The Life of Ryau 'Cinotee: Redux Act II Pt 2

Isolated Infinity

Twenty-Fourth Solar Cycle, 172 Cycles: 9th Age of Reclamation [September 20, 2552: 2327hrs]
Installation 04. [Alpha Halo]
SpecOps Science Major Naki 'Cimutee

Naki and Ryau walked up the ramp. The series of tunnels had panned out to nothing important, just leading even deeper into the inner workings of the ring. It was a job for one of the mapping drones Naki had brought along. They had been below for nearly ten minutes, and it appeared the the Unggoy had finished unloading the cargo crates marked for this part of the installation. 

“Well the crates appear to have been fully unloaded. Let’s go up to the main level and take a look at those teleporters.” Naki said. 

“You’re just going to send a probe through, aren’t you?” Ryau asked. 

“That is usually how it starts off with teleporters. Tests to see where they go, the effects on passage, basic things like that.” Naki started up the ramp, out of the basement. “Teleporters of this design are quite rare across Forerunner installations, the most common are black pads that run throughout a facility.”

“You know… if I’m remembering this correctly… the type that’s here was only found in one kind of place…” Ryau mumbled. 

“Yes… they were most commonly in the ‘arena’ areas.” Naki said. “Never in any mainline sectors.” She knew exactly what Ryau was referring to. In her oldest memories, she could remember that the multiplayer maps from the original Halo game were the only places that the style appeared.

The two left Alea behind on the lowest floor and made their way to the entry area on the ground floor. Naki opened a supply crate and took out a small silver sphere. It was similar to a holo-drone, they were manufactured by the same Armory. She thought about using the Kindler mapping device, only that would be good if the teleporter exited inside a cave. 

Sticking with the first probe, Naki walked over to the portal and tossed Ryau the control pad from the case. “Sync up with the probe.” She turned it over in her hands. “It’s probe Thirty-two.” 

Ryau glanced down at the control pad and swiped through the screens. “Alright… and…done.” 

The small light on the side of the probe lit up and it hovered a centimeter above Naki’s hand. With a light push, she sent the drone into the green wall of energy, and in a flash it had vanished.

“Let's see the pad.” Naki said, holding out her hand. Ryau quickly passed it over and she got a look at the readings. The probe registered a 150 millisecond delay between points, indicating that the receiving end was quite close. The positioning system pegged its location less than a hundred meters above them. Naki looked up and saw the probe’s icon appear on her ACI. 

Ryau glanced up where Naki was looking. “So it's close then?” 

Naki activated the camera on the probe and was greeted by a fish eye view of a Sangheili rear. “Erm…” With an accidental tap of a key, the probe accelerated forward, lightly boping them on the ass. 

At the moment of contact, the Sangheili jumped in surprise, the microphone on the probe even caught an audible “Eep.” Immediately after he landed, the Sangheili spun around to face the small drone. With a solid kick, the probe was sent spinning out of control off the side of the cliff face.

Naki furiously tapped the stabilizers in an effort to save the probe. Thankfully it stopped mere centimeters from the sand and water below. Running a quick diagnostic, the probe indicated that it was still intact. Naki took control and piloted the small, grenade sized drone back up to the top of the cliff.   

As the camera came back into focus, it revealed that there was a single Sangheili standing nearby the teleporter receiver node. Sig was clearly not pleased and his confusion could be sensed through the link. He looked around quite bashfully before vacating the spot. Naki guided the probe forward and began to follow Sig.

Unwilling to continue the charade, Sig drew his Plasma Repeater and fired a burst of plasma at the drone, missing all of his shots on purpose as he hoped to get his point across.

“Sig. I need you to inspect the drone. If it's damaged I’ll have to send another through.” Naki said through the intercom speaker built within the drone.

“Naki!” Sig answered with a soft growl. “Be more careful with where you try to place your drones.  My ass is not a landing pad!”

“Well, Ryau was flying it when I sent it through.” Naki looked over at Ryau and gave a teasing smile. She knew about the awkward interactions between Ryau and Sig. It was cute to watch.  

Sig gave quite the blush at this. “Please let it not be true…” He groaned in annoyance. “He could not wish to tease me that badly.” He grumbled lowly.

“I’m sure it was an accident, those controls can be very sensitive.” Naki said.

