Part 11
"Any ground units, please respond!" Captain Jonas Relo demanded into his comm. He swore to himself as one by one the lights on the tac-ops screen representing his ground forces turned from green to red. They dwindled down to just three members of Strike Team. Culver and her two technicians.
"Sir, all of Contact Team is MIA," announced a crewman from a ring of consoles. "The three remaining crew are headed back towards the cave entrance."
"Launch the fighters, and have them split up to each location." Jonas turned towards the communications officer. "Now!" As he relayed the command to Brice and his men, Jonas walked back to his chair on the bridge and plopped down. He had just received a private message from a supply clerk named Mather informing Jonas that there were fake supply crates in the storage hold. His first thought was someone had screwed up terribly in processing the supplies, but he knew that argument couldn’t hold water. It must have been done on purpose. But to what end, I do not know.
He had ordered the immediate Cryo-freezing of all non-essential personnel to lessen the need for even stricter rations. While that was causing uproar in the civilian population, his immediate priority was to get his ground teams secure. Whether they are still alive remains to be seen. Something wasn’t sitting right in Jonas’ mind. Hexil had withheld pertinent information regarding the status of this planet and had given them a hold full of empty crates.
"Verra One and Two are away, Sir."
"Bring both A/V feeds to the primary viewscreen," ordered Jonas as the planet view switched to a split-screen of both fighters. "Lt. Brice, you have your orders. Approach at extreme caution."
"Yes, Captain. You have our real-time feeds," Brice replied over the bridge’s PA system.
Jonas leaned forward in his command chair and waited to hear from Culver’s team.
* * * * * * * * * *
Ian Harper followed three steps behind Dr. Canner with Kasan behind him and the two troopers bringing up the rear guard. The snowfall was almost blinding now, and Harper couldn’t help question how far he was willing to trust this doctor. As his face was getting cold, Kasan bumped into him when he came to a stop. He turned around and she gave an apologetic smile.
Dr Canner had stopped in front of an indistinguishable, snow-covered rock and pushed his weight on it. The rock gave at first then slid to one side to be lost in the wall. A burst of warm air struck Harper’s face, inviting him to enter. The five of them filed in, shaking snow from their boots and coats. The rock slid back in place. Harper looked around the room and noticed it had been carved out of the rock. It did have areas where support beams and frames stood, giving it an industrial look. As Canner opened double doors, Harper removed his hat and marveled at what he saw.
They stepped through the doorway and placed their hands on the railing of the staircase. The room was cavernous, to say the least. Blue lighting illuminated the hundred-meter long room and reflected off the shelved walls. The stairs spiraled down and gave a vintage feel to the architecture. On the floor were scattered pieces of equipment that were a decade old. Some looked almost archaic and other’s well used. The doctor led them through the maze of electronics to a sectioned off seating area with eight chairs loosely arranged in a circle. "Please, have a seat. Refreshment?"
"No thanks, Doc," Harper said for the entire group. "Let’s just hear it, shall we?"
If Canner noticed the impatience in Harper’s voice, he didn’t show it. He crossed his legs and took a deep breath. "Fifteen years ago I was asked by the Hexil Corporation to head up a new division in the company. It was called the Tactical Neural Complex Division, and I had near unlimited resources at my disposal. Our goal, at the time, was to find a way to instantly transfer information from an individual’s brain to another subject or wirelessly to a computer." He intertwined his fingers as he spoke. "For several years we made little progress. Set backs would come and subjects started to succumb to the strain on their minds. Some went insane, while others merely walked away with mild headaches."
"I think I remember hearing about the TNCD," Kasan remarked. "Back in my time with UGI, though they were just rumors, there was never any evidence they truly existed," she explained. "But that was before my time."
"Officially, no, we didn’t exist. Well, not for long, anyway." Harper noticed the doctor shift slightly in his seat. "With no real results, the government stepped in and terminated the program, citing us with human indecency, and I was sent back to Research and Development. There I stayed for a few more years until one day, a representative of the company visited my home. He thanked me for my long dedicated service to Hexil and said they were offering me a chance to finally achieve something meaningful and beneficial to society."
He sighed and his body slacked. "With my wife gone and my children refusing to talk with me, I jumped at the chance. They said they had discovered a planet where I could complete the work I started in the TNCD. While Hexil did fight the UNSC for rights to the Aegis system, Hexil had already begun to send ships and supplies here." He uncrossed his legs and sat up with his hands in his lap. His face turned to flint as he spoke.
