Doctor Reichkopf's Story

Doctor Reichkopf tensed his shoulders as he noticed that perhaps he'd doped the woman up with too much of the anesthetic. She certainly wasn't Scatterran, and thusly didn't require the larger dosage -- and on top of that, the dosage had been considerably larger for the aspect of operating on her brain. First looking to the technician, and then to Ari, Grosha crossed his arms over his chest and then tipped his nose toward the window.
"Zhen take her down zhere if she's needed so quickly -- Lady Ari, you are to be on a transport into Wing City with zome Vostols this evening! I would have let you sleep in, but it appears Commander Grosha has plans for you elsewhere." He replied a brief moment before looking toward the technician, who was quick to put his patrol cap on and quickly opened the heavy door.
"Zhe anesthetic should be wearing off -- it will just require some movement." He said, taking a few steps toward the doorway.

Doctor Reichkopf followed the woman into the hallway. It was busier than their previous room, several Halo soldiers were hefting long barreled cannons and their heavy tripods over their shoulders on the trip down to the launch field. As the trio began to walk in the same direction, Reichkopf was quick to make one final inspection of the woman. Taking the time to inspect the back of her neck while they walked, to ensure that the reconstruction had worked efficiently, and to observe her stride to ensure that he had not damaged any of the basic functions.
"You know, it's been practically a year since my last procedure on someone living as for zhat drink, zhe Commander has you meeting another Halo in Wing City. Laslo will find you, zhough, zhat's not something you vill have to worry about." As they descended a stairway leading to the landing pad, Reichkopf was quick to stop a group of passing soldiers before pointing to one of several airjet's sitting on the jump pad.
"Which one is to Wing City?" The Doctor had to shout over the roar of the engines, and in the waning light of the Afghan mountainside the only indication of where any of the airjet's were destined could be seen in direction.
"Far right pad -- is he taking the girl to Laslo?" The gunmen inquired, his head and face obscured by dull red headgear that wrapped around his entire skull; while the other armed hefted a rifle. The two Halo soldiers nearby him first looked to Reichkopf, before looking past him to the technician and Ari.
"Yes, she's leaving right now!" Reichkopf's tone quickened as the motors of the vehicle's roared to a new height, and the technician began to pace down the runway toward the transport.
"Now zhen, Ari -- zhat tech will get you to Wing City, after which; zhere has been some serious work done on your noodle, mein kindred! You will find zhat zhere is a lot more in zhere zhan just an Aschen bot!"

Doctor Reichkopf continued on behind Ari before reaching the waiting airjet and standing at the lowered ramp of the Cricket's massive cargo bay. Capable of fitting nearly 32 armed men, the trip would be a spacious flight for the two. Reichkopf was required off-planet, however, and the operation on Ari was a simple spur of the moment achievement to hold Reichkopf's occupation until he inevitably left for New Hadden. As the woman jogged for the airjet, Uburn had witnessed the fleeting touch to the nap of her neck; her touch would have been greeted with nothing, a free hand over free skin. Reichkopf's work had done one better than putting a piece of machinery in her skull to make her run better; he had simply improved the network that was already there -- though, especially judging from the preliminary scans -- Reichkopf was unaware of how far this experiment could bring the girl. She seemed alive and functioning in the least, and it was Laslo that would handle the woman's training now.
"Let's just say zhe Halos have made quite an investment on you, Lady Ari! Zhe Vostols in Wing City will find you -- keep your head down and out of sight for zhe first few days, you shouldn't be showing up to work with your condition!" Reichkopf was shouting from the launch pad as the guide wheels of the airjet began to lift and tug away from the ground.

Doctor Reichkopf eased himself against the seat of the booth as the Arrokan lowered his hands from a pair of walking handles on the breast plate of the battle armor. He briefly eyed the surrounding patrons of the bars; scraps, Terrans, non-Scatterrans of less than important value, though the spectrum of personnel that came through that door both sedated and piqued Reichkopf at the same time. His intricate desire of comprehension would've easily led him to attempt to 'understand' some of the organisms that walked, crawled or slithered through this door and over this entire planet. He was far more occupied with the objects in front of him though; one was a simple computer, a touchscreen device standard to most civilians on this planet. His equipment had become discreet and commonplace electronics, not many could track the manufacture of the models, meaning it was just that much more difficult for a compromise.