“And I am sensitive to his actions!” He barked out angrily as he picked up the drone in his hand to inspect it. “Your imbecilic toy looks of the most prestine condition, your majesty.  Now fly it away from me!” With a few quick taps, the drone hovered out of Sig’s hand and zoomed away. 

“Why would you say that, Naki?” Ryau pleaded. 

“Well you were the one piloting it when it went through. And besides, I think that Sig is good for you.. just not the kind of relationship he wants.”

“Oh, but why can’t he have that kind of relationship with somebody else?” Ryau groaned. "You took the controls from me, anyway." 

“That kind of relationship is frowned upon in most Sangheili states. So in turn, it's not so common out in the fleets.” Naki said.

“Surely with the amount of connected societies, Sig is bound to find someone.” Ryau said in turn.

“And Sig thinks that someone could be you.” Naki tapped Ryau on the nose.

“Great…” Ryau sighed. “Well I suppose that he would look better in a dress than you.” he play

“If that is what you want, then have at it.” Naki giggled. 

Ryau just responded in silence. A moment later, the probe flew back through the doorway and then landed back in its case. Naki popped open a small compartment on the drone, and used the cable inside to make a hard connection with her data-pad. She downloaded the hard data to her personal data-stick for later analysis. 

“Don’t worry, Ryau. This is all just me poking fun at you two.” Naki said. “Especially after what we did in the Spirit.” 

Ryau grumbled and rolled his eyes. Naki ignored him and laughed to herself. Over the next few minutes, they tested the other portal, to find that it led to a metal platform on the other side of the island. It really seemed like this place was a closed system. Other than the shaft they had found below ground, there did not seem to be any way off the island.

Sig walked into the room, and Ryau avoided eye contact with the other Sangheili. After just a moment, Alea came up the ramp, staring intently at her data-pad, Naki was about to ask if everything was alright, but Sig beat her to it. “Miss… Do you not understand that?” he asked with a raised eyeridge.

“I have not been the best at reading the Forerunner language… and my interpreter program is not functioning at the moment.” Alea answered.

Sig blinked at this several times. “Wait a moment… You are in the Science Division, more specifically the Forerunner Exploration ranks… And you can not read the Forerunner language?”

“Well...I am actually no longer part of the Forerunner division… I was only with the Fleet of Holy Respite to oversee the installation of a replacement reactor system on a cruiser. They sent me down to the surface of that planet because one of the Lances found a Forerunner site and I was the only person with any kind of experience…” Alea said. “I got caught up with Naki and ended up aboard the ship with you all.” 

Naki glanced over, Alea had not told her that she had left the exploration division over the last few weeks that they were catching up. “Why did you not tell me, Alea?” 

“I was worried that you would be disappointed in me. I always wanted to work in the same division as you… to do the things you do... but they revoked my status after the accident.” Alea fell silent.

Sig sighed heavily at such a predicament “Alea… You still should not even need an interpreter for the language.” he looked her over in a faint bit of disbelief. “Here… Look.” He began as he moved beside her and pointed at the large blurred out character in the top left corner of the panel. “This is the symbol for the word ‘open.’ Notice how it is blurred out? That means it is inactive for use.” He looked to her for a moment to see if she was following.

“Yes… I got that far.” Alea said with a hint of annoyance. “What I am having difficulties with is this.” Naki walked over as Alea pointed to a string of Forerunner characters on the image she had captured. Naki knew what they said, but she was interested to see how far Sig’s knowledge went.

“This line of text right here…” He pointed out the lightly highlighted line of characters on the other side of the control screen. “It reads. ‘Surface Access control.  Maintenance rate identification code required. System access prohibited to all lower rates.’” He read it again slower as he traces his finger along it to subtly try to imprint some teachings onto her.

“Hmph… thank you.” Alea turned on her heel and headed back down into the lower structure without another word. 

“I did not know that you could read Forerunner, Sig.” Naki said.

“Yes… I can…” He shook his head as Alea left.

“Where did you pick it up?” She asked.

“Well it is simple really… I read it from several books. You know I like to read; what else do you think  I do all day on my data-pad?”

Naki laughed. “Oh, I always thought you were looking up pictures of males on duty.” Honestly, she thought it was fifty-fifty, Out of the corner of her eye, she spied Ryau walking through the teleporter to get out of the room, the quickest point of escape.  

Sig’s face grew quite colorful as he stammered slightly in protest. “No! Of course not!”

“And how exactly can we be sure?” She asked with a giggle.

