Cath

The Cradle

“You are not mistaken. Science is what these ones are here for. Right, friend?” Gazes soothed, jumping out of its chair and blobbing over to Vreta where it clung to his back like a large rucksack. Its mobility suit elongated and ran down the length of the Rothian’s tail.

Chitnarit glared at Gazes Fondly over Vreta’s shoulder, pressing up against him on her large and powerful legs. Her salivation must have presented a strong odour, and from so close the glands which secreted powerful pheromones may not have been completely filtered out by the apparatus in the room before reaching Vreta’s nervous system.

“Let's just get this over with.”

---

The Tindrel and QV science teams joined the combined Human-Rothian Expeditionary Fleet in a neutral corporate system. It was far from Psi-Helios, run by huge multi-species conglomerates that didn’t pay much mind to the crew of their vessels.

The naval executives for each civilisation had agreed to participate in a joint exercise as a pretext for arriving near the Psi-Helios system. The scenario at hand was a fragmented jump from lightspeed from multiple vectors to meet aggression from an unknown adversary. The main Human, Rothian, Tindrel and QV elements would appear outside the system and attempt to link up and form an effective formation as quickly and orderly as possible. Then, they would split into teams and simulate a variety of naval battles on the fringes of the system.

While this was happening, a variety of civilian craft would complete tasks among the various non-native structures in the system, to simulate evacuation and data destruction etc. It was at this point that the science vessel would scan the Psi-Helios system. The Earther peacekeeping force had been notified, but what they may or may not do upon commencement of these exercises was yet to be seen.

After a day or so of confirming that all parties were ready to begin, the Rothian in charge of the overall exercise would give the green light to begin.

The Cradle

For a moment, it looked like Chitnarit may have put her expansive mouth totally around Vreta’s head when he turned away. But she contented herself with loudly gnashing her fangs while he was speaking instead. She then chimed in immediately after he’d finished, talking over several scientists who studied the holo closely and had questions.

“Perhaps we should scan the filthy space casino these ones have towed into orbit. Everyone knows it is a front for some scanning equipment of their own. Maybe a command centre?” She pointed a crudely formed hand at Gazes, who violently ejected Freyr’s reconstructed coffee mug out of its mobility suit. It flew fast towards Chitnarit, through Vreta.

“What about the Tindrel slave mills hidden among the asteroid belt? They have already found something, hidden away, haven’t you?” Gazes Fondly sloshed about in its swivel chair like a bucket of chum.

Halo: Aegis Team

As the breach was so small, a traffic jam inevitably ensued as the heavier armour filtered through into the city. Soldiers on the walls began firing small arms and chucking grenades down onto the vehicles beneath. Tar’s Wraith hung back slightly and pounded the walls with blue balls of plasma. She tilted her plasma repeater as far up as it would go and sprayed the parapets, forcing some of the Sangheili there to take cover. Her shield flared as a carbine bolt pinged off the Wraith and into her face.

“Clear the gap, move!” Tar yelled, ducking back down as far as she could go into her cockpit area as her gun overheated.

The Cradle

Freyr waited patiently for everyone to assemble around the map table. It sat near the mini-Vault, with one of its giant sides acting as a wall and projection screen if needed. When everyone was quiet and attentive, she began by pulling up a hologram of the Cradle; it hung above them like a pure white sun.

“Our working hypothesis is that the Cradle was designed to store, develop and index the potential for millions of life forms - both flora and fauna. It would travel between galaxies, seeding planetary objects with these organic blueprints so that life could flourish.”

“Why?” one of the Tindrel asked.

“We don’t know for certain yet. What we do know is that we’ve recently found a life form with an apparently symbiotic relationship with the Cradle. It calls itself the Navigator, and it was badly damaged when we rescued it. Apparently, it was attacked by another synthetic called the Hegemon. Most of them managed to escape - the Cradle, the Navigator and the others all hid in different places around our galaxy.”

“Who are these ‘others’ of which you speak?” A QV scientist burbled. It had stolen a Human lab coat and was now wearing it within its mobility suit.

“Other life forms like the Navigator, presumably. The Navigator’s name suggests that together they could form some sort of ‘crew’ that can effectively operate the Cradle. Unlock its true potential.”

Freyr waved one hand, and the hologram changed to show the Cradle being orbited by four smaller tetrahedrons.

“You said ‘most’ of them escaped.” One of Freyr’s team piped up. Throwing her a slow ball - nice.

“That’s right. The Navigator seemed pretty sure that one of them was either destroyed or captured by the Hegemon.” Freyr pointed at her subordinate. One of the four tetrahedrons blew apart into a million little pixels that drifted away from each other.

“So why are we here, near one of our planets?” Gazes Fondly asked. They were curled up on a swivel chair near the map table, their mobility suit totally encompassing it. This prompted an immediate reaction.

“This planet is ours!” Chitnarit roared, rearing up on her hind legs. She began pushing through the crowd for Gazes. Freyr looked for Knossos to find him and and one of Void Company jogging to her from by the door.

The Cradle

Dr Lang nodded a few times, arms crossed across her chest and clasping her sides. “It certainly is impressive, and no I…normally don’t swim about on the job.” She watched one of the Qalian-Vosh peel off from the group and dive through the nearest bulkhead door into the water, a couple more quickly followed. They navigated up one of the tubes at high speed, their forms completely optimised for agile swimming.

