Artifact

From ILB

The mysterious cylindrical object picked up by Melissa's ship, the Apocalypso. By the markings, it seems to be Forerunner in origin. It's purpose is unknown, although ONI appears interested in it.¹

Referenced in one of Melissa's memories given to us by The Sleeping Princess: Aug 13 email from the Sleeping Princess.²

Found by the "long-range sensors" of the Apocalypso, which was "heavily cloaked and posted deep in Covenant territory." It is "roughly the size of a tire," and otherwise "pretty inscrutable."³

According to Herzog: "Section 3 security on Chawla Base - that's where they're keeping the artifact." "Watch for techs. Word is they've been going over and over it with magnetometers." And "Since they triggered the artifact, it's been putting out fluctuating fields, up and down, weaker and stronger, but steadily overall, weaker - it's decaying."

References

¹ From the Phase 3 Memories

It was adrift in space: a squat cylinder of dull gray metal, 
// about the size of a suitcase. Not pure osmium all the way through 
- it was too dense for that - but osmium was 
the only firm echo the sensors returned. We cast a net and reeled it in.

It sat in the airlock, inert and cold. Three kelvin interstellar background, 
no electrical or chemical activity. 
Very faint magnetic fields in complex tracery. Not an object, then. A device.

OK, cameras deployed and scanning every square centimeter, damn it. 
The thing was covered in geometric shapes, not embossed but 
expressed somehow in the grain of the metal.//

Bars and triangles, dots, ordered but non-repeating patterns. A message, yes, //

running around the rim like the tread on a tire. I thought: whatever that's telling us, 
it's something we want to know. Extremely hazardous. Safety glasses required. 
If found, please return to sender.

Set in the center of the top face was a square, a suggestion of seam
no bigger than the palm of a hand. 
I imagined it sinking back and sliding to one side, a 
Japanese door offering access to whatever was in there. 
Or not. Or blowing up if you tried it.

Is it Covenant? 1st Lt Sorenson said. He was the one inside with it; 
suited, curious but cautious.

Capt. Greene looked thoughtful. It isn't us. Melissa?

I said, I don't know. //If it is, it's new.

Rolf leaned over to touch it.//

Capt Greene said, Don't. Let's not try anything yet.

Bars and triangle, dots and squares. A little like Braille, a little like cuneiform. 
Felt the old familiar hunger: new language like a new cuisine - 
delicacies of thought and nuance for me to dig into.

Sorenson said, its got to go in the hold, Captain. It can't stay here. 
Bring in a dollybot if you like, but something's going to have to touch it. 
We have to warm it up, too.

Greene didn't like that, but what could we do? //

²

I sighed. "McKaskill, bad people are putting bad thoughts in your head."

He tried to get righteous. "Op, that thing...whatever it is, in the hold. 
They're keeping big-time wraps on it. You know that. I heard the Captain. 
The way she's talking, they're not gonna let people look at, 
it's goin' to a basement in ONI. A sub sub sub basement. 
They can't just take something that big and...shove it away somewhere." 

³ artifact.wav (http://www.ilovebees.com/outbound/artifact.wav)

⁴ eye_out.wav (http://www.ilovebees.com/outbound/eye_out.wav)