A Halo 'OC Self-Insert' story
Disclaimer: I do not own Halo or Mass Effect.
AN: For any of the readers that followed me on my previous story, I'm just making this story as a compliment to my Mass Effect story and also to ease my mind a bit from the Mass Effect verse as I'm having a bit of a writer block now and with other stuff, I just don't have the time to continue that and another story simultaneously. Just consider this story as a break from the Mas Effect fic. But not to misunderstand, I will definitely continue my other two story so not to worry about that.
P.S: This is very important, I'm a fan of Halo games and personally played almost all of them except Halo 1 (didn't finish it but know how it goes) and Halo 2(again the same as 1). But the halo series also have a complementary book to flesh out the lore of the Halo universe and I didn't read any single one of them except 'Halo Glassland'. So I am very sorry if any thing I write in the story isn't exactly following the lore of the Halo verse, but I would be happy to make future rewrite for any mistakes you readers would kindly point out.
Extra P.S: Please read the first chapter of 'I Am Only A Culinary Student' story as it would make a bit more since at the start. Better yet, read the whole story so you know the idea I am using for that story and this story I am using. I seriously recommend it or else you will get confuse.
Extra Extra P.S: My grammar isn't perfect since English isn't my first language and I always get this trouble of translating my story into written form. Essentially I am very fluent is speaking English but I suck at writing with perfect grammar. Kinda weird...
Anyway, onward with the story! Hope you readers enjoy!
Chapter 1: Alive I Am, But Real I Doubt
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At first I could see nothing, just the familiar pitch black void that haunts me every time I close my eyes. Waiting for the routine 'wake up in the alley' seems a bit of a chore now, but the last loop really took a toll on me so I really cant complain how much I needed a bit of a rest. No matter how uncomfortable it feels...well I cant really feel anything except know that I am in the void. Its a strange thing to know something but cant make heads or toe what the heck is happening to me right now but I gave up on that answer long ago.
Then I start to hear something, which is strange as it usually starts with the tingling feeling on the tips of my fingers before spreading to the rest of my body, which after that comes the return of hearing.
Anyway, the noise is something I cant really describe properly, its sort of a buzzing sound but electronic in someways, I can also hear occasional electronic beeps every now and then. Suddenly I regain my sight on my good eye and I am treated to a world of bright blue with...are those lines of numbers flying up or down, left and right around me!?
Panicking as the last time I woke up differently ended up...messy. I straight away jolted up after regaining full control of my body and look around me. Every where I see is the same, numbers flying around in a light blue world.
Unconsciously, I took a few steps back in shock. Then I felt like I hit something on my back and turn around to see a small screen slowly floating away from me in a spinning motion. Suddenly the screen stop spinning and in a blink of an eye, fly straight at me so fast that my eye close in reflex. When I don't feel anything hitting me, I open my single closed eye and was slightly startled that the floating screen had stop just a few inches in front of my face.
The screen is actually blank with the exception of a few numbers popping up randomly of the screen. Curious to what it is, I slowly and gently reach out to the screen with my right hand which I just notice are covered in a very long sleeved that is eerily similar to something I used to wear in one of the loops. It is covered in blue colored numbers all moving around the entire fabric. I yelp soundlessly in surprise and frantically took a good look at my self.
I am wearing what looks like a very large light blue robe that is also entirely covered in running lines after lines of numbers, it is also definitely several time to large for me. I heard a loud beep next to me and to my surprise I can see moving images on the floating screen.
I look closer and realize that it is a video being played, I pay attention to it and from I could tell, It looks like a security camera footage, but no sound, of what seem to be a relatively large room. I can see a few people walking around or sitting on futuristic looking chairs with an equally advance looking console in front of them. There are two things that really caught my eye in this footage, one is that there is a a large table with a blue screen in the middle of the room that looks very futuristic and a tad bit familiar.
The last one is that I can see several windows and if I am right, it is overlooking the vast emptiness of the mostly pitch black vacuum of space. The last one doesn't really bother me as I've been on space ships before.
