Cath

Halo: Aegis Team

Tar sat quietly through the phantom ride, listening to every rattle and hum of the hull as if it was talking to her. Her mind slowly calmed, uncoupling from the galaxy outside Brissekh to focus solely on the mission.

They all knew what they were doing, they’d seen the maps and force strength reports. Now all that was left was to walk those paths and eliminate anything that got in their way. Tar was loyal to Brissekh, but like any other Sangheili warrior, wouldn’t hesitate to kill her clanmates if they refused to stand aside.

She checked her loadout one more time, then stared into space again. Time passed, until suddenly it was time to go. Tar got up and stepped into the grav lift without hesitation.

The rain whipped about her as she levitated down to the ground, bringing the smell of wet vegetation with it. This instantly brought back memories from Tar’s childhood, foraging and hunting in woods like these. She scanned around as she flew, taking in the edge of the forest and the mountains in the background. It was good to be home; she could’ve warbled with delight had it not risked attracting attention.

Tar’s feet sank into the mud with a satisfying squelch. Thankfully as her armour had been crafted on Brissekh, her shoes came with small retractable studs to keep her steady on this kind of unstable ground. The Commando raised her carbine and fanned out, securing the perimeter as rain hammered the clearing and trickled into the cracks of her breastplate.

Once Vael gave the order to mount up, Tar moved quickly to the lead Spectre, stowed her carbine and hopped into the driver’s seat. The front hull closed in around her legs, leaving just her head and upper body exposed. She activated the vehicle, and it floated into a ready position. “The fog could get worse. Stay close.” Tar grunted, checking her instruments. She wasn’t as familiar with driving Spectres as she was with Phantoms and Banshees, but most of the principles were similar.

The Cradle

Freyr’s apprehension grew as they scaled another set of stairs towards the top floor. The whole building felt like it was raring to get up and move on its own; a low hum vibrated the inside of her head like they were underwater.

The stairwell was pitch black, so she relied heavily on her suit’s night vision to see where she was going. She could just make out scattered debris and bloodstains on the steps in front of her. Freyr focused on breathing in and out, trying to remain level-headed. They’d made it this far, hadn’t they? In no small part due to her armed escort. She was grateful to them, even if they scared her too sometimes.

The next floor was also full of operations workspace. They fanned out slightly. Freyr rushed over to one of the blood stained GCHQ staffers as soon as she spotted them. Their sallow complexion shone with sweat in the flickering light of the monitors in front of them. “Hey, can you hear me?” Freyr asked, peeling back her suit visor so they could see her face.

“It’s alright, we’re going to get you some help, we…”

Freyr’s voice tailed off when she noticed what was on screen. It looked like camera footage from someone’s eyes, looking at an angry but elegantly dressed woman shouting at them from across a wide kitchen table. Sound trickled out of the console’s speakers, which Freyr strained to hear.

“What are you doing? That’s my gun! What is this?” The woman pointed to something off screen. The camera panned until a man with white hair and olive skin appeared, holding a pistol upside down by the trigger guard with his pinkie.

“You’re a potential suicide risk.” the man said, apologetically.

“How did you find that?!” The woman shouted at him. She turned to the camera. “How did he find that?!”

“Selene.” another woman’s voice warned, from behind the camera.

“No! No! Okay! This meeting’s now over! I want you both out of here, right now!”

Freyr looked up, blinking to clear her rapidly blurring eyesight. The pressure in her head was getting really uncomfortable. Meeting rooms branched off from this wide street, and the usual conference tables were juxtaposed with strange scenes, all viewed as though eyes or imagined inside someone’s head. Lurid colours seemed to generate their own light in the darkness.

“Selene…”

“No! He has been snooping around my house!”

Doctor Shearing, I want to sign off here today! I want to let you get on that starship! But you have gotta help us out! I need to know that you are calm and safe before I leave here, and I need to know that you understand the rules before you go to Earth. Please, just…please, sit down. And let us get through our questions.”

The woman looked torn, for a moment. Freyr wiped her eyes, leaning in. Finally, they responded. “Okay.” The elegant woman headed to the chair at the head of the kitchen table, that the camera woman had gestured. The camera looked at Gene and nodded.

Connie reached over and grabbed the GCHQ staffer out of their chair with one arm. The monitors all went black. “Wait...moving them might-” Freyr mumbled.

Connie gave the unresponsive person a hard slap across the face. Instead of waking up, they crumpled to the floor.

