When Otto awoke, his eyes were accosted by the clinic's bright fluorescent light and unnaturally white walls. Glancing around the room, his vision blurry and slowly becoming focused. He noticed that Mons and Nevada were there each beside him, faces marred in concern. "easy there, child, not too fast," Mons ushered as he gently placed his hand on Otto's chest. "gave us quite the scare, Otto, passing out like that" Nevada add, her hand holding his in comfort. "If Enterprise hadn't caught you, you would've smashed your head against the table." Otto Blinked at Nevada's comment. 'Had he really nearly smashed his skull?' he thought to himself as he leaned his head back against his pillow.

"Nevada, would you leave us?" Mons asked Nevada as he turned to her

"What? So you can grill the boy? like hell, I am!" Nevada scolded Mons

"Nevada, please. This is a matter best discussed privately."

"I'm not leaving, and that's final; I'm older than most of these girls, and I'm not some snowflake!"

Otto watched the two go back and forth; growing tired, he interrupted with his own opinion. "She can stay; it's fine; I trust her." Mons looked between the two of them, thinking it over before deciding to drop it. "All alright, if that is your wish." Mons sighed as he pulled a chair to sit beside the bed.

"Otto, can you tell us exactly what happened? Why did you touch the cube? We need to know in case it poses more of a threat than it already does," Mons stressed as he gently clasped one of Otto's hands. "Though you do not have to tell us right now if you do not want to right now, okay?" Nevada added as she gently held Mon's other hand.

Did he want to tell them what he saw, the sea of devastation and destruction he was shown? Yes, he did; he trusted them. These people accepted him when no one else did, and who would he be if he didn't tell them the truth? Otto decided to tell the truth. "That cube was...calling me; I-I can't explain it, and to be honest, I couldn't even understand what it was saying, but I just...felt it, y'know?" Nevada nodded as Mons gestured for him to continue, and both of them were clearly intrigued by what he was saying. "When I touched it, I saw things, like...a vision almost."Nevada looked at him, concerned. "A Vision? I've heard that some of the more religious girls talk about visions from God." Immediately, Otto interjected, "No, it was nothing like that. I'm sure of it. There was this weird feeling about it like it was showing me things I already knew." Mons cut in "describe this "vision," and perhaps we can glean something from it. It may tell us more about the nature of this cube." Nevada nodded once more as Otto Continued, "They came like flashes; at first, I saw a burning sea. The waters were covered in thick black flaming oil, but from what I could see, there were no ships or tanks. Then, there were sights of a burning harbor, ships wrecked and burning at anchor. Bodies everywhere, blood staining the ground..."

Mons and Nevada glance nervously at each other before squeezing his hands reassuringly. 'Taking a deep breath, Otto Continued, "Then some sort of battle in space; I didn't recognize any of the ships, though some looked like you, Mons, and the others were more...Bulbous? I saw a glimpse of some creature. Its jaw was split, and its head was elongated. It wore some weird purplish armor. The last thing I saw was a figure with rigging. Its rigging was similar to that of those weird bulbous ships but looked more normal; it stood in front of the headquarters of Azur Lane, which was wreathed in flame." The whole room seemed silent when Otto finished. The only sounds were from the monitors attached to Otto's body.

"Are you certain you saw something with a spilt jaw?" Mons asked, his face unusually set in a stern expression. "yes, though, to be honest, it looked more like his mouth had four...things; I'm not sure how to describe the way it looked," Otto responded before looking at Mons with a slightly concerned look and asking "why, do you...know something like that?" Nevada gazes over at Mons as well, giving him a sort of glare encouraging him to tell the truth

Mons sighed deeply before responding, "Yes, what you described sounds eerily similar to the Sangheili. They are an alien race from the far plant of Sanghelios. They are an honor-bound race that finds dishonor worse than death. However, they are not fools and may be dedicated to honor. They will do what's necessary to win. They are some of the worst and best enemies that humanity has ever had." Nevada and Otto glanced at each other, worried expressions clearly on their faces. "if what you saw is a glimpse into the future, then this world is in grave danger" Mons stated, his tone grave in its warning.

"So what do we do?" Otto asked almost timidly

"We need more Kansen and more help. I'd love to build some from my time, but there just aren't the resources or technology to do it...I could build some ships from your time; my drones could build them quite fast," Mons Theorized.

"With what materials? you barely get enough to fix yourself, and there is no way any of the navies are gonna give you the plans to build them either." Nevada explained, her hands gesturing as she talks

"You're right, " Mons murmured as he rested his head in his hands, thinking aloud," but we're going to need the help..."

Nevada sighed and looked at Otto, who appeared distraught, with a look of realization on her face. "What if you brought back sunk Kansen?" Otto and Mons Both looked at her, confused looks on their faces. "What? You did it with Otto; you can surely do it again. If you bring back a sunk Kansen, the admirals will be forced to help repair them because it's technically their ship." They both look at her, their faces shifting from surprised to impressed. "Wow, Nevada, that's actually an excellent idea," Mons said. His tone was a mix of impressed and surprised. Nevada glared at him before snapping, "What? Just because I'm a blonde woman with big tits and great at cooking. doesn't make me an air-headed bimbo." Otto snickered as Mons smiled. "Of course not, I'm sorry if that's how you took it," Mons apologized as Nevada snorted and told him he had better be sorry.

