EliteCommander

The Cradle

“Void Company will leave the Cradle as soon as the civilian evacuation is complete, no sooner, and no later.” Rareth stated firmly. “I cannot force you to evacuate your forces, but you have been warned of the danger. I’ve only just started going over the recordings Vreta made, but what I’ve seen so far is nothing short of alarming. These observations of yours are not worth their lives.”

Rareth took just a moment to select a relevant point in the recording. Vreta’s implants had not captured anything that happened after Vreta passed out in the Cradle, but they did have the events leading up to that point, including watching the staff in the headquarters seemingly trapped in their own memories. With a hologram projected from her suit, Rareth showed Vreta’s perspective of them walking among the entranced Humans. “I may not know entirely what is happening here, but this is clearly not a danger that can be fought with guns and tanks. In no way can you guarantee their safety, so keeping them in there is a gamble with their lives as your chips. You say they know the dangers…so you are telling me that if you were to show them this, then give them the option to leave, none of them would take it?”

Halo: Aegis Team

Vael ‘Virisusai

---

For Vael, he knew when to take charge himself, and when to defer to the expertise of others. In this case, he knew they could not continue making progress in this storm, and Tar was the one with the local knowledge to help them navigate to safety. Even when speaking through the team’s communications channel, it was somewhat difficult to hear over the roar of the storm just outside their helmets. ”We cannot stay in this storm; we will wait it out in the caves.” He ordered.

Even at low speeds, it was still a challenge just to drive. At one point, a powerful gust of wind pushed against Vael’s spectre from the side and forced the side of his canopy into a tree. Fortunately, at such low speeds, it did not cause real damage, but it did illustrate the danger the storm presented. Had he hit somewhat farther back, his passenger’s leg could have been crushed. ”Tar, guide us into the caves! We need to shelter our vehicles as best as we can as well. We will need all of them to make it to our destination.”

The Cradle

Vreta was not accustomed to being in the public eye, at least not since he had been the chief executive of a major tech company a few centuries ago. That had involved a fair number of public appearances, though that was quite a different sort of situation than the one he found himself in now. Regardless, a news article would not change his purpose here.

Rareth let out a brief huff. “Your people should keep better control over your news media. Misinformation does not serve your people’s interests.” She remarked, though her focus did not stray long from the matter at hand. “Once the civilian evacuation is complete, I would recommend removing all personnel from the Cradle. Our objective was to allow this entity, this ‘Navigator’, to stabilize the Cradle, which appears to be working. We should observe only from a distance and continue to attempt communication. We do not know what measures the Navigator will take to repair the Cradle; it may even reset the simulation entirely, for all we know.”

Shifting her attention for a moment, Rareth briefly regarded Freyr and Vreta. “We should also move the Cradle’s away team, and any other critical personnel not needed on-site, to safety. They need a complete medical examination after what they have been through, and not to mention the ability to make their reports in peace. The Rothian cruiser in orbit can provide a safe space for them to work, not to mention the best medical treatment available. Given the recent security incidents, we simply cannot guarantee their safety here on Outremer.”

The Cradle

Vreta could not help but to be irritated by the state of the evacuation. Given how long the Cradle had been declining, nonessential civilians should have already been evacuated a week or more ago. The fact that there was still any meaningful number of people left to evacuate represented a failure on the part of Outremer’s government, in his mind. Soldiers were now forced to risk their lives unnecessarily.

Regardless, Rareth’Jharn was focused on dealing with the problems in front of her. “Void Company will continue to hold the Bridge until the evacuation is complete.” She remarked, watching the screen over the others’ heads from the back. “It may be necessary to send in more resources to the Bridge, but I do agree that we should be seeking to evacuate the Cradle overall. What is the current obstacle to clear communications? We need to direct any available forces within the Cradle to converge on the Bridge. Can we transit supplies or reinforcements directly to the Bridge to assist the defense?”

The Cradle

Although he was still generally disoriented, Vreta could still feel happy to hear that Freyr now had genuine hope for her family, as his smile would tell her. It seemed to rely on trusting the Navigator to help, granted, but if it was both willing and able to follow through on its promise, then that would at least be a good sign.

Vreta lacked the context to truly understand Freyr’s reaction after the Facilitator lead them to view the Cradle. This was his first time seeing the physical form of the Cradle itself, so aside from the presence of the Navigator, he was not sure if there had been any change to the Cradle to inspire her response. Regardless, he could finally see the object of so many people’s obsession for himself. It was simple, perhaps even beautiful to look at from the outside, despite the horrors that existed within. To Vreta’s knowledge, the Rothians had supercomputers of similar or greater physical size, though he had a feeling he had still not seen the true extent of the Cradle’s computing power to be able to meaningfully compare them. The size of a computer was only meaningful for similar levels of technology. He knew it could create a simulated world, of course, but even after all they had seen, its limits were still a mystery. For the sake of the people trapped in the Cradle, and those in the city above them, he hoped what the Facilitator said was true. If the Cradle did not continue to calm down, he did not want to guess what kind of harm it could cause.

