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Another ONI Black File: Halo - We Got There First: Part 2
Posted By: Arthur Wellesly<arthur_wellesly@hotmail.com>
Date: 21 April 2003, 12:30 AM
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Another ONI Black File: Halo - We Got There First: Part 2
1032 Hours, September 19, 2525 (Military Calendar)/
In orbit around Threshold, Gas Giant beyond Official UNSC borders
"Vulcan, what the hell is that?" Captain Young asked.
The Silent Night had recently arrived in orbit around the purple gas giant "Threshold" which turned out to be like any other planet besides the fact that it had a higher than average amount of ammonia in its atmosphere. What amazed everyone, however, was a massive ring construct in orbit around Threshold exactly halfway between Threshold and its moon that Vulcan had decided to name "Basis" for the time being.
"The ring is 10,034.9 kilometers in diameter, 22.3 kilometers thick and 289.7 kilometers wide. These dimensions stay precisely the same all the way around to within 3 millimeters. The lower atmosphere contains 78% Nitrogen, 20.9% Oxygen, 0.9% Argon, 0.03% Carbon Dioxide, 0.0000018% Neon..." he paused. "Suffice it to say it is easily capable of supporting human life. The ring makes a full rotation every 21.93 hours. The outside curve is made of a metal as of yet undiscovered. The inside curve houses the atmosphere with an assortment of the same metals assembled in intelligent patterns. Most likely structures. The ring's habitable inner curve is made up of 61% water, 17% forests, 6% desert, 3.8% plains..."
"That's quite enough, thank you, Vulcan," Captain Young interrupted him. "Perhaps my question was misleading. What is this construct? Who built it?"
"I don't quite know yet, captain," he said thoughtfully. "However given the fact that we are almost 1,300 light-years from the edge of the UNSC's official borders, I find it difficult to imagine that humans built a structure of this magnitude with no nearby source of useful materials and with no apparent purpose and without detection from the media or other military factions. It would take millions of workers to build this, and you simply can't keep something like that a secret for very long."
"Thank you, Vulcan," Young answered testily, "but I have already arrived at the same conclusion. Can you give me any hardcore, non-circumstantial evidence that would prove what we are looking at is an alien construct."
"The fact that most of the metal making up the ring is completely unknown on all our records is a fairly clear indication," Vulcan said mildly, "though I think maybe you should have a talk with ONI."
Young nodded. "Yes, I believe I shall." She stood up and switched on the mike. "I want a meeting of all senior personnel in the conference room ASAP." She turned to Vulcan as a number of bridge officers got up and left the command deck. "I want you to join us too, Vulcan," she said to the AI.
"Yes, ma'am," he said, and his holographic image seemed to get sucked down back into the pedestal from which he was projected.
"I think it is alien," said Gary Brown, the ship's first officer, about an hour later. "It is absurd to think we built anything on this scale. It took twelve years to build the space station around Chi Cheti 4, and this is thousands of times bigger. And right in the middle of nowhere, like Vulcan said," he exclaimed, indicating to the AI made to look like the Roman god of fire.
Vulcan nodded appreciatively. "I'm afraid I must agree with Mr. Brown's analysis, captain," he said coolly in his synthesized voice. "In a galaxy with about a three hundred and seventy billion stars, it is not ridiculous to say we are alone. In fact it would be ridiculous to say we are not alone."
Captain Young opened her mouth to reply, but to her ferment, the god-like AI raised a hand to silence her. "Message received from ONI, captain," he said respectfully to rectify the error he had made in showing impertinence to Young. "It is a video transmission from Admiral Stanforth. Do you want me to upload it to your retina?"
The Silent Night was equipped with the latest gamma message receiver. It a recent discovery, it was found that text messages, audio transmissions, and even video recordings could be sent via gamma radiation. The incredibly powerful waves could cover a distance like 900 light-years in about a half-hour, which was a great relief to everyone gathered for the hasty meeting.
