The sound of clasps being undone and the hissing of cryo chamber doors was the only thing that Alice could hear on the cryo deck. Still groggy from cryosleep, she had a hard time focussing on the background hum of the 'Advent Crusader'. While trying to shake the last remnants of cryosleep from her mind, Alice concluded that they must've left slipspace from the sound of the engines.

Somebody from the cryo chamber next to her collapsed and fell to the floor in an ungraceful heap, shaking their head, clearly still trying to wake up. Realizing this person shaped mass was her mother, Alice hurried over to help.

'Here mother, let me help you up,' she softly spoke, trying to get her arms around the shoulders of the frail looking woman. Her mother was one handedly rubbing her eyes, while using her other hand to steady herself.

'God, I hate cryosleep,' the older woman muttered irritated, 'why did I think this was a good idea again?'

Alice smiled at the remark, not reminding her mother that the idea was to spend the long trip in cryosleep instead of wasting valuable resources. Not to mention that her mother would go stir crazy from boredom. If anyone was incapable of dealing with boredom, it was her mother.

'Alright,' said Alice's mother, composing herself while getting up. 'Let's see how we are doing. Leo?'

The AI's avatar, a slightly translucent mauve colored man in an impeccable Roman centurion outfit, sprung into life on the nearest holopad.

'Good morning, doctor Halsey, Alice! Sleep well?' He quipped.

Dr. Halsey just raised one of her eyebrows and said, 'Please transfer navigational data to my console in the cockpit, Leo.'

Leo folded his digital arms over his chest, frowning slightly. 'You know Doc, you just woke up. Take a minute to adjust.'

Walking past Leo in the direction of the cockpit, the doctor sighed and spoke with slight exasperation, 'Please get me the data Leo. I don't need to take it easy. What I need is a sitrep. And while you're busy with that, make yourself useful and turn on the coffee machine. After I know if everything is in order we can socialize.'

Leo sighed, rolling his eyes while facing Alice, throwing his hands in the air in a melodramatic way.

'Fine, transferring now.'

He winked at Alice, emphasizing the charades that took place between him and her mother. Alice did her best to suppress a smile at their antics as she walked past Leo's holopad, patting it lightly. She found her mother in the pilot's chair, leaning back with her eyes closed, taking a few heavy breaths.

'Mother, are you ok?' Alice asked, trying to keep her alarm out of her voice.

Opening one eye, dr. Halsey looked at Alice and tried to smile.

'Yeah,' she said with a heavy breath, 'though I feel like an old woman. Cryosleep really knocked me on my ass this time.'

Leo's avatar appeared at the cockpit's holopad, and Alice could see from his expression that he was biting his tongue, really trying not to say 'I told you so'. He settled for rolling his eyes again.

Shaking her head, Alice turned her attention back to her mother, still worried about the heavy breathing. It seemed to be getting better with every breath though, and after a while her mother was breathing normally again. Alice decided to get her mother some water.

'Thank you, dear,' her mother said, grabbing the container and taking a large sip. She placed the metal cup on one of the consoles in the cockpit. However, before Leo could open his mouth to protest, Alice took the cup and placed it in a more appropriate place, receiving a grateful glance from Leo. Despite Leo's past grievances, the doctor still hadn't changed her habit of leaving stray cups scattered all over delicate equipment.

Alice's mother started reading the report that Leo had produced for her, humming in agreement every once in a while. Alice kept an eye on her and when it looked like she was finished reading, Alice asked,

'So what's our status?'

'All systems nominal, no slipspace anomalies detected during transit. Approaching our LZ on the precalculated vector,' her mother replied.

'What's our ETA?'

'T minus 90 minutes,' was the short but not unkind answer. 'Time to suit up I should think.'

Nodding her agreement, Alice moved towards the back of the small longsword class ship. Going down one deck she located the crates holding her armor with ease, having stored them herself. Taking out the pieces of armor, she neatly ordered them on top of the now empty crates. She had worn her undersuit in cryosleep, so she only had to assemble the armor on top.

Alice assembled her armor meticulously, checking everything as she went along. She ran all the appropriate system diagnostics and when everything checked out, she moved back to the bridge.

Her mother watched Alice take a seat in the co-pilot chair from the corner of her eye and informed her with a short, '30 minutes until arrival'.

Nodding Alice sank back into the chair as best as the bulk of her armor allowed, deciding to take the remaining minutes as easy as possible. There was no true way of telling what they would find at their destination, so any minute of rest could be valuable.

'Alice, dear,' the doctor started, not looking up from the datapad she was studying.

'I'd like to go over the mission parameters once more before we arrive, just as a precaution. Would you mind giving me a summary?'

Alice nodded her agreement and spoke,

'Previously unexplored planet codenamed "Zenith", fifth planet in a solar system of eight. Early recon points to a breathable atmosphere. The location was mentioned in Forerunner archives discovered on Reach. It appears to be a place related to the archives there, but the nature of that relationship was inconclusive. Suspected to be some sort of data storage or secondary archive, but we hope to discover more about it's purpose after we arrive. Presence of hostile elements; unknown, but not expected based on the recon data.'

'Very well. T minus 10 minutes. We should be able to see the planet in a few minutes.'

And when it came into view, both ladies held their breath. The planet was a stunning vista of purples, turquoises and deep blues. The slow descent to the surface of the planet gave an excellent view of the endless oceans that covered the planet, and it's relatively sparse surface area. The 'Advent Crusader' landed smoothly on some sort of tarmac next to a large compound.

Doctor Halsey and Alice peered out the cockpit window of the ship. The entrance to the facility could be seen in the distance.

'Everything seems quiet, doctor,' said Leo. 'There seems to be no activity on any of our scanners.'

Halsey and Alice looked at each other, before looking at Leo.

'Alright, let's gear up and hope things stay that way,' Halsey said. 'No point in staying in here.'

Alice immediately moved to the back of the ship to grab her tactical gear. Weapons strapped to the surface of her armour, she grabbed one of her mother's suitcases of equipment and walked towards the ship ramp. Her mother handed her Leo's data chit, which Alice inserted into her helmet.

As Leo got settled into Alice's armour, doctor Halsey grabbed two suitcases of her own, although a lot less heavy than the one Alice was carrying.

Taking no risk that the intel was bad, Alice carried her suitcase in one hand, while holding her assault rifle at the ready in the other. Without prompt, Leo opened the ramp of the ship. As it lowered, Alice moved slowly down the ramp. She performed a quick perimeter check. Nothing showed up on her armour's sensors. With a quick nod, she beckoned her mother forward and both women made the small trek to the entrance of the facility.