Cath

The Cradle

The female creature’s fleshy jaw melted under the plasma fusillade, but it didn’t stop coming. Burbling with rage, it reared up and stamped on 595’s midriff with both front legs. The Agent’s battered shield popped under the weight of the impact. She scrambled wildly for the Rothian sword, just out of reach, while trying to maneuver out from underneath the creature.

Bouncing off 595’s shield before it broke, the creature reared up for another attempt. Freyr shot underneath Vreta’s shoulder at the thing, with the occasional shot activating the Rothian’s shield too. A spine-tingling roar emanated from the other side of the platform, and she caught a glimpse of the other creature running, off to their left. “Look out!" Freyr shouted, still holding onto Vreta’s tail.

Halo: Aegis Team

Tar growled threateningly, leaning over the table towards Ethat. Both of her hands rested back in the divots she’d created; the stanchions screeched in complaint. When she spoke, her voice wasn’t raised anymore, but soft and laced with poison. “Then your warriors had best remember to stay in line - behind me.”

Tar pushed off from the table and stalked out of the briefing room along with the rest of Aegis team. The last thing she wanted was a lecture from Spartan Ryker, and she made that abundantly clear through her body language, though no doubt the Human wouldn’t pick it up. “Don’t concern yourself with my welfare, Ryker.” She growled.

Martialling all her discipline, Tar tried to make the best of the Spartan’s obvious investment in this operation by sharing what really puzzled her: “I know my brother. This treachery was always in his heart, but Uztel wouldn’t readily plunder our world. Something doesn’t smell right - I need to talk to him, before I kill him.”

A pair of facility orderlies pressed their backs firmly against the wall to let them pass. “Can I count on you, Ryker? It has to be me who confronts him - if I fall, don’t let ONI take him. Brissekh will fall apart without blood continuity. It's the only thing holding us together.”

The Cradle

595 only made it a few more strides before the creature she’d hit with her shotgun reappeared. Clambering up onto the platform, ablaze with light blue fire and screeching manically, it slashed at her with one of its dagger-like legs. The Agent dived away from the lunge, rolled among the slithering vines, jumped to her feet, turned and swung the blade with all her might.

The plasma blade scythed straight through the middle of the monster’s beak as it rushed forward, cutting the end off each. It reared up and pirouetted madly to get away; its razor tail flicked round smashed into 595’s side. She flew through the air towards the stairs, scraping her helmet against the ceiling then bouncing off a vine-covered pillar before rolling over a few times, right into the path of second creature. The automatically deactivated blade clattered by the steps.

Moving to cut off Vreta and Freyr before this bite-sized woman arrived in its lap, the female creature charged forward, jaws extending out past its beak to crunch 595’s neck.

The Cradle

“Umm, ok!” Freyr replied, fumbling for the proffered tail-end one hand while keeping her pistol up with the other. Another chittering screech made her flinch; Freyr looked over and saw the slavering monster closest to them hop up onto the platform. It clicked deftly through the vine-covered alleys, striking a diagonal line between them and the stairway.

“It's female!” Freyr gasped, mainly to herself. Through the vines, an egg sac was fleetingly visible under the thorax, behind the arms. She’d never seen Cradle creatures displaying the ability to procreate, but she pushed the thought from her mind as a gurgling snarl issued from the other side of the platform. Freyr’s view was obscured by rapidly growing vegetation, but she imagined the other one was not best pleased. “Oh no. Let's get out of here!” She pleaded again.

The Cradle

595 burst through a particularly flammable clump of matter with the staircase just a dozen metres away when the source of the chittering sound revealed itself. An armoured carapace with four insect legs, a long jagged tail and slime-dashed teeth clacked out of the tunnel and chittered furiously. Freyr screamed.

The Agent charged her shotgun to full power, narrowed the vector and fired at the monster. A sheet of plasma covered the front half of its body just as it began clambering up the side of the platform from the tracks. It screamed, recoiling back underneath the parapet where 595 lost sight of it.

A gurgling cry issued from the opposite tunnel; the Agent swivelled towards the new threat as it appeared on her sensory grid. Before she could complete the turn, two vines decoupled from pillars either side of the way forward and lunged at her. 595, fully dialled in behind the stubby shotgun, blew one of the vines to pieces before it gave an electronic sigh as the energy cell drained. The second vine wrapped around the gun and tried to yank it from her hands, so 595 grabbed the Rothian energy sword from her waist, flicked it on and slashed the vine in half.