The Cradle

“We need to go up one more level. Hello Miss.” Gene offered as he arrived on the same bridge as Freyr and Vreta. “Turn in a slow circle with your arms raised, please.”

“What’s the meaning-”

“We have to make sure you aren’t being tracked, Miss. Please.” Gene continued. His gun looked different to all the others. It didn’t look like it produced energy bolts like the others. It actually looked quite mechanical. The man studied Freyr closely as she did a turn with her hands up, pulling at a couple of parts of her armour quizzically. Connie appeared from the stairwell with her gun arm taut and her other arm straight by her side. “Let's move quickly. We don’t want to get caught in this place.”

“Hold on a minute.” 595 rasped, putting her feet back on the floor. “Why are you really here? Cut the bullcrap with me for two seconds alright? It’s been a super shitty day.”

Gene looked at Connie, who gave him a subtle eyebrow nod. He also glanced at Vreta before walking over to 595 and looking right into her eyes. “We have to make sure the asset leaves the Cradle safely. But we also need to bring you in for a debrief.” It looked as though there was more Gene wanted to say, but with comms fried, there was no safe way to do it.

He didn’t need to say another word though - 595 understood immediately. The Institute was indeed going to confront her about the data she pulled from the rig in those last seconds of their Navigator expedition. The data she had so far not supplied for analysis.

The timing was intriguing though. She’d just received long range messaging about an attack on an Institute. How much trouble were they all in?

“Understood. I’ll RTB as soon as these two get to safety.” 595 grunted, pulling the assault gun off her back and turning it on. The power level was already at 60%. “We don’t have long until our guns are useless. Lets get tactical. Upstairs; move!” 595 barked, as another thundering boom rattled the GCHQ building. A pressure in the back of the Agent’s head at the same moment made her gasp. Something was watching them.

The Cradle

“Where is she? We heard you were attacked. We’re here to help.” Connie continued, scanning the area. Her voice was quite gruff, like she’d been shouting. “Right here.” 595’s suit opened a panel in the crook of her arm. She moved into a crouch for her shot with her arm raised, gun laid out in front of her.

She turned her attention to her novitiates. “Just you two? Where is the cavalry?”

Connie and Gene were fanning out either side of 595 and Vreta, checking the surroundings. “Currently indisposed - we took a beating just to get here. Where is Doctor Lang? We need to make sure she’s safe.” Gene replied, turning to look at the Agent.

“I’m safe. Who are you?” Freyr answered, revealing herself on the higher gantry. Both of the novitiates looked up and identified the VIP. Connie waved, teeth gritted against the wound on her opposite arm. “Hi. I’m Connie, and this is Gene. Glad to see you’re still alive.” Gene identified a stairwell a little way down one of the halls, and headed for it while Connie stayed put. “So what’s the plan here? Go and speak with the entity?” Connie continued, looking round at everyone.

Freyr nodded meekly, just as a thunderous boom echoed around the area. The superstructure of GCHQ rattled. “That must be our friend outside.” Gene remarked, before disappearing up the stairs to the first level. “We should get you to safety.” Connie continued, pointing to Dr Lang.

The Cradle

“Step away from her!” The man named Gene bellowed, knuckles white on the grip on his SMG. Twin blue lights blinked on through his eyes, looking squarely at the Rothian. They were dimmer than what Freyr had seen from the Agent, but still disconcerting.

As he came closer, Freyr made out that the man had olive skin and a stocky build. He was wearing a formal dress shirt and tie under the tactical vest, with rolled up sleeves that exposed muscular arms. Dark patches of what looked like blood stained the white material. His face was all cut up, like broken glass had sprayed in his face.

The second figure stood up and immediately raised their pistol. Freyr saw she was a woman, with nut brown hair pulled back and down in a ponytail. She was also wearing a tactical vest over her blue formal shirt but under a black business jacket. Blood dripped from a gash in her left arm.

“It’s ok, it’s…” 595 coughed, raising one hand to stop them from her hunched position. She spat out more phlegm, then instructed her suit to send diagnostics over.

“Where is Dr Lang? Is she here?” Gene asked, lowering his gun slightly as they both moved towards them.

The Cradle

“I’ve been poisoned.” 595 slurred. She was feeling decidedly light-headed all of a sudden. It was hard to delineate whether this was because of the wound, or the heady environment they were in. “Use of foreign nanites is against protocol - it has to be the infirmary.” The Agent looked about again, her suit compensating for her unsteady footing and blurring vision. “Give me overwatch, we’ll sweep both floors at once.”

