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DR. CATHERINE HALSEY, RESEARCH NOTES – 2544

Operation: GREY VEIL was a success, but cost the life of Cal-141, who died from head trauma sustained from a Jiralhanae gravity hammer. We have thus far sustained only a few Spartan casualties as this war with the Covenant approaches its second decade, but strategically each one feels akin to losing an entire world.

The ODST squad that accompanied SPARTAN-141 did, however, return something fascinating. Surveying the ruins on Heian, they discovered evidence of an ancient civilization with architectural designs that I can only describe as unmistakably human—a strange mixture of Greco-Roman and East Asian elements… yet even the most cursory analysis tells us that these ruins far predate those periods in our history, and they were certainly not built with simple stone to have been preserved for so long.

We came to the stars and wondered about alien life, yet these ruins force us to consider whether there might be improbable things about our own past that lie beyond our knowledge. Alas, no further research on Heian is possible due to the Covenant’s presence, and with Miridem under attack it’s not likely that we’ll get to look any deeper into this.