Remnants

Prologue

A ship in harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.

-John A. Sneed, "Salt from my Attic", 1928

The camp laid spread out before her, a bit larger than she had expected. The Covenant had certainly settled into this place fairly well. The living quarters alone occupied a quarter of the general excavation site. It would be incredibly stupid to try and sneak through it to her target. Luckily, that wasn't going to be an issue. They were expecting a potential infiltration or attack from the front and expected the cliffs at the back to keep them safe on that end. She, however, had managed to get along their flank. It had taken hours of trekking just to get here and a lot of climbing up these old ruins. Now though, she had the perfect way in.

She could see her final destination now, looming just a short ways in the distance. The ancient temple stretched up to the sky, a magnificent monument to the Forerunner race. A civilization that once spanned the entire galaxy, their technology and power unmatched by anyone. Now they were gone and thought of as Gods by those left behind. She didn't really take much stock in that, few Kig-Yar did. What she did take stock in was that their precious abandoned structures housed things that were always worth something. This particular temple, according to what she had been told, was worth a lot. It better be, considering the risk she was taking here.

She leaped towards the next ledge, a small outcropping old ruined tower on the perimeter of the temple. She rolled across the roof, stood up and kept running. The next ledge, she threw herself off and grabbed onto a mess of vines growing out of the old structure. She climbed up the side, pulling herself onto the roof. Next came a large old tree that had seemingly grown into the old building. Some Forerunner structures were built to last, but in her experience they were rarely immune to nature. Something always poked through the outward shiny and clean exterior. If it wasn't rock forming over it, it was the desert swallowing half of it. Today it was an overgrown jungle of sorts, classic lost city vibe like from the old stories.

She slid down the mossy trunk, trying to keep her hood over her beak and face. When you were doing work like this it was best not to be easily recognizable. The Covenant didn't take kindly to people stealing from the tombs of their Gods. As far as she was concerned, if they didn't want them stolen they'd learn to get better at excavating them instead of constantly worrying about offending their precious deities. Superstition had no place in this line of work, they needed to learn that. Or not, again she didn't care.

Now up close and personal, she looked up at the massive temple, its gleaming blue beam pulsing into the sky. One thing was for sure, the Forerunners did have a way of leaving you in awe. However, their architecture was no less predictable at this point. Unlike the Covenant, she bothered to actually learn a little about these old ruins and she knew, as anyone worth a damn did, that the Gods had certain predictable patterns to the way they built these things. Being a kig-yar gave her a bit of a spring in her step, useful for traversing places like this. The overgrown vines provided additional support as she scrambled her way up a few feet towards a small platform.

As she crawled onto it, she heard something and quickly hid behind a small wall. Peek out she saw a group of fellow kig-yar patrolling the pathway with some unggoy by their side. Ugly little methane suckers and their sell-out handlers, that's all they were. So long as she didn't run into a sangheili she'd be okay. They were the real threat here.

When they passed by, she quickly sneaked out towards a small circular pattern along the wall. She ran her hand along it, finding the crease easily enough. Whatever power source these old ruins used to stay running long after their masters had vanished, it had once needed maintenance ducts at some point. She looked around and found the control box nearby. A few seconds of messing with them her hatch opened with a fairly satisfying sound. She had her way inside, now things were about to get a little more tricky.

Navigating the inside of the maintenance shaft was relatively hazardous. Small moving parts that could take off a leg if you got caught in them, plasma conduits spewing out exhaust, it would be easier to get through these places if the Forerunners hadn't built to last. Luckily this wasn't one of the more complicated structures that had seemingly bottomless pits appearing out of nowhere. Those were always a pain to skirt around. Why the Forerunners built so deep she would never know.

Truthfully a few still belching exhaust ports were the least of her concerns. It all came down to timing and she was good with that. Just memorize the pattern for a few brief second and make a move. One, two, three, roll, exhaust blow off behind her, one, two, three, duck, exhaust harmlessly shoots over her head. One last dive and the worst she feels is a little singing on the sole of her foot. A bit late, but nothing to worry about. She wouldn't be stuck with another impromptu puzzle like that again anyway, as soon as she found a hatch out of the tunnel she forced it open and leapt down from the shaft.