“Do you know how much of an uprising would happen if K’an found out I... was homosexual?” He exclaimed nervously. “He is taller and stronger than I…” He waved his hands suddenly. “No. no. no. no. no, absolutely not! Naki, please… You seem to not really care that much of my preferences, but in the name of the Gods be hushed!  I do not need such a thing to be open for the universe to know.”  

“Well, it's all in good fun here. I wouldn’t say it to anyone that didn’t know already.” Naki said, getting serious.

“I would greatly appreciate that… I usually keep it quiet… I would be surprised if D’rok even knows…” He looked down, thinking.

Before Naki could respond, there was a loud clunk followed by metallic grinding sound. “Alea what did you-” 

Alea came over the radio before Naki could finish. “I don't know whats going on the controls lit up and suddenly the surface hat-” 

Ryau cut her off in turn. “Naki! Get up here, you need to see this. The top of the shaft is opening.” 

Without missing a beat, Naki turned and stepped through the teleporter, For a split second, a wave of nausea flashed over her, she felt the familiar feeling of being stretched and then knitted back together that she had come to associate in the many times she had interacted with the Forerunner teleportation systems. In a flash she was standing above the structure, in the open air. 

Ryau stood at the edge of the small canyon that cut the island in two, and she quickly approached him as the grinding came to a halt. In the valley below, the massive hatch covering the maintenance shaft had slid to the side, completely opening it to the weather. 

“Ryau…” Naki asked. “Do you think that is big enough for a Spirit?” 

Fifteen minutes later, their Spirit had been fully loaded with the supplies Naki believed they would need at the next location. Sig was currently on the line with a mission handler trying to get additional warriors and support brought down so Naki could take some with her. But from where Naki was standing, the conversation did not sound like it was going well.

“Naki!” Sig called.  “Could you come over here and help me deal with the dispatch!?”

Naki sighed and activated her headset. “What is the problem?”

“Who am I speaking with, now?” The Handler asked as if annoyed.

“This is SpecOps Science Major ‘Cimutee, I’m in charge of this operation.” Naki said.

“Alright… What would you like?” The Handler asked. 

“What SpecOps Major Valhamee asked for. He was relaying my request.” Naki sighed. She does not usually deal with mission handlers, in most of her experiences, she had a direct line to force deployment on any ship.

“Yes… about that.  We can not allocate what he is requesting.  The most I can send to him is two Type-twenty-six Shade Turrets.”

Naki grumbled. “Well I need the additional forces. We located a tunnel that leads elsewhere on the Ring and I do not wish to split my forces here.”

The Handler sighed heavily. “Very well… I am sending a lance Unggoy and a file of Kig-Yar on top of his Shade turrets. That is all I can do.”

“Why is that? What is going on that prevents me from getting my requested numbers?” Naki felt a slight growl rise in her own voice.

“We are very busy up here, miss ‘Cimutee, and there are much more pressing matters than what you and Major ‘Valhamee are currently doing.”

“There are thousands of warriors up there that are not deployed, and each ship has hundreds of dropships, Explain why you cannot task one of the thousand you are not using to come here,” Naki complained. “Gods, I miss Zeik.” She mumbled under her breath.

“No, we can not do that. I am sorry.” He sighed, maybe he hated his job. “There are very important things going on right now that are very well above your paygrade.”

“Do you even know what this rank allows me to know? to do?” Naki asked. “I have a direct line to the Hierarchs. If there is something going on, then it is not because it is above my rank. But fine. Send what you can.” If something was going on, which prevented her from getting her forces, and she had yet to be notified, it must be bad. And there was only one really bad thing on this Ring.

“See, Tair’ee? This is why I hate doing this job!” He angrily barked off of the mic. “...Yes… Yes I know!  The budget does not allow for me to so what I want!” There clearly was some internal issues with the ship’s mission handler staff today.  “You don’t do the budget, Tair’ee, I do!”  The sound of the headset being placed back over the Handler’s head was heard through the connection.  “Cimutee?”

“What?” Naki sighed.

“I am sending you exactly what I told you I would.  If it is still an issue I recommend sending another request in an hour or so.”

“Fine, thank you.” Naki cut the connection. “Well Sig, did you hear that or do I need to repeat what they said?” She was a bit irritated now.

“No… I shut it off as I hate dealing with those idiots.”