“Agent!” A male voice called from the entrance. Freyr rushed to the gantry and leaned over as far as she could go to look at the exterior doors. Through the gloom, she could just about see a white-haired man in a tactical vest standing up after crawling through the hole.

He brought his gun up to his eye as 595 slowly turned around to face him. Freyr spotted another person crawling through the gap behind him as he stepped forward.

595 paused for a second before answering. When she responded she sounded drunk. “Gene? That you?” Then the Agent’s visor slithered off her face, she doubled over and threw up on the ground.

The Cradle

“I think the operations rooms are on the upper levels.” Freyr mused, thinking back to when she last visited. Admittedly, it had been a long time ago, and she’d only been cleared to access the ground floor.

“I was going to try and steal a copy of the floorplan, but I can't interface with the system anymore. In fact, I'm losing power now. We need to be quick.” 595 added, feeling a pressure in the back of her head which wasn’t there before. Was that something rifling through her mind as if it were a folder, looking at articles of interest? She looked around quickly, trying to spot signs for the infirmary or even a pharmacy locker.

Both of the Humans watched as Vreta vaulted up onto the level above. “I...can’t get up there.” Freyr said, nervous. “Stand over there.” 595 commanded, pointing to a spot directly under Vreta’s dangling arms. After a moment’s hesitation, she complied. 595 followed her, and crouched down, grasping Freyr’s thighs in a vice-like grip. The Agent’s suit whirred and clicked, with the pitch gradually increasing until she exploded upwards.

Freyr found herself flying up into the air, and her extended hands being gripped by the Rothian above her.

“I need to find an infirmary - I'm not doing so good.” The Agent coughed, looking up to make sure Freyr made it onto the gantry. “We’ll have a better chance of spotting it if we cover both floors.”

Song Reference time

You love the way
i look at you

The Cradle

Freyr stood motionless as Vreta disappeared, gazing up at the massive biped as it crept quietly towards them through the mist. It wasn’t giving off any predatory cues, apart from a fixing stare like the big cats she’d studied. Part of her was tired of running, and wanted to see what the creature would do if she tried to communicate.

But when 595 glanced back and saw Freyr wasn’t moving, she made it clear that wasn’t an option. “Move!” The Agent shouted, motioning to the hole with her gun. This made Freyr jump, and she jolted into action. Her shield flared against the hot residue around the hole as she scrambled through. 595 backed up with her weapon up as the creature loomed over the pond with the MRAP in it.

The Agent’s suit detected Human shouting in the distance, and tried to clean it up before Freyr called back “I’m through! Your turn!” 595 hesitated for a moment, then pursed her lips and turned to slither through the hole as well.

An oppressive atmosphere cloaked them in the lobby. Muffled creaks and a soft breeze wafted through the maze of walls and spikes around the trio. Freyr cleared her throat softly, then tried comms again. “GCHQ, we’re inside the...West entrance. What is the building’s status?”

“My readings are all over the place again, like inside the Object.” 595 rasped, then coughed chestily. “I don’t like this.” She finished, once she was able.

Freyr took no notice, she was looking around. It seemed that two broad, tall ‘streets’ branched off from this lobby on either side of the entryway. They must have been part of the ring-like superstructure - Freyr could see open gantries with a hint of the floors above. There was a set of doors directly in front of them too. “Which way?”

Halo: Aegis Team

After some consideration, Tar didn’t take any of the Forerunner toys. This didn’t feel like the right mission to be experimenting with body-vaporising armaments; any traitors deserved the point of her sword. She equipped an active camo battery but declined the other possible armour addons. Soldiers in her Keep fought hard but slow, weighed down by heavy, traditional armour. It was one of the things she had failed to modernise before she left. She needed to be light and quick on her feet to survive, as she wouldn’t be able to match their strength.

Tar headed to the staging hangar with others from Aegis Team. She walked slowly, calmly, with head bowed. She recognised the need to control her emotions, but didn’t understand all these last-minute additions. Not only was an ‘exploitation specialist’ now on the roster, whatever that was, but she also noticed a female Infiltrator tagging along too. They hadn’t spoken yet, and she wasn’t sure there would be time now. Tar growled, and shook her head slightly. No matter - there was a job to do. She’d do it alone if she had to. She patted her gear again, to make sure everything was exactly as she liked it. Excellent. The only thing left now was to get started. She looked at Commander 'Virisusai expectantly.