Phoenix Logs/Campaign Logs/Pandora's Box I

Field report, comms officer G. Peterson, SF-193-938. Transmission date: 6/1/2559

We're two klicks out from the High Charity crash zone, but even from this distance it still dominates the skyline. I wish we had been around to see it hit the dirt, it sure made one heck of dent. It may have been the Covenant's capital city once, but now it's nothing but a giant reminder of their failure.

It's eerily quiet here, spooky even, and it's not just the story of the place. Approximately three-hundred meters around the crash zone all life stops growing, as if it hit an invisible line it refuses to cross. Might be intentional on the part of the Ark, but we don't know enough about the area yet to be sure. Greenery makes way to razed, blackened ground and trees look like used matchsticks, hacked off at the head and stunted. The creepiest thing is there's no sound from animals, birds, or even insects. Hard to say whether they fled the desolation or the sheer number of Sentinels swarming around here... [1/2]