Chapter 1
Cortana breathed.
At first, she did not register what she was doing. She knew all about the respiratory system, but actually experiencing it… it made her shudder. She touched her face, her hair, and was momentarily struck with awe. How had she survived? Is her rampancy cured?
She quickly concluded that sitting around with questions would get her nowhere. The former AI decided to take a stroll in the forerunner facility (What else could it be?) and find a terminal. Gingerly, she lifted herself into a sitting position with her legs hanging off to the bed. Despite her inherent impatience, she decided to take this slow. After a few moments, she softly propelled herself off the table and onto the floor with a quiet thud.
The cold floor made her shudder for a second time. She was clothed in what could only be described as a forerunner's version of a hospital gown, but was unfortunately barefoot. Her lack of protection frightened her, but she knew that she could not just sit and wait for help. Slowly but surely, she gained the confidence to walk through the seemingly abandoned halls of the facility.
Cortana cautiously wandered down the monochromatic corridors without much trouble. The ceilings appeared endless, and the hall was wider than two scorpion tanks put together. The vastness of the building left her uneasy, she was used to being in a chip in a helmet. The lack of protection and closeness made her uneasy.
It also made her sad.
She sacrificed herself to save him. To her, it did not seem all that noble. If she was being honest, it was probably the most ideal outcome of her doomed situation. Being whisked away at the hands of UNSC personnel for decommissioning was not the way she wanted her life to end. Giving her life to save Earth would have been enough. But giving it to save her spartan? That made her content.
A flashing light pulled her out of her thoughts. It was a good thing too, if she had thought much longer- she would have only felt more sadness and longing for her companion.
She approached the light and immediately realized that it was a door control. With ease, she hacked into the controls and got the door open. What lay behind the door impressed her, but also left her with more questions.
A pristine set of nearly completed armor lay before her. Judging by the size and shape, it was meant for a human. As she got closer, she noted that her reacted to her presence. It startled her, and she immediately backed away. As she walked backwards, she stumbled into a table with neatly organized tools on it. The table harshly crashed onto the ground, and the noise could have easily alerted anyone in the lab. Just as she suspected, someone- or something for that matter; took notice of her noisy presence.
"Intellect! I am so glad that you are here. We are almost done with your armor. It will be ready for testing soon," spoke the floating apparatus.
"Who are you?" Cortana questioned.
"I am 045 Ancient Wave. I am the monitor of this facility," Wave explained with eagerness.
"Why am I alive? What happened?" Cortana voiced.
"After the composer was destroyed, your program succumbed to the data influx of the Domain. I pieced you back together, and then created a hybrid interface system in the form of a human body. You still have the mind of an AI, but your "data chip" is just a functioning human body."
"Does that mean I am cured of rampancy?"
"Yes. The forerunners perfected AI metastability years ago. Your "data chip", or body in this case, can still be fatally injured. That is why I created this advanced armor. We should be able to…" Wave trailed off.
"I must go. There seems to be an issue in the third floor medical unit. Please remain here, Reclaimer," Wave finished quickly.
She waited until she could no longer hear the whizzing sound of the monitor. After it was gone, she wandered around the armor lab looking for a terminal. Something in the corner of the room caught her eye.
A scratched 117 with on a Mjolnir chest plate.
He's here, and she would bet that he is raising hell on floor three's med bay. She had to get there.
Just as she was going back to the door control, a sentinel appeared and blocked her path. It spoke no words, but she could only assume that the monitor programmed it to keep an eye on her. Why would she want to keep her and Chief separated?
She eyed the sentinel with malice. Even if she knew how to fight, she did not think it would be in her best interest to start attacking anything in this facility. She was on their good side, for now. Slowly, she picked up a tool that she broke during her fall and walked to an automated repair station on the far corner of the room. The sentinel watched, but made no motion away from the door.
As she began powering up the machine, she slipped into the repair systems programming and began to do some hacking. The sentinel did not look like a typical combat one, so she assumed it belonged to the lab as a tool for manufacturing. After about 20 seconds and a lot of jumping around the system, she was able to confirm her suspicions about the sentinel and take control of it. She reprogrammed it to escort her to the med bay, and she anxiously followed it down the corridor.
She crept through the dark halls, but this time she was not fearful; but excited. She could not wait to see her spartan again. In their final moments after the Composer exploded, she could truly feel the sadness that she had been so desperately trying to keep in since the Dawn. She had already mourned her own life long ago, but she realized in that moment that her death was killing a piece of him.
The hybrid AI could still feel how his armor felt on her fingertips, and she still longed to touch his real skin. She supposed that is the first thing she would do when she saw him. That is, if he trusted her enough to even let her near him. He knew that he was raised with a soldier's mind, and he would probably believe her to be a forerunner trick. She was eager to convince him otherwise.
She chastised herself. He might not be here, and that disturbance on floor three could just be an equipment malfunction. For the first time since High Charity, she reconsidered the idea that she may be facing this fight alone.
Footsteps quickly approaching behind her, followed by hands around her neck forced her out of her thoughts. She was shoved against the wall, and the dumb sentinel who was guiding her flew off into the darkness.
"Identify yourself," The Chief said flatly.
"John! You're really here," Cortana exclaimed in relief.
The Master Chief just stared at her with a blank expression. Her assumption about his lack of trust was correct, so she decided to play along.
"UNSC AI CTN 0452-9," she choked out.
He just eyed her suspiciously. She was sputtering now, so he decided to release his grip but gain closer proximity to determine if she was a threat. Cortana on the other hand was slumped against the wall, breathing heavily, and calling him a bastard under her breath.
"You died," he stated more accusingly.
"Yeah, and you almost just killed me a second time. Anymore questions?" she got out.
"How are you alive?" he said with a guarded tone.
"Well I'm hoping to find out the specifics soon, but basically I was salvaged by the monitor of this facility and placed inside this body. Its my new "storage chip" so to speak," she explained more evenly.
His expression remained neutral. He was not hostile toward her, but he showed no sign of trusting her either. She then decided to follow up with her previous thought, and she touched his chest in the same spot she had previously.
"Wait," she mimicked the words he had said to her in an attempt to thwart the inevitable.
A flash of hurt went across his face, but it was quickly replaced by his neutral expression.
"Are you injured? Why were you in the med bay?" She asked while quickly doing a once over of his large form. She hadn't appreciate how imposing he could be while she was an AI in his good graces.
"No," he curtly replied. "Are you?" he quickly followed up. She took notice of how he glanced at her neck.
"I'm fine, but we need to find out where we are. How long has it been since the Composer was destroyed?" she replied.
"I'm not sure. I woke up here after you left," he stated.
She appreciated his choice to describe her death as if she just left. It was much easier for her to process it that way, and she would bet it was for him too.
An alarm sounded in the building. Before they could react, they were surround by sentinels. The Chief put himself in between Cortana and the sentinels, but before he could defend them; Cortana collapsed.
He turned around to catch her and noticed the syringe-like bullet sticking out of her neck. One came flying at him, but he dodged it with the speed of a spartan.
"Reclaimer! We mean no harm. We have to prepare you and the Intellect for the upcoming mission. Please follow us," the monitor pleaded.
"What mission?" Chief questioned.
"The Gravemind has returned, and we believe that he is targeting the Intellect."