To Vreta, his memories of what happened, especially in the final moments, were still fuzzy. Rhia was trying to clean up what she could, but even her normally crystal clear records seemed to have some kind of interference. It felt like a dream, but he knew better than to just discount what he had experienced. In the Cradle, even the strangest of experiences could still be meaningful.

“I think we need to focus on getting all of our people out of the Cradle. If the Navigator is truly calming it, then we do not want to interfere with our presence.” Vreta reasoned.

The Cradle

Vreta took a deep breath, growling slightly out of general discomfort. He was eager to take water as soon as it was offered, so it took him a few moments to actually get around to responding to Freyr. “I could ask the same of you. Everyone was going unconscious around me, then I…spoke to the Navigator.”

Vreta grimaced as some of the memories slowly came back to him. It was not entirely clear, at least not nearly as much as the events which had led up to it. “It spoke…more about the Hegemon. I remember it showed me some of what it could do. It believes we are going to need to work together against it, supposedly. I…it’s vague, but I think I know where we might find evidence of this Hegemon. It mentioned…you know it as Andromeda. The neighboring galaxy. The memory we saw back on Rothia happened in one of its satellite galaxies.”

The Cradle

Vreta naturally noticed the strange occurrences around him, but there was little he could do to make sense of them. In general, he had no options except simply to listen to what this being had to say. Eventually, the being’s appearance took on one resembling Vreta himself.

“What does this mean?” Vreta asked the “Navigator” with a low growl. Unfortunately, he did not have time to search for other options before he fell and his perceptions grew dark.

---

Vreta awoke with a deep, gasping breath. He recognized right away where he was, as he was back in the Vault in his harness. He felt like he had a mild headache, but otherwise was just disoriented. Right away, he had Rhia start a full diagnostics on both his mind and body as he tried to remember what had transpired.

The Cradle

“Are you saying that you will tell them to be cooperative with us?” Vreta asked, though he could not help but to admit to himself some frustration with this conversation. At every turn, it seemed, the entity was giving vague or incomplete answers to most of his questions. It did not inspire much confidence that it was trustworthy.

Vreta looked over the Rothian carefully. “If you can see in my mind, then you know I want to help. But we still need solid proof, solid answers. But my leadership will still need to be convinced. They cannot know your intentions like you know mine. Do you intend to share the data we spoke of before on the Hegemon, and help to find evidence of its existence? Having detailed information on our enemy will go a long way not only to convincing my own leadership, but that of every other species in the galaxy as well. As you’ve said, cooperation is not going to be easy, and it is going to take a lot of work to get the galaxy together and convince them to work with…well, I suppose I do not even know what to call you. Perhaps formal introductions would also be a good first step?”

The Cradle

“Two thousand years?” Vreta remarked, tilting his head. Obviously, such a claim challenged any assumptions Vreta might have been making about the Institute. “We would not have expected that. Either the Cradle has been communicating with Humanity long before they even left their homeworld, or the Institute is not led by Humans. Something else within the Cradle, perhaps?”

Much of what Vreta was learning felt hard to believe. He still could not be sure whether or not he should trust this entity. Finding proof of the Hegemon’s existence would be sufficient, if the entity gave him a location to search. Until then, though, he still wanted to learn as much as it would tell. “What is it that leads them? If their goal is truly to reunite you, then I do not see how our goals are in conflict. You are clearly important to them, so I imagine your word would carry weight among them. Could you to instruct them to cooperate with us?”

Halo: Aegis Team

Vael 'Virisusai

---

Vael took the driver’s seat of one of the spectres himself. It was going to be a long drive, so he wanted to be sure that each one was taken by an experienced driver. He did not want any delays in getting to their objective ,if they could be avoided. Although, he did still decide to defer to Tar to lead their convoy. Being a local, she had more intimate knowledge of the environment and terrain, especially surrounding the keep. He believed it would be wise to take advantage of her experience.

”Check your maps. Our objective is located on a plateau in the mountains near the keep. Once we come close enough, we will proceed on foot up the mountain. We will establish the communications jammer for the Human construct to use to cut off the cannon’s guards from the keep. Should we be detected, we must ensure there are no survivors to report our presence.” Vael explained as he prompted Tar to take the lead.

---

Although they had to move through a forest, the spectres were maneuverable enough that the team started out making good time. Once they came to a small river they could follow, they were even able to press on at full boost for over ten minutes straight. Naturally, the closer they came, the more cautious they would need to be.

However, before the cannon’s defenders could even begin to be a problem, there was another obstacle manifesting around them. The rainstorm surrounding them did not subside. Far from it, the storm grew ever stronger as time passed. Heavy rain turned into a torrential downpour, deafening thunder followed cracks of lightning every few seconds, and winds picked up to the point that the rain was falling near horizontally. The storm was strong enough that the spectres started to tilt in the wind. Vael had to turn his vehicle into the wind at an angle just to keep going straight, which only added to the issue of poor visibility. Vael could just barely make out the glow of the gravity propulsion drive of the spectre ahead of him. For those on the turrets, and especially the side passengers, it would be a struggle just to hang on.