EliteCommander

The Cradle

“I am assuming the object is already underground.” Vreta commented. It was not a surprise to him that the situation in the Cradle had been deteriorating. His last visit had been beset by danger even in what was supposed to be the safest place in the Cradle, and the Humans had shown no signs of being able to turn back the tide. Hopefully, the entity would be able to solve these issues. It was of the same origins as the Cradle itself, so it stood to reason that it would know more about its operation than either of their species. Still, he did share at least part of Freyr’s uncertainty. He still felt it would be best to keep their distance, but he was starting to think he understood why Freyr was willing to take the risk. Not only was her family at stake, but the Cradle was her life’s work: a life that was much more brief than that of a Rothian. She did not have the luxury of time to be able to make a new legacy.

Vreta nodded, shifting in place in his seat as they started to hit turbulence. “We don’t know what this entity is going to do in the simulation. For all we know, your terraforming could be part of what has been causing this aggression from Cradle beings. When the entity integrates, it may well reshape anything or everything within the simulation. It would be my recommendation that no one be in the simulation unless their presence is absolutely necessary, with redundant transit stations nearby and ready for a quick extraction.”

Halo: Aegis Team

Once again, the rebel commander proved quick to react to danger. As soon as he saw a Spartan taking aim, he ducked into cover in the pelican while he loaded in another grenade. Grikgar, however, required hardly more than a few moments to eagerly follow Spartan Ryker’s suggestion. His fuel rod cannon was already at the ready, after all. Pelicans were generally well-armored, but there were weak points, especially near the engines. Naturally, Grik knew right where to aim to disable one of the rear engines.

The commander had slowed Aegis team down enough that his soldiers were able to make it into the hold, but just as the pelican started to lift off of the landing pad, a fuel rod detonated inside one of the rear thrusters. Dropping back down onto the pad, the pelican started to spin and scrape across the ground until it came to rest on its side.

It had been a slow crash, so there were few injuries for the passengers inside. As the commander climbed out the back, he shouted back to the soldiers behind him. “Go, get to one of the others! I’ll cover you!”

The rebel commander wasted no time in sprinting away from the crash in the opposite direction as the rest of the soldiers. He flicked on his shield gauntlet once again, running and weaving between crates for extra cover as he took potshots at his attackers with the magnum in his other hand. Though, even for those among Aegis with weakened or depleted shields, his blindfire was of little real threat.

To Vael, for a few moments, it seemed assured that their quarry would be theirs shortly. However, the commander had one last surprise for them. Once he was far enough from the pelican, he stopped near the edge of the platform in a rather strange defensive posture. He held his shield low to protect against wounding attacks, while leaving his head exposed. On top of that, he threw off his helmet, revealing a middle-aged, bald and scarred visage. He pointed his magnum not at his enemy, but at his own head. He seemed aware of the risk of being disarmed, as he tried as much as possible to keep his own head between his enemy and his weapon.

“Stay back!” He shouted. “I know you want me alive; I’d be dead already if you didn’t. Well, you want your prize? Then we do this my way!”

The Cradle

Vreta supposed he should not have been surprised at the crowds. Even without knowing the full picture, there was no avoiding that the citizens would know something was wrong with the Cradle. It was simply too integrated into their infrastructure for it to be practical to hide its problems, especially when those problems started to spill over into the real world. That alone would be enough to inspire some to want to get off-world. Vreta just hoped that it would end up being unnecessary.

Sitting back in the passenger hold of the cutter was certainly more comfortable than the buggy. It still had some extra space available when they set out towards the surface. They would be getting to work immediately upon arrival, so Rhia was already encouraging Vreta to get himself prepared for whatever surprises might be in store for them.

The formally-dressed individuals who had greeted them were not people who Vreta recognized. He could not say for sure what organization they belonged to, but it was likely a safe guess that they were informed about the Cradle, at least. As they were starting to pass through the clouds, Vreta looked down at the tall man across from him in the hold. “Do you have any up-to-date information on the current state of the Cradle?”

The Cradle

Vreta exchanged polite farewells with the Captain before climbing into the frontmost buggy. Right away, he felt cramped trying to find a comfortable way to sit in a vehicle clearly not meant for him. There was at least no roof he had to duck under, but the seat was small for him, he had little leg room, and he could not avoid crowding up against Freyr beside him. There was no place for his tail, so he had to lean forward in his seat, which only made the problems of leg room worse. At the very least, it would only be for a short time. “Trust me, I have no plans on dying, Dr. Lang. Ideally, no one will be in a position to test Marae’s protocols today.”

