Cath

The Cradle

595 got up, then encouraged Freyr to her feet. “C’mon, we’ve gotta go.” A sound like whispering long grass wafted across the parks.

Turning her head, the Agent saw an MRAP burst out into the open from the forest of skyscrapers ringing the park and GCHQ. The truck careered off the main road as the turret fired bright bolts of energy at something chasing it. It churned up a few footpaths when it crossed the park, demolished a lamp post before flying off a raised bank into a public swimming pool a couple of hundred metres away. The plasma turret ceased firing.

“Keep your head down - let's move.” 595 urged, pushing the scientist in front of her while she covered the rear, assault weapon in one hand.

They crossed the road in a tight group. Silence resumed, after the short interruption. Freyr watched the turrets above - they twitched, but didn’t turn back around. “GCHQ, do you read me? We’re coming up to the side entrance. Can you see us?”

The hole in the alloy barriers sewed together slightly as they approached. Freyr watched keenly as the deep rents along the surface began to smooth over. “It’s self-repairing. See if you can get the virus to redo the damage maybe? Might be easier than getting the whole barrier to deconstruct.” She offered.

“Better make that quick. We have company.” 595 announced gravely, facing the parklands. Freyr turned from the wall, and followed the Agent’s outstretched finger. She gasped when she realised that the thing 595 was pointing at wasn’t part of the skyscraper next to it.

It was a large, pale yellow eye, sunken into a dark fleshy eye socket and faintly illuminating the otherwise black surroundings. It looked to be staring at the foundering MRAP, or something nearby. Freyr made out half of a jagged, gaping maw below the eye - that was faintly lit too. Under that, she noticed a clawed hand gripping the side of the building that it peeked out from behind. It was scarred with the same pale yellow phosphorescence as the face.

“Fuck me, It must be five stories tall.” 595 shook her head incredulously, an edge of fear creeping in her voice. Freyr couldn’t help her fascination. “Wow...I have never seen so much matter...organised into an amalgam like that.”

The eye moved slightly, to gaze right at them. “Uh oh.” Freyr breathed.

The Cradle

“A fine plan. Let's see what we can do.” 595 purred, then clicked with her tongue as though sicking an attack dog.

The Agent’s companion virus had gained control of the office where the ambush took place in a matter of seconds. But the nature of that building meant there wasn’t much it could do to help. GCHQ by contrast, presented concentric closed-off layers of security, guarded by machine-learning antivirus and Human controllers. If their ragtag band had tried this maneuver yesterday, they’d have been mobbed by soldiers two minutes into the hack attempt, nevermind shut out of the system.

Yet no soldiers appeared as the virus latched onto the door control system. 595 made sure both Vreta and herself had a ‘hand up its ass’, as she liked to call it. From there, they could give the virus instructions and gain real-time information about the environment they would soon be entering.

The virus sniffed the exterior of the system from its toehold in the door control panel, and excitedly identified a slender gap in GCHQ’s defences surrounding the entrance. “That shouldn’t be there...Doesn’t look like we’re the first to try this.” 595 murmured, studying the graphs her virus was painting for them. “Looks like we’ll be able to control the turrets for a short period. Do you want to do the honours?”

“GCHQ, can you respond please? We need to get inside.” Freyr asked over comms. Just static again.

The Cradle

Normally, 595 would’ve chuckled. But her throat was starting to hurt, so she tried to restrain her amusement. “Are you asking me to penetrate the headquarters of the most advanced intelligence and cybersecurity agency in the Diaspora? A building channelling so much processing power from the Cradle that it makes its real-world equivalent look like one giant cipher wheel for children?” The Agent did chuckle, and it ended in a throaty cough. “Ok, no problem. I do have a trick or two up my sleeve.”

A memory flashed into 595’s head. She was pushing 127 ahead of her, pistol in hand. He was wearing that distinctive black bag with gold thread over his head, and his hands were cuffed together behind his back. Two distracted embassy soldiers turned and confronted them in the hallway - who was that, where were they taking the him, they asked. They needed to see some identification. Connie and Gene, the Novices walking on either side of the new Agent, raised their weapons and opened fire on full-auto.

595 gently bounced her head off the grassy ridge in front of her, blinking and clearing her throat. “Ok. Let's go.” The G5 CSF virus had been clinging harmlessly to her suit and neighbouring systems since she unleashed it back in the tower block. At the Agent’s instruction, it skittered across the road towards the entrance. Sniffing every available access point to determine a viable entrance strategy as it went. “I may have just planted a virus. You should be able to see it - we can guide it together.” 595 coughed.

The Cradle

GCHQ

Freyr didn’t know how to react to things anymore. She’d been scared out of her mind so much in the last 24 hours that she felt her consciousness receding into a mental stronghold. The voice that emerged from her lips was merely a servant, a useful shade to deploy in critical moments.

She felt bad for the two people with her, as she was in essence dragging them on what could be a suicide mission. But Freyr knew enough about the Cradle to suspect that this power surge may never end. The horrors unleashed from the depths of the simulation may be here to stay, which meant New Antioch may continue on this road to ruin for a long time. Perhaps forever, if the Object figured out some way to eject them completely...

