EliteCommander

The Cradle

Vreta growled under his breath as he looked down upon the Agent. “How to best put this...screw your protocol, you need help. These are exceptional circumstances, and exceptional circumstances require adaptation.”

“Wait here.” Vreta remarked to Freyr beside him before jumping over the railing back down to the ground floor. As his feet touched the ground, however, there was another pair of Humans that appeared from the same entrance they had used. Regardless of how familiar they seemed to be to the Agent, Vreta was immediately suspicious. Where had they been before, when they were outside? And how did they get past the massive creature outdoors without being seen? Freyr had broadcasted on comms multiple times to try and make contact with anyone at the headquarters, granted, but then again, why had they not answered? Vreta was not sure what it meant, but he was on his guard. For now, the Agent’s health was a more pressing concern. He eyed the new Humans cautiously, but let the Agent handle speaking to them.

“Look, Agent, just send me your suit’s logs. If the poison is even vaguely recognizable, I should be able to at least reduce its effects to something manageable.” Vreta insisted.

The Cradle

Once Vreta ensured that Freyr was securely up on the second floor, Vreta leaned over the guard rail and looked down on the Agent below. The only injury he had seen her take was a piercing strike through her leg. While traumatic to the muscle tissue in the area, that was not the kind of injury he would expect to send her into a coughing fit. Granted, they had been through multiple fights, and he had not been watching her the entire time.

“What kind of injuries have you sustained?” Vreta asked. “Maybe my field kit can help you? Your suit has medical systems, yes? If you have your suit send a report to me, I might be able to program a nanomachine injection to help you.” He suggested. Medical nanomachines had pre-loaded programs to deal with common battlefield injuries for Rothian physiology, but if she knew the problem, Rhia could likely custom write a program to help the Agent.

The Cradle

As the others joined Vreta in the lobby, he had a moment of concern for Rhia. She had not given him any alerts, but he could notice when she was less present than usual. Not to mention the fact that he could “feel” her mind, in a sense. He could not feel her exact thoughts unless she shared them intentionally, but he always had a sense of her mood in the back of his mind. Rhia, talk to me. I can tell something’s going on. Vreta thought.

I’m fine. Right now, at least. Rhia answered. I think we’re being scanned in some way, or I am. There is something peering into my memory, I think. There was something that came to my mind, and I couldn’t seem to stop it.

Vreta hummed in thought. What she described was familiar to him, though he was not yet sure of what the implications of it were. The Entity on Rothia had that capability, so it could be indicative of the being integrating with the Cradle. Unfortunately, they just did not have enough information to know.

While he was curious if the others were experiencing the same thing, they had no choice but to keep moving. “I don’t have the blueprints to this place, so you will have to be the one to guide us.” He commented. Vreta took a moment to press one hand against one of the thick spikes jutting out at an angle from the ground to check its strength, then took a step back to get a running start. Sprinting forward, he ran up the side of the spike for a moment, then used it as an elevated point to leap up to the second floor above them. From there, he turned back around to help up the others behind him. “We should try to stick to the high ground as we move, though.” He recommended.

Halo: Aegis Team

Vael 'Virisusai

---

With the speed of Covenant slipspace borers, it took only a few hours for their ship to reach their destination. Although, they dropped out of slipspace at the far edge of the solar system to link up with the rest of the fleet to make sure they remained out of sensor range. The rest of the Swords of Sanghelios fleet was modest in size, consisting of ships ranging in size from the small, nimble Man O’ War, up to the CCS-class Battlecruisers that had once made up the backbone of the Covenant navy. From that, only a part of the fleet would be moving in to create the diversion, while the rest would stay back in reserve as reinforcements.

If all went to plan, the Magnificent Defiance would be landing, undetected, in a remote location directly on the planet’s surface. A pair of phantoms would take them about halfway to the keep from there, but they could not approach completely by air if they wanted to avoid detection. They would have four Type-46 Spectre vehicles to bring them the rest of the way in a reasonable time.

