Cath

The Cradle

Well...the water probably won’t kill us..” Dr Wetherall concluded, peering at his suit’s readouts from the water experiment. “At least not right away. It’s chock full of microorganisms and minerals, but nothing innately poisonous to Humans or Rothians.” He sent the results to Ngata’s suit, who stooped over his left arm’s holo-readout to see for himself. “Perhaps i will have that swim, after all.” 595 smirked. “Maybe they’ll have some bathing suits where we’re headed.”

“Focus up.” Thebes ordered, the sight of his energy rifle scanning the land, water and cliffs in front of them.The trees rustled, as if whispering to one another. They advanced in an uneasy silence for a few minutes, keeping an even distance between the water’s edge and the cliff faces around the basin’s border. It wasn’t until they’d made it halfway round the lake in peace that a loud flap and an animalistic scream disturbed the uneasy quiet. Acting on impulse 595 turned, locked her legs, pulled her pistol out and fired up at the object she found barrelling toward them. Several others from the team fired as well.

A bundle of leathery wings fell from the sky. 595 stepped in front of Dr Wetherall, shooting at the object a couple more times as it rapidly approached them. However she didn’t get to see the results of her handiwork. Almost too fast for the eye to see, one of the nearby trees exploded into action, snatching the creature out of the air as it lost altitude. The fibrous tendrils of the tree engulfed it entirely, until something crunched loudly. The tree trunk then rocked back and forth, and the boughs ejected the crippled creature straight into the cold dark of the lake with a splash.

The water quickly submerged the ailing creature; it squealed as it was sucked down under the surface.

Halo: Aegis Team

Tar growled at the order to retreat. It didn’t seem like a strategy that was conducive to catching fleeing prey. However, while she wasn’t under this team’s direct command, she guessed the Spartan outranked her. And while being discharged for disobeying orders was one way to escape Sarcophagus, Tar needed to keep her military options open. It was by far the most efficient vehicle for continuing her search for Tarkr ‘Mdalakai.

Before Tar could reply, there was a roar from somewhere on the opposite side of the room. Fire grenades and spikes began raining down on her position from above. “I’ve found the trap! Brutes, above us!” Tar roared, turning to shoot up at them, pushing her back to the stack of crates she had hidden behind. Her pistol clicked empty, and she quickly flicked the magazine out to replace it with her spare. She peeked around the side of the crate, spikes stuck in her shield, to see more Brutes rushing toward her.

Tar swore; it was now or never. “Moving!” She called. Ducking out of cover into the lane between crates, Tar fired at the oncoming Brutes while carefully walking backwards toward their position. They didn’t take cover, instead electing to trade fire with her. Tar ducked back behind another crate closer to home and immediately peeked back out to continue firing. One of the Brute’s shields burst and Tar shot him in the head, but the rest kept coming. A fire bomb crashed to the floor just in front of her as her pistol clicked empty again. Leaping backwards, Tar burst into another lane of crates, knocking some over as she stumbled for cover. “I need pistol mags!” She called, switching to her Mauler.

The Cradle

“Right works. Sacred Band, get set.” Thebes intoned. The Sacred Band had been picked for this mission because of the convoluted command structure. They were an endlessly resourceful combat unit, used to asymmetric warfare. Taking suggestions from a Rothian was definitely not the strangest thing they’d had to do in their history. Thebes had noted the Outreman agent had been unusually quiet once they’d entered the simulation. She had scarcely shut up outside of it. She was...different somehow.

"We don’t have our full-fat lab gear with us - that was coming with the second wave of our colleagues. But our CRD suits do have limited water testing facilities; kind of like we’re carrying our school chemistry sets with us.” Dr Wetherall snorted derisively. The suits were in fact reasonably advanced, but the scientist was confident that given more time and less politics, he could design something better. “Allow me.” He gingerly stepped over to the body of water next to Rareth, crouched down and dipped an aperture in the hand of his suit into the murky liquid. Carthage aimed her SMG at the same spot of water and held onto the back of the man’s suit.

After a couple of seconds, Dr Wetherall stood up again, closing the aperture. “Let’s get moving shall we? Needs a moment to analyse.” He started walking around the right-hand side of the lake, and everyone moved into formation around him. “These cliffs look like good nesting grounds. Whatever is making that noise could be warning us from it’s home.” Dr Ngata offered optimistically in response to Nirann’s question. He stared up at the first tree as they passed it. Similar to willow trees on Earth, these had light dozens of blue pods attached to the drooping branches. “Let’s pick up the pace until we’re out of this basin.” 595 grunted, lightly patting Ngata’s suit from behind to stop him gawking at the tree.