"There's only one problem, I don't know any sunken Kansen that we could use, much less where to find one..." Nevada looked to the side a bit as Mons explained his dilemma. A troubled look on her face, contemplating something: "I...I know where you could find a few," Nevada whispered as she slowly let go of Otto's hand and enveloped herself in her arms. "I'm sorry I have to go make sure dinner will be ready. Mons, I'll explain after the canteen closes..." Her voice was hoarse as she abruptly stood from the chair, tears welling in her eyes as she left the room.The two men, now left alone, looked at each other confused and, if not a bit concerned. "Is she okay?" Otto asked as he turned to look at the door that Nevada exited. "I'm not sure; I'll check in on her later. I think she wants to be alone right now," Mons sighed. He squeezed Otto's hand before adding, "Best not worry about that right now; focus on getting some rest, child." Otto looked as if he wanted to argue, but he knew Mons was right. he was tired, and every muscle he had felt like lead.

Slowly, Otto drifted back into Slumber while Mons sat dutifully beside him. Once, Mons was sure Otto was sound asleep. He two left the clinic and headed for the canteen, not going inside but waiting by the back door for Nevada. Doing so, he began pondering about what ships she could possibly be thinking of. Groaning, he put his head in his hand. He knew he should've looked through more of the files that night rather than grab the one, but there was no way he'd try again, not with the upgraded security of the building.

Caught up in his thoughts, he didn't notice when Nevada exited the building and gently tapped his shoulder. "Follow me, let's discuss this in private..." Grief was evident in her tone as she walked away from him. Mons barely had time to register what she said before he had to jog to catch up to her. Once he caught up to her, he walked beside her. He attempted to ask where she was leading him, but she didn't respond, and they walked in silence till they reached what he assumed was Nevada's dorm. Unlike the rest of the dorms, this one wasn't part of one of the dorm buildings. In fact, it looked more akin to a house than a dorm. Mons pondered why she had such a luxury but chalked it up to it being a perk of such long service.

Nevada opened the door for him and ushered him onto a simple leather couch. He watched as she walked up the stairs and left him alone in the room. He looked around as he waited for her to return. The room was large, but it didn't feel empty. The walls were a lovely blue, and the floor was laid with a warm brown carpet. He could see a large dining room and a well-built kitchen through some of the door frames.

However, what caught his eye were the photos. Adorned on every wall and littering almost every surface. Nevada was obviously in many of them, but he also noticed some girls from around the base. In some of the photos, they looked...younger? Like children almost, they must be the daughters she had mentioned. But what caught his eye were four people he had never seen before. One was a tanned man who had looked like he was in his mid-thirties; his eyes seemed a brilliant crimson, and his hair a warm brown. Almost the same shade as the carpet, Mons mused. The following figure was a pale white woman who looked in her mid-thirties as well, her eyes a dark deep blue framed in a pair of blue rounded rectangular glasses, matched with perfect golden hair. She almost looked like a teacher. Like some of Nevada's photos, she was around some of the girls around the base, though not the same ones as in Nevada's. Some of the photos also had them younger. He assumed this woman also adopted some of the Kansen.

Then, there were the two remaining men he could see. One was almost always with the blonde woman; perhaps she was his wife and the surrogate father of those Kansen he could see with them. His hair was black like the night, but his eyes were golden, and even through the photos, they seemed to glow like the lights of a city. He looked like he was in his late twenties or maybe early thirties. His skin was white but not overly pale. Lastly, there was the man who appeared the most, nearly in every photo. He was tanned, more so than the man with the red eyes; his eyes were blue like the walls of the room Mons currently sat in, his hair black like that of the man with the golden eyes. They looked a lot alike. Perhaps brothers? He was with Nevada a lot in the photos; this could be the husband she had mentioned once. Mons wondered as he continued to look at the pictures.

For the second time that night, he hadn't noticed Nevada until she sat right in front of him on a recliner that didn't seem to fit her, though he noticed one of the other recliners did seem to fit her. He didn't have long to think about it before a folder was placed on the coffee table. it looked like one from the archives, like Bismarck's..." you'll find a few ships were this folder says." Nevada interrupted his thoughts as she played with the frayed edges of the recliner. Mons looked at the folder and picked it up. "The Gulf operation," Mons read aloud as he opened it and skimmed the files. "An escort mission gone wrong, 4 ships lost, but no names except that of the only survivor, Laffey...are the others redacted?" Mons asked as he looked up at her. She nodded and explained that the names were deemed classified and weren't supposed to be spoken, much less recorded. Mons asked if she knew the names of the stricken. Nevada didn't answer and dodged the question and asked him one instead: "You'll find them there; just do me a favor in return, okay?" Nevada seemed hesitant but hopeful as she spoke again, "Take Alabama with you, please? That's all I ask for in exchange for the information." Mons seemed to ponder this and nodded, saying it'd be good to have some company. She smiled at that and thanked him before telling him to leave, as she had things she needed to do and would inform Alabama about their agreement. Mons nodded and promptly left, knowing better than to upset the woman.

Mons walked back to his dock; he remembered how bad his ship looked just a few months ago. It still looked terrible but serviceable by UNSC standards. How funny, he hadn't thought of his home in forever. He missed it but liked it here; this was his home now, and he wasn't gonna give up on it, not now, not ever. Watching as his drones worked, he felt a pair of fuzzy things rub against his legs. He smiled as he looked down at Sanders and Patches. Picking them up and placing them on his shoulders, the trio stood and watched the bright lights of the welders of the drones on the hull of his ship.