EliteCommander

Halo: Aegis Team

Vael 'Virisusai

---

Vael grunted as he glanced back towards the entrance of the cave. The storm still raged outside, and showed no signs of weakening. ”We do not know how long this storm will last. If we can reach our objective through this cave, then it is where we must go. I will lead. Tar and Ryker, move behind me. Grikgar, Roy, Elna, and Flint move in the middle of us. Everyone else guard the rear. Have your blades ready to cleave any vines should they attack. We have the weapons to destroy this plant if need be.” He ordered definitively.

As they moved deeper into the cave, light from the outside became more and more dim, though the low-light vision provided by Vael’s HUD was more than sufficient to allow him to keep leading without issue, not to mention the bright blue glow of his energy sword.

Eventually, the relatively narrow passage opened up into a much larger chamber. The small stream on which they had been walking flowed down into a basin, filled with water, surrounding the massive Tengmaa bulb. That sweet smell in the air had only grown stronger the deeper they went, but now that they were in the main chamber, one could finally see that the scent was a mask as well as a lure. In the basin surrounding the bulb were a large collection of carcasses in varying states of decay, though not rotting exactly. Something about the water seemed to be preventing the normal stages of decay, though the animals caught within did seem to be dissolving over time.

At first, the movement around them was subtle, and easy to miss if one was not attentive. Thorny vines moved towards their feet from below all around, looking to puncture their skin enough to apply its toxin.

The Cradle

For the most part, both the Human and Rothian teams worked as much as they could with the resources they had available to them. There was no shortage of data for them to sort through, but they lacked a proper lab setup at the moment. Still, with such a high concentration of brilliant scientists in one space, they were able to come up with solutions to stay productive. Nirann donated some of his processing power to running analysis or simulations when needed. Within Vreta’s mind, he had Rhia sort through every bit of data storage he had to search for any information the Navigator might have left behind for him.

Through communication with Rareth, Vreta was kept up-to-date on her negotiations with the new Outremer administration, though he was not yet privy to how the Rahn’Saki was responding back home. He did expect that they were making their own plans and arranging contingencies for actions that Outremer might take. As obscure as the Rahn’Saki’s motivations were, he had never known them to face a situation unprepared. In the meantime, while Rareth herself was generally dealing with negotiations in person, she had sent Void Company to the arcology to serve as the Rothian contribution to their security. Having a team of Rothian supersoldiers on-hand was a comfort, at least.

---

Freyr was not alone out in the garden, even aside from the guards that were always present in seemingly every part of the building. Marae’Ano had decided to take a walk outside as well. Ever since they had gained access to the garden, it had been a popular spot for the Rothian team members. They tended to enjoy the heat, and Marae did not seem to be agitated by the rain in the slightest. She did not even bother with keeping overhead cover, instead allowing the rain to simply slide from her waterproof scales. As long as the water was warm, it was actually a reasonably pleasant feeling.

The rain did serve to somewhat muffle Marae’s footsteps as she approached behind Freyr. “Hello, Dr. Lang. Do you mind if I join you?” She asked, though her eyes were soon drawn to the picture she was holding. “Is that your family?”

The Cradle

“There are innumerable worlds in our galaxy, but not all that many intelligent species.” Marae remarked. “If my husband is correct, and there is a connection to intelligent life, specifically, then we only need to focus our search on their homeworlds. Now that we know what we are looking for, that is not an unreasonable search area. Rothians have spread sensors all across our galaxy listening for signals that would indicate undiscovered civilizations. A few of the species we know of now were discovered in that manner. There are parts of our galaxy isolated enough that civilizations could remain yet undiscovered within them, of course, but we do have a good place to start.”

Nirann clasped his hands together. The body he was using had no capability for facial expression, yet he still managed to convey some sense of slyness to his body language. “And like I said, we do know what we’re looking for now. We have…positive relations with a lot of species out there, to varying extents, especially when it comes to trading. Even your own estranged homeworld. It wouldn’t be that hard to stick a good quality sensor suite into a trading vessel and have it do the scans for us during its usual rounds. The other species out there aren’t as…advanced as either of us, so we should be able to do it without them being any the wiser. Of course, we’d need to involve them if we actually find something, but we could still do this first part ourselves.”

Vreta crossed his arms, slightly narrowing his eyes at Nirann. “I would really rather not choose trickery as our first option. As you said, Nirann, we have spent centuries fostering our relationships with other species. Not all are ‘friends’, or even formal allies, but we are trading partners with nearly every known species, and we have established beyond any doubt that we honor our agreements when we make them. If we make good enough offers to them, we can get them to cooperate diplomatically.”

