The Remnant Lost Soul of HALO

Discovery

-M2.539. Galaxy's edge. Unknown system-

Ever since the UNSC Spirit of Fire's victory in the battle of Harvest, humanity finally managed to land a significant blow against the Covenant, almost succeeding in killing their Prophet. However, despite these efforts, the war raged on, and humanity continued to lose colony planets one by one, with casualties soaring.

Hope seemed elusive for humanity, no matter how hard they fought. Everything seemed futile due to the resounding defeats in tactics and technology. However, when the crew of the Spirit of Fire discovered coordinates that could potentially be their salvation in this seemingly hopeless war.

With that, an expeditionary fleet was swiftly formed to identify the coordinates deciphered by the ONI. The 21st expeditionary fleet, with the operation code-named "Operation Seeker," moved quickly to acquire anything they could find at those mysterious coordinates.

The flagship of this operation was a light carrier ship, UNSC Trianna. By making various slipspace jumps, they continued to narrow their distance with the target. But strangely, what used to be a one-way slipspace journey straight to the destination now required multiple slipspace jumps, driving them tens of light-years further. This was caused by the deteriorating and erratic slipspace field as they approached their destination.

Admiral Johannes Stanson led this expeditionary force. He gazed at the system they had been visiting for a week with calculated eyes. He walked towards the bridge and saw Dr. Katarina Ambers, accompanied by the ship's AI, Olivan.

"I want a status update, Doctor," Johannes said, approaching the researcher.

"We'll be able to make another slipspace jump shortly. But there's bad news, Admiral," the doctor replied slowly.

"What do you mean, doctor?" Katarina uploaded the data on her datapad to the hologram table in the middle of the bridge.

"Olivan, can you assist me?"

"With pleasure." The AI, taking the appearance of a well-dressed businessman, calibrated the information given to him and displayed it to the Admiral in an easily understandable scheme.

"As seen here, there's some damage in the slipspace field. From the records of previous jumps, we obtained data that the damage is worsening as we approach our target coordinates. But, there's something that makes this disturbing." Katarina's tone gradually decreased towards the end of her sentence. She seemed to be wrestling with her own thoughts.

"What is it, Doctor?" The Admiral found the doctor silent, thinking hard about saying something. Johannes glanced at Olivan, seeking an answer.

"Well, this is quite difficult to say," Olivan spoke in a hushed tone. "There's some sort of crack or wound in space and time itself, and the disruption effects of our slipspace jumps are a result of the spreading crack."

The Admiral stared at the AI for a while before turning his gaze back to the doctor for an answer.

"As Olivan said, there's some kind of wound in space and time, and the center of this wound is at our target location. All the slipspace anomalies we've experienced are from the crack spreading from the center of the damage," Katarina explained as she moved the hologram in front of her, showing the data results she had analyzed.

Johannes examined the presented data, reading every detail carefully. "What do you think is the cause of all this, Doctor?"

"I don't know," Katarina spoke slowly. "This is not a natural occurrence and is impossible. So, in my opinion, it's something artificially created by an intelligent being with technology unknown to us. Forerunners are my best guess."