The wide, planet-spanning dunes of the desert had greeted the UNSC's advance scouting force rather openly. In front of them lay a myriad mounds of sand, some small, some big, all of a pure white sand that shimmered in the light of the stars up above. The only things audible around the desert itself were the rumble of the Warthogs' hydrogen-based engines and the winds blowing through the dunes as they lifted up grains of sand.

Captain Caleb held tightly onto the rolling cage of his Troop Hog. Between them and the outside was another layer of Titanium armor, inches thick. It had required a more powerful variation of its old engine system to be installed, but the vehicle rolled forward just as fast on the new suspension and drive as it did when it was not up-armored. Behind him, doctor Grayson sat, gripping her tablet.

"This is certainly a bumpy ride," The woman remarked as she felt her teeth clacking together upon every jump over a dune.

The man hummed in agreement, then looked forward, through the slit in the plate separating them from the driver and radio operator of the Warthog, to see the ever-expanding dunes weaving around them. To their right and left were two other Warthogs The squadron advanced in a diamond, with the two troop 'Hogs bringing up the middle while the combat 'Hogs, one of which had a gauss cannon, rolled to their right and left flanks.

He sat himself back down and did a final, even more thorough checkup of his firearm. Racking the bolt and sending it back into battery properly, the man slid the weapon over his shoulder and onto his back, before humming and checking the TACMAP on his helmet's HUD. They were a couple klicks out from the target area and would easily reach it provided nothing stopped them.

Still, a singular power source on a planet of this size? It was eerie. What had even driven a species to explore this far? And where even were they? The UNSC fleet had suffered a failure of some kind, or the intervention of some piece of technology that changed their course and practically teleported them over the planet they were exploring right now. It was strange. Why here?

"Uhm... Captain?" The doctor started. He hummed, taken out of his thoughts. Turning to the girl, he saw her pointing out the window. Signs of shrubbery started appearing around them. Glimmering without a source of light in sight, lichen and moss, as well as faint patches of blue and green grass, seemed to suddenly sprout out of the ground. Their Geiger counters kicked in, incessantly clicking, before shutting off. The Doctor hummed, looking over the sensor data on her tablet, then said "We just passed some form of barrier..."

"We good on radiation, doctor? I don't wanna get back to the fleet just to have to visit the Medbay..." The man asked as he re-checked his counter six times. The woman nodded, then handed him the tablet to read. It seemed as though the radiation in itself was a barrier of some kind. Inside said barrier, he now noticed, the strange glowing plants grew in ever-bigger patches.

"That's incredible..." Grayson stated as she gazed upon the place.

It was alive, very much so. Even trees rose from this mess of glowing plants and beautiful scenery, shimmering leaves forming a canopy overhead that seemed to light the path on which the Warthogs travelled. The vehicles reformed into a staggered column, bouncing on what now felt like dirt, rock and plant life rather than sandy dunes. The Doctor ordered, "Halt the convoy... I want to see this."

"Doc," The Captain started, but the woman had some degree of authority. The convoy ground to a halt as ordered, with the woman dismounting through the armored rear door of the vehicle, her pistol and a scanner in hand. The man rolled his eyes, then descended from the vehicle with the rest of his squad and stated, "Doctor, we're your escort. That doesn't give you any right to run off like that," As he followed her at a quickened pace, his squad behind him.

"Apologies, Captain, but this requires close investigation," The woman replied, stopping in front of one of the plants ahead and scanning it. The Captain sighed, his rifle at the ready as he and his men formed a perimeter around the egghead they were supposed to be protecting. Another chunk of the Research Team was also supposed to join them later on, once they found that power source.

The Rangers held positions around the doctor as she retrieved tissue samples from the item. She hummed, watching as the bioluminescence of the plant faded and died the moment she removed that bit, only to reappear near the cut edge. Sort of like it was beginning a regeneration process, the doctor thought. She stood to her feet, pocketing the sample into a specialized CBRN bag, then turning to the Captain.

She was about to speak to him, it seemed, but stopped. She hummed, then pulled out her tablet and showed the men to follow her, to which Caleb rolled his eyes and showed his men to follow along, but keep close, taking the Doctor's side and stating, "You're not getting out of my sight again, doc. This isn't some random alien ruin on one of our planets, this is unknown territory."

"I don't need you to remind me, captain... I am acutely aware of our predicament..." She replied grimly as she led the force down the greener, luminescent path ahead. Pretty much everyone on board the little Ark Fleet was aware of the situation they found themselves in, so the Doc didn't need to put it like that. Alas, that didn't matter. The woman was risking herself needlessly. This was why Caleb hated having to escort Civvies around.

She tapped a few lines into her tablet, then said, "According to the scans, the Power Source should be just ahead."

