Episode 01: Cube B-349

Previous episode:	Episode 00: The Only Deliverable
Next episode:	Failed Transmission
Episode 01: Cube B-349
Series overview
Series:	Hunt the Truth
Season:	Season 2
Episode specifications
Episode:	01
Air date:	September 24, 2015
Run time:	20:57

Episode 01: Cube B-349 was the first episode released for the second season of the Hunt the Truth audio drama. The episode was originally released on Soundcloud on September 24, 2015.

Official summary

“

A missing man appears on Midnight, “anomalies” appear in the Colonies, and Maya receives her new assignment.

”

Plot summary

This section is a stub. You can help Halopedia by expanding it.

Audio transcript

• Maya (Voiceover): As far as my cover went, no one outside the op could know I was an agent. That’s why they were shipping me to Midnight Facility; a dark ONI secret hidden in the shadows of an asteroid belt. There are a number of penitentiaries throughout space whose reputations precede them, whose very names strike fear in the hearts of the state’s enemies. This facility wasn’t one of them. Midnight wasn’t about reforming criminals - it was about making them disappear. On the ride up, I’d asked three times to verify the list of casualties. I played the video feeds from the ground, over and over, just forcing myself to watch the slaughter, to accept the role I played in it. Not everyone was lost thankfully. Bostwick, my friend and right hand in the rebellion, was among those who escaped.

That gave me hope, but I couldn’t take any comfort as I watched my friends and followers die again and again.

• Officer: Commander. We’re about to land.

• Maya: Thank you.

• Maya (Voiceover): I looked out the window but all I saw was a massive asteroid. Hard to believe that inside there was a secret prison with enough firepower to take down a Covenant fleet. As we entered through a hidden entrance on the underside of the rock, the sheer scale of the facility became apparent. Pulsing beacons led us into a dark tunnel. After what felt like an eternity we made it to the hangar bay.

• Midnight AI: Clear. Welcome to Midnight Facility.

• Maya (Voiceover): As soon as the doors were open, I rushed to get off the ship. One of the ODSTs was happily wiping blood off his boots, and all I wanted to do was get away. I found myself standing on the inside of the massive hangar. Walls a hundred-meters high and totally empty except for a series of lights guiding us towards two small doors. This was a desolate place.

• Officer: May I remind you this op is fully blacked out, gentlemen.

• Marine: Yes, sir.

• Wiley: Hey, FERO. You’re welcome.

• Maya: For what?

• Wiley: For saving your ass out there.

• Maya (Voiceover): I don’t even remember punching him.

[Maya punches Wiley.]

• Wiley: UGH!

• Maya: You son of a-

• Marine: Whoa, whoa, whoa!

[Wiley tries to attack Maya, but is restrained by other ODSTs.]

• Wiley: GHHH - You shouldn't have done that!

• Maya: You have no idea! There were-

• Wiley: I should've left you to die with those rats, you crazy-

• Officer: Marine! Shut it down! Shut it down now!

• Maya (Voiceover): But I guess I nailed him pretty good.

• Wiley: …Yes, sir.

• Midnight AI: Hello, Commander Sankar. Welcome to Midnight. Captain Reibach is expecting you on eighteen. If you would proceed to the elevator-

• Maya: I need to go down to the cubes, first.

• Midnight AI: Commander, I’ve been directed to have you report directly to Captain Reibach.

• Maya (Voiceover): I decided to take a detour. There was someone I needed to see. The AI seemed surprised, but I had the clearance.

• Midnight AI: Yes. Please follow the waypoint to your destination.

• Maya (Voiceover): Blue pulsing lights guided me down a seemingly endless hallway lined with windowless cubes, each identical to the next. Aside from the subtle buzz of the lights, it was silent. I stopped at cube B-349.

• Midnight AI: He’s not in a good way, Commander.

• Maya: Show me.

• Maya (Voiceover): The glass went from opaque to one-way transparency. Inside the cube, between a crude bunk and a small toilet, I saw him; sitting cross-legged on the floor, writing with a tiny, soft pen on real paper. He was deep in thought, mouthing syllables as he worked. The most hated man on Earth. The beloved symbol of protest to tens of thousands in the Outer Colonies. The brave journalist, framed as a traitor. This... was Benjamin Giraud. Or at least, what had become of him. I’d promised my followers I would free him. But I wasn’t going to. No one was. ONI had cast Ben to the very edge of their empire, and that’s where he’d remain. I could barely look at him. Partly because in a strange way, I considered him my friend. But mostly, because I was the one who had put him there. I wasn’t looking for forgiveness though. I felt like I needed to pay... and I was hoping Ben would tear me to pieces.

• Maya: Go to two-way.

