Halo: Nightfall: RECON-14

RECON-14 is a Second Story of Halo: Nightfall's Episode 1: It's Only Just Beginning. It depicts Doctor Madeline Tress giving her analysis of Recon-14, a drone from the UNSC Pillar of Autumn that escaped the destruction of Installation 04 and survived on a missing fragment of the Halo ring. The Second Story was shown on the fourth episode of Halo Channel's Halo Bulletin.

Transcript

Fade in to an Office of Naval Intelligence facility, with Doctor Madeline Tress speaking into a camera.

• Madeline Tress: "Listen, Fixer. Let me be honest with you. There is something about your query that is a little unnerving. The parameters that you have depicted are obviously... unique. But they vaguely resemble something that I've worked on a few years back. And maybe that's why you've came to me."

Cut to a data screen utilized by Recon-14, as the probe runs through its processes.

• Recon-14: "Checking comms. Checking power. Set ONI data encryption scheme. Recognized. Broadcast resumed."

The probe's camera activates and it begins to scan the surrounding area.

• Recon-14: "Order of the UNSC stop-rover vehicle. On-board artificial intelligence: Recon-14..."

Cut back to Dr. Tress, who is undergoing a retinal scan for identification purposes.

• Madeline Tress: "I'm Doctor Madeline Tress, operational attaché for astrophysical phenomenon."

Cut back to the view of one of Recon-14's cameras. It continues to scan the area and discovers the remains of an unidentified lifeform.

• Recon-14: "...automated survey AI of the UNSC Pillar of Autumn."

Cut back to Dr. Tress, who is still undergoing a retinal scan and a face scan.

• Madeline Tress: "This message has been encoded pursuant to Naval Intelligence statutes."

Cut back to the view of one of Recon-14's cameras, as it views a valley.

• Recon-14: "Repeating transmission, location, and status report. Atmospheric pressure is Earth-normal."

• Madeline Tress (voice-over): "This is for ONI eyes only, with Alpha-Delta clearance."

Cut back to Dr. Tress, while holographic documents appear around her.

• Madeline Tress: "Violations of this confidentiality is considered an act of treason against the Unified Earth Government and it is punishable by death."

Cut back to the view of one of Recon-14's cameras, as it views a grassy steppe.

• Recon-14: "Reporting from survival fragment of the unidentified alien artifact, identified as Halo."

Cut back to Dr. Tress, as a holographic overlap attempts and fails to identify Fixer.

• Madeline Tress: "Fixer, I'm sending the formal report now, but I thought I'd brief you on this channel as well. This specific scenario you outlined in your report was a planetary framework we've catalogued as Type R3."

Cut back to the view of one of Recon-14's cameras, as it views the base of a canyon.

• Recon-14: "Initial deployment was five hundred kilometers downstream from the crash-site."

Cut back to Dr. Tress.

• Madeline Tress: "Generally R3 sites are of little value to the UEG. They are usually barren and uninhabited, apart from low-level extremophilic corals and mosses."

Cut back to the view of one of Recon-14's cameras, as it views the base of a mountain, a stream, and several types of mosses and low-level plant life.

• Madeline Tress (voice-over): "Irregular orbits and rotations, a close proximity to stars and other volatile planetary masses, and a "unknown"(?) of other issues."

Cut back to Dr. Tress.

• Madeline Tress: "In short, R3 sites are not conducive to emerging life. There are, however, exceptions."

Cut back to the view of one of Recon-14's cameras, as it scans the side of a mossy hill.

• Recon-14: "Atmosphere is being held close to the artifact's surface, by field-generated gravity."

Cut back to Dr. Tress.

• Madeline Tress: "Our relay drones and surveying teams have found at least five different examples in which substantial flora and fauna have maintained unexpected stasis, despite dramatically challenging contexts. These anomalies defy our current understanding of "unknown"(?) genesis."

Cut back to the view of one of Recon-14's cameras, as it scans a hillside before it quickly switches to thermal imaging.

• Recon-14: "Artifact surface is suppressing any associated electromagnetic fluctuations from beneath terraformed surface."

Cut back to Dr. Tress.

• Madeline Tress: "Some of our drones tracked unqualified heat signatures very far below the surface of the ring."

Cut back to the view of one of Recon-14's cameras, as it moves in towards a dark cave. The scene eventually switches back to Dr. Tress in the middle of her analysis.

• Madeline Tress (voice-over): "We sent scanners in there, but the results were inconclusive. We do know, however, that the heat is organic in nature and not the same distribution as the Flood. Whatever it was, it was widespread."

Cut to a data screen utilized by Recon-14, followed by a series of images from the ring, and finally a complete rotational view of the top of the aforementioned cave.

• Recon-14: "Rescanning. Correction. Now reading significant biomass of organic activity immediately beneath this unit."

Cut back to Dr. Tress.

• Madeline Tress: "We've since learned that the Halo rings hosted many specimens of fauna, all brought from other worlds."

Cut to a one of Recon-14's cameras. A stomping noise can be heard, as the probe's emergency signals sound off and it attempts to back away. The probe identifies the target as sentient, before it is shut off. A roar is heard.

• Recon-14: "Scanning. Biomass moving rapidly towards this unit. Biomass unidentified. Activity is caused by—"

Cut back to Dr. Tress.

• Madeline Tress: "Who were these specific ones? And how did they survive the destruction of the ring?"

Cut to a data screen utilized by the heavily damaged Recon-14, as it attempts to send the data it collected. Several "critical systems failure" screens are displayed. Cut back to Dr. Tress.

• Madeline Tress: "But, given your scenario, it is extremely unlikely that anything could have survived those conditions. However, if it did, if it somehow found a way, the question you need to ask is "Why?" Why did Halo's architects keep this thing buried and locked away? Why would you bury something?"

Dr. Tress ends the transmission.

ONI EYES

PROPERTY OF THE UNSC