Reichkopf finally opened his mouth, one gloved finger twitching up to the Azrican seated across the seat. The old ruffian could've passed as a Terran, if it weren't for that unsettled, barbaric look a common place of Scatterrans.
"You've found no -- correct, nein? -- evidence to support zhe material is within zhe Local Region?" He remarked; his voice, empowering as it was, hushed to avoid sounding too frustrated, his inflections were enough to show that however.
"Zhe last time we had critical mass for zhose elements was when you insisted we put zhat hardvhere in Ari's noggin. I hope you remember."

Doctor Reichkopf withdrew a cigarette from a packet he held in his left hand, pulling two and tossing one over the length of the table to the Azrican. He lowered his shoulders as the Azrican began to speak, withdrawing a computer tablet as he offered Uburn a picture of a chemical structure.
"That hardware can take millions of Cays to find -- hell, millions more to even produce a usable gram of it. Are ... are you sure you know what this stuff is?" He asked, which caused Reichkopf to snatch the computer pad from his hands, spilling a few cursing slurs from his lips.

"Zhese metals, transuraniums, are vorth more zhan the life of your entire pathetic generation -- you insolent rat. You're being paid to only look for zhese damn rocks, not give a study session to zhe bastard writing your paycheck." He said with a scowl, changing the image on the screen to a star map of the Local Region. Using a Scatterran-registered civilian prowler, Reichkopf and his crew had scoured a distance of 600 light years, dozens of planets, in the search for a single atom of this material.
"Vhat I vant from you is a better quantum scope -- any suggestions vhere to find one?"

Doctor Reichkopf laid his hands out in his lap while the digital menu loaded from a small module on the center of the table. The Hykan laid out the backpack on the table in front of him before he grabbed at a small handheld; Reichkopf lazily waved to the bodyguard, distracting him with a few noises and grunts from an obnoxious Reichkopf.
"Yooooooook -- You can't beat my score on zhe Dig-Dug." He stated before looking at the menu, and tapping at his order with one finger.
"If zhere is anyzhing more delicious zhan some god damn soup ... "

The Hykan laid his elbows on the table while tapping at the handheld, his shoulders dropping as he noticed the people situated throughout the bar. The Scatterran let out a sigh and turned to the menu.
"Gonna' get ... a taco ... " He remarked before occupying himself with his order like Reichkopf.
"Maybe some nachos too."

Doctor Reichkopf lounged in his chair as he heard the quips and remarks from the argument between the two women at the bar. Reichkopf crossed his face to the Hykan at the remeberance of Koporo, but he quickly replaced it with an impassive smile while Ari looked over to him.
"Niet, no. You vere zhere vith Grosha at Kapminor vith zhe Soviets -- " Reichkopf said, the Hykan nodded as he coughed into his palm.
"And zhe car looks very streamlined, I've not seen much design like zhat. Especially in zhe places I've been lately. Zhe Soviets have very poor infrastructure." He remarked, before jostling slightly at the sound of the weapons fire.

"Mier Kot zhose are zome very loud pieces." Reichkopf said, lacing one hand around the grip of the blade fixed to his chest plate on a holster. The Hykan was laying a hand down at his side, muttering to himself in a foreign dialect before looking to Reichkopf.
"Sovraks running the fucking mouth, one thing we didn't have in Kampinor ... Thank God." The Hykan remarked as he slouched himself against the table.

Doctor Reichkopf was idly conversing with the Hykan before the second shot rang out through the bar, a faint muffling from it striking quickly and then a splatter caused Reichkopf to shout out. He flung his arms up as he turned over to see that the woman had shot herself in the head. Reichkopf cackled out in sheer bewilderment.
"Ooooh Kot! Did zhat just fucking happen?" He called out in confusion, leaning himself out of his seat slightly as the Hykan took his hands away from his ears.

