Eleven: Silver Emergence

The In Amber Clad arrived at the Coelest system alongside Regret's carrier, dropping out of Slipspace with a sharp jolt and sending crewmen flying if they weren't strapped in. "Report!" Miranda called once she recovered.

"Both engine cores have spun to zero," one of the bridge officers answered, "We're drifting."

"Archer pods are cold," another said, "I'll need to re-key the system."

"Do it," she ordered, "and find out where we are."

Inside one of the ships' troop bays, the Spartans were doing quick checks of their drop pods. Only Blue and Gray Teams had made it onboard before the jump; the rest of them were still on Earth or elsewhere in the colonies. They were just finishing up when Miranda came over the COM. "Sorry for the quick jump, Sergeant," she said to Johnson, who was in another pod next to them, "Are you still in one piece?"

"I'm good," the man answered, "Spartans?"

"We're fine," Cortana replied. She was monitoring their biosigns; none of them had received so much as a bruise from the sudden deceleration.

If there was any response from any other parties, it was cut off when one of the bridge officers hailed for all of their attention. "Ma'am, there's an object, coming into view now."

She inhaled sharply, then routed the image down to them. "Cortana, what exactly am I looking at?"

Once the ship cleared the New Mombasa debris field, the AI didn't even need more than a second to confirm. "That is another Halo."

Johnson choked. "Say WHAT?!"

Almost to herself, Commander Keyes said, "So this is what my father found." Then, louder, "I thought Halo was some kind of super weapon."

"It is. If activated, this ring will cause destruction on a galactic scale." She had already prepared a briefing for the woman before she even asked for it, and routed it up before taking the extra time to subtly ping the area.

Another one of the fleet's ancillae, Shadow of All Night Falling (or Shadowfall for short), responded softly from under the surface of one of the ring's oceans.

"Where's our target?"

"The enemy ship is stopped just above the ring, ma'am. We're going to pass right over it."

"Perfect. Given what we know about this ring, it's even more important that we capture the Prophet of Regret, find out why he came to Earth, why he came here. Chief, take first platoon; hard drop, secure our landing zone."

The Spartan flashed an acknowledgement.

"Sergeant, load up two flights of Pelicans and follow them in."

"Aye aye, ma'am."

"Until I can move and fight, I'm going to keep a low profile. Once you leave the ship, you're on your own."

Johnson banged twice on Fred's pod as he passed by, and the Spartan hit back, answering "Understood," to the commander.

"Hang on to your helmet," Cortana advised, right before they were jolted again, gentler, their drop pod released and sliding free of In Amber Clad. Fred's sharp ears picked up the sounds of other pods sliding free of the ship before they dropped out of range, aiming for the ring below. The pod's onboard computer automatically tracked his descent and the other pods with him - four Spartans and half a dozen ODSTs.

The airbrakes snapped open, right before the braking thrusters fired, and one of Cortana's personality spikes hissed, "Ready yourselves, organics."

They hid the ground with bone-jarring thuds. Even Fred was stunned for a second, but then he kicked his pod open, SMG in hand. There were two plasma turrets that they needed to take out, and he grabbed his rocket launcher before moving into cover, one of the Helljumpers right behind him. The ODST covered him while he drew a line on one of the turrets, then fired and destroyed it and the gunner with it. Then he turned to the one atop the Forerunner ruins nearby - he hadn't been aware the Forerunners built in stone - and fired another rocket to destroy that turret as well.

As he reloaded, he heard one of the other ODSTs, probably their squad leader, shout, "Clear this LZ; the Pelicans are right behind us!"

Fred climbed the embankment and took cover behind one of the drop pods, firing on a pair of Jackals. The rest of Blue Team was on the far side of the ridge, going after a cluster of Jackals and Grunts with their combat knives rather than wasting ammo. When all local nonhumans were dead, they moved up through a narrow gulch cut by flash flooding over a hundred thousand years, and then into the ruins themselves. They caught the Grunts hiding inside by surprise, but the Elites were a bit more of a challenge - though not so great that they weren't killed.

Fred and Sam cleared the upstairs of the two aliens there, then Cortana said, "Artillery disabled, Sergeant. Landing zone secure, for the moment."

"I hear ya," was the reply, "Startin' our approach, hang tight."

Cortana closed the COM channel, continuing, "Easier said than done. Inbound Phantoms!"

Fred took up a position on the second floor, while Linda climbed up onto the roof and concealed herself in the branches of a tree with a captured beam rifle. Kelly and Sam arrayed themselves in front of the structure while the ODSTs took cover inside.

They were just in time. The Phantoms arrived right as they finished getting into position, and both fired on them as they dropped their loads of troops. Mostly Jackals from the first, and two Elites and their cadre of Grunts from the second; most of them were dead before the Phantoms had even departed.