Her real concern, as always when it came to these jobs, was the Covenant and how far they had gotten through the temple. Sometimes she got lucky and she made it there before them. This time, no such luck, they had been pretty deeply entrenched here for awhile and they had quite the garrison inside to match their camp outside. Always a problem when clients got their info late. She always explained that would make things difficult, but they didn't care. It wasn't their life on the line after all.

Here was no different, worse yet stalking the halls were groups of sangheili and their little gas sucking slaves. Unlike most kig-yar, she kinda pitied the ugly spuds, but only in so far that they had no choice. At least her people had more opportunities, being a bit more spread out and their homeworld not being a shithole. One of the sangheili forced a lolly-gagging unggoy to keep pace, forcing them to continue down the corridor. Once they were gone, she jumped down from the platform above and landed in the hallway. With any luck, she'd be able to avoid any more patrols in a similar manner.

Sticking to the shadows, she made her way to the central chamber where her target was. She kept out of sight of the patrols best she could, trying not to get spotted. She could kill them yes, but then she'd have to waste time hiding a body and there was always the risk one would raise an alarm before she killed him. Better to keep out of sight and wait for them to pass rather than take the chance. Patience was the key to this job.

She kept herself tucked in behind a small pillar as one group made their way through the corridor. One sangheili, two unggoys. She'd have to wait a bit longer on account of the eight foot blowhard. Sangheili were just naturally alert when on the clock, very few people could sneak up on or past them. You had to be really careful when moving with them around.

As she was peeking to make sure they were turning the corner, one of the unggoy turned. She quickly pulled back as the little idiot eyed her pillar curiously. He probably saw her beak out of the corner of his eye. He made a tepid step towards her, but was quickly called back into the patrol. Sangheili never cared for those stepping out of line. When the unggoy tried to argue something back but his overlord forced the point and grabbed him by the collar, throwing him forward and back onto the patrol. When the bickering and angry shouting vanished, she made a quiet run out to the next series of shadows. Lucky her, sangheili rarely listened to the people beneath them.

Before long, she found her final destination. As usual, big door in the way because of course there is. So long as her employer's information was solid the prize was still inside waiting to be claimed. She hoped it was at least, that the Covenant hadn't found a way past the security within in the time it took to get here. Otherwise this whole trip would've been a waste. Although the more immediate problem was a lot smaller. Unggoy were standing watch, their eyes scanning the corridor for threats. No sangheili, they probably didn't think any intruders could get this far so why bother standing there all night? They had better things to do.

She could handle one unggoy without making much noise, but this was two. The second one dropped dead the other one was going to start screaming like mad and then she'd have a whole set of new problems. She had to lead them away from the door. Only one way to do that and give herself enough time to get what she needed done.

Pulling out a small communication device she tuned it to the standard frequency of the Covenant channels. Her mind centered on a possible location, keeping in mind where she was at the moment. Then she spoke into the device.

"Attention Central Chamber sentries," she said in her best gruff voice. "Report to the secondary Celestial Chamber, immediately."

The good thing about unggoy, they didn't question much. This would be a lot harder if it was one of her kind or sangheili. She didn't even want to think about how difficult the walking worm colonies would be, they were horrifically stubborn and not nearly as stupid as they looked. Unggoy though, they obeyed because they dared not risk the consequences. So when they took off waddling, it was no surprise. Now she could get to work.

She slinked over to the door and checked around the edge. The Covenant had locked it back up, but she could get around that. She had worked up enough experience with Forerunner tech that she had quickly learned how to overcome their ancient security. One connection to the electronic lock component, a simple tap of the central button and before long the doors lurched open.

She squeezed her way inside and found herself in a large circular room. There old terminals all around, still functioning with three-dimensional displays and readouts. She could only imagine the larger metallic squares were old servers. As for the center of the room, there was a pyramid shaped fluorescent orange object hovering in the middle of a large blue beam. As she suspected, this wasn't a straightforward place of worship as the Covenant always tended to believe. It was some kind of larger planetary facility, for what purpose she didn't know. What she did know, was she was looking at data module of some kind. Her employer was paying good credits for this particular one and now it was within her grasp.

