EliteCommander

The Cradle

Vreta seemed to be struggling almost as much as the rest of them. He saw memories around him more and more clearly, even as Rhia was trying to run interference. Though, she was having to try to interfere for both him, and herself. The memory he did see as he was starting to stagger around disturbed him in more ways than one. He could not trust Connie or Gene, that much was clear, though their minds seemed to be affected just as much as everyone else. There was far more to worry about than their Human companions.

Rhia had to struggle to keep mental control for just a bit longer. She gave up on controlling motor functions, causing Vreta to stumble. While she still had influence, she did the best she could to hedge against what could possibly happen, scattering specific neural markers throughout Vreta’s hippocampus, as well as rapidly writing specific programs for his nanites. Ultimately, though, Rhia could only delay in the short term. He was the last to start to fall, but he knew it was inevitable. Staring straight ahead, he could feel that…something, that presence, permeating everything. “What…do you want?” He asked, though it was the last he said before losing consciousness.

---

Vreta was lying on his back when he opened his eyes. Immediately, he took in a long, deep breath. The air, though thin, was crisp and clean. His body felt light, and all of it was familiar, especially once he cast his gaze up to the sky and saw the swirling, colorful clouds of Throssai. He was on Syr’Jakra, up on the mountain overlooking the vast valley that contained his hometown.

Halo: Aegis Team

Vael 'Virisusai, Mdalak State, Brissekh

---

For Aegis team, they simply needed to board the phantoms to be ready for the mission, though for them to even make it to the ground to begin with relied upon the skill and planning of the ship’s crew, and the rest of the fleet. After about another half hour, the rest of the fleet made their advance under the cover of stealth. They approached the planet from the opposite side of the planet from where most of the Covenant ships were positioned, which made it easier to avoid detection on approach. However, as planned, the fleet intentionally strayed close to the “hidden” listening post to allow the Covenant to detect their presence. Immediately, the Covenant fleet went into alert and deployed to intercept the Swords fleet.

This was the signal for the Magnificent Defiance. Once the defending fleet was out of position, it advanced at its best speed under the cover of its stealth systems to make it into the atmosphere while there was a gap in the Covenant’s sensor coverage. From inside their phantom in the ship’s hanger, Aegis team could not see what was happening outside, but Vael was given constant updates on the progress of the mission. Their Blockade Runner made a bee line straight for the planet’s surface while walking a very fine line with the speed they maintained. While the ship’s shields could certainly handle the heat of re-entry on any habitable world, the ship’s crew had to be careful not to generate atmospheric disturbances strong enough to be detected, while still getting to the surface as quickly as they possibly could. The skirmish in orbit would not last too long before the Swords fleet made their retreat.

Ultimately, the ship did make it to ground safely, though only time would tell if they had truly remained undetected. It had landed on the same continent as ‘Mdalak keep, at least, but to ensure they were not spotted, their landing zone was extremely far from civilization, in an unsettled region. Considering the difficult terrain, it would have taken days to reach their objective by land. Fortunately, the phantoms could bring them close enough to cut that down to a few hours.

The particular phantoms the team was using were equipped with active camouflage, so they kept up a good pace once they left the ship. Still, it was a cautious pace just to ensure they did not show up on any sensors. Overall, Aegis team spent about an hour in the back of their phantom before they finally arrived at their drop zone.

The pair of phantoms maneuvered into a valley between multiple, towering mountains with peaks obscured almost entirely by fog. They located a grassy area in the forest just large enough to drop their specters, then did the same for the team itself through the grav lift.

Vael’s feet sank partially into the mud as soon as they hit the ground. It was raining rather heavily, which, along with the fog, made visibility quite poor. Even with how deep in the wilderness they were, Vael still had his carbine at the ready as he left the phantom, and still went through the trouble of clearing the area before holstering it.

After offloading the team, both phantoms immediately set off back towards the Magnificent Defiance. Given that they could not afford detection, they would not be risking staying on station for rapid support. If they were detected, Aegis team would be on their own until their ship could deploy a full rescue team. If they could realistically reach them at all, of course. As long as the keep still had its air defenses available, their Blockade Runner could not come too close.