This could be her last chance to talk to the entities in charge, on her own terms. She had to get answers. At any rate, she allowed Vreta to pull her along by the hand.

595 brought up the rear, switching weapons to cross the park. She hobbled over the grass with her new assault rifle swivelling from side to side. The lights dimly illuminating the pathways flickered as they approached. Her breath rattled in her chest. In…Out...In...Out.

“Foreign contaminants in your bloodstream are resisting standard antibiotics. Strongly recommend visiting GCHQ infirmary for resupply.” Her suit informed her. “Copy that.” The Agent rasped.

The bushes around them rustled in the breeze as they crossed the patchily lit parks. Apart from that, the Cradle was deafeningly quiet. Freyr could smell freshly cut grass through her suit. She’d had smells disabled for the entire trip through the subway, for obvious reasons.

After a tense couple of minutes, the team reached a grassy bank that bordered the roads ringing GCHQ’s side entrance. 595 encouraged everyone to lie down with her, so they could survey the area without drawing attention. She could see that the glass swing doors had been reinforced with thick metal barriers.

“Look.” 595 whispered, marking a small hole that had been prised open near the edge of the entrance. The barriers had sustained heavy damage, with deep rents from massive claws along the entire face.

The Agent then marked two hidden auto-turrets high above the entrance. They were models adapted from Navy ships; designed to repel boarding craft. They still appeared operational, turning slowly this way and that. She then noticed that the road outside the entrance was a mess of blood and gunge.

“GCHQ, this is...um...Tangier One. Can you hear me?” Freyr asked over open comms. A low synthetic burbling responded, but nothing else.

The Cradle

“Yes! Where are they? Hey! Answer me!” Freyr pleaded, standing still on the steps, switching her comms to private. She didn’t want the others to hear her like this. The voice didn’t respond, and the vision of her husband subsided.

Even if 595 had recognised her charge’s distress inside her suit, now was definitely not the time to have her elaborate. She pushed the scientist forward again, continually looking back down the stairs. Lots of slimy shapes were surging into the subway.

Despite her emotions, Freyr gasped when she emerged from the mouth of the stairway and looked upwards. She switched back to team comms. “Woah! That’s new...” The skeins of purple light crisscrossing the sim ceiling above were pulsing 24% brighter than previous records, her suit informed her. This bathed the low, circular shape of GCHQ and the surrounding parks in sickly purple twilight. Freyr wondered if this was a sign of the Object assuming direct control over the Cradle.

Vreta’s questioning woke Freyr from her reverie “Oh, ummmm…Let me think...”.

“Anywhere but here, please.” 595 interjected, her back nearly touching Freyr’s. A dozen smaller versions of the monsters they’d just killed were congregating around the eviscerated corpses and chittering angrily. The Agent pointed her shotgun down the stairs, ready to shoot.

“Ok! Erm...one of the Ops Centres i suppose. I was hoping CraSec would take us right there. I think that's a side entrance over there.” Freyr pointed to a brightly lit gateway between four pillars. “That’s good enough for me, lets get a move on!” 595 urged.

Halo: Aegis Team

There was no time to waste for any of the crew aboard the Magnificent Defiance. So normal activity quickly resumed once Tar had removed herself from the situation, with dozens of orderlies and droids transporting cargo to be stowed in the various holds.

Unfortunately, Tar was intent on striding right through their operating space as she brooded on the task at hand and the unexpected help she was receiving. Some of it welcome, some of it not. Suddenly, a platform containing tightly bound crates whooshed down the ramp of a Pelican to be collected by one of the automated hangar grabbers.

It appeared on one side of Tar’s peripheral vision and she quickly turned to face it. She seized the platform in mid-swing and transferred the energy through her stance, tipped it over and away from her. The servos whined as the platform attempted to right itself, but Tar offered no apology. She carried on through to the armoury, deep in thought.

There weren’t many alternatives to murdering Uztel, if she got her hands on him. If by some miracle she could convince the Keep to recognise her as rightful successor while he still lived, she could banish him from Brissekh. But there was always the chance he could plot her death from afar. That wouldn’t do at all!

Tar stalked into the armoury with potential plans and speeches circulating in her head. Her blades will have been packed up and sent to her quarters along with her other effects. She’d need to go and get those before deployment. An armourer on the ship she’d travelled with Silent Shadow on had developed a special mount for both handles on the small of her back, which meant she could carry more weapons and gear in the field.

Tar made the most of it, clipping four Spike Grenades to her belly. After pondering it for a little while, she followed up by stowing a Carbine and a Storm Rifle on her back and a Mauler on each thigh. She stared longingly at some of the ammo vests on display, but none would fit around her torso and armour. She also watched some of the other UNSC troops attaching front holsters to their chests. The Humans had inferior armour, but their ingenuity and resourcefulness was still impressive.

Her attention was diverted by Aegis team’s leader talking to one of the machines. Some interesting objects caught her eye in the crate they were examining. She walked over. “Forerunner weapons?” She asked. She didn’t know much about them.