"They let everyone have a gun here?!"

Doctor Reichkopf is present

Doctor Reichkopf felt the snow give way, and then a burst of harsh cold air, colder than the wind he had just left, pushed against him while he went sliding down into the crevice with his boots steering him to safety. He joined two other men in heavy snow gear with EMIT tools and a plasma pick used against ultra-dense ice. Looking up, he could see the man-sized hole he had made following Professor Kuralkin and David Winters, a National Republic Koraliner PMC chief into the snow gap between two large pieces of glacier.

“Ah ... thought that wouldn’t work for a second.” Reichkopf said as he pulled himself out of a pile of snow, trying his best to keep the frigid particles out of his clothing. With his face obscured, he was thankful that he was relatively warm in this climate; the Koraliner chief was not wearing a full helmet and appeared particularly distraught about it. When Reichkopf crouched, he looked at Professor Kuralkin and waved for him to hand the small communicator to him.

“This is Reichkopf, we have retrieved the first beacon -- the anomaly is still here, within 2 kilometers below us, ohver.”

Doctor Reichkopf was moving deeper through a large vein of air between two massive drifts of snow, able to see some distance down and a faint, grey hue that turned the snow below a murky color before the rumble of another larger cave-in made Reichkopf freeze with his arms holding snow apart while Kuralkin and Winters ventured deeper.
“What in the fahck was that?”

“It’s a cave-in! On the whole fucking ice sheet!” Kuralkin shouted, his voice projected through a digital module on his helmet before both him and David disappeared, rocketing downwards through the vein and deeper into the crevice. Reichkopf couldn’t move any further when two large pieces of solid ice blocked him. He quickly grabbed a flashlight from his utility vest and produced a strobing pattern in the icey catacomb as he heard movement behind him, but was actually four meters below their feet.

“You’re on unstable pack! There’s a large vein running around something below the ice of the surface, it has the whole thing unstable!” Reichkopf shouted, his accent all too familiar of the Arrokan people, but his voice was muffled by the snow immediately around him.

“This is Kuralkin, we’re deeper below the surface! What has happened on there, someone answer!”

Doctor Reichkopf pushed a block of snow from off of him and was able to make his way down to the structure to meet Kuralkin and the security chief. As he did, he was drenched with the run-off from Aschen drilling just meters away from him, breaking into the tunnel he had formed on his descent and sending more liquid water rushing to the other archaeologists. When Reichkopf came sliding out of the tunnel he landed in another pack of ice on a deep slope underneath them. Reichkopf and Kuralkin were joined by David as they looked off the edge of a superstructure almost similar to a vessel.

“‘Something was down here’ was right ... “ Kuralkin remarked as the three men all looked in separate directions save for behind them; a bright arc in the snow above signaled Aschen efforts as they accessed the massive chasm formed between distant glaciers brushing against one another.

“And it wasn’t just us, they practically fell right on the damn thing -- “ Reichkopf said while turning back to look at the hatch station a few dozen meters away from them. Reichkopf had spotted the Aschen easily, partly because of the noise. David looked back to Kuralkin for a minute and then nodded at him. Once again, Reichkopf held a hand out to Kuralkin and he received the communicator, raising it to his mouth and holding a pair of binoculars in the direction of the Aschen troops.

“What’s down here isn’t solid, our pre-expedition reconnaissance suggests it’s a hollow, very complex structure!” Reichkopf said into the communicator while using his boot to cut away at clumps of snow.

Doctor Reichkopf waited for the Aschen to disappear into the ship before he looked back to Kuralkin and David. They shrugged their shoulder to him and the Scatterrans didn’t bother with any more conversation before doing the same. Accessing a piece of withered clinging ice over a thin metal surface, Reichkopf dropped several meters to land across an expanse from the Aschen. He made one simple wave before looking around him and fumbling to grab the recorder from his backpack.