Carefully she stepped up to the floating miniature pyramid, but hesitated to grab it. No, it was never this simple. She brought out another piece of equipment, a small charge and placed it close to the beam. She pressed it and it let out a small burst of energy. The beam was disrupted for a brief moment and she quickly grabbed for the pyramid before it fell to the floor. The beam turned on moments after and kept functioning as normal. She held up her prize and grinned before placing it securely in her satchel.

She smiled all the way back to the door. Easy money, she thought. She'd get out the way she came, get back to her ship and be out of here before the these stupid zealots knew their precious bauble was missing. At least, that was the plan. When she tried to leave the room, however, a terrible deafening sound rung in her ears. Clutching the sides of her head as the klaxon wailed she mentally kicked herself. Secondary security, designed to make sure nothing left the room without authorization. Damn those Forerunner assholes and their stupid little ancient tricks!

She made a run around the corner, trying to put as much distance between her and the room as possible. She made it about a few feet and then three unggoy came into the open. They were surprised to see her running at them at first, not sure what to make of her. She settled the question for them, firing a few shots at the unggoy with her needler. The shots sliced into their little gas sucking brains before they could properly react. She knew they weren't the real threat though, she could tell by the shadow. Sangheili, always letting someone take the first few shots for them.

She tucked into a roll as she came around the bend, blue plasma bolts slicing into the ground close to her. When she turned upright, she let loose what was left in her needler into the self-important alien warrior. You couldn't risk half-measure with them, you either unloaded everything or you died. The sangheili tried to react, but the pink swarm enveloped him. The bastard exploded in a cloud while she rushed by him.

Another bigger patrol was coming down the corridor, she couldn't fight them, she needed to get away. She tossed a plasma grenade into the crowd, more as a distraction than anything. As they all jumped to get away from the explosion, she jumped onto a Covenant terminal set up nearby. Using that, she jumped onto the upper platform above her. It spanned the length of the hallway, leading all the way back to her exit point. The Covenant below, who had survived the grenade's explosion, fired on her as she ran. She fired back, but doubted any of her shots hit. She was barely even looking at them anyway, as she was too focused on moving forward and staying one step ahead of the plasma bolts.

When she got back to the ventilation hatch, she forced it open and started scrambling inside. She made her way back up through the annoying bits of moving tech and exhaust ports. She had to move as carefully as ever, but now the Covenant knew she was trying to escape. What was supposed to be a clean getaway was now complicated by the fact the whole damn camp knew she was here! They'd be swarming the outside, patrols would be everywhere.

Sure enough, when she emerged outside, she saw a single unggoy below her and then heard a barrage of plasma fire fly past her. Two sangheili, blasting at her as they charged. Another fight she couldn't win. Only one way out. She jumped down towards the unggoy on the ground, bringing the closest thing she had to a melee weapon to bear. As she neared the gas sucker's head she plunged her climbing axe tool into his eye. Yanking the weapon back out, she quickly picked herself up off the corpse and made a dash towards the back of the temple. She could already hear other patrols chasing after her.

Plasma fire of both green and blue variety chased after as she moved through the brush, jumped over logs, ducked under vines, hoping maybe she'd lose them. She did not, the cliffs showed up sooner than she thought. She nearly ended up falling clear over the side. When she righted herself, she heard the distinct noise of plasma weapons powering up.

"Nowhere left to run thief."

She turned and saw a plethora of Covenant soldiers staring her down, one sangheili officer keep his eyes and weapon trained on her. Being the guy in the middle, she imagined he was the head asshole in charge of this hunt. How wonderful, she thought, he was giving her the chance to grovel.

"Your defilement was greatly ill advised," he declared. "Return what you have stolen and surrender, now."

"Why?" She asked, her hands raised. "So you can throw me in a cell, torture me for the next couple of weeks and then kill me? Not exactly much of an offer."

"We don't negotiate with heretics," the sangheili assured her.