Young shook her head in answer. "No, I have no secrets to keep." Shook gave a quick look at Vulcan, and the AI nodded. Vulcan had already checked the text message that came with the video, and the gesture was a signal that the transmission contained no classified information. "Okay, Vulcan, upload it to the vid screen."
The screen flickered momentarily with a burst of static, and then Admiral Stanforth's face appeared, seeming to Young as if he were much older than when she saw him just about two months prior. "I have received word that you have reached the objective. I have also received a telescopic photograph taken from the Silent Night as well as specifications provided by Vulcan, and I must say, even we weren't prepared for what you discovered." His eyebrows raised as he said this. "As I understand, the ring's environment is capable of supporting life, and, oddly enough, its artificial gravity generator, however it works, has been set to provide earth-normal gravity. So, in conclusion, your mission is to land on the ring and investigate it. Explore everything of interest and record your findings. We are still expecting hourly status reports for the first two days." He paused and ruffled some papers. "Ah, yes. ONI is trying to convince the Navy to send a handful of carriers filled with Marines and scientists. The time for subtly has passed. We had not expected to find something like this, and we need more bodies out there - with or without detection. Nevertheless, the results of their efforts will take weeks of convincing and preparation, so you'll be on your own for a while. Stanforth out," he said finally, and his image disappeared from the screen.
"Excellent," said Colonel "Stony" Neal, not without a certain amount of excitement in her voice. "You can count of the 105th, ma'am."
Young smiled at her pleasantly. "I know I can, colonel," she said. She wished to get on the colonel's good side. She was the CO and it looked like she needed the full cooperation of the marines on this mission. "So, Colonel, how should we proceed in doing this?"
Neal leaned forward and placed her hands on the table. After nearly two months in a cryo-tube, it felt good to do what she was paid to do again. "Well, ma'am, I'm going to need some pictures of the ring's surface, however I'm going to want all 850 of my Helljumpers down there with both scorpion tanks, all the LRVs and HRVs, as well as the recon bikes."
"Why do we need all of that down there?" Young argued. "We haven't monitored any life activity on the surface."
"No, ma'am, but this was almost certainly built by aliens, and we shouldn't take any chances," the Colonel countered. "Even if it's not... why not bring everything down there? Secure the area and make sure it's safe for special ops to investigate."
Young nodded in concession, not bothering to pursue the matter and figuring the Colonel was right anyway. "Alright, Ms. Neal, we'll do it your way. How long until you and the Helljumpers can be ready?"
"If we start right now, ma'am, it shouldn't be more than an hour," she replied.
"Right then, let's get underway. You're dismissed," she said a moment later, as if in afterthought. As everyone stood to leave, Young pressed a button on the small computer on the large table in front of her and opened up a COM link with the bridge. "Mr. Smith, take us into low orbit with the ring. It's time we found out what the hell it is."
"Alright, ladies and gentlemen," said Captain Griffin, the commander of the ground crew to Halo, "we're finally gonna get our asses of this floating bucket! We're landing on that ring down there so special ops won't piss their pants when they run into something unexpected." There was a small murmuring of laughter. "Okay, let's move! On the double!"
The 850 Marines broke their tight formation in the cluttered docking bay and sprinted towards the awaiting D77-TC "Pelican" dropships. Only A and B companies were able to make it into the five awaiting Pelicans, and it was a tight fit. The other six companies would have to wait for the dropships to make another trip. What truly dominated the bay, however, was the C299-TC "Lions". It was about 25 meters long, and the Pelicans had to stay put for a moment in fear of crashing into the large craft. It carried both of the scorpions the Silent Night brought with them, plus an assortment of LRVs, HRVs, and supplies for the base.
The other Marines back out of the Bay and behind the closing blast door. A few moments after all the doors to the bay were securely shut, the massive 40X40 meter doors of the shuttle bay shuddered open and thousands of tiny ice and dust particles that had collected in the small cracks around the two meter thick coverings exploded in an impressive spectacle of dancing flecks of white light. The six carrier ships then propelled themselves out of the ship and sped silently in the vacuum towards the ring's alien atmosphere.
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