Vael was among the first in the hangar from Aegis team. He stood waiting beneath one of the phantoms, watching as the spectres were being attached underneath. Since the Forerunner equipment was available, Vael had decided to replace his plasma rifle with a boltshot pistol. If all went to plan, they would not see much combat in the first part of the mission, so the limited ammunition would be less of a concern, while the additional power and ability to disintegrate corpses would be more useful. Once they disabled the anti-air cannon, they would be returning to the ship, so there would be an opportunity to change his loadout before the main assault.

The Cradle

Without hesitating, Vreta switched on his plasma sword and got to work widening the hole that 595 pointed out. If he made it just large enough for himself, then the other two would be able to fit through easily. Fortunately, whatever material it was constructed from was not one that could resist his blade’s intensity. Their suits could handle residual heat from the plasma, so Vreta led the way by crawling through the opening himself.

On the other side, Vreta was not sure what to make of what he could see even before making it all the way back up to his feet. The lobby seemed like it was normally quite an open space, but it was now cluttered with all sorts of strange constructions. Spikes, barriers, and other obstacles oriented in seemingly random directions. It was chaotic, yet they all looked like they were part of the building itself. Vreta saw no bodies, though there were a few pools of an odd sludge that he spotted in a few places.

---

The agent approached the door, pulling a small breaching charge from a compartment on her armor that was, fortunately, still intact. The explosive attached readily to the door, then calibrated itself based on the size and detected material composition of the surface. She took a few steps back, weapon raised, then remotely triggered the charge.

While the door was reinforced, it still had little chance of holding up to the strength of the detonation. It immediately opened up a hole large enough for her to crouch through, though she started shooting first. The only light in the entire ship came from the agent’s suit, but her AI still identified multiple targets through the smoke. This was one rare time that these aliens were not immediately ready for her, as they had not been able to sense her through the door, so she was able to get shots on two of them through the smoke before they started returning fire.

As the agent did not have time for a methodical approach, she rushed through the breach as quickly as she could. The smoke did nothing to obscure her from her opponents, but moving quickly at least made it more difficult for them to target her accurately. In the larger, more open space of the engine room, she could maneuver more freely, though she took care to stay clear of the consoles that controlled the engines. She would need those soon enough. Neither the agent nor AI could readily identify which of the aliens were soldiers and which were simply crew of the ship, but all were armed, and all were firing on her without hesitation, so she was not sure that the distinction even mattered.

While the sounds of gunfire were deafening and the bullets came in rapidly, the kinetic force did not drain the agent’s shields too quickly, so she kept her focus and simply moved from one target to the next as her AI identified them. She took down the ones on the scaffolding above first, then moved on to the ones on her level. No matter how many she killed, nor how little obvious progress they seemed to make on her, at no point did the aliens show any signs of fear. They did not hesitate, and did not stop fighting until the very last was killed. The Rothians had not yet had a chance to perform much of a cultural study on these beings, so she was not sure what drove them to fight with such fervor.

Once the engine room was clear, the agent wasted no time. The enemy had not had a chance to fortify the engine room before she arrived, but reinforcements would certainly be incoming. Hopefully, they could complete their task before they arrived. The completely touch-based interface of the console was difficult for a Rothian to navigate, but fortunately, they had been able to fully decipher the aliens’ computer systems from previous engagements, so her AI could directly interface with their systems. The asteroid was already on-course for the colony, so simply disabling the engines would not be sufficient. They had to burn the engines on a new vector to redirect it away from a collision course.

After a few moments, the constant hum of the engines around them grew louder and harsher. “Okay, I’ve got the engines steadily changing the course. It looks like we made it in time; as long as we hold this room, it looks like we can pull the asteroid into a near-miss. Reinforcements are coming, so I would say you should…wait.”

“Uh, wait on what? What is it?”

The agent could feel the AI uploading more and more programs into the ship’s systems. “These fanatics set their ship’s self-destruct. If the ship blows before we can redirect the asteroid, nothing will stop it.”

The agent paced back and forth for a few moments in front of the console. “Okay…okay, what are our options? What’s the timeframe looking like? Can I get somewhere to disable it?”