The Cradle

595’s suit sent an enhanced ping through the subway, and her motion tracker blew up with objects. All converging on their location from the four tunnel openings. “I see them. Get going, now!” She snapped, pushing Freyr up the steps ahead of her. She grasped the shotgun magnetised to her chestplate and pulled it away from her - it expanded out again into a combat ready state.

With a steady hand, she flicked the spent battery out from underneath the weapon. The sound of it clattering down the stairs echoed around the now-peaceful subway station.However, simmering beyond the border of regular hearing she could just about detect more chittering and the click-clack of legs. Breathing deeply and evenly, 595 pulled another energy cell away from her armour and clicked it into the shotgun’s battery housing.

A sharp pain from her leg made 595 hiss. She could feel her suit performing emergency surgery on her thigh to stop the bleeding and maximise operational effectiveness. The Agent was starting to feel weird, like when they had been inside the Navigator the second time around. She blinked heavily multiple times to try and clear her head.

595 glanced behind and below her at the subway station entrance. Superimposed on her view, the image of two novitiates looking at her against the backdrop of Interceptor troop bay flickered into being. She recognised them immediately.”Such...violence, in our name. Who knows what you’ll do next.” A hoarse whisper wrapped around her mind.

Freyr faltered on the steps as the shimmering impression of David appeared in front of her, leaning in for their first kiss at one of the university fundraisers they both attended. Freyr felt the hair on top of his head between her fingers as her eyes closed. “Would you really sacrifice yourself, to save someone you loved?” A voice murmured.

A different voice appeared in Vreta’s mind, speaking as a native Rothian would. “I have lived long enough to know that all things come to an end. Have you?”

The Cradle

“I can’t get free, I’m gonna need to angle it.” Freyr looked up at the Agent with wide eyes, still holding the leg.

“Just fucking get it out, I don’t care ho-“ 595 yelled against gritted teeth as Freyr moved the leg from side to side while pulling hard. The Agent glanced over at Vreta as he succeeded in cutting the male creature in half. A giant spray of ichor coated his armour. At least that was one less thing to worry about. She groaned again as Freyr twisted the spike, then looked down as with a squelch it came free.

“I got it!” Freyr announced, pleased with her handiwork. She dumped the twitching leg onto the floor. “Thanks.” 595 grunted, checking the wound. Where the spike had pierced her armour, she could see a slick black underlayer creeping over her skin to close it off again. She instructed her suit to clean the wound and stitch her thigh back together as best it could.

“About time.” 595 tapped her wrist while looking at Vreta. “We’ve well and truly missed our window now.”

“We have to keep going. The entity may still be contactable.” Freyr asserted, surprising even herself. More than half of her being wanted to get as far away from the Cradle as possible. It just so happened that the smaller half was the half that mattered.

Halo: Aegis Team

Tar snarled, reflexively flaring her mandibles to show the Human her teeth. This one seemed like he was trying to provoke her. She raised Flint a bit higher, and balled up her free hand into a fist. Then, she heard Yalu clear his throat and speak to her from nearby.

She turned her head slightly to listen as he appealed to reason. Unfortunately, he did make sense. Tar didn’t particularly like that the UNSC was so heavily involved in this very sensitive mission for her. But, the Human warriors around them were preparing to potentially sacrifice everything to help. She didn’t want to spit on their commitment, for one single Human.

A shout in the background triggered Tar’s hearing. She looked around at the hangar, and noticed a fair few eyes on them. “Put him down!” Another Human yelled anonymously from the throng. The Commando hummed, looking back at Flint. “Tread lightly, Human.” She warned, before dropping him from nearly a metre up in the air. "Commander." She grunted, inclining her head by a fraction of an inch by way of an apology.

With that, Tar turned back towards the armoury and stalked away. A Human pushing a trolley of cargo stopped to let her pass.

The Cradle

Grabbing hold of Freyr’s hand, 595 pulled herself up and immediately yelled out in pain as the female’s leg moved with her. Looking down, she saw that the sharp hooked end was still embedded in her flesh. The Agent glanced up at the brawl unfolding; she couldn’t help right away, but she held something that could.

“Hot on your left, catch!” 595 called, underarm flicking the activated energy sword through the air towards the Rothian. It was a good throw - left unattended her suit projected it would spin clean through the slugging match. Plenty of opportunity to be creative with it. A stream of energy bolts preceded the sword from Freyr’s pistol, melting into the beast’s battered carapace and splashing off Vreta’s shields.

“Quick. Hold the leg.” 595 pointed, holding onto the bottom of the handrail heading up the stairs to steady herself. Freyr nodded as her pistol powered down, stepping hastily over the twitching corpse to get in a better position. 595 gritted her teeth when the scientist held the leg taut, then pulled. Pain.

The male creature, meanwhile, screeched and recoiled under the blows to various parts of its body. It surged forward, thrusting its front legs at the big lizard, then backed up to try and escape. The pillar it was up against seemed to disagree; it groaned and dust fell from the ceiling. The creature’s long tail wrapped around Vreta’s right leg and pulled hard.