User:CMDR RileySV/Sandbox

November 15, 2552 Dawn Facility, Earth Orbit, Sol System, SolCore

The boots of Veronica Dare and Avery Johnson clanked on the grated hallway floor. Despite combat in orbit having lulled for a day or two, Johnson was still clad in his olive M35 Battle Dress Uniform, though with a United Nations Space Command branded cap rather, and an ear piece. Similarly, Dare was equipped with the less bulky specialized field agent suit, a wireless ear communicator and wore her blonde hair in a ponytail.

"No offense Sergeant Major, but more Marines aren't needed in this situation." Dare said, with a bubbling annoyance in her voice.

"Duly noted, Captain." Johnson retorted. "But the Admiral thinks one more might help. If you have a problem with that, talk with ONI. Maybe they can convince him otherwise." Dare shot an exasperated glance back at Johnson. ONI, or the Office of Naval Intelligence was the de facto central intelligence agency of the UNSC. They and their agents were famous for not exactly playing well with others.

"Lord Hood may have given you clearance, but it was my op, and it's my interrogation. We only captured one." Dare was firm and the frustration was palpable, but she kept her composure. "It's very delicate." The two had stopped in front of a closed bulkhead door. Johnson worked the controls.

"Don't worry, I know what the aliens like." Johnson reassured. The door opened and he immediately caught sight, and smell, of the Engineer. The floating, pink, bulbuous alien was near a column in the centre of the room, interacting with some sort of electronic device with it's tendrils. The Engineers had appeared a handful of times throughout the war. Johnson was lucky to have witnessed a few of those appearances.

Dare's Orbital Drop Shock Trooper team was clustered in one corner of the room. Gunnery Sergeant Buck and another in a maroon coloured M38 ODST armor set and on one knee, were the only ones watching the Engineer with any intrigue. The other three had their attention elsewhere. One was standing beside a set of stairs in the back of the room and watching Johnson, another was lying on top of the stairs and barely holding himself up, and one was asleep below the steps.

"It has access to the Covenant battle-net?" Johnson asked Dare while walking to it. If it does, this could be a boon for the UNSC defenders. Earth was being occupied by the former allies of this Engineer; the Covenant. Any information from it could shift the whole battle in the UNSC's favour. Johnson stealthily pulled his lighter from a pouch.

"Limited, but yes. We're not entirely sure how it manages a remote connection to the w-" Dare cut herself off as Johnson tossed the lighter straight at the alien. The maroon coloured ODST almost immediately got up to try and catch it midair.

"Whoa, stand down! Stand down!" Buck ordered to everyone. The maroon ODST hesitated the moment he heard this, letting it be caught by the Engineer's tendril.

"Sergeant Major, please! It's extremely flammable!" Dare warned. Johnson ignored the comment and continued right into the alien's face. The Engineer examined the lighter with three of it's eyes; looking up and down the metallic exterior, trying to understand exactly what it was.

"The Brutes. The bastards who put bombs on your buddies and killed millions of my people; they're digging a mighty big hole." Johnson stated. Without breaking eye contact with the creature, he sat down on a crate beside it. In one fluid motion he pulled a cigar from a pouch and placed it in his mouth.

"You're gonna tell me exactly what they're looking for. And then, you're gonna help me stop 'em." Johnson stated. The feint blue glow from the tendril of the Engineer lit up the ORION Program insignia on the lighter's side. The tendril flipped it open, and ignited the flame. Immediately, Johnson began moving towards the open flame with his cigar. Upon lighting it, Johnson took it out to blow smoke. The Engineer closed the lid. Dare walked up from Johnson's left.

"Engineers are mostly non-verbal." She handed him a tablet. "Mostly." The tablet was already on, displaying some sort of translation or text-to-speech software. "This one has a preference for a specific topic." She stepped back and stood beside Buck. Logos for the City of New Mombasa and its services were plastered along the side of the screen like a list. Johnson looked up at the alien.

"They call you Vergil. Right?" He took the cigar out of his mouth to let out some smoke again. A positive sounding chirp replied back to him from the tablet.

"Missing persons alert! If you see this person, please contact authorities for possible reward!" A cheerful, semi-robotic voice came from the tablet. The logo of the New Mombasa Police Department moved to the centre of the screen, as several files related to a teenage girl named 'Sadie Endesha' popped up around it.

Even without the briefing beforehand, Johnson could've figured it out right away that there was a city AI inside this thing. In his childhood home of Chicago, corporate and municipal AIs could be found everywhere. Controlling so many facets of day-to-day life. And they all sounded like this. Clearly aware of the situation around them, but only speaking through pre-recorded or pre-designed speech. Able to connect to nearly every facet of municipal service. Johnson tapped ash off the front of the cigar. Momentarily pausing on that odd, but somewhat pleasant hit of nostalgia.

"Missing persons..." Vergil repeated their previous dialogue. The files on the tablet had relevant information like height, weight, nationality, last known locational pings highlighted in a desperate attempt at getting some sort of attention.

