Cath

The Cradle

Wallace looked at Freyr while Nirann & Marae conversed. “I was sadly a bit preoccupied when we last met, so I couldn't join your party. Sorry about that.” Freyr shrugged and blushed, trying to recall the night. “That’s quite alright. I think it went a bit awry quite quickly. Our Institute attaché seemed to react quite badly to that thing you gave us.”

Wallace chuckled, looking back at Nirann and Marae. “I have something a bit softer if you’d prefer. I come from a long line of imbibers, but can exercise restraint when the situation demands! I leave it up to you.” With that, the Plenipotentiary waggled one finger and the holo of that nanobot dissolved, reforming into a control interface.

With the array floating closer to her chaise longue, Wallace grasped at an orb in the centre and moved it carefully upwards. The water on the outside of the room immediately began swirling as they rose to the surface. “Such a fun toy. I can see why everyone wants the Cradle. I’d take this over a phallic space brick any day.” She murmured. Freyr giggled, she was beginning to feel a little light headed.

After a second, the vast inky bubble of the ship’s aft section broke water, narrowly missing a pleasure yacht heading to shore. Freyr looked up and saw a few stars peeking through the clouds. “Ah! Music…” Wallace purred. Freyr followed the Plenipotentiary’s finger and saw a large stage erected on the sand, facing out onto the lake. It was quite far away, but with one small motion the orb’s lens-like surface magnified the scene many times.

A Human band of musicians stood on the stage, energetically playing an assortment of guitars, drums and keyboards. Thousands of people were listening, dancing and playing around on an interlinked flotilla of platforms, water slides and buoyant inflatable chairs. “Let's listen in, shall we?” Wallace tapped another sequence on her control panel, and sound steadily filled the room, picked up from nearly a mile away.

“Sing it back to me; this is your life story
You didn't even know it you're trying not to blow it
Because you're kicking back a death wish and here I am just riding out the storm
Believe me when I say that I want to give up
I want to give up but its bad enough to keep me hooked
Just to watch you curse my name and toss and turn”

The volume increased, sensors perfectly tuned to pick up every nuance in the sound. Several thin wisps of sweet-smelling steam sprayed into the room. Freyr began shimmying in her seat in time with the music.

“Turn around and cross the line you so casually walk between function and fashion
Are you dressed to kill or dressed to impress?
Don't act like you can do better than this.”

As the rhythm guitarist repeated the last line the lank-haired lead singer, mouth practically touching the vintage microphone, raised an arm and shouted “Sing it!”

“Let me see you put your hands upon the stereo
Its spitting out a ridiculous frequency
But turn it up turn it up
Break a sweat
Cause were just burning up and hitting up the scene that was ours to hit up
Take take me out because I'm ready for your best shot
Make make me out to be a bullet from the pulpit
Or anything that would make you believe!”

The Cradle

“Heyy, we are doing things.” Freyr pouted at Nirann, still thinking. She didn’t want this person to think they’d been sitting on their thumbs this whole time.

“I agree, Marae. We should monitor them from a distance. If they are part of a Cradle entity, they could be advanced beyond our capabilities to handle if we rush in.” She continued.

Wallace weighed them all up with her eyes individually, sucking her cheeks in around another piece of sweet pastry. Freyr began to feel a little uncomfortable again, and squirmed a little under the Plenipotentiary’s gaze.

Eventually, Wallace gulped the pastry flesh down and smiled widely. “Excellent. I think that’s all I needed to hear right now. I will speak to the Datius and my colleagues in the government. We are technically in a ‘transitional authority’, but there are a few immovable rocks who won’t be changing seats that I can connect with. As I said, you’ll likely be moved from this black site to some kind of mobile command centre. It’ll be harder for terrorists to corner you that way.

“What about the rest of my division? Not everyone was taken to the safe house.” Freyr asked. She had lost too many people already - keeping everyone together seemed like the best way to preserve life. Safety in numbers.