• Ben: I’m sorry… I-I- I’m sorry. I can’t discuss the particulars right now, counselor. I’m still editing. I-

• Maya: Ben.

• Maya (Voiceover): I didn’t even see his head turn, but he was suddenly staring right at me, his eyes impossibly sharp and locked on mine. This was not the Ben I remembered. This was someone else. I felt exposed, like I’d been caught. He stood up slowly and I froze. I wasn’t at Midnight anymore. I was in Ben’s world. And I was an intruder. He walked right up to the glass and he stopped. I’d wanted to confront what I’d done to Ben, give him a chance to eviscerate me with words. But now that he was right here in front of me, all I kept thinking was that the glass between us felt terrifyingly thin.

• Ben: Oh, you!

• Maya: Ben. I know... I-

• Ben: I knew it...

• Maya: Okay, just listen, Ben. I just wanted to tell you that I, um-

[Benjamin slams his hands into the glass]

• Ben: You’re alive!

• Maya: I…

• Ben: I’m- I’m sorry. You’re alive! Oh my God!

• Maya: I… Uh…

• Ben: I knew you wouldn’t go through with the suicide mission! I just kept convincing myself over and over. This whole time, even after I screwed everything up I kept saying “FERO would find another way...”

• Maya (Voiceover): He didn’t know. He was happy to see me. I- I couldn’t believe it. I guess I was- I was so busy punishing myself with guilt that I’d never stopped to consider the possibility that Ben would still believe in FERO. I didn’t know what to say.

• Ben: Wait… wait… You can’t be here. Do you know what this place is, FERO? You have to go! You have to go now! The-the- the AI! They monitor everything. And they- they’ll already be looking for you-

• Maya: I won’t be here long, okay? Don’t worry about that, trust me, I just… I needed-

• Ben: Okay. Okay. Of course you know what you’re doing, obviously. I wasn’t thinking, I- I just.... Oh, God, it’s so good to see you. Are you okay?

• Maya: I… Uh… I’m good. How are you?

• Ben: I’m fine. I’m totally fine. I- I’ve been writing, keeping busy, you know-

• Maya: Is that blood? On your bunk?

• Ben: What? Oh. Oh yeah.

• Maya: What happened? Is that from one of the guards? Is that what they’re doing to you here?

• Ben: No. No, no, no, no, no. It’s nothing like that, no. That was all me. It was all me. It’s, uh… I wasn’t really p-prepared for this? Y’know? Uh, solitary confinement? I’d…I’d read about it, but it’s different in reality.... obviously. And- and I… I had a rough patch, couple times, I-I lost control of my emotions, y’know. It’s a pretty standard psychological reaction, but no. No, that... that, uh, that was my fault... There- there are safeguards now, like if I get too worked up, they play music to calm me down, if I really lose it, they turn on the gas, and I just I go to sleep and it’s… it’s fine.

• Maya: Oh, Ben…

• Ben: No, seriously, it looks bad. You’re right. But that was a while ago. Look, see? See? My hands are all healed up. It’s fine! Oh… Wait. Wait, wait, wait... Nonononononononono…

• Maya: What?

• Ben: H-hold up. Show me your COM pad.

• Maya:: Ben, I…

• Ben: No, no, no. C’mon, c’mon. Let’s not slip back into that. Let’s just- Please. Show me your COM pad. I need to see the time.

• Maya: Okay.

[Maya places her COM pad against the glass.]

• Ben: Okay… Seven forty-three. Got it. Take it down. Okay, show me again. Don’t talk, j-just show me.

[Maya places her COM pad against the glass again.]

• Ben: Seven forty-three –Thank you. Thank you. Okay. This is real. This is real. Got it. Okay… Okay, good. Sorry, it’s this... trick... I do to make sure I’m not dreaming. Discontinuity of time is a classic tell, but- but the time didn’t change, so I know this isn’t a dream.

• Maya: Oh…

• Ben: Hah… Yes, I know. It-it… I know, I know. It sounds insane, but I- I don’t have a clock, y’know? That messes with your head. At- At first, if I was outside the cell, I knew it was a dream, because they don’t let me out in reality. But then, my dreams were in my cell too and it got... confusing. Like, what’s real, what’s not...

• Maya (Voiceover): “What’s real and what’s not.” That’s what Ben’s whole story had been about. He’d fought decades of murky cover-ups to shed light on the atrocities our government had buried. Because he believed the public deserved the dignity of knowing the truth. And now, buried in a hole at Midnight, he’d been reduced to fighting for the most basic human truth. Ben no longer had the dignity of knowing if anything was real.

• Ben: FERO…

• Maya: Yeah, Ben?

• Ben: Everybody knows I’m the bad guy, right?

• Maya: They stil