into the room, not seeing anything with his thermal.

"All clear.  Moving to the next room."

all right lead the way

=while they were working their way through the rooms on one side the armored soldier begins making way through the other side and gets to work killing=

-smirks-

=private come to individual bout time, was wondering when you'd get here

soldier [/i] bla bla bla i'm here now aren't i?[/i]

zeru[/i] fine just don't leave any surivivors[/i]

=ends the comm and focus on the current area he and gitz are in=

Room after room, Gitz and Zeru lit up Elite filled rooms, painting the walls with purple and blue blood alike.  

"Couldn't we just like, seal off this part of the ship then open a window or something? let 'em all be sucked out?"

(Miranda)
=That was certainly one of the more impressive feats of engineering I had seen from the Forerunners. I always thought the most that could ever be done with slip-space was traveling through it, but the Forerunners.....they could do so much more=
"That....is beyond amazing Balanced."

(Balanced Buoyancy)
=He glowed at the praise, literally, his bio-luminescent lights increasing in their intensity=
"Thank you. It is welcome for ones work to be appreciated."

(Silver)
=Chirping once more in the Huragok's language, I informed Balanced that the human and I would have to continue on with our walk, and that I did not wish to intrude upon his work. He agreed, though it sounded as if Balanced was interested in joining us. It made sense, given that this was the first human any of the Huragok on Haven had ever seen. But he had his duties=

Gitz turned to Zeru.

"Yeah...  let's do that.  Just don't turn off the air in the wrong section, I like to have air in my lungs."

=gives the order and the bridge crew immediately begins sucking the air from some of the move heavily defended area and sends a map of the areas not being vaccumed to zeru, gitz and the third soldier in the area=

ok lets move we got about 30 minutes before they cycle the areas to ensure every rogue is dead

Gitz topped off his shotgun's ammo, then holstered it on his belt before grabbing his assault rifle from his back.

"Moving out!"

=pulls out another pistol and starts to follow gitz while the solider gets to notification and curses under it's breathe =

lead on

(Miranda)
=And so we continued walking on, lights activating and deactivating as we moved down the long corridors. I soon saw dozens of other Huragok drifting along the passage, their bioluminescent lights lighting their surroundings. It was kinda nice, having them around. It made the inner shell seem much less....lonely=

=after 30 minutes of constant combat the elites had been dealt with=

bout dam time

=sits down on a bench and takes off his helmet and sigh=

=2 hours later is in a messhall geting a bite to eat=

cleanup work sucks

===2992===
==Planet Xenos==

=Heavy, metallic footsteps can be heard in the darkness of this cavern. Dust which had been lying for years was disturbed with every ominous thump of steel on rock. Lights flickered on, small lights, which served no purpose than identification among these beings, switched around from blues to reds to violets as the group searched around. There were machines here, old enough to be considered relics now, covered in the same wet red vines which covered the surface, though these were not so thick. A cold, armored hand reached out to touch the broken control panel of one console, which triggered a powerup of the whole room. Every machine lit up with white and red auras, and over the console, a figure appeared. It was a hologram of a woman, and as it spoke in it's broken and static voice, the image faltered every few seconds=

"This is a prerecorded message. Date of recording: January Seventeenth, 2561.

I am creating this vid so that those who discover our tomb will know what happened here. So that they will know who were were, and how we died.

We don't know where they came from, only that they appeared over our world one day without warning, cut down our fleets and descended upon the people with malicious intent. We estimate the casualties numbered in the hundreds of millions as of one day after zero-hour, but it is impossible to be sure. Many tried to escape, but every ship coming in or out of planetary range was destroyed immediately. Some, such as myself, took to bunkers underground, in hopes that we could wait out the attack, though we soon learned that this was no mere assault.

For reasons still unknown to us, the monsters began capturing people and sweeping them away to orbit. None ever returned, so we can only guess at the purpose of these kidnappings. Soon after, they began spraying the whole planet with red mist, presumably to facilitate the growth of the Vines.

It did not take them long to find our bunkers, so those who managed to flee were forced into makeshift hideaways such as this, where we could take sanctuary. For years, we maintained regular contact with eachother, just to give some assurance that there were indeed others out there, and so we could pray that help would come. It never did.

For nine years we waited in these caves, and one by one, the signals went dark. To our knowledge, we are the last bastion of life on this dead planet now. The Vines have killed nearly every other plant on the surface, and the animals who will not eat them starve. Fortunately, we have found the Vines to be very high in nutrients, which sustains our pitiful existence. But for how long?"

=The hologram sighed deeply before continuing=

"We have been able to defeat every enemy who ever threatened our people. Even the ones who came before us, who tried to wipe our species from history, could not stand to the awesome power of our military. But now, we are nothing. We cannot overcome this foe. It will continue to consume and consume until nothing is left but the echos of ghosts.

I will attach the complete compilation of all our historical records to this data chip. Though it is incomplete, It is all we have left of our past now.

For some time now, we here have been putting our best efforts into constructing a transport vehicle to slip past the enemy and into deep space, where it will eventually, with luck, find a home. They will not think to destroy it because the cargo and crew will not be us. We have the last five of Sigma’s living machines here, and they will be the ones to carry on our legacy. Eight days ago, the shuttle was launched, and it has pinged back three times. This gives us much hope.
We will live on, in those who came after us…”

=The hologram disappears, and a data chip ejects from the console. The large metal hand of one of the explorers reaches down to grab it, plugging it into the back of its helm. Another signalled for the rest to follow as it started back through the upward-slanted tunnel that connected to the cavern-room. Through the darkness they marched until they found the light at the end. Stepping through, they emerged into the sunrise. Hundreds of ships loomed overhead while countless groups of robotic soldiers made their ways about the red landscape. In the distance, a bright blue fire consumed the body of an enormous creature, its greenish blood soaking the ground around it for nearly 30 meters. Suddenly, a small transport vessel swooped down from above, opening its side door to reveal another soldier. It spoke in a deep, synthetic voice=
“Kho’r-dalin iman bol?”
=One of the group replied=
“Seh sa, hommadan. Z’es err.”
=With that, the group climbed into the transport. The door closed, and the ship took off, climbing towards the ships above. Looking out the viewport, one could see another massive, tentacled creature go down in a haze of blue and white flames…=