“I’m sure we can figure something out. I’m told that your headquarters has been evacuated, with the equipment decentralised and most personnel working from home. But if you want to bring them all, that's something we can discuss. Now…” Wallace sat up, perching elegantly on the edge of the chaise longue. “With our business concluded for now, do you want to see what's happening up on the surface?” Wallace's eyes flashed with an impish excitement.

The Cradle

“I can’t divulge all of the context yet, I'm afraid. The situation is very delicate, involving a dispute between two species. And because of the distances involved, the less information that’s sent through relays, the better.” Wallace leaned back, quickly glancing towards where the door would have been.

“But what I do know is that these things took control of comm arrays attached to this factory system and began pinging nearby systems. It says they also disrupted the early stages of a Ga’Brosh tournament on a nearish Orbital, and-”

“Hold on.” Freyr held out a hand. “A, umm…thing, did that inside the Cradle too. It found the Navigator on Rothia after it finally decoded a message carved into Rothian DNA. Took control of comm arrays, I mean.” One of Wallace’s eyebrows raised ever so slightly. “Ah… is that so?”

“Mmmhmmm. These beings have never generated matter outside of their shells before though. If they’re connected, it's a big step forward. How big are we talking?”

“I, ah..”

“Computer, add a credit card for scale.”

A physical payment chip appeared in the hologram next to the hacker bug, dwarfing it. “So they’re nanobots - intriguing…”

“Quite. That’s why I brought this to you. Is it worth investigating?”

The Cradle

“I will speak to Datius Jharn, but I wanted to get your opinion first. You are the experts my source has requested, after all, and will be able to assess whether this lead is worth investigating.” Wallace purred, clicking her fingers. “Foremost, have you ever…

Hardlight generators clicked on, hidden within the ceiling. A three dimensional hologram appeared in the space between them. Gradually, the outline of something began to appear.

“...seen this before?”

Freyr shuffled forward on her giant pillow, pulling her overlay glasses out of a pocket and popping them on her head in one clean motion. “Wowee.” She murmured, as the object gained form.

It looked like an armoured insect, with two sets of steel wings extending above its bulky carapace. Six manipulators sprouted underneath like legs, waggling in every direction. Ten light blue emitters blinked out from its flat face.

“I haven’t. Have you?” Freyr looked at the two Rothians perched next to her. After half a second she looked back at Wallace. “Where did you find this?”

“I didn’t find it. But my source sent me the imprint after these things took over fifteen orbiting factories and began making more. Bigger ones."

The Cradle

Freyr jumped in after Marae, now that one of her favourite subjects was being discussed. “These entities have had countless millennia to diverge. Their architecture may be completely different! We just don’t know yet - the Cradle doesn’t have any kind of imprint for each of these life forms that we can detect.” She smacked her lips, tasting the tea on them. “The Navigator - what the one we found on Rothia calls itself - doesn’t like to talk straight with us. Another one may be more disposed to letting us in on their secrets.”

Wallace’s icy white eyes lit up at the mention of secrets. She grinned luxuriously and looked to Nirann, still draped over the chaise longue. “I do hear whispers, now and again. Information, wafting through the ether from dark and developed corners of this galaxy alike. One particular bit of information may be of use to you.” The Plenipotentiary finished her tea and rested back on the attendant tray with a soft clink. “But fair warning, my source will not surrender this intelligence unless you do something for them first.”

Good morning :)

Welcome to the Guild! Hope you have a lovely festive period

The Cradle

Wallace laughed like a few accidentally pressed piano keys at Nirann’s comment. She nodded and ate a few small sugared nuts, listening to Marae. Freyr finished her cup of tea and realised she wanted some more. She looked over at the attendant tray, and it obediently hovered over to her.

“Well Marae, if someone had acquired a lead on where another of these Cradle creatures may have crashed, that could help.” Wallace began. “But i think the real question is what you plan to do with all these celestial voyagers if you find them?”