"Yeah, I know, you glass'em," she huffed, moving back slightly to the edge. "You're horrendously predictable like that."

The sangheili already seemed tired of the conversation.

"We are the rightful owners of that artifact, it is the inheritance of our Gods, it will be returned," he reiterated. "I will count to three."

"Wow, all the way up to three?" She mockingly laughed. "That's impressive for you guys, I must say."

There was no countdown actually. The sangheili started shooting without even saying a single syllable of a number. As he did though, she fell backwards, letting the bolt sail over her. She fell off the edge of the cliff and started tumbling down to the cavernous abyss below. In mid-fall though, she righted herself, pulled out her climbing axes and plunged them into the side of the rock. The tools dug into the rock, the pikes holding despite slicing through the rock. Dust and debris kicked up as she slid down and she gritted her teeth in pain as she tried to keep her grip. Her feet grasped the side of the rock, trying to slow her down further, she could feel a burning sensation through her climbing boots all the way down. Then, at long last, she stopped falling.

She pressed herself into the rock, still gripping her axes tightly. Breathing heavily, she looked up and saw she had fallen quite a ways. She looked down, trying not to focus on the still miles long drop, and eventually spotted the cavern. Good, for a second there she was worried she fell too far. The Covenant had probably already decided she was dead and even if not there wasn't much they could do about it now. She started moving towards the cavern, just a little ways down and to the right of her.

As she swung herself into the open mouth of the cliffside cave she took a breather at last. She was more or less clear, at least of any immediate danger for the moment. Still had a long walk back though, wasn't looking forward to that. She started moving through the dark, knowing she was only going to feel even more tired by the time she got back to her ship.

It had taken a day to scout the site and find a suitable entry point. It took hours just to make her way through the damn cave. At least one good thing had come out of being spotted early, it meant she had an excuse to rush back here and shave off a little of the return trip time. Not that it mattered, she was still pissed at everything.

Hours later, scurrying and climbing through the dingy cavern, she emerged miles away from the temple. She then rushed back to her ship, set down in a small clearing about another few kilometers away. She trudged back into the tiny vessel's quarters and slumped down in the pilots chair in a heap. Every muscle in her body ached and she felt like she had been swimming a marathon against razorfins for a week. She barely wanted to move, she just wanted to rest.

"Taq," she asked herself aloud. "How the hell did you get here?"

A question she had asked herself more and more frequently these days. Before, it had been easier to raid tombs and hunt for treasure. The Covenant were distracted with a stupid crusade and snatching up trinkets was easy pickings. In the last few years though, that had changed. They had gotten better at finding these old ruins. They had gotten better at excavating. They had gotten better at pretty much everything and she could barely keep up. The black market still paid plenty, but it was getting harder to find solid decent work. Freelance Treasure Hunting just wasn't as lucrative anymore, or as safe.

So, she sold out her service to others. She took up clients, people who wanted Forerunner junk for themselves. Mostly criminals of course, people who wanted artifacts to sell or use or whatever. As a result, she never got as much as she was used to and she was always one someone else's clock.

She couldn't search for the things she wanted anymore, couldn't pick and choose the places she went to. Her client would want something and she'd have to get it, no matter the cost. The risk hadn't gone down all that much, but the real trade off was having someone else do the research for her. Not to mention they gave her the necessary equipment to keep up with the Covenant. Equipment and resources she would not have otherwise because she wasn't earning enough money by herself to get them.

Now, Taq found herself being worked to the bone as a personal tomb raider for some damn old bastard who seemed to have a thing for Forerunner tech. Almost as much of a thing as the Covenant in fact. As far as she knew, he wasn't a believer either, but he paid her the cash so she could at least eat and keep her ship fueled. He never gave her enough though, never what she actually deserved. Just enough to keep her complacent and in his employ. She was the best at extracting this stuff after all and who else would pay her more? He was the only kig-yar who was legitimately interested in Forerunners, or least their stuff. His contracts were the most frequent and therefore he was the only real game in town.