“Well, you are getting Shade turrets and I am getting only six replacement units to take with me.” Naki said. “When they get here, send them into the Spirit, I will be waiting inside.”

“Yes, Naki.  Thank you.” Sig said, as Naki walked back into the Spirit. 

The Spirit was fully warmed up and ready to go by the time that the reinforcements arrived. As she had requested, Sig directed them into the ship. “Alright, pilot. Let's go.” Naki waved into the cockpit. 

“Yes. Major.” The copilot said, tapping the switch to close the hatches. 

The Spirit lifted off and circled the island, Naki found her way to a seat beside Ryau and strapped herself in. “Ryau, I don't know how much more time we have.” She whispered to him. Alea and the other warriors were in the other prong.  

“Well.. neither do I. I don’t remember enough.” Ryau whispered back. “But we know the signs, right?”

“Yes, we’ll keep a good look out while we’re down there.” Naki pulled a screen down from the ceiling and set it to view the Spirit’s front camera. 

The dropship did a single orbit over the open shaft as the pilot assessed his options before coming to a stop directly over top. The main camera tilted downwards and they began to descend into the hole. It was a close fit, but the shaft widened out after they passed the lip. “Just continue downwards, Pilot” Naki radioed. “It should bottom out into a larger tunnel network.” She pulled out her data-pad and began to track their progress down the shaft with the Kindler scan she had done while they were loading the Spirit. 

It was a long, and slow descent. Naki spied a few interesting landing zones that piqued her interest, but she wanted somewhere with a view of the sky. It was a mystery to how many experiments were conducted on a Halo, let alone what they did. From what she had learned on other Forerunner installation, the Halo rings weren’t used as laboratories for long, but the time scale of the conflict with the parasite was skewed beyond understanding. Being part of the Special Sciences Ministry let her have access to some very privileged information.

Infact, they were responsible for locating much of the information that would later help reclassify much of the Forerunner language over the past centuries. Which was probably why the Ministry was shrinking so much. The San ‘Shyuum did not like being corrected. If anyone was to speak about the information they uncover, they are either; killed, disappeared, or sent to the Geleterose Installation. Naki always treaded the line between acceptability and deviance.

“Ma’am, we have reached the bottom of the shaft.” The pilot said over the ship’s speakers. 

Naki returned her attention to the camera screen. The shaft had bottomed out into a massive, wide tunnel. There was a thick layer of fog, and Naki could even see the curvature of the Ring make the tunnel appear to disappear into the ceiling. “Head up spin.” Naki tapped the screen to put a directional indicator for the pilots. “Actually hold on a moment. Open the doors to the right prong. I need to send set something up.” 

“Uhm. Understood.” The Pilot said, bringing the Spirit to a stop. 

The hatch dropped open and Naki pulled the Kindler mapping drone from its case. She guided it out of the ship and had it attach to the right prong magnetically. It activated and began to map the tunnels. “You are good to continue.” 

The Spirit continued on through the tunnel, and the continually updating map showed hundreds of small outcroppings and secondary tunnels branching off. “How far do you want us to go, Major?” The navigator asked. 

“Let us continue on until we find another vertical shaft. I will send the mapping probe up to see if the shaft goes all the way up.” Naki wished she would have more time on the ring. She wanted, desperately, to unlock the secrets of its construction, but Naki knew their clock was ticking. 

They flew in silence for quite a while. Ryau was silent, looking at something on his data-pad. Naki glanced over his shoulder, the top of the document read; The State of Zelso and the Verano region, an indepth history. It appeared that Ryau was looking into the history of the area he was supposed to be from. Naki nodded to herself, it was a good idea for him, 

“Major Cimutee, we have found a vertical shaft.” The navigator announced. 

“Very good.” Naki made a few adjustments to the Kindler and sent it up the shaft. As it ascended, about mid way up, it detected something in the middle of the tunnel. It was only a partial scan of something large, “...so that either means that there's something hovering in the middle,” she mumbled to herself. “Or something is on its way do… Pilot move us away now!” 

The Spirit violently reversed, knocking Naki sideways into a seat. A dark grey craft dropped out of the shaft and accelerated towards the Spirit. The Human dropship screamed by, its nose mounted gun strafed the hull of the Spirit, punching many holes in the left prong’s plating. The co-pilot returned fire, scorching and melting the exterior plating of the Human ship’s engine pods. 