There was another one right behind them, but Cortana was confident in their skills; the Spartans and ODSTs wouldn't have survived this long if they couldn't defend themselves adequately. There were three Elites this time, and more Grunts than Jackals, but even so, that didn't mean they were able to put up much of a fight, especially not against four of the "Demons." The last one fell just as the AI spotted the Pelicans on approach.

Both of the birds carried reinforcements, but only one had a Warthog; there hadn't exactly been time to load up In Amber Clad before they raced after Regret's carrier. But Kelly's speed and endurance meant that she could keep up with the Warthog in the way others could not, so when she gestured to herself, Fred nodded his permission. The other three gathered up as Johnson spoke, "I got a good view comin' in. There's a big building in the middle of this island's lake."

"I saw it too," Cortana agreed, "It looked like a temple - or what the Covenant would call one, anyway. If I were a megalomaniac - and I'm not - yet - that's where I'd be."

Someone let out a bark of laughter, but it quickly became a cough.

The Warthog landed with a bounce, and the three Spartans piled in, Kelly already running ahead. The ODSTs that dropped in with them would stay behind to cover their backs and prevent any aliens from using the promontory as a drop zone. If any of them were jealous or resentful of the Spartans, they said nothing about it.

Beyond a short and narrow canyon was a massive lake. There were a handful of ancient stone structures jutting up out of the water, including the "temple" Cortana had identified, and the rock walls ringing it were nearly sheer, weathered and gray, with the occasional stubby plant growing here and there.

Fred gunned the LRV through a tight curve and off a low ridge, catching the attention of the Jackals assigned to guard it. Linda put them down with the turret, even as one of the ODSTs came over SQUADCOM: "Dear Sarge, kicking ass in outer space, wish you were here."

"I heard that. Jackass."

Blue Team allowed themselves a brief roll of the eyes before returning to work. They followed the path along the edge of a cliff, arriving at a large structure on their side of a gulf, some kind of segmented bridge and its control center. The Covenant were already there, of course, and greeted them with plasma fire; a Sangheili took control of a Ghost and skittered their way while two Unggoy manned plasma turrets.

Kelly darted over to another Ghost that sat unmanned, claimed it for her own, and went after the Elite. Fred chose to run down a pair of Jackals that had exited the structure right in the Warthog's path and spun the wheel sharply to bring them around before they could careen off the edge and into the gulf. They bounced over part of the retracted bridge and swung around again to support Kelly against the Elite.

"They're trying to bottle us up on this side of the gorge. The controls for extending the bridge should be here." The AI put up a nav point and let them have at it, turning her attention back to the fleet.

'John?'

[I'm here.]

She let out a soft sigh. He couldn't meet her as he had on the Justice - Fred's armor couldn't handle it - but he still reached out and touched her, making an effort to be gentle. If she could have, she would have gone to him in an instant, buried herself in him and all the data he could give her, all the information and history and sense memories from a hundred thousand years of wandering.

But she couldn't. Her place was here, for the moment. 'I miss you,' she whispered.

As before, they both understood the many layers in those three words. [I miss you, too.]

Her awareness of him dimmed for a moment before it returned. [I need to go. We're trying to contain the enemy Gravemind, hoping it'll save us a few lives.]

'Good luck,' she said, 'not that you need it.'

She sensed him grin, and then he vanished. She returned her attention to Blue Team, who had just activated the bridge controls. "Good, the bridge is down. Now about those Wraiths…"

Johnson said that a tank was en route. Using the bridge control tower as cover, a Pelican dropped off a Scorpion for them, then headed out across the lake. Rather than put all their eggs in one basket, Sam, Linda, and Kelly stayed in their vehicles, while Fred alone took the tank. It gave them the advantage of numbers against the Wraiths and let them kill the enemy machines and their pilots.

A handful of Ghosts came out of a tunnel to take their places, but with the faster vehicles as a distraction, Fred was able to take them out of commission with the Scorpion. They headed through the tunnel the Ghosts had come from and behind a small waterfall. When they emerged, they encountered another Ghost and a plasma turret, but it wasn't enough to stop them.

"You'd think they would have learned by now that to take out even one Spartan, they need to concentrate their forces," Cortana said as they entered another tunnel.

"Luckily for us, they have not," said Sam.

The tunnel opened up into what had once been a courtyard with a fountain at the center. Time had turned it into a ruin, thrown down by storms and ripped up by roots and almost completely overgrown, like the Ta Prohm Temple on Earth. If it had any major significance, the Spartans gave it no mind, concerning themselves with the Covenant holding it - though only for long enough to kill them and make sure they were dead.

Yet as they crossed the now-empty courtyard, a ship hummed quietly past overhead, but when they looked, they saw nothing, not even the slightest shimmer of active camouflage. "Cortana...?" Fred began.

"Sound pattern doesn't match any known Covenant ships. Looks like there just might be someone else here with us."