“Negative, not without capturing the bridge on the other side of the ship. I have access to power systems, which is part of the self-destruct process, so I can delay if I’m in the system. For a while. You have to guard this room, though. If they damage the engines, it won’t matter.” The AI explained.

“Okay…so guard the engine room while you run interference on the self-destruct. What kind of timeframe are we looking at to evacuate the ship?” The agent asked. However, seconds passed with only silence from the AI. “Answer me, Sharah.”

“Your suit’s comm system is intact. I’ve made a connection with a receiver on the planet with enough bandwidth to transfer your mind.” The AI answered, her tone cold, but steady.

“My mind…no, no, no, no way. We’re both getting out of here, Sharah. I’m not leaving until…”

“Rhia!” The AI interjected, loudly and firmly. “The timing is going to be too close as it is. There just isn’t going to be enough time. I have to keep the self-destruct delayed until the asteroid has been redirected. You can stay behind and die pointlessly if you want, or you can get your consciousness out of here. Either way, I’m not getting out of this one. I’m sorry, Rhia.”

Rhia growled in anger, still trying to find some excuse to change the plan. “How do you even know I can upload? I haven’t been given final approval for full integration. My consciousness may still be tethered to my organic brain.”

“Come on Rhia, you know final approval is essentially a formality. No one who has come as far as you has ever failed it. You’re ready, and you can get out of this. I know you’ll miss me in Eternity, but…it’s me, or all the people down there. You know as well as I that’s not a choice, but you can keep going for me.”

Rhia growled and felt like putting her fist through the console in front of her, but regardless of what she felt, she knew Sharah was right. After a moment to catch her breath, she focused her gaze on the doors, then got to work fortifying her position.

---

Rhia wanted to say more, to have more of a chance for final words with her friend, but there was simply no opportunity. The enemy soon was upon them in force, and they both had their jobs to do. Rhia had Sharah’s help at first with targeting and spotting, but the more time passed, the harder it was for her to delay the self-destruct. Every second that passed had more of Sharah being put into the ship, and Rhia becoming more and more alone in her mind. Rhia fought back wave after wave, going through explosive traps, exploiting environmental hazards, and eventually running through the entire power source of her pistol to keep the engines protected. She resorted to picking up weapons from the fallen, or even her own claws when the enemy came close enough.

Sharah had given her a timer, past which it was safe for her to evacuate. When it ticked over to zero, she fell back behind the consoles and dropped into cover. Sharah was no longer monitoring her health, so she had reopen multiple wounds, and her abdomen was once again covered in blood. Her body, however, no longer concerned her. For the first time in years, her mind felt empty. Ever since she and Sharah had been joined, they had been a constant presence to one another. They shared their mind and body to become as one. Slowly and steadily, Sharah had helped Rhia’s mind to learn to use the implants in her body as if they were a part of her own brain. It was not a natural thing for an organic brain to learn, but as the Rothians had discovered, it was certainly possible. Now, piece by piece, Rhia’s consciousness was moving from organic neurons to synthetic ones. Memories, thought patterns, subconscious instincts, all leaving their original home to claim a new one. The one Sharah had left vacant for her. Rhia was surprised at how…easy it all was. After years of acclimating, it simply felt natural. Activating the program for her suit to access the receiver on the planet’s surface took only a thought.

Rhia took one final breath into her own lungs before raising up her head to speak one more word: “Goodbye.” The connection was made and her body slumped over, a shell inhabited by no mind.

The Cradle

For the first moments as Vreta was crossing the grass towards the side entrance, Rhia’s mind was still caught in a moment centuries past.

Normally, the agent would have taken a more subtle approach to reach her goal, but one advantage these aliens did have was how exceptionally aware they were of their surroundings. Ironically, they were completely blind, given their lack of eyes, but the hard, plated organ on their heads emitted an exceptionally refined version of echolocation. They seemed to be able to make a mental map of their surroundings, and anyone in it, even out of a normal line of sight. The design of their ship’s hallways allowed sound to propagate even further, so stealth seemed out of the question for her.