“Alea! Are you okay?” Naki shouted to the other side of the dropship. She leapt out of the seat and ran over. 

There was a fit of coughing, as Naki opened the door between sections. Smoke poured out of the doorway and the pilots activated the fans to clear the air. “Yes, Naki. I am still well.” Alea called back. 

“Is anyone hurt?” She asked. Naki received an all clear from everyone. The Kig-Yar squawked in response. She nodded and checked the damage, the shots had passed clear through the upper plating, and embedded themselves a bank of empty crash seats They would need to close off this prong if they hoped to make orbit.

“It's all clear, miss Excellency.” An Unggoy reported. 

Naki gave a sigh of relief and supported herself on the bulkhead. “Very good… Pilot, once the Kindler returns, continue on. We will not be going up that tunnel. When we regain contact with the surface, alert them of the Human activity.”

“Understood ma'am.” The pilot nodded from his seat beside her. “How is the damage?” He craned his neck to see around the controls.

“They shot through the hull. Everyone survived.” Naki nodded. There was a slight beep from the Kindler's control panel as it returned down onto the front of the dropship. “Looks like it is back in place.” 

The pilot nodded and slowly continued down the tunnel. Once again, there vertical shafts were few and far between. The first two the had come across were capped at the top by some sort of dome. However, eventually they came across a tunnel that looked nearly identical to the one they had come down in the first place. 

With a clear exit at the top, they rose up the shaft. Naki noted that this area did not seem to have a control station for the surface access, it felt unusual. They returned to the bright sunlight of the system’s star in a vast, rocky plateau. It was broken up by various box canyons and rock piles. Either the Ring’s designers wanted a large desert, or the unchecked weather systems took a real toll on the area. 

She scanned the horizon for any clue to why the shaft had been placed in the region. A flash of light caught her attention, and another one a half kilometer away. Naki pointed at the pilot’s screen. “Go there.” 

He nodded and flew towards the canyon the beams of energy had originated. The canyon in particular was shaped like the Human number eight. If one was to walk a channel, they would never reach an end, an infinite cycle. There were two towers on either side of the canyon, occasionally blasting energy into the sky. 

“Find a place to land, we’ll set up here,” Naki ordered. 

The Spirit located a clearing and set down. When the doors opened, Naki was one of the first to step out. From the air, they had not seen any signs that there were any Humans around, so it seemed relatively safe.  

The Unggoy and Kig-Yar massed beside her awaiting her commands. “Alright, you all split up and search the area. If you find any doorway, or signs of activity, alert me immediately.” They all nodded and fanned out across the area. 

Ryau dropped down from the Spirit. “From the look of this place we got from the air, we should have really brought along a couple of Ghosts.” 

“In the long run, yes that would have been a good idea.” Naki laughed. 

The Spirit’s engines powered down, and the pilots stepped out into the warm air. “Ah, just like home,” the pilot smiled.  

“More comfortable than the island we were on.” Their co-pilot agreed. They must have been from a more arid portion of Sanghelios.

“Then you two can set up the tents.” Naki said, “I’m sure that you’ll pick a good place.” 

“Fine, Major ‘Kisovaiee and I will set up the camp.” The pilot nodded and returned to the interior of the dropship.

Naki glanced around at the site, there was a large structure that was identical to others found across the ring. Each one shot energy into the sky for some unknown purpose, Naki had not yet gotten the chance to look into one to figure out why, and she did not have access to the data from the Prophet of Stewardship’s science lances.  

It appeared that the site was some sort of compound, the buildings and exits to the canyon were semi blocked off with the a strange pipe wall and there were towers near every opening. Naki looked up at the cliff walls, nestled into the rock were metal platforms, “Perhaps at one time, turrets were mounted over top.” Naki thought to herself. 

She placed her hand to her headset. “Make sure no one touches anything. This appears to have been a secure site at one time.” 

The string of awkenowlegments came from her warriors as Alea walked up to her. “What would you want me to do, Naki?” 

“You’re to head go to the top of the beam emitter. See if you can find an entrance into whatever this place was. Take an Unggoy file. Ryau and I will check that bunker behind the Spirit.” 

“Yes, Naki.” Alea nodded and started for the tower’s ramp. She waved to the Unggoy file and took them along. 

“Ryau, take a bedroll and enough rations for a few days. We may be down there for a while.” Naki pulled a bedroll and a sack of supplied from the Spirit. She clipped the bag to her back and handed a similar pack to Ryau. 