"Friendly?"

"Unknown. They didn't shoot at us as they passed, but they might not have known we were here."

"Unlikely," said Linda.

"Agreed. You have been making quite a bit of noise. It is unseemly. I would say most likely friendly, or at least not an enemy."

They hesitated for only a few moments, then kept moving through the complex, trundling down a few levels and encountering more Covenant along the way. They emerged into sunlight and saw another section of the complex before them, smaller than the previous area - too small for the tank, or even the Ghost. They still stayed in their vehicles to clear the exterior of the structure, circling around until they couldn't go any further.

The aliens had set up plasma barriers to block the approach, but the situation had suddenly become more urgent; Linda's sharp eyes had spotted a Pelican inbound. The Spartans moved quickly to pitch grenades over the shields, driving the aliens out of cover to be gunned down.

The Pelican swooped overhead. "Hey, Blue Team, long time no see! Got some weapons and reinforcements for ya!"

"Foehammer!" Cortana cried in delight, "It's good to hear from you - we didn't know you were here with us!"

The pilot laughed and swung her bird around to drop off the promised weapons canisters and personnel. "Yep, back in action and better than ever! You always seem to stumble into some interesting places, and I'm along for the ride once again."

"Here's hoping your Pelican survives this time."

"Amen to that. Good hunting." She closed up and soared off.

More Covenant emerged from the structure, and the Marines moved in while Blue Team traded out weapons and stocked up on ammunition. When they were all together again, they advanced into the structure, taking cover behind ruined pillars while they engaged the aliens there. When they were dead, the humans moved quickly under a slab of rock that looked like one stiff breeze would send it crashing to the ground.

Then they sidled through a crevice in the rock face beyond and found themselves up to their knees in a small stream. Dead ahead was another rock face, and to the left and right were waterfalls, one going up and the other going down. They turned to their left, and Kelly darted forward to snap the neck of the patrolling Jackal before he could turn around and notice them.

A quick terrain assessment revealed another small but equally overgrown ruin below, filled with only a few aliens. Kelly took up the fallen Jackal's beam rifle and joined Linda in picking off as many foes as they could while the boys descended with the Marines to mop up the rest of them or drive them out of cover for the girls to shoot.

When all the aliens were dead, they all descended and crossed the gulch, passed through another tunnel and into another narrow canyon. On the other side was another Forerunner complex - impressive, although not the one where Regret was hiding. Still, they were on the right track, and the Drones who came out to fight them proved it. As they descended toward the complex, Cortana said, "Good. Still no word about In Amber Clad on the Covenant battlenet. Still, it's odd; they know we've made landfall, but they don't seem to consider us a very serious threat. Boy, are they in for a big surprise. They'll regret that too."

As they approached the complex, Linda and Kelly started sniping the Jackals on the roofs and the Elites further inside; it would make progress through those areas easier once the humans actually reached them. Another Marine with a sniper rifle proved to be a decent hand in that area, adding his fire to the lot before they entered the structure.

The door slid open in front of them, and their motion trackers showed enemy contacts not too far ahead. "Honor Guard," said Cortana, "Watch yourselves."

They were unsure how she knew, but they took her advice just the same, boosting their shields and prepping a handful of grenades. And she was right; there were four Sangheili Honor Guards protecting a hologram of Regret intoning some sort of liturgy in the Covenant language, one on either side of the image and the others up on the second level on either side. Linda killed one of them before they recovered from the sight of the Demons, and the others roared and drew their plasma swords.

The Spartans threw their primed plasma grenades, pausing only long enough to make sure that they had stuck their targets, before they fled back through the door at top speed. They gave it a few seconds after the detonation before returning to put down any survivors.

Yet as they made to keep moving past the hologram, Cortana said, "Wait, go back."

Fred laid his hand on an input so the AI could sort herself in. Her crimson form appeared on another, smaller holoemitter. "That's what I thought he said." She turned to the Spartans. "The Prophet of Regret is planning to activate Halo."

All the Spartans inhaled. Fred said, "Are you sure?"

Cortana snapped her fingers.

"I shall light this holy ring, release its cleansing flame, and burn a path into the Divine Beyond!"

She snapped again to shut him up. "Pretty much," she replied.

The Master Chief opened a COM channel. "Commander, we've got a problem."

"So I hear," was the reply, "but from what I understand, the Prophet will need an object – the Index – to activate the ring. I've located a Library similar to the one you found on the first Halo. If the rings work the same way, the Index should be inside."

"I'll bet the Covenant are thinking the exact same thing," Johnson broke into the channel.

"Then we'd better beat them to it, Sergeant. Extract your men and meet me at the Library."

"Yes, ma'am."

"I'll secure the Index, Senior Chief," Miranda said as the Spartan reclaimed the AI, "You take out the Prophet. He's given us all the intel we need."