Site Z

Site Z is an Office of Naval Intelligence research facility located on the frontier world of Nysa. It is one of many United Nations Space Command (UNSC) military facilities located on the world, originally built and hidden early in the Human-Covenant War for use as a secretive fallback point for the UNSC. The site is located several kilometres from the Avery J. Johnson Academy of Military Science, in the Hesychius Mountains.

Overview

Site Z is one of many ONI facilities present on Nysa, with the Avery Johnson Spartan academy itself built atop another critical ONI Section Three site. As of the 2560s, the ONI facilities beneath the Avery Johnson academy remain unmapped, with the base's Commander Laurette Agryna suspecting that they connect to outlying sites like Site Z - a security issue that would ultimately prove fatal during the Banished invasion of the planet in early 2560. The base's secrecy was such that even Admiral Serin Osman, the Commander-in-Chief of the Office of Naval Intelligence (CINCONI), was unaware of its existence.

The base itself is, externally, rather simple and unassuming: it consists of several modest grey two-floor buildings encircling a single bare landing pad like a wreath. However, this presence belies an extensive underground presence at the site, with at least three underground floors - the third of which the busiest and containing a beltway corridor that connects the surface buildings together. This floor also contains a secure meeting room named Eudoxus (named after the Greek mathematician), a roughly 5 metres (16 ft)-wide hexagonal room filled with data displays and requiring a hand scan to open. The centre of the room has a table which can be raised or lowered into, and under, the floor; during military briefings this means that a valuable item (such as a personal computer) can be kept out of reach of meeting attendees while still allowing an artificial intelligence construct to communicate. The room is capable of projecting an energy barrier in the centre; this can be used to contain an explosive blast.

The base is usually lightly-staffed, with security provided by the SPARTAN-IVs of the nearby Avery Johnson academy.

History

Site Z was presumably constructed alongside the rest of the ONI presence on Nysa during the early stages of the Human-Covenant War. At the time, Nysa was kept a secret despite its status as a potentially-ideal civilian colony in order to keep it useful as a fallback point for the UNSC in the war effort. This usage transitioned into the post-war years, with the site (and world) remaining operation into the Created uprising. On November 19, 2559, Site Z was the location of an important strategic meeting conducted between the UNSC and Swords of Sanghelios. Both organisations had independently converged on the knowledge of the Order of Restoration and their plan to acquire the Lithos, a Forerunner artefact that would allow them to control the Domain after Cortana and the Created (the then-current custodians of the Domain)'s defeat. During the visit, Spartan Commander Agrnya was evidently uncomfortable with admitting Sangheili into the base due to her own distrust, and as such personally escorted the Swords party: Shipmasters Rtas 'Vadum and Mahkee 'Chava, Vul 'Soran, and Tul 'Juran, with Admiral Jilan al-Cygni into the Eudoxus meeting chamber. Spartans were posted at guards at every intersection inside the base.

The meeting itself involved the aforementioned alongside Captain Abigail Cole and Admirals Osman, and Terrence Hood, with the focus involving the extraction of critical information from the AI Black-Box. Black-Box had been sequestered with Hood and Osman on a remote world for the previous year, and so the meeting served to help bring admirals Osman and Hood up to speed while also giving the UNSC and Swords a chance to discuss how to proceed. This concluded with the deployment of Cole's Valiant-class super-heavy cruiser UNSC Victory of Samothrace and 'Vadum's Kerel-pattern assault carrier Shadow of Intent to Venezia, where they would ultimately engage in combat with War Chief Severan and the Vanguard of Zaladon.

In March 2560, Nysa was attacked and occupied by the Banished, with a particular focus on the Avery Johnson Academy. While the status of Site Z during the invasion is unknown, its proximity to the academy means it was likely similarly-attacked and destroyed. It is unknown whether Site Z is one of the academy's several outlying facilities that were able to enact the Cole Protocol during the invasion.

Personnel

• Doctor Marwa Nabil

List of appearances

• Halo: Empty Throne (First appearance)