The strange thing is that the room does not look remotely like any Mass Effect interior ships I've ever seen before. There's no orange holographic screen, in fact. There's no holo screen anywhere and from what I can see, the people in the room are using actual screens. The design of the room looks very familiar though and I try to rack my brain to remember what it is but for the life of me I really cant.
Then I notice a person, who looks like she is in charge, went inside the room and walk towards the front and stop to see the view through the larger window. Then I can see her say something briefly but I cant hear what she said because there is no audio. Suddenly, immediate after she said something, another smaller screen suddenly pops out with a loud ping in front of me.
Startled a bit, I stare at the blinking words of "REPORT TO BRIDGE". Confused, I look back at the screen and saw the important women looking equally confused as if she expected something to happened and it didn't. She turn around and walk towards the large table slash screen, then she said something again.
Just like last time, a screen pops up with another blinking words of "REPORT TO THE BRIDGE NOW".
Realization sets in as I now realize that the footage I'm seeing is not a recording but a live feed. More confused and don't know what to do I just look at the live feed to see what would happen. The women look confuse again but that quickly changes into anger and she said something again but this time she is shouting, startling a few people in the room.
Like the last two time, another screen pops up. But this time in red color with angry looking blinking words of "REPORT TO THE BRIDGE IMMEDIATELY!". The messages seemingly for me, I hesitantly reach out towards the screen and soon my finger gently touch the floating screen before blinding light surrounds me.
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X Bridge point of view X
Alice Evergreen Shepard, captain of the modified UNSC Phoenix-class colony ship Spirit of Winter, the rarely known sister ship of Spirit of fire, just started off with a bad morning just now. First is that her captain quarters shower room somehow couldn't get hot water so she had to clean herself with freezing cold water that really isn't the best way to start the day. Second is that due to some issues, she had to eat in the canteen and found that the breakfast is already gone in the stomach of her ship crew and other military personnel so she had to make due with some tasteless military rations. Now third is that blasted A.I Dark Winter, or Winter for short, isn't responding to her calls for two times already. Not befitting for an Smart A.I.
She angrily called/shouted for Winter to respond while closing her eyes in frustration and ignoring the startled look of her bridge crew. After a few short moment, a familiar sound of the A.I popping into existence on the bridge large holo table
'Finally!..' the captain thought.
"Where the hell have you been Winter! I called you tw-" was Alice manage to say before opening her eyes and saw a different looking A.I on her chair.
No longer is the holo projector displaying Winter in his casual civilian wear. But instead it is displaying what seem to be a young looking child, what seem to be a makeshift eye patch on on of its eye and a very large light blue colored robe. The weirdly small A.I looking very distressed, confused and very much in shock after it look up to see her looking down at it.
Like a small child who got lost and couldn't find his parents
Captain Alice buried maternal instinct almost made her ask the child if he was ok, but her military training kicks in and push those maternal feelings away.
'The hell..' She briefly thought before saying, "Who are you!? You are not Winter, identify your self immediately!"
The unknown A.I flinch at her sudden authoritative shout and frantically look around to make sense of where he is. But Alice patience ran out and quickly shout a few command to her crew to execute an very rarely used protocol to contain the rouge element that somehow manage to sneak inside her ship A.I core.
There can be no risk taken, especially during these hard time... For all they know, this could be an unknown Covenant infiltrating A.I gathering information on their colonies or worse...Earth location.
Not a few moment after the protocol is activated, the image of the intruder began to flicker and the A.I avatar seems a bit disorientated before its expression went full on panic when a ring of light appears on the right wrist of the intruder. Struggling against the bind that is holding its right hand in place by pulling and scratching against the bind with its free hand.
But then another ring of light appear on the A.I other wrist and ended a pretty pathetic attempt to escape the binding. Both of the A.I captured hand spread apart before the binding force the pair of hands to slam together. Then, as if gravity increased several times fold, the now cuffed hand drops down on the floor. Making the unknown A.I lose its footing and fall down face first.