The small bunker had ramps on two sides, but a there was a doorway on the back side. The small square room had a sealed door on the other side. Naki took out her data-pad and searched for an open network of any kind. The door control glowed red and was not showing up. “So I will have to do this the old way…” Naki mumbled.

“Well let me see if I get lucky.” Ryau reached out to tap a random button on the panel. Only when the Device on Ryau’s wrist came into close proximity, a new symbol appeared on its screen and the control panel flashed green. “Erm… is that normal?” 

Naki walked over and pulled Ryau’s arm away from the controls. She looked over the Device, the new symbol read as Override. Something that was not expected from it. “That’s new…” Naki mumbled. “It appears that the Device will override some Forerunner security systems.” 

“You didn’t know that it could do this?” Ryau asked. 

“No, when it was recovered, the only information it gave was how to synthesize the serums required for species change. Nothing mentioned that it could unlock doors.” Naki tapped the blinking symbol and nothing happened. 

“Uh, please don’t do that, I don’t want to turn back into a Human in the middle of a Covenant science camp.” Ryau looked back towards the door. 

“Do not worry. If you don't turn back by accident while in combat, this won’t cause that either.” Naki joked and tapped the open button on the door’s control panel. The heavy doors parted to reveal a downwards ramp. Following it down, they were led into another square room with another ramp. The various other doors were sealed and their control surfaces were blank. 

Ryau and Naki continued downwards and deeper into the ring. It was almost like they were undoing the vertical progress they had made with the Spirit. As they went deeper, the air became cold and damp, and the ancient metal was wet with moisture. A faint rumble could be heard from somewhere deeper in the tunnels. 

In the depth of the installation they found the source of the rumble and why the surface was so dry. At some point in the history of the Ring, a river must have found its way into the corridors below and rerouted itself somewhere completely different. The chamber ahead was entirely flooded, a waterfall fed the underground reservoir at the far end of the room. It left down a raging torrent an equal distance away. 

“Up there,” Ryau pointed up towards a ramp that lifted out of the water. A green lit door sat at the top. 

“Well all we have to do is get across this.” Naki took her pack off and held it over her head. “It doesn't seem that deep.”  

Ryau removed his bag as well, as they began to wade through the water. Their path took them across the center of the room, there was a vertical shaft that appeared to go straight to the sky. Naki stopped when she felt the ground begin to tremble.

“Get back!” Naki pushed Ryau backwards and leapt forward. A burst of energy shot out of the water, filling the air with steam and breaking their energy shields. They were directly under one of the beam emitter towers. 

“Ryau, you alright?” She asked, trudging through the water and giving him a hand back to his feet. 

“Yes… I’m fine, but my bedroll is soaked.” Ryau grumbled.  

“It'll dry quickly,” Naki said. She looked up the shaft quickly. “Alea, send down two of the Kig-Yar. It's a pretty straightforward path to us. We've found a series of tunnels.” She said over the radio.

“What about me?” Alea asked.

“I need you to keep the line open and investigate the compound above, send a Transceiver node down to the flooded room. Hopefully then we can remain in contact.” Naki said.

“Yes, miss ‘Cimutee.” Alea replied. “Sending the Kig-Yar now.” 

Once the Kig-Yar arrived from the surface, they started off again. The water came up to the Kig-Yars’ chest and they squawked in annoyance of having to get soaking wet. The one T'vaoan, named Tik, held his Needler above his head, a move that was not actually needed for many Covenant weapons. Thankfully, the corridor on the other side of the room was dry. They walked for hours, Naki using the Kindler to map their path so it would be easier to find their way out when the time came. 

Eventually the endless series of doors, hallways, and sealed off rooms opened up into a large hexagonal shaped lab. They were on the upper catwalk. It seemed that this was indeed the end of the facility that they had access to. The catwalks ran around into another separate corridor where a ramp went down to the main floor. 

Naki came to a stop at the base of the ramp. “Well it seems that we’ve gone as far as we can.” She took a look at her data-pad’s clock. “We’ll stay here for the night.” 

“I don’t think we’ll be able to communicate with the surface down here.” Ryau commented as he removed his bag from his back. 

“No, we passed the dead zone as soon as we went two floors below the relay. If we found another shaft to the surface that would be another story.” Naki said. She slowly approached a curved wall inset between the the two catwalks. As she got closer, the entire wall lit up with holographic screens. Her data-pad blinked in her thigh pocket as it automatically connected to the Forerunner network that just came into existence. 