The phantoms engaged their active camouflage as they lifted off, and while it still provided protection against sensors, the rainfall meant that Vael could clearly see their silhouettes from a much farther distance than usual. He hoped the storm would not persist at their destination, but if it did, they would need to be ready to adapt.

”Mount up. The mission relies on us now.” Vael ordered.

The Cradle

Sharing a mind as they did, Vreta and Rhia also shared the discomfort of whatever was happening around them. It was not quite what he would describe as a headache, though it was no more comfortable than that. His mind was “busy”, like he was constantly in intense thought, but was not experiencing any of the thoughts himself. What Rhia felt was even more bizarre, without even considering what the group as a whole was witnessing.

The Human staffers were alive, but quite clearly incapacitated. None of them even acknowledged the team as they moved through the building. Freyr was the one who stopped to try and help one of them, but they were no more responsive even with interacted with directly. The scene that played out on the monitors looked and felt like some of the memories that had been forced into their own mind. It perhaps could have been one of the staffer’s own memories, displayed for all to see, for reasons Vreta did not understand. The distinguishing features of one of the Humans in the memory looked an awful lot like one of the Humans who had joined them, Gene. Was the woman just projecting what she saw around her onto the memory, or had he actually been present for it? Regardless, Connie’s attempt to move the staffer did not seem to help. As for the memory itself, Vreta did not have the context to truly understand its meaning, but this woman had clearly gone through something taxing to her mental health, and perhaps something relating to the Human homeworld.

“We…need to keep moving.” Vreta finally remarked. “We can’t afford the delay. Maybe once we get to our objective, we’ll be able to help all these people at once?”

Unfortunately, no matter which direction they went, they would not be able to avoid the bizarre occurrences around them. As they started to pass one nearby room, Vreta’s eye caught something even he could not ignore through the glass. It was a memory, like the staffer’s, though not one that was as “clear.” It was also not one of the Humans’. The scene played out with just a few people and objects projected from the memory itself, while all of the office’s furniture was still visible, but ignored.

There was a Rothian, medical gantry in the middle of the room, slightly phased into an office table on the far end. Strangely, it was not a Rothian on the gantry, but rather a Rothian security droid. Quite an old model, by appearances. Slowly, the droid sat up, while a male Rothian looked on taking notes. He looked like he was speaking, but strangely, the words they heard were muffled and mostly indistinct. With some direction from the Rothian, the droid held out one hand towards a device next to the gantry, though its focus seemed elsewhere. When its hand drew close enough, the device delivered a small electric shock to one of its fingers, and unlike a normal droid, its hand actually recoiled on reflex. There were more muffled words from the Rothian observing that grew louder and louder until, finally, they came in clearly.

“Agent! Are you listening? I understand this is a lot at once, but it’s important that I know how it feels.” He said firmly.

The droid looked down at its hand, clenching and opening it a few times. “Like it’s mine.”

The Cradle

Were it not for the Agent, Vreta expected there would already have been a confrontation between them and this pair of Humans, with the way they acted. As long as they were willing to help provide security on the way to their objective, though, he could tolerate them. He continued to carry 595 for a while as they started to move while Rhia directed the treatment of the poison within the Agent’s body. While not exactly an “optimized” treatment for this specific toxin, it was doing its job. Every decoy cell the nanites created made another target for the poison’s molecules. Each one used up a bit more of the dose the Agent had received. As they started to approach the upper levels, 595’s condition improved at least enough that she could walk on her own.

Since the treatment was working, Rhia locked in the nanites’ programming so she could release direct control of them. As a precaution, set them to self-destruct once the treatment had ran its course, then disabled external networked communication for them as she released control. Once that was done, she let Vreta put the Agent down.