The Agent shook the vine off the shotgun, then compacted it down as far as it would go and magnetised it to her chest plate. There was no time to reload now. She glanced behind her, but realised Dr Lang was no longer there.

Freyr recoiled from the terrible fascination of the creature coming for them, and stumbled off to the right, towards the middle of the platform. She fired her blaster wildly in front of her, still shouting and swearing, until another of the creatures burst from the tunnel on the opposite side of the platform. Freyr’s shout raised in pitch, and she turned tail to run back the way they’d come.

The Cradle

Keeping her shotgun poised with one arm and her eyes scanning around them, 595 unsheathed her nine inch blade and passed it back to Freyr. She then turned and gave it to Vreta’Sori. “Let's get out of here…” Dr Lang pleaded.

“We’re moving - stay close and don’t make a sound.” 595 hissed, as the train doors closed behind them and the train rattled off into another tunnel. The Agent picked a path through the maze of detritus and vines on the platform. Moving quickly, she barely made any noise at all as she headed for the stairs leading out of the subway.

Freyr by contrast, seemed incapable of being stealthy. After a few seconds, she yelped as she sent a piece of CraSec armour scraping across the floor with her foot. A guttural snarl accompanied by frenzied chittering echoed around the station. “Shit.” Freyr looked down at her feet as if to scold them personally.

“Run, now!” 595 ordered, setting off at a loping jog, hopping over clumps of vines as elegantly as one could in a suit. The sound of click-clacking rose significantly in volume from both of the tunnels on either side of the staircase. Vines began shifting and licking at their legs; 595 fired an incendiary shot across the platform, setting some of them on fire in front of them. They gave a shrill, gaseous scream.

The Cradle

“Hah. Welcome back Vreta’Sori.” 595 grunted, checking her shotgun’s charge as the train pulled into Illyria station. “Stay on my shoulder and give me hours on the clock if you see something dangerous, OK?” She looked intently at Freyr, who nodded hesitantly. 595’s sensors would pick up most things before an observant Human in this enclosed space, but it was good to keep Dr Lang busy and alert.

595 then looked at Vreta’s visor, and nodded quickly.

When the train doors rattled opened, the Institute Agent emerged first with her gun raised and scanning the immediate area. 595 moved quickly but quietly, picking a way through the discarded items littering the platform. Freyr had to pin her mouth shut to avoid shouting in surprise when the tannoy burbled to life above their heads.

“All personnel are to report to their nearest transit hub for immediate evacuation.” The pleasant female voice declared.

“Looks like they left in a hurry...” Freyr commented, carefully moving a metal briefcase out of the way with her foot.

595 knelt down quickly and picked up a discarded assault rifle from a pile of refuse. It had full charge, so the Agent stowed it on her back and pulled out her trusty pistol. She offered it to Freyr butt-first. “Aim, then fire. Remember the firing range.” Freyr looked uneasily at the gun, then reluctantly grabbed it.

A sharp click-clacking sound echoed through the station. 595 immediately turned back to the front with her shotgun raised. Her sensors showed one large bogey moving fast. It should be right on top of them… “Got something nearby - could be underneath or above us.” She snapped. “Oh gods, help us…” Freyr whimpered, raising her pistol.

The bright lights above flickered, then died. Eerie red auxiliary lights blinked on, revealing thick organic vines matting the floor, walls and ceiling that hadn’t been there before. “Oh no, oh no, oh no…” Freyr whispered, huddling close behind the Agent.

The ticking, chittering noise stopped, and so did the object on 595’s motion tracker. She gulped, her gun swaying quickly back and forth across her line of sights. Everything went silent, with only the sounds of heavy breathing over comms registering.

Halo: Aegis Team

Tar barely heard the mission details being discussed. Her ears were ringing like she’d been struck. Her own brother had betrayed the entire family with his treachery. She should have seen this coming! The warning signs had been there, now she really thought about it in this conference room, with the sound of others talking droned on in the background.