As she neared the engine room, she saw two weapons suddenly appear from around the corner from two branching paths on opposite sides of the hallways. The aliens holding them barely exposed themselves and started firing, accurately, the moment their weapons came into view. They were projectile weapons, though, so the burst of bullets bounced off of her shields with only some damage to their integrity. The agent leaned heavily on AI assistance for her targeting. Taking a few shots with her pistol, she severed the arm of one of the aliens at the shoulder, and destroyed the weapon of the other. The uninjured one ducked back around the corner until the agent moved closer, then tried to rush out and surprise her with a jagged knife, only to be met with an energy bolt through its forehead. The second was still writhing in pain, but nevertheless tried to reach with its other arm towards the weapon on the ground. Had it not, the agent might have left it alone, but as it stood, it was a simple matter for her to point her pistol over with one hand and almost casually execute it as she walked past.

“There is no hiding from these people.” The agent remarked. “If they had better weapons, they would have killed me three times over by now.”

The AI in her head was already analyzing and comparing observations from this encounter with all the rest. “Their echolocation is remarkably effective. It may be worth some study, honestly.”

In any case, both of them quieted down as the agent finally reached the door to the engine room. If they could take over the engines, then they would hopefully be able to divert the asteroid.

Vreta was surprised that Rhia had not alerted him to the presence of this…creature. His echolocation implants would certainly have been able to detect something of that size. At this point, he wished Void Company was with them. They would have the firepower to deal with something like this. In any case, it did not change their plan. If anything, it made their plan more urgent. “Come on, let’s just get inside. I’ll cut our way in if we have to. Do we still have control of those turrets? If it is aggressive, maybe we can turn them on it?”

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

“You have not truly needed me for a long time.” Meesei answered softly. “Regardless of the power I have wielded, you can lead better than I ever have, Fendros. By your guidance, your pack, and our people, will thrive. Of that, I have no doubt.”

No matter how confident she wanted to be, Meesei still had a hard time facing Sabine in this moment. This pain was nothing she could have ever prepared herself for, and it would be even greater for Sabine. Silently at first, Meesei reached through the bars and took hold of Sabine’s hand as she was trying to search through her bag. She did try to smile, but even Meesei could not hold back her tears. “Sabine, you are…everything to me. You are everything I hoped…no, I knew you would become. I was not sure how to feel about all the pressure I know I put on you as my apprentice. I still…regret it, in ways. I still wish you could have lived for yourself and your own happiness, rather than taking up my legacy. But, you have succeeded in every way I could have dreamed. Not just as a mage, but in who you are. I could not be more proud of you, and I am happy to know that I could clear the way for you to finally live the life you deserve.”

The Cradle

There was no mistaking that she recognized this virus at this point. They had learned some of its patterns from what Vreta recovered. While she would have liked to have learned more now, it was all she could do to focus through the memories being conjured up in her mind. Once the virus was in the system, Rhia prompted Vreta to give acknowledgement to 595 while she accessed the turrets. After a moment, the turrets turned to face the rear, and after taking in a deep breath, Vreta took the lead to advance on the entrance.

The memories surged forward to the front of Rhia’s mind for just a moment. The agent was running through the halls of the ship towards the engine room at a steadily slowing pace. If her AI could access the computers there directly, they could hijack the engines and redirect the asteroid they were towing.

“Agent, you need to stop and give yourself immediate treatment.” The AI commanded firmly.

The agent, however, was quick to shrug off the suggestion. “We do not have time for that. Everyone on that planet will die if we don’t stop this thing. That’s more important than some pain and blood loss.”

“Agreed, but right now you have a 73% chance of dropping dead before we even get to the engine room. A piece of shrapnel is currently pressing up against your femoral artery. It needs to be removed now.”

The Agent growled. “Have the suit’s medical systems handle it.”

“This shrapnel is from the medical systems.” She remarked. Strictly speaking, that was a lie, but it did drive home the point of how much damage her suit had sustained in the explosion.