"I was one of the first to set down on Passium, that’s what we called the planet at the time. We discovered not only primitive indigenous people living here, but also something else. An installation built long ago. Hexil planned to use the planet’s population as disposable lab rats, but what they didn’t expect were the structures we found." His eyes stared off into the distance as he recollected. "The installation was a manufacturing facility, although it had stopped producing for a while."
Harper leaned forward. "What did it make?"
Canner smoothed his beard with his left hand. "You know those machines you saw in the valley? After doing some research, we found they’re called Monitors. Apparently the one that was dispatched to watch over Passium malfunctioned somehow and halted all manufacturing."
"But who built the structure?" Kasan asked with obvious curiosity.
"We don’t know, nor did Hexil care." He shook his head. "They told us to adapt the facility to our needs and that’s what we did. We used the generator, which seemed to have limitless energy, and we even got the Monitor production back up. The only thing missing was an A.I. interface that went into the final stage of the machines. We couldn’t figure out how to supply such a thing, so we programmed them as best that we could for our needs."
"And those needs were to gather the indigenous people to use in your experiments," Harper said as a puzzle piece fit into place.
"Yes. The Crath, that’s what they call themselves, are natives to Passium." The doctor hung his head and Harper could see remorse in his expression. "We did… horrible things to them." He brought his head back up. "I had decided I had enough and contacted Hexil to tell them I wanted out. Well, that didn’t sit to well with them, and I was tossed out into the jungle to die." He shivered as he continued. "I was alone again, and I had little hope of survival. Days went by and I finally found a river from which to drink. I heard a Crathian mother and child scream across the river and they were pulled into the water’s current. To make a long story short, I rescued them and earned their people’s trust."
"I spent the next five years learning their language and immersing myself in their culture. Meanwhile, Hexil kept using the Crath for their experiments. The Crath were defenseless against the onslaught of Monitors they would unleash." A brief smile grew on Canner’s face. "And then the Crath discovered something. A plant, gadril, which grows in the colder regions of the planet, releases a chemical in the brain that offers temporary immunity to the bio-frequencies Hexil used on them."
Canner stood and walked behind his chair. "With my knowledge of the installation and the Crath’s help, we were able to steal some equipment and locate other places on the planet where more structures laid. This is just one of hundreds." He opened his arms to encompass the building.
"Oh, so that’s why the probe that we found had all of its Hexil emblems removed and battered," said Kasan as she stood up. "The Crath hate Hexil for what they did to them."
"Wouldn’t you?" offered Harper. "But, doctor, why would Hexil bring a colony ship out to a research facility?"
Dr. Canner paused and mechanically turned his head to Harper. "You’re a colony ship?" he asked in astonishment. "Then this has gone too far."
"What has gone to far?" Private Brooks demanded in frustration.
"You see, their techniques have proven ineffective against the Crath, so now they have sent more subjects to Passium but under false pretenses." He looked at all four members of Contact Team. "I’m afraid they want you here to stay."
Kasan shook her head. "But what about that voice we heard in our heads? It felt almost alien, and sounded alien with the vague words it used."
"The project here on Passium was advanced into the final stages, and Hexil would be able to transmit across great distances along the bio-frequencies of human brains by now. That was Hexil probably probing your minds to find their contact." Canner folded his arms.
"Contact?" Harper thought for a moment. I knew it! "Culver. She gave us those neural devices. The ones she said would protect us from the mind probes." His hands opened and closed in anger. "The captain trusted her. We trusted her." He looked up into Kasan’s eyes.
Canner nodded his head. "She was once a pupil of mine and very capable. They were luring you into a trap. Anything that would get you to land or at least bring your ship into the atmosphere to lock you in would be their plan." He sighed. "Hexil has nearly perfected the Tactical Neural Complex Division’s goal." He pushed his chair to the side and started for a computer on an oversized desk. "Your ship and its crew are in grave danger, but we have to operate under the guise of secrecy."
The four colonists stood and joined him. "What do you propose we do, doctor?" Kasan asked through clenched teeth.
"It’s time I give Hexil my official resignation."
New story out! Halo: Below the Brine
(it's the best story you're not reading!)