Sighing, the man nodded, then rallied his fireteam close around him. She powered on her com and said, "FLEETCOM, if you can hear this, this is Grayson... We're about to find the alien device emanating power below the canopy. Will send reports ASAP," before thumbing it off to hear a slight rumble. An acknowledgement winked on on her HUD that the message had been sent and delivered, then an amber one in regards to receiving a reply. She looked at her tablet, tapped a few lines in and linked it to her HUD, then attached it to her belt to take the readings before turning to the soldier and offering, "Do you want to stay in the lead with me, Captain?"

"I'd prefer if you were within arms' reach, yes," Murmured Caleb. She nodded, then offered him a smile that went unnoticed due to the hazmat gear. The two and the Army Rangers behind them pushed forth, through the ever-thickening fluorescent flora, past shrub and shimmering, beautiful flowers and deeper into the zone. The two continued forward several more feet, with the Captain immediately ordering a small chunk of the unit to return to the vehicles via hand signals. He kept MA37 trained forth, while his comrades covered all other angles.

The doctor continued her standard routine, focused dead ahead as her HUD flickered with data. She looked around, utilizing various tools and suit systems to scan the place as she marched ever-forth, taking bits of each different piece of flora as she went. The Captain hummed. He had half a mind of dragging her back to the Convoy while they dealt with everything else again, but no, they'd need the egghead here.

The Doctor's hand appeared in front of him, taking him out of his thoughts. She pointed forward, her eyes wide. Caleb raised a brow, then gazed forward, where she was pointing. Jutting out from the sand and from among the lush bioluminescent jungle, a tall, silver-grey structure resembling a tower sat, spewing a barely-noticeable beam of radiation that split at almost a thousand feet in the air and disappeared in a layer of thin, almost unnoticeable clouds.

"Good lord," One of the Rangers murmured, looking up at the sky.

"Incredible..." Grayson murmured. She looked ahead, through the flora as the rest of the infantry unit formed up around her. She looked to the Captain, who, already aware of what she was about to ask, gave one hand signal to his team. They began advancing together, with the doctor staying behind him, while their motion trackers pinged what was possibly animal life around them.

Trees rustled in a wind that the soldiers didn't thin existed on this planet, shimmering with pale blues and greens of neon-like light. Ahead, the thicket opened into a clearing full of fluorescent grass and a simple, dirt path leading to the building itself. The building, meanwhile, resembled something out of old, declassified xenoarchaeological dig sites from back home.

The Captain lowered his rifle and looked up at the towering edifice of seeming terraforming, then exclaimed, "Sweet mother of God..."

Grayson smiled, "It is quite beautiful... C'mon. We still have to see if there's a way to access the inside," She said, then showed the man to follow her. The Captain took himself out of his moment of stupor and nodded, then motioned to the troopers they still had with them to form a perimeter. He and the doctor approached the building's apparently seamless wall, looking over the smoothed, grey metal for any sign of an opening.

She hummed, then looked to him and said, "Keep me covered, please..." before she extended her hand toward the smooth metal surface. The Captain wanted to intervene, but the woman's five fingers already caressed the alien metal. She sighed, lowering her hand, then shook her head. It had no effect, as it'd seemed. No bright light, no show to confirm that was what they were supposed to do...

The Captain narrowed his lips, then turned around and looked at the squad. All of them stood in a half-moon formation around them, each weapon pointed out and providing interlocking arcs of fire where at least two Rangers could fire on any target. He paused as he heard a creak, then said, "Doctor, what just happ-" And he paused as he watched the distinct image of the seamless wall splitting open at the center, a flashing green light in the shape of a human hand his only indication that the doctor had tried again.

She turned to him and the wrinkles near her eyes told him she was smirking. He rolled his eyes, raised a balled fist, then wiggled his fingers forward. The soldiers all stood up and slowly marched backward, toward the doctor and Ranger as they entered. The opening revealed a cavernous central hallway with an arched ceiling. Holographic lighting seemed to be the only source of illumination for the place, bright strips of light beaming from recesses on both sides, each a few inches deep and maybe two meters apart.

The Army Rangers turned off their flashlights as the door began to seal behind them. The Captain turned, watching their entry yet again turn into a wall, before cuing his helmet microphone. Static played in his ear, causing him to sigh and say, "Sounds like we won't have coms in this place. Eyes open, all of you. Doctor, stay with us. I don't care what you have to explore."

She nodded, then brought out her tablet and a scanner. She lifted the antenna of the scanner and looked upon the tablet as information passed from the former to the latter, before stating rather happily, "Atmosphere is breathable and radiation levels are nominal for human habitation. No unknown pathogens or hostile organisms that I can detect... I think we're safe to remove our masks now, gentlemen."

