Halo: Front Lines [BOOK ONE]

Chapter Thirteen - Reclaimer

UNSC Colony World: Eridanus II,
Eridanus System,
0030 Hours July 25th, 2530 (Military Calendar)
Historian's Note: It became abundantly clear to the Office of Naval Intelligence, even before the discovery of the Halo Array, that humanity had been touched by an ancient civilization in the distant past. This suspicion was initially aroused in the form of mystifying reports from research teams sent to Onyx, Reach, and other worlds where the ancient artifacts were discovered. These heavily redacted reports mentioned this otherwise dormant, incomprehensible technology reacting to a human's touch. When interviewed, almost all of the personnel involved claimed that they had an intuitive knowledge of how to activate the objects they were tasked with studying despite never seeing such technology before in their lives.

"You are chosen..." An elegant female voice pierced
the darkness and woke Gray with a start. He instinctively pulled out his sidearm and frantically aimed it at the surrounding trees, trying his best to guess where the voice had come from. How could he have allowed himself to fall asleep on watch? Stupid. The young Marine internally kicked himself as his eyes darted from tree to tree. Did he just cost his team their lives? The enemy didn't care how tired you were after fighting, or how low you felt after losing, they welcomed it with open arms.

"Reclaimer..." The voice came from his right. Gray snapped to and saw a glowing sphere of light emitting from the space between the trees. If he squinted hard enough, he swore he could almost see a being in the center.

"What are you?" Gray asked as he cautiously stood. He made sure to keep his distance...and a finger on the trigger.

"Follow." The entity said as it reached out a glowing appendage eerily resembling a human hand. Gray struggled with the decision. Something deep within him, something instinctual, was telling him to trust this being. However, he couldn't just leave his friends alone in the woods on a planet being swarmed by hostile elements. The young Marine found himself looking back to his friends with a deep worry coursing through his veins.

"They will be okay Joseph," The glowing entity added, seeming to sense Gray's worry. "This has all been foretold."

"What?" Gray instantly turned back to the creature.

"All will be revealed..." The being elegantly responded. Gray took its hand, and with a flash of blinding white light his surroundings had completely changed.

Instead of rolling hills covered in forests, there was nothing but grassland meeting a vast ocean. Instead of a pitch-black sky filled with an aurora and dotted with falling ships, there was an impossibly large sun that dominated the horizon. Instead of Gray's friends sleeping soundly behind him, only he remained. Strangely, he didn't feel panicked. The longer the young Marine looked into that vast and setting sun, the more he felt like leaving this place would do more harm than good.

"Who are you? Where did you take me?" Gray asked without looking away, almost indifferently. He hadn't felt such inner peace in years.

"Stop beating yourself up about things you couldn't control, lad." All his inner peace shattered to dust as Liam Brown's voice filled his ears. Gray whirled around to see the Lieutenant himself standing in the entity's place.

"The hell...?" Gray hissed as a chill ran up his spine.

"It's me." Brown said with watery eyes as he stepped forward and rested a hand on Gray's shoulder. The young Marine became even more speechless when he actually felt Brown's hand affectionately squeeze him.

"Dead men don't talk." Gray said, tearing away from
Brown's grip.

"You need to listen before it's too late." Brown tried to explain. He took another step towards his brother-in-arms but was aghast to see Gray retreating even more.