The Cradle

Thebes nodded at Rareth’s suggestion. “Saddam and Athena, with me. Memnon, Knossos, Carthage, take some of the load and follow Rareth.” Half of the Sacred Band took bundles of equipment from Nirann and deftly followed the Datius up the sheer rock face. The other half, along with the scientists and 595, turned their backs to the wall and surveyed the incline they’d just climbed. Another screech sounded from somewhere up one of the sides of the canyon, a little closer than before.

“Clear.” Knossos confirmed once the first group had reached the top. “You four, go.” Thebes pointed at the scientists and spook. 595 and the Rothian droid practically flew up the wall, but the Human boffins were a little more ponderous. “Wow. Pretty.” 595 commented when she saw the enormous lake, surrounded by softly glowing trees and sheer cliffs on all sides. “There’s a waterfall on the other side of this lake; we might be able to scale up to the water channel above.” She remarked. Fascinating! I wonder why they dammed this fjord…” Dr Wetherall looked about in wonder.

595 turned away from the stunning vista and scanned the canyonsides looming over the way they’d just come. She couldn’t see any movement. Once the second group were safely up the wall, Saddam and Athena turned from rearguard duties and began scaling. Memnon turned to provide overwatch in addition to the agent. Finally, Thebes made his way up to complete their ascent as a group. “So...which way? I’m certainly not swimming to the other side.” 595 asked. “It looks like the left-hand side has a wider strip of land, but denser tree coverage. Right is the opposite.” Carthage assessed. “Lots of unknowns either way. These trees are messing with my optics.”

The Cradle

“I think it would be a mistake to assume the life forms in here operate a rational food chain.” Dr Ngata countered. “In the Cradle, we recorded almost three dozen different mutations. They varied drastically in physiology, but were for all intents and purposes part of the same organism. Sometimes the different elements would attack each other, like an autoimmune disease in Humans. But for the most part, they were unified in removing foreign bodies from their host. Namely, us. That’s my theory, anyway. Even if the worm said it didn't have 'direct control' over what may lie ahead, that doesn't mean they don't share common programming."

The scientist hopped over a small boulder. They were moving at a fast walk, and while the regular environment suits handled 90% of the exertion, Dr Ngata was still beginning to breathe heavier in between sentences. “It's a shame we didn't get a chance to study the creatures we've found so far in more detail. It's a major development that they harbour a facsimile of intelligence, but we need to study where that intelligence really lies. With them? Or somewhere else.” A distant screech punctuated the xenobiologist’s theorising. All the soldiers raised their weapons slightly closer to a firing position. “Let’s cut the chit chat. Everyone keep your eyes on a swivel.” Thebes ordered.

They continued walking up the steep dried out riverbed, in silence, for thirty minutes. Eventually, a high, steep cliff face blocked their way, with the sides of the canyon blocking either side. “There are handholds; we can climb this.” Thebes confirmed. Dr Wetherall palmed the wall. “I don’t think this is natural. Something built it.” He looked back the way they’d come, at the steep riverbed. “If it’s meant to keep us out, it’s not doing a good job.” 595 surmised, looking up the side of the sheer face. “Lets scale it. We’re sitting ducks out here.” She grabbed the first hand hold and hauled herself up.

The Cradle

Thebes didn’t take long to consider his answer to Rareth’s request. The Sacred Band was trained for all manner of movement configurations. In this scenario, the heavy gunner was ideally placed to take on more weight, as their role primarily involved moving comparatively little and providing fire support in all directions. “Memnon, take a load; you’re in the middle.” The towering figure retired from his covering firing position and took a bundle of webbed equipment parts from Dr Ngata. And then another.

After a short interlude, they were all ready to go. The Sacred Band formed a tight formation around the unarmed scientists, with 595 positioned behind Rareth but in front of Thebes. After double checking nothing had been left behind, the expedition followed the valley into a pass between two hills. What looked like a dried out riverbed granted them access into a steep uphill incline which headed roughly toward the bright light on the horizon. Short, black, stunted tree-like objects dotted the passage.