Taq wanted nothing more than to just tell him where to stick it, but she didn't have a choice. Where else would she find work? Who else would let her keep doing what she loved? Who else had the ability to keep her off the Covenant's watch list? Part of her hoped either the Covenant would put more people back into their war effort or those humans would somehow miraculously defeat them. The latter was unlikely though. Unless something change, she was stuck working for the Old Man and his minimum wage paycheck.

She pulled out the artifact she had nearly died to get him today. Taq looked over the little glowing pyramid inquisitively, her eyes scanning the little object incessantly. All this trouble for something small. Taq imagined something important was on this thing. No, she knew something was important because her employer insisted she not look at the data contained within. She grumbled a bit, remembering the order. Until now, Taq had played the good girl, always obeying the contract and the guy who paid her. She listened and followed his rules and instruction, no matter how strange. She never questioned, not once.

But after a few years of being under someone else's thumb, after being cheated out of credits that she deserved, after being thrown into these increasingly dangerous situations with little regard, well, she stopped caring. Taq decided to open the stupid thing and see what was so worth almost getting killed over.

It wasn't hard to figure out what to do to open it, you just had to find the activation mechanism. Pressing against the top of the pyramid had it open wide. The four sides of the object dropped down as a small cylinder in within spun around. Slowly it descended into the base of the pyramid. Then, suddenly, a small holographic map appeared. The image was a bit distorted, corrupted no doubt by the countless years of neglect. However, she could make out a few familiar systems and the relevant information pertaining to the image itself. Not many kig-yar bothered to learn Forerunner, but in Taq's line of work it was a requirement. She had gotten pretty decent at it, although admittedly she could be better.

She understood enough though to realize what this holomap was telling her. Suddenly, everything made sense. Why her employer was so eager to get his hands on this, why he had pushed the issue as urgent and why he didn't want her looking inside. Taq didn't blame him too much she supposed, if this was true then it meant something huge. Namely, the biggest payday any would-be treasure hunter could ever ask for. It would be worth enough credits to ensure she never had to do grunt work for anyone ever again.

She had no doubt the Old Man had no intention of asking her to go on this job, he knew that if she found out what this was about that she'd probably take it and sell it for herself. Again, she couldn't blame him if he thought that way mainly because he was right. Thing is, now she did know and as soon as he found out, well, her life was forfeit anyway. He couldn't risk the competition, not with this.

Problem was, going after it would be difficult. She didn't have the resources, equipment or even a big enough team to properly pull this kind of expedition off. This wasn't some temple or ruin, this was something else. This was top priority stuff, the damn information on the holomap pretty much spelled it out. This was big, potentially even bigger for all she knew. Doing some quick calculations in her head, she figured she had at least enough credits to get a few people together, bare minimum supplies at least. Question was where would she find everything she needed?

Well, really only one place and given her intentions it was a bit risky to go there. She supposed she could just forget she saw anything and complete the job as ordered. Just get the money you were offered and walk. Then again fuck that. She was kig-yar, they didn't walk away from profit that easy. She'd take the risk, head to into the razorfin feeding ground so to speak, risk the big fish catching her and get out with what she needed before he could do so. If this paid off, she'd never have to worry about making ends meet again. If it didn't, well, she'd be dead and the same would apply. Win-win from a certain point of view.

"Alright," she declared aloud, closing the pyramid back up and pocketing the device. "Mind made up."

Sitting back upright in her chair, she activated the engines, lifted off from the ground, raised landing gear and closed all hatches.

"Setting course for the Hollow," she said next as she activated navigation. "And hoping it doesn't get me killed."

The small ship took off into the sky, leaving the old Forerunner world behind. Taq knew this was probably a bad call. But since when was anything worth doing not potentially dangerous? She just had no real idea how much trouble she was about to get into.

AN: We're back people! It's so good to return to this story after a nice long break. I know it took awhile, mainly because I was writing a bunch of chapters in advance, still technically am, but decided to upload this one while I finish up chapter five. Check the profile for more details about this chapter, my thoughts on returning and do leave a review or two. Expect the first official chapter within the next few days. This is just to let you all know that the story is going to continue and I'm not dead. Thanks again for your continued support.