“We picked this thing up on a low-flying drone looking for rich-water deposits throughout the Artic ... It took up the whole screen.” Reichkopf replied into the communicator before hefting the recorder and pointing down to a few platforms beneath him.
“There was a signature in the complex ... where a starship reactor would be.”

Doctor Reichkopf fell in with the Aschen and the others, Kuralkin and David on either side of him with flashlights and cameras aimed in either direction. Reichkopf entered the large room and moved past the console, disappearing in the darkness for a moment until a holographic projector activated near him. Reichkopf used a digital imager on a forearm-mounted to project information in front of him, while a blue tint followed him in the dark.

“This vessel has been here for centuries ... “ As Reichkopf turned around he glimpsed the seal of the vessel, before Professor Kuralkin indicated to the mural in front of him. Reichkopf looked over at the linguist, raising a hand at David, who was standing near the exit of the room.

“The text matches the Books, yeah?” Reichkopf inquired, approaching Kuralkin and the other Aschen while imagery moved around him. He looked over to some of the others in the complex with them.

“When I got here, I expected to just find some penguins and ice.”

Doctor Reichkopf took a moment to consult with Kuralkin, exchanging a few brief words in a language with him. While Reichkopf manipulated an interface, a line of text began scrolling on a holographic display imposed against the characters on the interface. Before long Reichkopf was receiving notifications, a strobing light where characters in the hologram matched to the ancient scriptures in the interface.

“It is ... I guess that confirms your theory,” Reichkopf said to Kuralkin, the Tasvalt made a clutching hand at a small birthstone hanging around his neck, but as Uburn turned away from Kuralkin he pointed his head at the others of the group.

“There were periods of interaction on this planet from other worlds before now ... Professor Kuralkin was leading an expedition to uncover anomalies on Terra he suspected were, erm, ‘vessels’.” Reichkopf said into a communicator, looking back at the Professor before he made an indication off into a darker area of the bridge.

“The ice has preserved this one well, I can recognize just a few markings!”

Doctor Reichkopf slid a hand over the computer pad, squelching the hologram as he saw the ship coming online. Standing away from the Professor, who had by now become enraptured in the interfaces as they operated in front of him, and made a gesture over to David Winter. The Scatterran adjusted a hand over the AR-600 rifle over his shoulder and came over to Reichkopf at a trot.

“Kuralkin will have plenty of information on this, it wasn’t some aliens like he thinks, though ... has he ever seen an Aschen?” Reichkopf inquired under his breath, speaking to David in a hush toned by a dark interface module.

“This thing can’t fly right now, not like this. It needs to be properly excavated.” Reichkopf said back to David, who nodded in agreement and then pointed with his chin over towards the Professor.

Jay Null opens his comms, reaching out to the vessel he notices off his bow.

Is everything okay out there? Do you need a terrestrial assist?

he asked inquisitively.

Outside of orbit around the planet Terra.

A medium-sized ship, shaped like a triangle with a blunted end, moves slowly towards Terra and the space station above it. The shape and size of this ship may have been seen before, but this one in particular has never been witnessed by any Terran, or as a matter of fact, any species or beings besides the ones who had made it. If they were able to trace it's origins, then it would point to an unexplored area known generally as RA-619, and even more specifically the Glendathu system. The doesn't seem to be armed, and a scan for life would only turn up three humanoid beings.

The ship made no advances of any sort towards the planet or the station, and seemed to just be there. Watching. Peaceful, it seemed, and the crew had no intentions of attacking. But they were truly awestruck. In front of them was a culture, a sophisticated one, unseen to any of their people, and they didn't know how to feel about it. They were just awaiting orders at this point.

Jay Null shrugged and closed the comms. The traffic in the Terran orbital was bustling as usual, an economic boom brought on by the prolonged period of peace. Alas, he knew the endless waltz of history, and had work to do.

Tapping a few buttons on his console, he maneuvered down towards Wing City Spaceport, leaving a faint thruster trail in his wake.

Meteor appeared as a small flicker in the sky