Deep-space artifact

The Deep-Space Artifact is a Forerunner artifact that was discovered by the UNSC Apocalypso in late 2552, while it was on patrol deep in Covenant space.

Physical Description
The artifact is a squat cylinder roughly the size of a tire or suitcase, with Braille-like triangles, lines and dots set in the metal in an ordered, yet non-repeating pattern, running around the rim like a tire tread. On the top center is a raised square approximately the size of a human palm. Some of the artifact is made of osmium, and the rest of the material was unidentifiable by the crew of Apocalypso but it is denser than osmium.

Prior to its activation, it was letting off very faint, but complex, magnetic fields. After its activation, it let out one massive electromagnetic pulse, strong enough to temporarily knock out all the communications equipment within the Solar System, which changed into a series of oscillating pulses that grew steadily weaker; it was speculated to be a countdown controlling the Halos. After deactivation, it let out one more massive pulse before quieting.

Use
The object is activated by touching all the triangles, then all the lines, and then the dots, in that particular sequence. Its deactivation sequence is the exact opposite: dots, lines, triangles.

History
After a brief study of the artifact, Captain Greene feared that the Covenant had done something to their AI, Melissa, and the ship headed back to Earth. Melissa was indeed affected by a hostile Covenant AI and, while affected by the foreign AI's desires for Forerunner-related data, influenced a crew member to fiddle with the artifact. When they exited Slipspace, the artifact let out an enormous electromagnetic pulse that canceled all communications in the Solar system for seven seconds, caused the ship to crash in Lunar orbit, sent Nassau Station into the 21st century, and shattered their AI into fragments and sent them through Slipspace channels. One piece of the AI landed in Jersey Morelli's home computer, and the other was also thrown back in time to the early 21st century.

The artifact was taken to Chawla Base in Boston, MA, for study. Ambitious Major Standish believed it to be the latest in Covenant technology and decided to take the glory, having the surviving crew hunted down and killed. This was noticed by one of Melissa's fragments, now named Durga, who was looking in on the Apocalypso ' s destruction.

Durga led a vigilante group that broke into Chawla Base and turned off the artifact, using information acquired by her other fragment. The artifact let out another massive pulse, which closed the temporal anomaly and reunited the fragments. Unfortunately, this attracted the Covenant's attention.