Rings upon rings ~ Halo AU

[mitochondriaaya]

The team had slept themselves out after their arrival; exhausted and hurt it was no wonder they hadn't explored much or noted things beyond 'defensible' and 'safe'. Awake again though, well, that was a different story. "Yeah, you see it?" Nevada noted comfortably to his partner.

Aya blinked blearily up at the roof of their cave and nodded. "Yeah. Forerunner. Why is the script moving?"

"It likes us." Nevada grinned and poked a bruise on her shoulder until she sat up properly. "Sure, and the other writings we've come across in the universe didn't migrate toward us..."

"They were broken. C'mon, up you go. Languages are your thing." Aya grumbled and stood up properly to peer at the ceiling. "And good mornings sirs."

Comments

[sliceitwithwind]

Braig bared his teeth in what would have been a hell of a hiss if he'd been Katzu and somehow still managed to get that predator vibe across. Dilan said, "He doesn't wake up well without coffee." Calmly and quietly, although he hadn't slept yet.

[mitochondriaaya]

Both spartans looked the barely awake scientist over and chuckled in appreciation. "We can scout in a bit, see if any UNSC bits came down intact enough for coffee supplies. Until then...stim tab?" If they didn't get slagged. Yes, Nevada was checking his pockets now.

"And when will you need to sleep, Dilan?" Aya asked, rolling her neck to stretch the muscles while still staring at the ceiling. "I know you said a while but...should we move before then?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Ten hours or so?" Dilan said after a moment of thought, "Don't give him a stim tab. He'll be wired and incapable of shutting up." Braig made another grumpy, incomprehensible noise and then stood up to start doing stretches in the hope that it would wake him up.

He didn't try to argue about the tab, though. Bad idea.

[mitochondriaaya]

Nevada started toward the supplies, intent on getting a breakfast put together for them all from the covenant supplies. He'd exercise after. "Alright, no stims for Braig. Anything else we should know?"

"And these are cut off," Aya noted, unrelated. "The script isn't whole, it runs through a portion of the rock and bounces back from the edges. Think it fell in here during whatever event formed the cave?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"I am also grumpy when I wake up." Dilan said with a shrug, setting aside the last bit of armour that he'd been repairing, "But I can use stim tabs."

[mitochondriaaya]

"We have a limited number of tabs too," Nevada chuckled. "But duly noted. We have red flavor and blue flavor guys." Covenant rations...had to love them.

"Surprise me. Hey, Dr. Dilan? Is my helmet repaired? I want to get this recorded before we move."

[sliceitwithwind]

"Red." Dilan said, "They're more heavily protein based."

"Blue." Braig said, "Red are more heavily protein based."

Dilan nodded, "Here you go, Aya. Do a full diagnostic for me."

[mitochondriaaya]

Nevada tossed the required packets at various people before breaking the seal on a random one to hold in front of Aya's face. She was busy looking her helmet over and...yeah. "Eat, Spartan. You don't to taste this stuff after I get it through your faceplate."

"Jerk," she flipped a few switches inside the helm before setting it down beside her. "So, unsurprising, this place is probably Forerunner. Anyone here ever hear mention of ring shaped made-worlds?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Nope." Braig said, finally back up to sentient, "Wish I had."

[mitochondriaaya]

"...damn." she noted.

"This makes it a First Arrival situation on top of everything else." Nevada was...well, not happy was the term. They were not the best team for documenting the hell out of everything. Specialized ops yes, remembering to film rock strata? No.

"Could be worse," Aya noted with a grin. "We could be stuck farming or something."

"You have a sick mind."

[sliceitwithwind]

"I had a garden, back on Reach." Dilan murmured, "I grew catnip for myself and the cats."

Braig said, "I can do the recording...my suit has a lot more space for recordings and I know the stuff to look for."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Gardens are different from farming," Aya noted easily. "A bit of green and useful can be nice, being responsible for acres and acres of plants that don't understand why they should grow properly, that's just..." yeah. Not them.

"Great, we have a recorder, now we just need to hope it's not something that actually has 'Caution, plague zone' written on it in words we can't read." Nevada chuckled and finished his packet with a grimace. Ew.

[sliceitwithwind]

"Well, you are good Spartans, and it'd be a shame to lose out on that." Dilan said philosophically between bites of his meal.

[mitochondriaaya]

"Eh, shame to lose out on interesting things," Aya admitted. "Even if we're not, technically, the ones who are suppose to be here this is a rather interesting place to be. If we had to end up in the unknown beyond, well.."

"Good company, great scenery," Nevada agreed. "My helmet is reading her lights as green, link's still working sirs."

[sliceitwithwind]

"True enough." Braig said with a smile, taking Dilan's empty food bag and wrapping it up in his own.

Dilan nodded to Nevada's words, "Good. Let me know if anything goes wrong, otherwise I will assume that it's all fine."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Yes sir!" The pair chirped to Dilan's order, more than happy to obey that one.

"Okay, game plan..." Nevada noted.

"Do you want some time with the computer back on the ship, sirs, or would you rather put as much distance between us and the stolen ride as possible before Dilan needs to sleep?" Ten hour window, not that big either way.

[sliceitwithwind]

"Distance." the scientists chimed without hesitation, "Anything we could get from them, someone else probably already has." Dilan continued.

[mitochondriaaya]

"Distance it is," Aya finished her meal and dropped into stretches after tilting her helmet up toward the ceiling. She wanted to see those words on her own time later. "I'll range a kilometer ahead?"

"As long as all the lights stay green, yes. We get any static at all and you pull back."

[sliceitwithwind]

Dilan added, "When possible try to find places that don't require climbing. I'm having a bit of trouble feeling my finger and toe-tips today."

Which made Braig look upset, but not surprised.

[mitochondriaaya]

"Yes sir," Aya noted with a nod. "And nothing too precarious to balance on with Braig's head injury." In case he had a dizzy spell. She could plan around these things!

"Any idea how far away we'll want to get before establishing a base camp? We'll a need place to secure if we're staying a while." Nevada noted.

[sliceitwithwind]

"You are the experts." Braig said, "We'll keep moving as long as we need to."

Dilan added, "I can stay awake longer than the ten hours, I'll just start running into all the problems that exhausted people have."

[mitochondriaaya]

"We don't want to push you if we don't have to," Aya noted, rising out of her stretches and scooping up her armor.

"No reason to hit exhaustion without an emergency. We'll see how the terrain is ahead and what kind of Forerunner things we stumble upon." Nevada stretched and went to go resecure the stuff on the sled.

[sliceitwithwind]

"Understood." the big man said, "But if it's a choice between a little less sleep and a great spot or earlier sleep and a sub-par one, we go longer."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Yes sir!" Aya grinned. "We'll push a little if necessary." Only if though!

"Note local fauna you startle, Aya, some of it may be good hunting later," Nevada noted easily. "No go, we'll start moving when you ping a kilometer."

[sliceitwithwind]

The two scientists walked in slow circles to warm themselves up for a hike, breathing deeply.