After a short while, a rumble from behind them highlighted that the worm had disappeared beneath the earth again. 595 looked around, trying to substantiate her feeling that they were being watched. “Stay sharp.” She murmured. "If the worms are docile, imagine what the nasties could be."

The Cradle

“Ngata, make your way back up here please. Carefully.” 595 commanded, as the whole team burst into action. She looked at the sanguine armoured figure of the Sacred Band next. “Saddam, help Dr Wetherall and Nirann with whatever they need, please.” The soldier nodded at her. “Yes ma’am.” 595 looked at the lead scientist next. “How long, Dr Wetherall?” He habitually scratched the top of his helmet. “Longer than initial assembly. Twenty minutes?”

“Copy that.” Rareth's last comment reminded 595 that the Simrothians were still here, prostrate on the floor. She stared hungrily at them; they looked...energy-rich. A sudden thought snapped her out of it, and she turned her attention once again to the giant worm. “If you can communicate with us...does that mean you can talk to them as well?” The response was instantaneous. “Yes.” The agent bounced on the balls of her feet, enjoying being on a roll. “Can you please ask them, or tell us how to ask them, whether they have any fast, strong animals we can ride on, and someone to guide us on the best route?”

“They will not respond while this one is present.” 595 pursed her lips inside her helmet, luminous blue eyes studying the giant creature. “Could you...go? So we can ask - it would help us get to you quicker.” There was a pregnant pause of about three seconds. “No.” was the eventual answer. 595 held her tongue before she made the situation any worse with her reply.

The Cradle

“You will all come, quickly. No messages, not yet.” The voice replied. It was evening out now, becoming one musical, androgyous voice rather than a jumble of several. 595 jumped in. “We haven’t brought any methods of transport quicker than our feet. How far is that place?” She pointed to the spot of light. ”I am approximately thirty nine of your ‘kilometre’ measurement units away, following the best possible path. You must be vigilant.” The voice replied promptly, without elaborating. The agent followed up immediately. “Why must we be vigilant?”

“There are variables beyond my direct control.” 595 thought for a moment before asking another question. “Are you, the form looking at us right now, coming too?” There was a slight pause this time. “No. this one will stay here.” 595 shared an ominous look with Thebes and then Rareth. The agent signed something in between ‘I don’t understand’ and ‘I don’t like this’ using military sign language.

---

“An adroit suggestion, old boy! The transit station uses a lot, but we can probably make it work.” Dr Wetherall whispered to Nirann, having turned off his internal comms system in the hopes of gaining some privacy. He pulled up some schematics on another holopad and began cross-referencing power consumption with limits set by the fusion core.

The Cradle

Intrusion alarms began wailing from both the comms mast and transit station. “Foreign access detected, commencing emergency shut down” An automated voice chirruped. “No, no, no, stop that!” Dr Wetherall shouted, running for an interface to frantically try and regain control. ”Parasites that use my power and break the sanctity of my ecumene are not permitted." The voice boomed in their heads.

Dr Wetherall slammed his holo-pad into a mount on the side of the transit station and pointed an accusatory finger at the beast. “Now you listen to me. I don’t care if you’re a giant worm, you don’t get to sniff my tech willy-nilly, alright? That’s not the way to make friends; I’m warning you. Turn our transit station and comms mast back on right now!” 595 held a consolatory hand up from where she stood transfixed, motioning the beetroot-faced scientist to be quiet. “Dr Wetherall, please! Let’s all just relax for a moment, okay? We don’t want to piss this thing off.”

“Yeah Richard, shut up!” Dr Ngata crackled, from down at the bottom of the valley, looking up at the titanic worm’s face as it studied the whole camp. “You will come and speak with me personally.” The voice intoned again, and the worm looked to the light in the distance once more, before returning it's gaze to the assembled interlopers.

The Cradle

The amalgamated, curiously familiar voice responded immediately after Rareth had finished speaking. “You will stay with me, as honoured guests. The lights will guide your way.” The worm shifted to look at the brilliant speck on the mountainside some miles away. It then trained it’s luminous green lamp on the black shield covering the transit station and comms mast.

“This is not permitted. What is it?” The shield flickered and deactivated, revealing Nirann and Dr Wetherall working fervently together, equipment strewn all around them. Dr Wetherall looked up and around him, a hand raised to block out the harsh hunting light trained on them. "Oh...bugger." Dr Wetherall sighed, nudging Nirann, who appeared so engrossed in his work that he hadn't noticed.