"We hear you Vergil." Dare assured. "Like we said before. We can help, after we ask a few questions." The tablet went black for a moment. The Engineer instead began to frantically make gesture's with their tendrils. The lighter fell out of their possession as they did this. The gesturing was accompanied by them floating upwards ever so slightly.

"Focus Vergil. If she's still down there, the Brutes and that dig site could put her in danger. Especially if she was near Mombasa." Johnson said. This caught Vergil's attention and brought them back down to Johnson and Dare's level. "What do they want with that hole?" Vergil looked at both of them for a moment. The tablet came to life again, but with a pink background and several triangular symbols dotted around. An audio wave form was in the middle, with one end cut off by the edge of the screen. Whatever Vergil connected to the tablet, wasn't designed for anything human.

"THE GREAT MACHINE. IT'S SCALE AND PURPOSE BECOMES EVER CLEARER. THERE CAN BE NO DELAY IN IT'S..." The baritone rhythms of a Brute were unmistakable. It cut off before it could finish though. Dare and Buck seemed somewhat confused.

"A machine?" Dare asked. "At that scale?" A positive chirp came from the tablet. Johnson took a second to think about his next words. Given the dire situation Earth was in, bending the meaning of 'Top Secret' could be fruitful here.

"Good speech. Sounds like what your Elite buddies from Mombasa were talking about," Johnson leaned forward towards the alien. "About the Ark." Vergil looked directly at Johnson, intrigued with the depth of the human's knowledge. "Does this Great Threshold have something to do with it?" He looked over his shoulder for a split second and both Dare and Buck were watching. Dare seemed to be studying him. He asked Vergil. "Or Halo?"

"Sergeant, should we be briefed on any of this?" Dare inquired.

"That's a negative, Captain." Johnson replied. "It's Top Secret." The pink software on the tablet disappeared. An image popped up on the tablet for a few moments. It looked like a pie chart divided into thirds, colored in black and white. In each 'corner' were different symbols that Johnson couldn't recognise.

"Talk to a representative at African Trust for an all-in-one insurance policy!" The screen switched to the logo of the New Mombasa Marketing Department.

"Vergil, that pie chart design you put on the tablet. We saw it Mombasa as well. Does it have something to do with this all as well?" Dare asked. Vergil looked at her and a positive chirp came from the tablet. Quickly after this, the pink application with the audio waveform returned.

"THIS GREAT INSTRUMENT WILL BRING US TO SALVATION. WHEN OUR PROPHET ARRIVES, ALL SHALL KNOW THIS TRUTH." The Brute voice spoke again. Johnson began piecing it together. This machine/instrument thing is connected in some way to the Ark/Halos. And Truth seems interested in it.

"Truth, huh? Does he or the Brutes need something to turn this machine on?" Johnson inquired.

"New vehicles are on sale at your local HuCiv dealership. Talk to one of their sales representatives to see if one is right for you!" An image popped up of a silver, tri-legged structure. Each leg impossibly thin, held to the one beside it with an equally thin brace. All three legs supported a slender central spire.

"Well, that doesn't look like something the Covenant made." Buck said. A positive chirp came from the tablet. Dare and Buck looked at each other in response to that. Johnson recognized it. It was a ship. One associated with the Prophet of Truth.

"How can we destroy that...thing Vergil?" Dare asked. The images went away and a logo of the UNSC was in the centre of the screen.

"Hold the line. Join the UNSC Navy today!" The voice on the tablet was slightly different. As if pulled from a different source than the prior statements."

"Vergil, thank you." Johnson put the tablet down. He reached his hand out to shake. "You might have saved us all. Including Sadie." Vergil reached his tentacle out and they shook. Johnson stood up and grabbed his lighter from the floor and walked back to the door. Dare followed him.

"Well, was that enough for the Admiral?" There was a slight eagerness to her voice. Not an eagerness of a job well done, but of finally getting rid of a pest.

"For now. But there's more to that squid." Johnson pointed his cigar toward Vergil. "I appreciate your time Captain. I'll talk with Commander Keyes on where to move it. I expect new orders will be handed down to your Marines soon." Johnson stated. "Unless ONI has other plans." Dare looked back at the others.

"I uh..." Her demeanour changed almost immediately. One of slight disappointment. "No, I don't think ONI does." Johnson nodded in acknowledgement and proceeded through the door. The last thing he heard was from Buck as walked up to her.

"So, does this mean I won the war?" The doors closed before he heard her reply.

"The Ark might be on Earth then?" Commander Miranda Keyes asked through his earpiece.

"Seems like it ma'am." Johnson replied back.

"Well, that does explain a lot." She trailed off. As if attempting to connect even more dots surrounding the situation Earth was in at the moment. "Sergeant, return to the Dawn. Truth's ship has changed its orbit of Sol. I guess he wants to pay us a visit." Keyes stated more formally.

"Copy that, ma'am." Johnson replied as his boots clanked down the grated, metal hallway.