---

All things considered, it was quicker to get through the space station onto their shuttle than it had been on Rothia. Their official, and time-sensitive government business meant they were processed through the station and herded onto their shuttle in mere minutes. It was one of the unmarked government craft that Outremer officials preferred to use when they did not want to draw attention. The Rothian frigate had made it more quickly through FTL than the Barbarossa, so the Rothian science team was likely already on their way to the surface.

Vreta did not show it outwardly, but he was nervous for whatever was to come. He did not much care for the uncertainty, and despite all they had learned, the entity was still a huge unknown. For the moment, at least, Vreta could once again stretch out his legs in the shuttle.

The Cradle

Vreta shrugged. “Perhaps being powerless isn’t the worst thing here? If everything goes to plan, the entity will be able to solve your problems with the Cradle. If not, well..we might not be able to do much ourselves regardless.”

There were just a few seconds of silence before Vreta let out an audible sigh. “I know I’m not going to dissuade you. I’m not entirely sure why I tried, to tell the truth.”

Vreta stuck alongside Freyr after Dr. Wetherall convinced them to get moving. Vreta had already been ready to leave, so he could simply follow her straight to the shuttle. “Well, at least I can take some comfort in the fact that we…might have some extra protection this time around. I was talking to Marae earlier and she thinks her emergency protocols are ready for their first trial run. She did stress to me, about seven or eight times, that she can’t guarantee they will work. She thinks they will, since they performed well in simulations, but the problem was more difficult than she was expecting. Still, the Rothians are going to have the protocols active on all our harnesses. I’d suggest you do the same for yours. Even if we can’t guarantee they’ll work, well, they only trigger in the event of Cradle death, so it’s not like it would hurt to have them. Hopefully, we won’t need them.”

The Cradle

Vreta leaned somewhat onto Freyr’s desk as he stood beside her, looking down at her screen. “Honestly, I don’t think we should go back in right away.” He answered. “From the reports we’ve gotten, the simulation has become terribly dangerous. Maybe we just need to let the entity “do its thing”, so to speak? I imagine it understands the technology within better than any of us. Surely it doesn’t need our help to do what it needs to do?”

It did not take long for the Barbarossa to drop out of FTL above Outremer. From orbit, the planet hardly looked any different from when they left. There were occasional power outages that darkened some areas, but for the most part, cities were still lit up and active. Outremer’s defense fleet was still on its guard, ships still moved from the surface to the orbital stations above, trade still flowed. The planet’s citizens knew something was happening; that much was unavoidable. But, they did not yet know of what could happen.

After a moment, Vreta looked at Freyr more directly and let out a chuckle. “Though, something tells me you’re about to give me a reason why we have to charge head-first into a virtual warzone. Go ahead, I’m prepared for it.”

The Cradle

Vreta was some distance behind Freyr, halfway across the room. The form of a brightly-colored Rothian woman loomed over her, watching her screen from over her shoulder. Though, of course, Vreta was the only one to see her. ”You’re actually worried about her.” Rhia remarked.

By this point, Vreta had grown accustomed to avoiding giving any reaction to Rhia that an onlooker might notice. ”Even I’ve noticed that she doesn’t seem to be in a good place. Sure, all of this does have me worried, but it’s a lot more…personal for her.”

”Yes, yes, that much is obvious. I wasn’t wondering why she was upset. I was wondering why it bothers you.”

Vreta grunted…mentally, at least. ”What, are you not programmed to feel sympathy? I thought you were an AI, not glorified software.”

Rhia’s avatar quickly re-appeared just beside him. “I can feel sympathy just fine. Sometimes it’s just better to stay detached on a mission.”

Vreta pushed himself away from the support column he was leaned against. ”Well, you can just ‘detach’ yourself from my field of view. We’re about to traverse, and things will probably move quick once we’re there.”

From the perspective of those inside the ship, away from any viewport, there was nothing at all to hint at the activation of the gateway. It warped spacetime to the point of punching a hole through it to a point many light years away, but from the perspective of the ship, they simply…arrived. The gateway had been brought into orbit around a gas giant in the same system as Outremer, though the Object itself would have been sent straight to the planet itself. The counterpart to the much smaller gateway it had used had already been assembled near to the Cradle, so an Outremer team could handle the start of its arrival. The Barbarossa and the Rothian frigate would not be far behind. Already they were calculating their jumps, so it would only be a few moments to their destination. It would take much longer to actually get down to the surface from orbit.