Freyr’s ears perked up at the mention of Cradle creatures, and she sat forward in her seat.

The Cradle

“Mmmm.” Wallace sub-vocalised indulgently, leaning back in her chaise longue. “I understand this must be very frustrating for you. Rothians have a clarity of direction going back centuries. By contrast, us Humans are tribal by design.” The Plenipotentiary gestured between herself and Freyr, who blushed lightly.

“We are all part of a rich tapestry going back thousands of millenia. A shared story that’s full of hope, yes. But also violence, deception, greed. We’ve been brought low enough times to understand the benefit to forming groups of like-minded people. But now, our civilization is spread across hundreds of objects, floating far apart in space.” Wallace took a pause to sip her tea. A finger of bright light brushed the water above their heads, from the surface. Freyr craned her neck but couldn’t see the source.

“These ancient bonds which tie our people, institutions, beliefs and ideas together are taut. Some have broken, snapped under the strain of generations apart, or the wars. Others have crystalised, and a few have evolved into something entirely new. This ‘red tape’ you see, is actually not an altogether negative sign. It shows that people are talking to others which they ordinarily wouldn’t. It is abrasive and sometimes violent right now, but I believe the unrest is symptomatic of old fractures which are finally beginning to mend. The question is whether our society will mend around the Cradle, or eject it like our own bodies might with a foreign object.”

The Cradle

“These are…special circumstances - there is no doubt. I just hope that particular appointment doesn’t get in the way of meaningful collaboration...a little bird told me that the area immediately above the Cradle has been evacuated now.” With that statement, Wallace took another polite sip of tea, little finger erect.

Freyr slurped hers too, cupping the vessel in both hands. She was pleased by the news that people were being moved to safety, but it somehow felt a long way away now. This chair was more comfortable with every passing second, and the atmosphere inside the office seemed intractably cosy.

Everyone listened in silence to Nirann as he piped up. Freyr noticed a spark of enthusiasm ignite behind Wallace’s eyes. “Now, that’s an interesting subject. What do you think their ‘ends’ are?”

Halo: Aegis Team

A Tengmaa bulb’s hide was tough for a reason - all of the plant’s digestive and nervous capacity was contained within that control centre. However, the plant’s evolutionary pathway evidently hadn’t prepared for a barrage of radiation, explosives and bullets. So when the bulb’s vulnerable innards were exposed under the water and promptly cut to shreds, the Tengmaa quickly lost control of its numerous appendages.

The first to go limp were the half dozen thick trunks which stretched all the way out into the sunlight, gradually tapering at the end. Next were the serpentine manipular vines coating every surface of the cave interior. Then, with nothing left to distract the invaders, the throbbing cilia inside the pool trap promptly died.

And with that, the Tengmaa bulb unmoored from the position it had held over the cave’s onward descent for decades. First came a sickly snapping noise as the struts supporting it detached. Then, with a sound like a giant toilet flushing, it disappeared into the large hole on which it had previously been sitting. This was how it had filtered waste water out of the chamber to stop it flooding before.

The water rushed over the rocks, disappearing down the waste chute after the bulb. The chamber was filled with this roaring sound for a while. This new opening also helped disperse some of the toxic particles from the room, though Tar still choked uncontrollably as she struggled to her feet and surveyed the area. Water was pouring in from the opening above their head and another gap along the wall from them (the other cave opening, most likely). It wasn’t enough to refill the bowl below them though, so it quickly emptied until just a few carcasses lodged in place remained.

Fanning her mandibles with one hand, Tar got up, walked to the edge and wordlessly jumped down into the barren bowl. Her energy sword’s pommel had fortunately gotten stuck in a crevice and hadn’t washed away, so she carefully picked it up. Looking up toward the ceiling and coughing lightly, Tar returned her lost sword to its mount on her back, with the other one.

She pointed upward, to the feeble shaft of light shining down on her from above. “I see the way up the mountain! I remember now - it is an invigorating climb.”