“Interesting…” Naki mumbled. It was unusual for something to automatically connect, the last time it had happened was when she had first found The Device. It forced a connection and downloaded the necessary information right onto her system. However, this one only seemed to give her access to a long dead system.  

The network hosted a collection of logs belonging to whatever Forerunner scientist had called this certain location home. Naki tapped a few buttons and began to copy them onto her personal data-stick. The logs were encrypted and whatever had come before had become corrupted over the millennia. With the network’s files downloaded to her data-pad, Naki stepped away from the control surfaces and set up her bedroll beside Ryau, underneath one of the catwalks. 

Ryau was on the ground, fiddling with his own data-pad. “Is your data-pad running slow?” He asked. 

Naki looked down at her own system. She tapped an icon, and it did indeed take a few seconds longer than normal. A few taps later and she had opened the data-pad’s processes and her screen was suddenly filled with lines of code and information. Only it was not being downloaded, but sent away. Something was pulling information off her data-pad.

They were disconnected from the Covenant Battle-Net so this was not a tap by Hierarchs nor was it compromising the security of the fleet. Naki’s eyes shifted over to her wrist armor controls, whatever was going through her data-pad was doing the same to her armor.

She ignored the intrusion and took a closer look at the network. Naki sent a ping to the system to explore the connections. It appeared to originate in the room, but all the data it was siphoning off was being sent somewhere else.

“Yes, it is running slow. I'll find out why.” Naki said. She stood back up and walked over to the control surface. Scouring over the words and panels, Naki found the stations standard signal analyzer.

With the press of a button, a map of the region flashed before her. An icon appeared above her location on the map, with a line extending off towards the gas giant the Ring orbited. Curious as to what could be there, Naki tapped the end of the line.

The hologram shifted and zoomed towards the planet's surface. It highlighted some sort of station that hung into the planet's atmosphere. “I wonder what's there…” Naki mumbled. “Ryau, is anything else behaving strangely?” She glanced back over to him on the floor.

Ryau checked his data-pad and then his armor like she did. “Well… The Device, there are a lot of panels that just appeared, just scrolling some sort of information” 

“So this is scanning our armor, data pads and even another Forerunner Device… What could this want?”

Suddenly, a voice came from one of the screens. It was a soothing, almost nice voice. “Goodness!” It said in Sangheili. 

Naki stepped back from the wall. “By the Rings?” 

The voice spoke again. “Finally… a scientist,” it paused. “You are a scientist, right?”

She still was not entirely sure what she was listening to was not a recording. “Yes… yes I am.” 

“Very good! I am quite pleased to find a scientist… Why is this a rarity for your species?” The voice asked. 

She sighed. “Uhm, well they mostly do not favor the knowledge aspects of life.” Naki looked back towards Ryau, he rose from his bedroll to see what was going on. He walked over and silently stepped behind her. 

“That is not very desirable… Either way,I will be quite direct with you. I need your help, Sang-heili.” It was definitely a male voice on the other end of the communication line, however it sounded semi artificial. 

Naki was suddenly curious, “With what?” Whatever this creature or Associated Intelligence was, it appeared to be very old. Perhaps even Forerunner in nature.

Almost immediately, the latter idea was put to rest. “Well, unlike the wretched Forerunners who built these idiotic mass extinction devices, I have nearly completed a project that would completely solve the issues with the crafted enzymatic compound that everyone seems to label as the Parasite.”

With the implication that the entity on the other side of the com-line was not Forerunner, yet appeared to be just as old or older, made Naki even more curious into the thing’s final point. “Well, how can I help with something like that?” She asked.

“I need someone to put the final pieces together.” The voice said. 

Naki wanted to know what she was talking to, and she wanted to know it as soon as possible. “And, who and what are you?” 

“My name is Prey’Teir…” There was a rumble from the other side of the com-line. “Actually… It would be best that I told you in person.”

Naki glanced to Ryau to see what he thought about it. He just shrugged and shook his head. “Okay… when can we expect you?” 

“Within a little while. Before the planet completes a full rotation.” And with that, the communication ended. The line between the Ring and the Gas Giant disappeared and all the screens winked out of existence.

