Empyrean Iris

Chapter 27

The group of aliens gathered about the Gnar'lak vehicle clustered together like a group of gore horns about a patch of amber moss.

Chalan stuck purposely to the back of the group, watching with great interest and the captain was called forward. She did not know what to expect, but kept silent so as not to disturb the proceedings. The last thing she wanted was to be pulled away before she could see what was going on.

Chalan was aware that the humans were looking for something, ironically the same thing that she had been looking for: other humans. From what she had gathered, the missing humans were members of the human military force: the UNSC – the same ones that had come to the aid of the GA when they had invaded her homeworld.

Apparently, these humans had gone missing without any warning and without any explanation all in a place where disappearing was almost impossible, for there were careful monitoring systems in place for most of the humans who left their planet.

Humans were almost as new to the galactic battlefield as the Drev were, and they were not yet spread across the galaxy in bulk.

At least, that is what she had learned from whispered conversations between the marines inside the shuttle.

The captain leaned forward over the side of the vehicle, looking towards where the Fnnari and the Rundi had indicated.

She stepped forward, using her superior height to see over the rest of the heads.

The little bluish screen lit up before them, and Chalan only momentarily wondered how either the Finnari or the Gnar'lak could see the screen, considering that neither had any color perception to speak of.

However, Her musings were quickly evaporated as the Finnari began to speak, "This is entrance to the global Gnar'lak mainframe, each of their vehicles, each of their homes, each of their personal devices and each piece of their other technology is affixed to this network -- designed by the Finnari of course. Since each piece of Gnar'lak technology is connected to the same mainframe, you can easily access any piece of information from any given moment as long as you too are within reach of this technology." The aliens muttered leaning forward in interest, "All the information you could ever need is contained in one vast network that spans the entire planet."

"So, the internet?" Captain Vir interrupted.

He got a lot of looks, as no one understood what he was talking about.

That seemed to be a theme with captain Vir. He was always making references that others had no hope of understanding.

Though, despite his social shortcomings and seeming absentmindedness, Chalan had to admit that he was a more than passable warrior. With his human weapons he was very good, and had covered her back better than many Drev on her home planet had done. Even when he had been stripped of his human weapons and given the electricity spears, he was still rather useful: untrained and lacking in discipline and form, but useful none-the-less.

He had potential.

And she found that she had almost enjoyed their time in battle together.

It had been a long time since anyone had bothered to take up arms with her, and for a moment the feeling had been exhilarating.

She tried to push those musings aside, of course. That is not what she was here for. Despite her pathetic desire to be worthy enough to fight alongside competent warriors, she had to remind herself to keep hold of her mission.

The man sighed and waved the others on, knowing that his reference had been lost on the non-humans around the site, "So they are keeping all their information in the same place? For anyone to just come in and take?"