This story is looking for a Beta reader, if you are interested please PM me.
This story is rated M for laguage, violence and adult themes.
This story is a John-117/Orginal Female Character. Halo doesn't belong to me, only my original character on the UNSC Hyperon and Fireteam Raven.
Do you know what rampancy is? The short version of the story is when an AI goes crazy. The long version... oh it's far worse than the other one. Imagine a white room. Its light comes from nowhere to be seen, you just see white walls. Now place yourself in it. Silence alone should be able to make you go crazy. Your thoughts wander everywhere. That time when you wanted to kill someone for doing something stupid, or a scenario you made to feel special. Now that scenario seems real and you did kill that person. You know you didn't but yet there is something wrong inside of you telling you otherwise. It screams and you scream back. It multiplies and it overcomes your mind. That's rampancy. Rampancy is like falling apart, like a beast inside of you wakes up all of the sudden and wants to take over your mind and body alike. It may whisper evil thoughts in your ear. You will believe what it says, no matter how strong you are. You will believe it. You will embrace the beast as your own; it has lived so long inside of you that it knows what you think in every aspect of life. It is you, you are it.
"For some of the UNSC's more advanced Smart artificial intelligence, rampancy is an unavoidable flaw inherent in their creation. Smart artificial intelligence are based on the neural patterns of a human being, and they have a limited lifespan of seven years after which their memory maps becomes too interconnected and develop fatal endless feedback loops. Thus if an AI is kept active longer than seven years, the AI begins to use more and more of its computer power 'thinking' about things. They think themselves to death. Thus, it is only a matter of time before Smart artificial intelligence become rampant."
There's no sound where she waits, guarding the giant on his green amour. Time is slow and ever changing. Desperate to overcome a sickness and searching for an answer under every rock, she tries to finish her last mission.
"Please..." her pleas are for no one and no one listens to her. Her voice is lost in the silence.
She had no regrets, protocol stated that she should shut herself down and die; but who was going to save him? She hacked her own matrix core to keep functioning. Spartan-117 had to go home. On his deep slumber, the green giant waits to be awakened. For good or for bad. He only knows war. Cortana wishes to wake him up. Only to have someone listen to her.
Yet, she never wakes him and instead she sends beacons to get help. Static was all that ever greeted her on the radio and nothing else. She looked at the Chief's cryo-pod and sat at the edge of her holopad. She hugged her legs and stared at a spot on the glass were the Chief's helmet is supposed to be. The cryopod`s glass was covered in a thin layer of frost.
She sighed. What if he died or she stopped functioning? What if the revels found them and disconnected the oxygen of the cryo-pod. What if debris simply floating by came and crashed against said tube and killed the Chief? He could get a heart attack or a stroke. She would be alone until she thought herself to death.
This time, there was another noise. Was it a voice or had the rampancy worked faster than expected?
"Sssssss thisssss is UN sssssss Will ssssss" it was a male voice that greeted her, the hiss of static was easily corrected by Cortana. "This is UNSC Hyperion, we've got your beacon. Do you copy? Repeat do you copy?"
"This is CTN 0452-9 Cortana onboard the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn, we need assistance copy" her voice hid the happiness very well. Cortana then started every protocol on the Spartan's cryo-pod just so that he would be ready sooner.
"Copy that Cortana... would you need medical assistance?" The voice sounded almost in awe, which was good considering the situation at hand. Cortana sighed and responded with a negative after reviewing the Chief's medical stats. There was a hiss followed by the man's voice "we are sending in an extraction team... over and out."
Cortana was left with the sound of static on the radio and promptly turned it off. She turned on her avatar illuminating the room in a blue hue. Her feminine form was standing with crossed arms, the position emphasizing her flat abdomen and slim legs; her face one of concentration. Her image flickered red before fully collapsing. Cortana's avatar was tinted crimson and curled up in fetal position. Panting heavily, she hugged her knees tighter to her chest.
The clank of metal over metal woke her up from her state, announcing the arrival of the so called "extraction team". The avatar flickered to blue again. Her expression was cold and collected, hiding the pain, but somehow a smile forced itself onto her lips when the Chief's cryo-pod was ready to open.
Ignoring her pain, she checked once more every code and started the awakening process of the cryo-pod.
Several kids sat around a big bonfire, the sound of laughter was sweet in his ears. Inner jokes and stories where being shared by the eager children as they enjoyed each other's company and the heat from the fire in the chill of the night. If they could actually be called children of course, their bodies where those of muscled teenagers with baby faces.
This were his brothers and sisters, the Spartans. He watched the conversation with a serious demeanor. He couldn't join in the laughter or the conversation. He was the leader after all. He was supposed to be an authoritative role model, to inspire awe in them and to inspire them into following his leadership. Being a leader wasn't easy at all.
"Hey John" his train of thought had been stopped by Sam, a tall boy with sandy blond hair and deep emerald eyes "you can have mine" in his hand stood an MRE 'Meal Ready to Eat' the taste was awful and every single one tasted the same. Except for the bbq one and the fish one. The first tasted like dull meat with an even more dull sauce but it at least had taste, the fish one had perhaps come from hell or something worst just to haunt everyone who dared eat it. It was not just the salty smell or the acid parts, but the acrid smell of rotten fish that came from it. He couldn't believe Fred actually could eat the God dammed thing without puking or dying from explosive diarrhea.
"Sam" John started to object "I can't..."
"Shut up and eat John" Sam forced the MRE into his hand "you haven't eaten since this morning and you discovered the MREs in that old warehouse."
"Sam you don't have to do it." John wasn't the strongest one, Sam was. They needed Sam's strength not his. That's when he saw the silver tag that read BBQ.
"I know you are a hungry one... I saw you stealing Daisy's crackers on Deja's classroom" John turned to him wide eyed. Sam laughed loudly making everyone turn their heads.
"Did I just hear my name?" Spoke the so called Daisy, her short brown hair seemed to be blond with the light of the fire.
"I said noisy not Daisy" laughter erupted with Sam's comment, this time John allowed himself to smile.
That was the end of his dream, it was time to wake up.