Naki pulled up her data-pad and checked its systems, whatever had been going through them had ceased as well, along with the network that had been in the room. Though the files were still there. “So… we’ll be getting a visitor tomorrow.” Naki said. 

“So it seems… that was weird though. It talked like it wasn’t Forerunner.” Ryau glanced over to the Kig-Yar who had also had their interest piqued, the two had gathered just below the slightly raised platform the control area was on. 

“It might be older… a construct from before the reign of the Gods.” Naki suggested. She knew Ryau was not a scientist, but he did know quite a lot about the lore of the universe in the time before they were taken into this reality. However, that had been over thirty solar cycles ago, he may have lost much of that knowledge. 

Ryau looked up, trying to remember something deep in his mind. “I… maybe the Precursors?” He rubbed his forehead. “I don’t remember much about them.” 

“Right… I didn’t think about them.” Naki smiled at Ryau, being as smart as she was, there were still things that she forgot. “There have been sparse mentions of them across the Forerunners’ worlds. In our religious texts, they were noted as being a rival to the Gods, which the Forerunners vanquished in an epic battle millions of solar cycles before we came to being.” Naki walked off to the side of the platform, as if moving would help stir thought. “They are also sometimes mentioned as the Gods of the Gods. It honestly depends on which teaching of the Great Journey you look at.” 

“Is that what we be meeting?” The other Kig-Yar squawked, Naki made note that his name was Yun, though telling the two apart would not be difficult at all. 

“It seems possible.” Naki said. “Good thought, Ryau. Either way, we’ll still stay here for the night. We will prepare in the morning.” 

The two Kig-Yar nodded and went back to their bedrolls, chattering excitedly about the prospect of meeting such a religious figure. Naki walked back to hers and removed her helmet. Ryau sat beside her and tapped her data-pad. “What kind of things did you get?” He asked. “Maybe it might explain what we just heard.” 

Naki slapped herself in the head. “I completely forgot about that.” She pulled her data-pad from her hip and ran an auto-decryption program on the entries she had pulled from the network. 

The program broke through the encryption of the first three entries fairly fast. The others remained locked, she would have to work on them herself. The dates for each entry were lost to time, Naki had no way of recovering them, or the amount of time that had passed between them. 

ENTRY ONE "Today has been very exciting for my assistant and I! We have been working on performing different types of pings throughout the galaxy and we received a response. While I know this may not be all that important or safe as finding a way to destroying the Infection, but we have found that the entity that replied was of non-organic make up; something that could definitely not be the Flood."

ENTRY TWO "To much of the surprise of our facility, the entity I had mentioned in my previous entry had somehow discovered our location and joined us in person. We now have the pleasure of meeting an actual Precursor ancilla. It has been several millennia since any Lifeworker has recorded one of these ancilla’s in operation. What seems to be the most amazing thing is that it seems to be excited to work with us...  We are going to see what it has to offer."

ENTRY THREE "My goodness, he has a lot to talk about. Prey'Teir, the name he identifies himself by, has told us much about somethings I, myself, did not know and do not fully understand. It is quite amusing to me though, as vast as his knowledge is, his vessel of choice seems quite subpar to what we have seen in the Domain. He claims to have built his own body chassis from parts of ancient armor and the components of other exotic machines. Strange, but it is acceptable I suppose." 

Naki scrolled through the short entries. She was somewhat disappointed to find that they held very little actual data, but a look into the life of a Forerunner was still interesting nonetheless. 

“Well?” Ryau asked from his own bedroll. 

“You were right, Prey’Teir is Precursor. It seems like the Forerunner that wrote these entries had come across him and he wanted to work with them as well.” Naki glanced over. “I wonder what prevented them from finishing, was it the Halo activation?” 

“It probably was that. I seem to remember that the activation was not known by most Forerunners.” Ryau said. 

Naki looked over to the Kig-Yar, they were busy watching some sort of holo-vid on a data cube. “You know, Ryau. If we didn’t come into this world in the middle of a war, we could be the two leading Forerunner scientists. We could revolutionize what the Covenant know about them.” Naki laughed. 

“There is always the reality that comes after this war is over.” Ryau said. “We will be able to do so much,” he laughed as well. 

“We will… But in the immediate future, we’ll probably have a busy day tomorrow. We should get some sleep.” Naki lied back into her bed and held a tab. The pillow inflated beneath her head, to her desired size and firmness. She sighed and closed her eyes, quite a busy day indeed.