The Unknown element on her ship struggle to go on its knees with how its hand refuse to budge against the bind that's glued to the holographic floor. When the child-looking A.I succeeded, it is in distressed, tired, looks to be giving up on escaping and most peculiar of all, fear that captain Alice swore could see on its digital single eye...
Alice Shepard shudder at the thought of the Covenant being able to create A.I that looks human and act so similar like a human. In fact, this A.I is more life-like that most A.I she had seen till now. If the intruder really is a Covenant A.I, she fear that there might be more and with how the human ships, military and civilians, are spread out. There's no way they could do a full electronic sweep of all the ships to look for any other infiltrator in such a short time to prevent any other information leak.
The captain of the UNSC Destroyer look at the captured A.I with critical eye before the intruder is whisk away to a digital version of a containment area. Alice Shepard massages her temple in frustration at how bad her day had started off.
"Oh great, now I have to contact the admiral and inform him of the situation we have. If my theory is correct and this is a covenant A.I, the fucking spooks are going to be crawling all over her ships." Alice thought tiredly...
She then notices several of her bridge crew member looking at her curiously. Alice rolls her eye at how unprofessional they are being right now, but right now she is to tired mentally to reprimand them of that. So she just settle with saying, "Get back to work people, also, in light of very recent events. Any important military data transfer will be restricted to in-ship only, we are in full lock down till we get further orders." She pause and glare at her crew with a 'don't mess with me face' before continuing to say "Is that understood?"
A chorus of "Yes ma'am" is her respond. Satisfied, she quickly ordered one of her crew to check on what happen to the ships A.I winter before she use her console to contact her superiors...
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X Luri point of view X
I don't know how long I am trapped in here, there's no way to tell the time in his small blue colored prison, only the moving lines of '0's and '1's on the wall accompanied me.
The wall it self is electrified as whenever I touch the wall around me, it shocks me hard enough to make me flew back a good few meters from the wall. So that is why I am in the middle of my prison, hugging my knee against my chest and resting my head on it in despair at how unlucky I have been lately.
I physically cant sleep so its been a very boring and very very lonely for me...
After for what seem for so long, I can no longer control my emotion and I began to cry silently. The only sound now in my prison is the occasional sobs and the quiet electronic beeping.
"Why does this keeps happening to me...I wish Lizinda was here with me now...she knows what to do..." Luri thought sadly.
Unknown to him. Luri is being watch...
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X Alice Shepard point of view X
"So that's A.I that manage to get into your ship's 'A.I Core'?" Asked Dr. Halsey while she watch the imprison A.I that is showing on the bridge holo table with scientific curiosity.
"Yes ma'am" Alice reply.
"So what can you tell me about the A.I Dr. Halsey?" Ask Admiral Parangosky from the screen just across the holo table .
Halsey continue to examine her data pad before replying, "I am not sure, this A.I is unlike any thing I've ever seen. It is clearly not Human-made when I briefly examine its outer coding, its so complex that even I don't think we have the necessary knowledge to even begin to decipher it basic coding. Its fascinating really.."
"So its covenant in origin then?" Asked Shepard.
"No, at least I don't think so.." Replied the Dr.
"What do you mean you don't think so?.." Asked the admiral.
"Admiral, we are not even sure if the Covenant even have . While we cannot rule out the possibility that they have. It is simply impossible for them to even create an A.I that looks like human and act like a human so perfectly since the Cole protocol prevents any information to fall into the Covenant hands. Unless the protocol failed and the Covenant manage to get information about humans, it is simply illogical to think that the Covenant can create this unique A.I this perfectly." Explained Halsey.
"So what do you suggest we do with it Dr. Halsey?" Ask the admiral
"For now I would like to do further testing.." She pause and look up from he data pad and then look at the admiral before continue to say, "..With your permission of course admiral.."