When the three of them were just children, Falx, Tar and Uztel spent many hours hunting Du’nak in the forests outside their Keep with the other younglings. Imported from Sanghelios centuries before and rewilded by accident soon after, these animals had adapted well to the cold, wet hillsides of Brissekh and grown suspicious of Sangheili again.

Operating as a pair, Tar and Falx, her older brother, had wounded and cornered a prime specimen. An adult alpha with long, broad tusks and mature back-horns resting within a muscular frame - the ultimate prize. They’d been closing in on the wounded animal after harassing and tracking it for the entire morning. Finally, they found it collapsed up against a rock formation, with dense bushes on one side and a steep drop on the other. They had it trapped.

But as they approached to strike the killer blow and claim the animal as their own, a spear flew through the undergrowth and pierced the Du’nak’s head, killing it instantly. Uztel appeared. Tar & Falx had exploded with fury as Uztel calmly collected his weapon.

“I’m sorry, siblings. I didn’t see you there! Forgive me.” He proclaimed. But Tar saw a glimmer of amusement in her brother’s eyes that day. A sadistic streak that thrived on reaping rewards for minimal personal risk. Uztel swore he had not been stalking the pair of them once he knew they had a worthy prize. Yet, Tar later found out her younger brother’s hunting partner had lost sight of him hours before the incident had happened.

Tar returned from her reverie just as the Human female dismissed them.

“No one touches my brother, except me.” Tar growled, tapping her chestplate with one fingernail as the others turned to leave. “If I fall in battle, you leave and allow Brissekh to decide Uztel’s fate. Or you find Falx and free him, if he still lives. Those are my terms.”

The Cradle

“Funnily enough, they’re a bit cagey about just giving away their building schematics. I’m working on it.” 595 grunted. Her pet cyber-weapon was investigating the government info-net which integrated with pretty much all of Outremer’s creations inside the Cradle. “The complex is belted by a park, so we can stay undercover up to a point. See if we can spot anything out of the ordinary.” She continued.

Under normal circumstances, they would’ve been able to transit straight into GCHQ like all the workers would. But the government communications centre had locked down days ago, allowing no one in or out. Even if they had been a way, after everything that was happening 595 was content to take extra precautions and approach on their own terms.

Their train rattled out of the tunnel and into the sub-level of another large building. Freyr took in long lines of civilian staff waiting patiently for their turn to use portable transit stations, under the watchful eye of private security guards.

“DeWinter will lose a no-confidence vote because of this fiasco.” 595 announced suddenly. “If we pull this off, you’ll need somewhere secure to continue your work, Dr Lang. Contact Captain Andersen; she can be trusted.” The Agent urged, flicking her eyes from the scene unfolding before them to drill into Freyr. “Do you understand me?” 595 turned her head to look at Vreta too. “You too. Both of you have to carry on living, alright?”

Freyr gulping. Her suit compensated for her shaking hands as she grabbed a support pole and slid down into a seat. “I tried to warn them, I…” Her lip wobbled, and she tried to compose herself as the view of the garage disappeared again. “Wait...are you leaving?” 595 shook her head, placing a reassuring hand on Freyr’s shoulder. “Not yet, but I may have to soon. Just for a little while. Things could get messy, but I need to know you won’t run into other life-threatening situations after this one. Either of you.” 595 looked at Vreta again, letting out a wry smile.

The Cradle

“It’s Ok.” Freyr nodded encouragingly, trying not to show how scared she was to Dr Girard as she stood alone in the small transit station. 595 hit the switch and the junior researcher deconstructed before their eyes. “Don’t worry, she’ll be fine. It’s us I worry about.” 595 admitted, tight-lipped as she motioned for both her companions to get to the train.

It was a modular design, so each of the small carriages could split off and head on different routes. A blinking neon sign showed that the front two carriages were destined for Illyria station, which the public maps showed was right outside the GCHQ complex.

They bustled aboard. 595 instructed the G5-CSF virus to attach to the train too, since it was resisting calls to fit back into the bottle from which she’d released it. The Agent covertly scanned comms once the train began whistling through a dark tunnel out of the garage. She was alarmed how little sense they made. Had the Cradle found their communications infrastructure too?

“I won’t lie to you both - something feels very wrong here. Even by our lofty standards.” 595 muttered, her visor momentarily sliding off her face so she could get some proper air. She gazed between both of them.