Alpha IV
Base XI
Analysis Lab 7
48 Hours ago
Sara Harsen poured over the object lying on her examination table. The medium sized stone tablet had just come in from the excavation site less then a mile north of the base. It was made of solid onyx, just like the rest of the ruins, but strange etchings flowed across the surface of the artifact, not even metaphorically, the writing actually flowed like water across the rock face.
The instant the rock hit the table, Sara was translating the text. They didn’t know much of the forerunner language, but from what little she could decipher came great knowledge. Two words stood out among the rest, the words “shield,” “sword,” and “ring” were repeated many times over, as well as “ship” and “war.” But none of these were unusual, what was unusual was the string of numbers that followed each word. She’d found them almost two days ago, and still could not make sense of the combinations.
She sighed heavily, drawing the attention of her lab partner Joseph. Joseph was younger then Sara by two years. He served in the UNSC navy before becoming and archeologist to get away from war. He stared at her critically before saying anything. “What’s wrong, figured out that translation yet?”
Sara shook her head, “No, these numbers just don’t make any sense. There’s no pattern at all, it looks like they just picked random numbers and wrote them down.” She passed the paper to Joseph, “See if you can make anything out of this.”
He looked at it for less then a minute. “It’s a set of coordinates. Each word represents a planet, and the numbers are astral coordinates. This is a map.” He passed the paper back to a shocked Sara. He eyed her carefully, “What?”
“How did you figure that out, I’ve been staring at these things for two days, where were you then?” Joseph smiled slightly.
“Here, let me see the artifact…” He reached over and grabbed the stone lightly, lifting it up. Suddenly he froze, his eyes wide and dilated. The artifact fell from his hands. And hit the table surprisingly light.
Suddenly, he lifted and examination lamp off the table and swung for Sara’s head. She moved just in time to miss the blunt of the blow, but it came down hard on her shoulder, breaking it. She cried out, the movement caused the strap camera to fall from her head. Joseph just stared off into space as he brought the lamp down again, and again. Then, he grabbed the stone, put it in a drawer, and left the room like nothing happened.
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Alpha IV
Base XI
Analysis Lab 7
Present day
Kara Conner removed the tape from the player on the examination table. The Marines around her stood silently, shocked at what they had just seen. Blake was the first one to speak up. “What the hell happened here?”
Kara shook her head slowly, she had seen the tape before, arriving on the planet shortly after the incident occurred. “No one knows what happened, that was less then a day before the Covenant attacked. The science crews began going mad, killing each other for no apparent reason. After they killed someone, they’d return to work like nothing happened. I found the artifact tucked away where Joseph left it. It’s boxed and ready to take up to your ship. We just have to make it to an LZ and get out of here.”
Hawks turned to the squad. “You heard her, let’s get moving. We have less then an hour to gather everything we need and get out of here. Move Marines.” The room scattered to work, leaving Hawks, Blake and Kara alone. They stood silently for some time before stirring again. Blake turned to his sister as Hawks suddenly realized the awkwardness and left the room.
He smiled softly and hugged her. “I thought you were gone Kara. I thought I’d never see you again after what I did.”
Kara smiled back, “Sorry I hit you with a bat.” They both laughed lightly and stood there for a moment longer. “We should get going. There’s still plenty to pack up before the pelican’s get here.”
Blake nodded, and they both left the room to help the rest of the Marines.
You get hit with a heavy object.
-2 DXT
-5 STM
-200 INT
You are dead.