The Cradle

Vreta turned towards Dr. Wetherall. “I am implying that there may have been a being related to the Cradle on your homeworld at a point in time roughly two thousand years ago. Whether it is still there, though, I would have no way of knowing. And of course, there are alternative explanations to what the Navigator told me, as I said. But, if there was a Cradle being on your homeworld, then it would not surprise me at all that you find yourself here now. You may have been led here in some way, without your population as a whole knowing. Remember, we found the Navigator on my people’s homeworld, and it claims its kind have seeded life in this galaxy. Had the Navigator not been buried so deep, had it been more accessible to us, we may have found it long ago. In that case, it may have been us that was led to the Cradle.”

For a moment, Vreta rubbed his head, trying to focus on the details of his meeting in the Cradle. Unfortunately, there was nothing that came to mind which could answer Freyr’s question. “I don’t remember it telling me where to find more of its kind. I remember it pointing out a potential location in Andromeda to find evidence of the Hegemon, but nothing about other Cradle beings. It is still possible that it sent me away with the data, though. It could, perhaps, be stored away within my implants. I just need to take some time to go through my data storage and look for unrecorded changes.”

It was not long before Nirann interjected. By the way he had been staring at Vreta, he had been waiting eagerly for him to finish speaking. “That is a good idea. By all means, do that, but…even if it didn’t leave you anything else, we may already have what we need to at least give us a start. Think about it, the Navigator claims his kind are life-seeders, right? We found one on the Rothian homeworld, Outremer had intelligent life before you arrived, even if it didn’t survive to modern day, and now we have information suggesting that there may have been a Cradle being on the Human homeworld at some point in time. Every Cradle being we know of has had some connection not just with life, but with intelligent life. I’d call that a pattern, wouldn’t you? If that pattern holds, then we might find what we’re looking for by searching the homeworlds of known intelligent species. Now that we have mountains of data from our scans of the Navigator’s object, we know what to look for.”

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Anything else that might have been said in the moment was overshadowed by Sabine’s activation of the sigil stone. The enchantment on the stone had originally been meant to help break through the powerful barriers between Mundus and Oblivion, and comparatively, the barriers between two realms of Oblivion were much weaker. As such, even the interference from the magicka converging on this tower was not enough to stop a Daedric Prince like Hircine from being able to focus on the sigil stone’s power.

It took only a few seconds for the glowing portal to appear just above the top of the tower, and only a few moments more for Hircine to descend from it. The form the Great Huntsman took at this moment was roughly equal in size to that of Vile. The very instant another Daedric Prince had stepped onto the battlefield, Clavicus Vile gave no more attention to Fendros’ pack. In fact, neither of the Princes seemed to pay any mind to the mortals around them.

The voice with which Hircine spoke seemed like it could be felt as much as it could be heard. “You hoard what belongs to me, trickster.”

Vile glared back with an expression that finally seemed to show genuine anger as he stood to his feet from his throne. “If you couldn’t keep a hold of it yourself, then you didn’t deserve it, beast.”

The Cradle

“Yes, of course.” Vreta responded, leaning forward in his chair and clasping his hands together. “Just give me a moment to think back…however it interacted with my mind, my implants’ recordings did not capture the meeting. I just need to focus on the details…”

Pausing briefly, Vreta concentrated on visualizing his memories in his mind. “I recall aspects of our conversation. It warned again about the Hegemon. It portrayed them as being exceptionally powerful. ‘Indestructible’, in its words, though I was doubtful of that. Though, I suppose they could legitimately be indestructible to us. They may not be able to be defeated by conventional means. I remember trying to learn more. I questioned the Navigator, asked for proof. It pointed me towards a satellite galaxy of Andromeda. I…don’t know if it ever gave me the exact location of this planet that would hold this proof. I asked it to simply upload the information to my implants, so I may need to sort through the data to see if there was anything it left behind for me.”

As Vreta’s mind sorted through his memories in sequence, he came to a detail that gave him pause for just a moment. His mind had been somewhat muddled before, but this part of his memory was now standing out clearly. “I also remember asking about the Institute. The Cradle Institute; the same organization to which Agent 595 belongs. I asked what it had learned about them, and it told me that the goal of the institute had been to reunite the Navigator and its kind with the Cradle for well over two thousand years.”

Vreta allowed that statement to hang in the air for just a few moments before he continued. “From my knowledge of your history, you were still a pre-FTL species on your own homeworld, fighting with swords and spears at that time. That led me to one of three conclusions. Either the Navigator is lying, Cradle beings have some kind of presence on Earth, or the Institute was not founded by Humans.”

The Cradle

“Yes, that is the case from our perspective, but we need to consider the Navigator’s perspective as well.” Vreta responded. “As of yet, we have not established regular communication with the Navigator. We have no way to convey our intentions, nor any guarantees it would believe them if we could. The only thing we have to define our intentions are our actions. I think we need to take care to portray ourselves as allies, not jailers.”