Vreta let Connie, Gene, and 595 lead the way through the building, as they seemed perfectly eager to do. They seemed to organize themselves readily into their formation as they moved through the headquarters, without so much as a word to one another. Vreta might have put more focus on that, were it not for everything else transpiring around them. What he witnessed in the rooms was…bizarre, to say the least. There were survivors, but they were working away at their desks as if nothing was happening, entirely unresponsive to any stimuli from the outside world. Vreta tried briefly to get the first one to follow them, but there was nothing he could do to break them out of the apparent trance. He only wished that was the strangest thing he saw. Other rooms contained...scenes, for the lack of a better word. They might have been memories, from himself, his companions, and others in the building. He did not see much that was coherent at first, but he worried about what might manifest before them.

The situation within Vreta’s mind was no better. It was hard for him to describe the strange pressure within his mind, but Rhia did not wait long in bringing it up herself. There is something here, some…presence. Maybe the entity, maybe something else, but I feel like it’s trying to get in my head. It’s like I have a…headache, or something equally irrational.

The Cradle

The thundering sounds from outside were yet another thing that seemed to rush the team along. They needed to avoid delays. The timing of these new Humans’ arrival was still suspicious to Vreta; they had already been attacked once by Humans during this mission, so just the fact that they were not Cradle creatures did not necessarily mean they were trustworthy. He supposed it was true that 595 seemed to know them, but he was not sure if that should be enough for him, at this point. They still had their own names, which would imply that they were not part of the same organization as Agent 595. Or, perhaps they had not yet completed the process of initiation that Vreta had seen a part of when he viewed her memory?

Once Vreta had delivered the injection, and one of the others started to head for the stairwell, he whispered quietly to 595 as a favor to her. Since this was against protocol for her, he did not need to let the others know exactly what the injection contained. “My implants are directing the nanites right now, so we need to stick close while it refines the treatment. You should start feeling better soon, just…play along.”

When Vreta stood up, he picked up 595 in his arms, then finally gave Connie an answer. “We need to get to our objective, quickly. Just stay alert, and keep Freyr safe.” Despite how the Agent may have felt about it, carrying her would be legitimately faster than allowing her to try to walk in her current state, at least until the treatment could take effect.

Still carrying 595, Vreta ran up the same spike had first used to leap up to the floor above, though he had to use thruster assistance this time to overcome the extra weight he was carrying. Being that he took a more direct route, he reached Freyr first. “Let’s get moving. We just need to find the operations rooms.”

The Cradle

Rhia started to analyze the diagnostics in short order after Vreta received them. She recognized that a toxin of Cradle origin could have unexpected properties, but she hoped that it would follow some kind of biological analog, as many other aspects of the Cradle appeared to do. Based on the data she had, she quickly devised a stopgap treatment to at least improve 595’s condition. The suit diagnostics had identified the types of cells that the toxin was targeting, so she could have the nanites repurpose excess red blood cells and reshape them using materials from the blood plasma into “decoy” cells. By mimicking the toxin’s target cells, they could “trick” the toxin into binding to the decoys instead of useful cells, which would effectively reduce the dose of the toxin available to harm the Agent. Rhia decided to assume direct control of the nanites at first until she knew she had a working treatment, then she could leave the nanites with standing instructions. While Rothian nanomachines were quite advanced, they were still not adaptable on their own. They could not deviate from the sets of instructions programmed into them. Without pre-written programs to load into them, it took a digital intelligence like Rhia to modify their purpose in the field.

As Vreta took out the syringe, Rhia took control of the nanites inside. As long as she remained in close proximity, preferably direct physical contact, she would be able to puppet them without trouble. Nanite injections were a common treatment option among Rothians in both a military and civilian context. Agents like Vreta had implants to be able to sustain a population of nanites within his body, but such injections could still be useful as either a backup in case of a loss of his normal nanite population, or a “booster” in case his body sustained enough trauma to require a temporary excess of nanites.

“Okay, just give me an injection site. There is a treatment that should work here.” Vreta said softly as he placed his hand on the Agent. Once she complied, Vreta finally brought his attention to the new pair of Humans that had just arrived. “Yes.” Vreta answered cautiously. “Who are you, and do you know what has been happening in this place?”

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.