While she continued to growl about it the whole time, the agent did eventually find a corner to duck into to start her field treatment. She leaned back up against the wall, then, with some effort, pried off the damaged plating covering her abdomen and upper right thigh. The state of what she could see underneath was…not encouraging. Although the coagulants had staunched the bleeding for now, her scales were still covered in blood, and she could see dozens of marks where shrapnel had pierced into her body. The cocktail of healing agents flowing through her veins had closed shut most of the lacerations, but the shrapnel itself was still lodged in her body.”

Grabbing her multitool, the agent revealed a small, precise blade that, under her AI’s guidance, she used to make an incision on her upper thigh to reopen one of the wounds. The painkillers kept her from experiencing the pain, so she still at least had a steady hand. Granted, her AI was the one doing most of the movements. The agent herself was not qualified for this operation, but with small stimulations to her muscles, the AI could guide her hand. She activated another part of the multitool that could grab hold of the metal shards, then pushed it slowly into the wound.

“Those bastards took out a whole company of their own soldiers with that explosion, just for me.” The agent remarked, mostly just to keep her mind off of the impromptu surgery while her AI did the work.

“They are unusually resolute.” The AI remarked. “They underestimated us in their first attacks, but most opponents would capitulate once they realized the technological superiority of their foe. They seemed determined to win a total war at all costs.”

After another few moments, she slowly guided the tool out of the incision, along with the jagged piece of metal that had been threatening her. Without wasting any more time, the agent pulled herself back up to her feet. “Well, the Rahn’Saki can decide what to do with them after this is over. For now, let’s just stop this rock.”

The Cradle

As much as she tried to focus on the task at hand, Rhia found a memory inexplicably being brought to the surface. An armored Rothian ran through the halls of the strange, alien ship. As opposed to the smooth contours of a Rothian vessel, this ship’s design was dominated by sharp angles and unpainted metal. It was meant to be efficient, practical, though its technology was primitive compared to Rothian designs. Still, this primitive warship was a very real threat to the Rothian border colony it was advancing towards. These aliens had attempted and failed attacks against larger Rothian worlds, so a small colony would have to do to sate their bloodlust. The ship was towing an asteroid, and this colony did not have the defenses in place needed to protect from it. Reinforcements were too far out, so it had to be stopped, here and now.

The AI was doing her best to treat her agent’s wounds, though her options were limited. She had effective coagulants to keep her from bleeding out, and a cocktail of other drugs to encourage healing, but there was shrapnel spread all throughout her abdominal cavity. She could keep her going for now, but the odds of death were worryingly high without surgery. Her armor’s medical systems would be insufficient to deal with it, particularly since the armor itself was heavily damaged in the explosion. She wished the agent was equipped with the prototype medical nanomachines that were being trialed. Even with the bugs that were being reported, the AI would have liked to have some options at the moment.

In the present, Rhia brought herself to focus on Agent 595’s virus. Even at first glance, Rhia was unsettled by what she could detect of its design. Data from the event that led to her melding with Vreta’s mind made it seem…familiar. Regardless, their objective was more pressing than those concerns. Vreta acknowledged 595, while Rhia worked to help guide this virus.

“Let’s see if we can make sure those turrets haven’t been programmed to target us. And just to be safe, let’s try to rotate them around so they aren’t facing us. If this is a trap, that would mean they would have to traverse all the way back around to target us. It would give us time to react.” Vreta recommended.

The Cradle

Vreta certainly agreed with keeping out-of-sight on approach. He kept low, constantly pinging their surroundings to watch out for movement while his eyes scanned the entrance itself. The defensive systems were a concern, especially as 595 was receiving no response through comms. It could simply be that there was interference, or their communications were offline, but Vreta did not want to approach under the assumption that the headquarters’ systems were still under their control.

Already, Rhia started poking around through any wireless access port she could find in range to see if she could breach into the local network, while Vreta leaned in close and whispered over to the Agent. “I don’t like this. If we don’t have control of the headquarters anymore, then we don’t know who those guns are targeting. I don’t suppose your organization has any backdoors into their network, do you?”