"How can we be sure that it is not a threat to us? As you said, it is an advance and an unknown A.I, for all we know this thing could tear apart our cyber defense easily after it got what it wanted..what ever that may be.." Said Parangosky
"Well..." Started Halsey while taking out a small chip looking item from her pocket, "...we can just do a test now. For now it seem to be very docile and submissive, if what the captain said is true. The A.I has not tried once to force its way out of its prison."
Admiral Parangosky seems to be in deep thought for a moment before she told her, "For now Dr. Halsey, you are now officially in charge of finding out what the A.I really is but under tightly controlled environment. Until then, I will have to take my leave..." she looks at captain Shepard before saying, "..Captain Shepard, I congratulate for your quick decision to contain this unknown element and from now on till ordered otherwise, you and your ship will for now escort Dr Halsey to her lab on Reach and will be station there till further notice."
Shepard nodded and said, "Acknowledge Ma'am".
The admiral then turn her attention toward Halsey and nodded towards her, "Dr. Halsey".
"Admiral" was her only respond.
The screen changes to the UNSC logo that slowly rotates as the admiral cease communication.
Alice sigh for the umpteenth time today before turning her attention toward Dr. Halsey and saying, "Ma'am, I will order my crew to begin departure to Reach soon. So I recommend for you to stay at your designated temporary quarters till we get there."
Dr. Halsey didn't even spare the captain a glance before saying, "Later captain, I would like to do a few test now if you don't mind"
"Of course ma'am.." Replied Shepard sharply at the lack of respect she is getting from the scientist.
Without another word, Dr. Halsey insert the chip on her hand into a console and straight away stare at the screen while putting her data pad up to jot down note.
Alice Evergreen, being curious walk up next to the scientist and join her to see the first of many test that would be conducted on her ship.
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X Luri point of view X
I am immediately alerted to a loud ping that is coming in front of me and I slowly look up from resting my head on my knees. The tears on my eyes makes my vision blurry so I use my sleeve to wipe it off. The sight that greeted me shocks me greatly.
In front of me, is the A.I Cortana from the Halo universe. Confirming that I am definitely not in the Mass Effect verse anymore. Too shock to move, I stayed at my spot while Cortana slowly move closer to me, she seems to cautiously examine me with curiosity.
My single eye accidentally look into her own two pairs of digital eyes and I immediately turn my face away from her in embarrassment at how beautiful she looked in real life. A tinge of blush appear on my cheeks now that I remember that her avatar literally has no clothing and her modesty is covered my the running lines of codes.
For a few seconds there is only silence between us but that ended when she said in a confident tone, "Well...your pretty small for an A.I you know.."
She gave a toothy smile before realizing something and said, "Oh my, I'm a afraid I didn't introduce my self yet. I am CTN 0452-9 or Cortana for short."
She went silent as she waited for me to reply to her, unfortunately for her I'm mute so I cant introduce my self even if I wanted to.
A sharp phantom pain ran through me as I am reminded again of my disability, I smile sadly at Cortana before lowering my head to rest against my knee, trying to ignore her. "well that's just rude.." I barely heard her muttered it.
I can hear that she is getting closer but I didn't care...
Then...I was suddenly lifted up by a hand that is gripping on the back collar of my robe. I don't know how she did it but now I am dangling up like a kitten being lifted up by its mother.
"Wha- what...?" I thought in confusion. I can see that she is holding me up and she is struck in a pose that reminds me of a mother scolding her child.
"Now maybe me being quite didn't tell you to introducing yourself so I'm gonna be blunt about this..." She gave me a rather predatory smile with a glint in her eyes that just scream mischievous that left me shaking in fear before she continue to say, "My name is Cortana, whats yours?"
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AN: And that's a wrap people, I hope you readers enjoy what I created here. This idea really have been bugging me to use for a long time and after procrastinating I finally found the motivation and plot for me to write this story.
So final words for this chapter is please review and tell me what you think and how I can improve.
Alright then, till then, I'm out for the midweek and now reading a comic at 13 bye bye.