Finally, Vreta approached close enough behind Freyr to be noticed. Provided she was paying attention. “Need any help packing? I’m sure you don’t want to keep the shuttle waiting.”

The Cradle

“Maybe I will.” Vreta commented as he was climbing into his shuttle. “You should come for a visit, though. Like I said, we can get lunch. Besides, there was something I wanted to show you. Still, it’s not like I can force you to do anything. I just hope you will think on all you’ve seen. With what you saw, it’s fair to say that you know me better right now than anyone else, except perhaps Eti’s team. You’re not the one in charge, I know, but that doesn’t mean you’re powerless. Your people don’t have to stand alone.”

---

At the very least, the team did not experience any more complications to their plan. Every part of their plan, from the gateway’s arrival at Outremer to the Object’s return from its orbit of the void star, had been calculated down to the minute. The Object, which was currently slotted inside a specially-built frame with gravity thrusters for propulsion, was moved into position within its gateway’s transit zone.

As for the Barbarossa, it was finally cleared to move into position to transit to the larger gateway the Rothians had brought to Outremer. It was accompanied by a Rothian frigate outfitted to the Rothian science team’s specifications. Though, much of the lab equipment on-board was intended to be transferred to the Rothian cruiser already on-site eventually. The science team had grown larger over the past few days as more specialized experts were assigned to join, but all of the faces that the Humans were familiar with would still be joining them. Naturally, Rareth’Jharn was given command of the Rothian contribution to the operation, and even Nirann was able to come along, in a manner of speaking. His AI core was still vital to Threria’s infrastructure, and it was not practical to remotely puppet an avatar across light years. But, just as he could copy his mind to enter the Object, so too could he send a copy to join the team.

The Cradle

Vreta chuckled slightly, crossing his arms as he paced back and forth near the balcony’s railing. “You say that, but you haven’t seen what a Rothian does when one of our children is threatened. It’s less that our parents are attached to us, and more that we are attached to all of our children.”

Eventually, Vreta took a moment to call for a shuttle to bring him home. He would be heading home regardless of how 595 answered him, so there was no point in delaying. “Personally, I feel fine, though I don’t think there can be anything ‘ordinary’ about having someone else’s memories in your head. I remember being you. Your thoughts, emotions, sensations. I didn’t notice it as much at the time, but now that I’m thinking back on it, there’s all these little details that just stand out to me. The way my, or…your hair feels, your clothes brushing up against your skin, or that feeling of sweat on your brow. I always thought there would be some sort of sensation accompanying your pores secreting water, but it was just…there all of the sudden. Of course, your memories are a curiosity to me, but the important ones right now are the ones we were shown of the cephalopods. I remember being the senator, the one who made the decision to evacuate their world. Do you think you would be willing to come down here to talk? After what happened with that signal scanning us, I’d rather talk in person. Freyr will be perfectly safe up on the Barb, and I would like to figure out if there is something in our memories that will help us locate those cephalopods’ world. If we could actually find their world, that would go a long way towards proving this story about the Hegemon.”

The Cradle

“True, maybe it isn’t your decision, but you still have choices, Agent.” Vreta replied. “Do you truly have no influence? Is this “will of the Cradle” concept floating around in my memory a literal one? By that, it would sound like there is something intelligent within the Cradle that you follow. Perhaps you do, perhaps you don’t, but either way, would it surprise you to learn that it would not be a ‘deal-breaker’ for my people? We just want to know who we are dealing with, to understand. This has become about more than just Humans or Rothians. You heard what that entity said firsthand. If it was telling the truth, then it created my people. And we are willing to help it reunite with the Cradle. When it does join with the Cradle, do you think it will still want to push us away, as your people have? Or will it want to continue working with us?”

Vreta could not help but to be frustrated by the uncertainty of it all. The memory of 595’s he now had did strongly suggest there was more to the Institute than they let on, but it was still only a slice of the truth. He was not lying about the fact that they would still be willing to work with them, but that did rely on the Institute not having too objectionable of goals. If they were working for the betterment of Humanity, that would at least be something the Rothians could work with.