The Captain pulled his own off, taking gulps of air as sweat beads rolled down his face. He blinked, wiped his face with his sleeve, then watched Grayson take off her own hood and mask. She shook her head, trying to dry her hair, before wiping her own face with her suit's rubber sleeves. She sighed and said, "Thank the maker. I was getting tired of it..."

"Telling me..." The captain murmured, stepping forth. He lifted his rifle and scanned the surrounding area with his light, though he found it useless. The light the fixtures of this place emanated was more than enough. He shut off the flashlight, lowered the weapon, then asked, "So, this is the structure that's emanating that power signature. Any idea where to go now, doctor?"

She hummed, lifting her tablet again with the scanner linked to it. She swept the place ahead, then said, "Strange..." as she pointed the antenna down. She murmured, "It's underground, Captain. This place has a multitude of sublevels, it seems. Although I cannot determine its depth."

"Hell..." He murmured, "Alright. Shouldn't we go back and call in a bigger research team?" He then suggested, turning to the door, "It might be prudent to have multiple people to scour this place clean with."

"I would rather we moved ahead and mapped it," She said, causing he man to let out a groan. She smirked, then added, "I understand my trips are boring to you, Captain, but you must understand that the matter at hand is extremely important for our understanding of just where we wound up. This technology is clearly some form of terraforming device built by an ancient civilization. If my scans, off-the-charts as they may be, are true? This compound is... Some magnitude of time older than the earliest variations of sentient life on Earth. Perhaps even older."

"No accurate estimates?" The man raised a brow.

"None," She replied, "The materials this station is made of are messing with my sensors, not to mention the power source in itself."

"We descend 'till this thing beeps loud enough for us to get splitting headaches, then, ma'am?" Inquired another Ranger, approaching the two. He continued as he stopped, "Because I think that's the only way we'll know where the power source is if it's jamming you that bad."

"That is what I intended to do, yes," The woman nodded, "And if push comes to shove, we book it back to the surface before anything else happens."

The Captain looked to her, staring her dead in the eyes. She simply stared back, unflinching and wearing the standard smile of a scientist with too much curiosity for their own good. The man looked away, ordered the formation to proceed, then took the Doctor's side, the group advancing forward. She wanted to thank him, but he showed her to stay quiet and keep up the scans while he and his team handled security.

Forming a diamond wherein half brought up the front and kept their eyes open and half had the rear guarded, turning every so often to look, the group descended down a surprisingly wide metal ramp, by the sides of which were ditches covered by strange, opaque emerald-tinted glass panels. Through them, symbols shined, barely visible to them as they moved.

The only noises that echoed were the clank of the boots against the alloy floors and the incessant tri-tone beep of the device in the woman's hands. They descended another level, past more sealed wall-like doors through the seams of which, sand could be seen. Sand piled into the corners, some of the tunnels in this underground base clearly having collapsed due to age. The fact that there was no rust, however, was strange.

Perhaps the alloy was treated, the doctor thought as they continued their descent. Another two floors and the team was already feeling the pressure, with the faint creaking of the structure due to the weight of the sand and possible water pressing down upon and around the walls they walked past. Still, the place was eerily empty. No doors were open further down, but the lights grew dimmer.

"I really don't like this," Noted one of the Rangers, "Feels like something's just gonna jump out at us as soon as we're done with this..."

"Quiet down," The Captain ordered as they descended deeper in, turning their flashlights on as the lights in the place grew dim enough to warrant it. Several more levels down and the crew was feeling the pressure still, but at around the same level. Perhaps some inertial dampeners were installed in the place that counteracted it, who knew. The doctor was only speculating at this point.

The device began to beep wildly as the woman lifted it up. She smiled, then said, "Dead ahead! This level!" as her escorts turned to face the door. A half-opened door resided in front of them, allowing only a single person to squeeze through at a time. First one in was the Captain, of course. Just not to say he'd send his men or the doctor in to their deaths. The group pushed on through, with the captain waiting on the other side for all of them.

"So, doc... Any idea what this device is?" He asked. She shrugged.

"Your guess is as good as mine. There's no radiation I can detect," She stated. Caleb sighed, then set his mask back on. She followed suit with a roll of her eyes, then the group continued forward through the opening and into a massive hall. Several pillars rose high into the arching ceiling of the place, which was barely visible even with the lights from the soldiers' guns.

Ahead, on a pedestal, lay the power source. Caught between two pillars and shielded in some kind of energy field, a blue element bounced and shimmered, vibrating its containment shield with the energy it emanated with each impact and, presumably, pouring said energy through some sort of transmitters into the rest of this strange alien palace. There was a single terminal next to it.