“Now might be a good time for a bit of ‘Who’s Who’. Freyr pulled up the team sheets in her head and asked her implants to match names and photos with the aliens milling around the hangar bay.

“Xenobiology, astrophysics, chemical engineering, artificial intelligence…lots of skills on paper here. Some people I can't place, either.” Freyr chucked the cross referenced list she’d created to Vreta. “That QV who sucked you into its suit; I don't see a record for them.”

The Cradle

The species stayed relatively separate on their journey to the lab. Gazes Fondly seemed to be in charge of the QV, marshalling them to group their suits together in one large amorphous blob. They appeared to have some kind of team meeting, swirling round together while their combined suit rolled along the corridor. The Tindrel kept trying, and failing, to latch onto the perfectly flat walls. The tiny hooks attached to their legs protracted and retracted dozens of times.

There was no welcome party on the ship, per say. There had already been an official exchanging of team sheets that frankly Freyr had paid little attention to. But shortly after moving from the acclimatisation chamber and into their new lab, Dr Lang spotted Knossos of the Sacred Band standing guard by the door. Freyr waved.

A loophole in the agreement for scientific expeditions meant that vessels could hire private military personnel to act as security and support staff. In the case of this expedition, that just so happened to include some of the most effective warfighters in the Diaspora. Captain Andersen had lobbied extremely hard to put her team on the ship, instead of a team from some other ship in the fleet. Outremer’s vestigial fief system meant that military officers were allowed to augment their retinue with elite and/or specialised individuals, using funds accrued from the various services an army or naval vessel can do for its surrounding community. Sending these special units to do ‘good works’ was a common way of building up their master’s status and influence. It also meant Captain Andersen could monitor the mission through the eyes of all the Sacred Band while they were on duty.

Knossos himself wasn’t in armour, for maybe the second time since they had met. His scarred and craggy skin was pale and his grey beard neatly clipped. Despite his advanced age, his crew uniform still bulged with augmented muscle. The sidearm on his hip wasn’t even close to standard issue. He nodded a fraction of an inch in reply.

Freyr turned her attention to the centre of the cavernous hall. After frenzied, technical collaboration, another miniature Vault had been transported aboard the Rothian science vessel. Manufactured secretly in orbit around Outremer’s moon, it was roughly fifty metres by fifty metres. Much smaller than the vault used to house the Cradle, it had been designed to perfectly fit another organism like the Navigator. If this other being was bigger, and the Navigator had declined to give any details, it could expand slightly at a large cost to its overall integrity. Dozens of Institute technicians jealously guarded its control systems.

The QV & Tindrel teams instantly swarmed over to take a look at the device.

The Cradle

Gazes Fondly reluctantly complied with Vreta’s request. The Rothian plopped out of the suit and all of the residual goo on his scales eventually dropped off and made its way back where it belonged.

The yellow-tinged QV blobbed through Freyr’s legs to where her mug lay smashed on the deskplate. Laying flat on the floor, its suit slurped up all the little ceramic pieces and with astonishing speed put them back together. The sludge acted like an adhesive, sealing it. Gazes popped the mug into its mouth to evaluate what may have been inside.

Chitnarit had calmed down a little bit, though she still clattered around on the metal floor with her hairy yet spiky legs.

“I should hope so. Your ship does not seem very comfortable - will you show us where you propose we will work?”

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

8.5k?

The Cradle

“Open your mouth, let me inspect you.” Gazes Fondly broadcast. Two translucent appendages floated up, gently grasped one row of Vreta’s teeth each and tried to lever them apart. The QV’s skin flickered yellow.

On the whole, the handlers assigned to receive the scientific teams had lost the attention of their audience. The Tindrel and QV were squabbling in the corridor like a bunch of school children until Freyr loudly smashed her mug on the wall. Ceramic pieces clinked to the floor. Most eyes turned to her, with a notable exception of Gazes Fondly, who was still gazing fondly at Vreta.

“Okay everyone, let's move back into the welcome atrium!” Freyr clapped her hands loudly together and made a shooing motion as she approached the group.

“We don’t have much time, so let's get you up to speed! Our Rothian hosts are excited to show you around.”

The Cradle

At the moment Vreta placed a hand on them, both the offending Tindrel and QV appeared locked together and delicately counterbalanced. After a half-moment of silence where they listened to the Rothian, the Tindrel rocked back off its hind legs and delivered a violent shove to the QV.

“Get off me!”

The QV’s mobility suit lost its shape from the push, but latched onto Vreta’s ankle. It swung around and quickly reformed around his whole body. The QV inside wrapped its various appendages around Vreta’s body and shimmied around until their respective faces were millimetres away. The suit was only just big enough for both of them.

“Greetings, you can call this one…Gazes Fondly.”

“The watery vermin need to watch what their FILTHY wetsuits are doing, or I will rend them down to a mere puddle.” The large Tindrel scientist croaked, clacking angrily on the deckplate.
“This one could say the same about the insects crawling all over your body, Chitnarit.” A second QV burbled. A crowd of the two species of aliens had appeared from the atrium, along with some Humans and Rothians.

Freyr finished her mug of coffee and started walking towards the hubbub.