This time, it was Marae who contributed her thoughts. “Then perhaps we should make communication more of a focus? If we can establish regular communication with the Navigator, that would take a lot of this guesswork out of our interactions with it. We could simply tell it what we are doing, and get its feedback and opinions. I would suggest we try more methods of communication, especially if they are more direct than using harnesses to interact with the simulation.”

Vreta nodded in agreement. If they could regularly communicate with the Navigator, that would reduce the chances of misunderstandings. It would not necessarily eliminate them, but it would at least make the risks more acceptable. “If you can do so successfully, then I do believe that would be helpful. The details of how to do so are, naturally, more of your expertise. I can personally be of more help to the people of Babylon, and on that, I do agree with you that the city should be evacuated. Perhaps even more of the planet, but at least the city to start. And I can say that my government agrees. I have been in some communication with Rareth, so I have an idea of my people’s standing on this situation. Evidently, the Rahn’Saki predicted that a refugee crisis could arise from this even during the early stages, and especially after they agreed to help refugees, they have been preparing for this eventuality. We have created prefabricated dwellings, set aside ample food and medicine, found space on a viable world that can sustain the population, and have been preparing ships to assist with transport. We are ready, so the only thing standing in the way of an evacuation now is your government’s approval.”

Halo: Aegis Team

Vael 'Virisusai

---

At first, Vael stepped back as far as he could from the vines, more towards the middle of the cave entrance. They needed a safe place to wait out the storm, or at least, that was what he assumed at first. When Tar mentioned that the cave could contain an alternative path up the mountain, however, that was enough for him to pause in thought. This being may have been a plant, but it seemed to be just as much of a predator. Going into the very heart of its lair felt like willingly walking into the maw of a helioskrill. But, the team was well-equipped, and they had numbers to be able to support one another. There were few simple creatures in the galaxy that could withstand the power of superior technology.

”If there is a path through this cave, then we need not wait for the storm to subside. In fact, the storm can provide cover for our sabotage, if we can move quickly enough.” Vael remarked. He stepped forward towards the front of the team, the blue glow of his sword illuminating some of the darkness ahead of them. The cave was narrower past the entrance, but the walls and floor were still just as thick with vines. Some seemed to hug tightly to the surface of the stone, while others were actually embedded into grooves in the stone itself. ”If there are toxins, then we cannot afford anyone to be injured. If someone is grabbed, be ready to assist quickly.”

The Cradle

When it came to the assessment of vulnerabilities, Nirann certainly had something to say. He leaned forward in his seat, which he was using despite the fact that his body had no muscles that could ever tire to begin with. “If I may, I really wouldn’t suggest putting too much faith in the idea that we can keep the Navigator contained to begin with. Keeping external intruders out, sure, but at this point, if the Navigator wants to bring the Cradle somewhere else, it will be able to do it. Speaking as a hyperintelligent AI myself, there’s no way any of us will be able to out-think it with the hardware we have available. Intrusion prevention between two AIs is like a dance where we’re trying to maneuver past one another. One of us finding the holes, and the other closing them off. If the hardware is similar between them, then it comes down to cleverness, creativity, but if one can just think significantly faster, then it’s pretty much no contest. If the Navigator gets control of the Cradle completely, or even partially, then we don’t have any hardware here than can really come close to that. It’s probably best that we make a plan for what to do if it decides it wants the Cradle to move.”

As he started to sit back in his seat, Nirann shrugged his shoulders. “Unless, of course, we just want to say ‘screw it’, physically lock down the vault, and remove all software controls. Then, the only way it breaks out is the, uh, ‘old-fashioned’ way. Can’t hack a metal clamp. That also stops us from bringing anything into the vault, of course, but that’s the only way we can get guarantees here.”

“I think we may want to consider whether we want to try to contain it at all.” Vreta remarked. “We brought the Navigator here ostensibly as an ally so it could calm the Cradle. What impression are we giving if we keep it locked in like a prisoner? If it does end up gaining control of the Cradle, do we really want to risk antagonizing it?”

The Cradle

Vreta did not share Skopec’s attitude, instead simply maintaining his gaze. “Then I shall plan to speak with them tomorrow. I wouldn’t really want to delay it any longer than that, after all. I think we can all agree that it would be better that I be the one to speak to them, rather than Rareth. Which she certainly will, if I do not.”

Having followed Freyr’s advice, Vreta gave a quick look down to his coffee, took in its scent once more, then gave it another small, cautious taste. It was…better than before, at the very least. He wondered if the taste was at all similar for him as it was to the Humans. “I have my recording, of course.” Vreta replied to Freyr. “Though, nothing that happened when the Navigator spoke to me was recorded. I just have my own memory for that. Maybe together we’ll be able to make sense of it, I suppose. So yes, I agree. We get everyone together and discuss it while it is still somewhat fresh on our minds.”