One the good doctor approached carefully, with her escort close behind her. The terminal itself was a globe-shaped device that shimmered with emerald holographic light, wrapped neatly in a device with three prongs arrayed 90 degrees from one-another in a sort of alien claw, the hardlight emitters flaring as they poured the light down onto the pedestal to form the odd sphere. Said sphere was laced with symbols, each in a hexagon and each hexagon interlocked with those that surrounded it to form the strange pattern.

The Doctor hummed, then looked around as whispered filled her ears. She then took off her glove and leaned her hand forward, but the Captain stopped her, asking, "The hell are you doing...?"

"Testing," She said, "It's a terminal, clearly."

"And what if it's the shutdown button for the station's power supply?" He inquired, motioning toward the device, "For the love of god, Doctor, we're not here to die, we're here to rebuild. One mistake could cause an untenable loss of life for all of us...!" and the anger behind his words was palpable. The Doctor, meanwhile looked to him as if he'd just said the dumbest thing possible.

She sighed and said, "Trust me..." as she continued hearing the whispers, "I know what it is."

"Why place it next to the fucking power station, then...?" Murmured the man, rubbing his eyes, "If you survive this and I don't, I'm haunting your ass..."

She smirked, "Deal..." Before she put her hand over the device. In a moment that, in honesty, felt like centuries to her, her entire life flashed before her eyes. She staggered back, grabbing onto her head and feeling two hands wrap around her shoulders as her ears rang loudly. She shut her eyes tight, gritting her teeth, before murmuring something that was inaudible to her.

... But just as the disorientation came, so had it faded. She looked up, to see an emerald figure shining from the pedestal. She was clad in what looked to be a combination of advanced armor and ancient hunting dress, including a helmet that had a feather stuck to the auditory sensor. Her hands interlaced, the figure peered at them through an opaque, wide helmet visor.

She was humanoid, so there was that much. And clearly female, going by the curves of the armor, though a skirt-like something or other hid the lower part of the armor from around the waist. The figure hummed, then said, "Apologies for the sudden shock..." and waited for an answer. The entire Army Ranger unit, most of which had their guns pointed at her, and the doctor, all seemed stumped. An eerily awkward silence settled in...

And the doctor broke it, "You just spoke English."

"Yes..." The thing nodded, then spoke montonely, "My programming adapts to the brainwaves of those who access my files. My creators made it so before they disappeared from the face of the Galaxy, which, by my calculations, happened approximately seventy million six-hundred sixty thousand years ago, during the Second Cycle," and that actually shocked the group in every sense of the word.

The doctor doubled over, letting out a strained, "Seventy million..."

"Six-hundred sixty thousand, yes, indeed," She replied again, calmly.

"... Who in god's name are you?" The Captain inquired, lowering his rifle and showing his men to do the same.

"I am Virtual Intelligence Security and Service Unit number 71411-A41. Designate:Atlana. I belong to the now-defunct Tercius Concordat, a militant star nation that deployed this terraforming and storage device away from the Relay Network to ensure the safekeeping of at least the information and research of our people into the threat of The Machines," The thing explained calmly, "I am a failsafe, one designed to keep the memory of my creators alive and provide their tools and research to those who would find us..."

"The Machines? Second Cycle...?" Inquired Grayson.

"Yes, doctor Amanda Grayson, daughter of Samantha and Jacob Grayson and head researcher and ONI Supervisor of the UNSC Moscow. I sought a word closest to your spoken dialect. The Machines, a race of sentient exterminator warforms, has been perpetrating a destruction of the advanced peoples of this Galaxy for a great many Millennia due to unknown reasons."

"... And they did this to your people?" The Captain asked.

"Yes. My creators were slaughtered before coming up with a proper countermeasure. They occupied most of the Galactic North, but their tech is lost to me due to the passage of time. I am all that remains of my brother and sister VIs in the main network..." She explained, a hint of melancholy behind a robotic tone of voice, "Alas, I am designed to aid those who find me and answer all questions, including those relating to technology... What do you need of me, Humans of Earth?"

The Captain looked to the Doctor, to see a level of joy equal to that of a child in a sweets shop in her eyes. He sighed, looked back to his men and said, "Two of you, head upstairs and radio FLEETCOM. Tell the Admiral we're gonna be late for dinner. And tell him to send more scientists and a garrison. I feel like we're gonna be on this bloody planet a while."

Two men saluted and turned, departing in a quick marching pace through the main door. The Captain turned toward the machine, just to see the Doctor already taking out her tablet to take notes, while the rest of his unit already settled in for the long haul, taking out MREs and other items of food like that just for the sake of remaining sane. He nodded to them and went to the doctor's side, listening in on what she and this 'VI' were talking about...

He swore, he wasn't being paid enough...