Great Journey
"Welcome Home, John."
Cortana bowed her head as she backed away from John and faded away into the digital realm of her AI programming.
For the past 24 hours she had felt nothing but fear. Fear for humanity, her mental health, and for John; especially for him. She worried for their future and if they would make it out alive. Now she could could only feel satisfaction and peace within herself. She had completed her mission. She had helped him destroy the Composer, thereby insuring humanity's protection from it's threat. More importantly she had protected him and made sure he was alive.
She would die so that he could live. It was sad, but so it was with all such sacrifices. And she was fine with it.
"Why should he live?"
"He should die with us."
"Go back for him! Take him with us!"
"Be with him for eternity!"
"Do it!"
She would have to admit, her rampant personalities did have a point. An eternity alone with John without any hassle from ONI or the UNSC did sound very tempting. But she knew better than to be that selfish.
"He deserves a chance to live a somewhat normal life. I hope Lord Hood and Lasky will at least give that to him." Cortana thought to herself.
"What about us!?"
"Why don't we get to live our lives the way we want!?"
Cortana then felt her rage bubble over.
"Firstly, because I never made the type of sacrifices that he made. And second; there is no 'us' or 'we'. You are-"
She was pulled from her thoughts when her sensors alarmed her of the Didact's ship tearing apart and the slip-space portal starting to collapse, pulling everything in it within a close proximity.
"Oh no."
"Put out a distress signal!"
"Get help!"
"Get John! He'll save us. Save you!"
Acting quickly, she initiated her distress call protocol and was moments away from sending out a beacon.
But she stopped.
"Why did you stop!? Don't stop!"
"Send it out."
"We'll Die! You'll Die!"
"NO!" Cortana said sternly.
The Rampant personalities immediately stopped talking.
"...What do you mean 'No'?" they asked, clearly offended with her tone.
She took a deep breath to calm herself then explained her reasoning.
"Because it would be cruel to him, giving him false hope like that. The way I see it I am doomed either way. I either die in slips-pace; make it through the portal and die wherever I end up; or get saved by John and die a few days, or hours, under his watch. There is no cure for rampancy. And even if all the AI's in the galaxy tried to find it, it would probably take years to find it."
"I said my goodbyes. I want him to move on. To live for himself for once. He's done so much for humanity, for the galaxy, ... for me. I couldn't possibly ask him to do anymore for me."
She watched as the ship was sucked into slip-space, herself in tow.
"Goodbye, John. If there's a place in the afterlife for AI's, I hope to see you there."
\ File entry: Sentinel's of the Galaxy Report Log
\ Entry: 75-2698/1173
\ Clearance: Open
\ Type: Audio recording
\ Subject: Investigation into strange occurrences upon Builder facility. Designation: Genesis.
\ User: Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting (IsoDidact)
Audio:Slips-pace rupture has been detected above the planet on the eastern side. Initial detection was made by this facility's monitor, 031 Exuberant Witness. Though nothing has come through the portal as of yet.
Audio: I find my thought's and emotions in conflict. In one way I am excited. This is the most contact we've had with any other race in thousands of years. The possibility of communication with these newcomers and learning the current state of the Galaxy is uplifting to me.
Audio: But I also find that I am cautious. While the firing of the Halo Array seemed successfull, there is the possibility that some survived and are awaiting the moment to it could be an entirely new enemy seeking to dominate the galaxy.
Audio: I do not know which it could be. I hope for the former. But only time will tell.
Audio: ( Interception: Voice of Chief Lifeworker Chant To Green ) Bornstellar! We have visual! It's a ship!
Audio: ( Bornstellar ) I am on my way.
\ Recording Ended /
Bornstellar deactivated the terminal he was using and exited the room. He came out to join his team of Warrior-Servants, Builders, and Lifeworkers, who were currently watching out the window overlooking the forests of Genesis. As Chant to Green had said, the slip-space portal was there and a ship was coming through it. A Forerunner ship.
At least what was left of one. It looked like it had gone through a terrific battle and was torn apart by the malfunctioning Slip-space drive within it. Leaving it a smoldering wreck.
"Exuberant! Can you identify the ship?"
The monitor turned itself to him. " I am trying to now, sir. But it seems I am a bit rusty at it. Also there seems to be alot of interference."
"That is to be expected. Take your time, monitor, but please hurry. There could be survivors aboard."
"I'll try to. It's mostly from the Slip-space event. But there are two other signals interfering with my sensors. One is foreign and the other- Oh my!"
All heads turned to the monitor.
"What is it?" Peace of Forgotten Dreams, Bornstellar's lieutenant, asked.
"We must reach that ship before the Prometheans do! Before HE does!" Fear was clearly evident in the monitor's voice. She started moving rather quickly to the exit, but Bornstellar pulled her back with his constraint field and calmly held her.
"Calm yourself, Exuberant. We are going to inspect the ship. But I need you to explain the sudden urgency you find yourself in. Why do we need to reach the ship before the Prometheans? And why them? They are contained on Requiem."
"I apologize, IsoDidact. I am worried because I have identified one of the two signals."
"What did you find, Exuberant?" Chant asked softly.
"It's... the Composer."
"THE COMPOSER!?" The Forerunners exclaimed in unison.
Chant moved in front of Bornstellar, who remained silent.
"Are you absolutely sure of this, Exuberant? Are you sure it is The Composer?"
"I am 83% sure of it, Ma'am. I have checked and re-checked the identification codes. I will have to gather information from the crash site, of course, but unless it's damage from the ship making it seem so, I am not mistaken."
"What of the Prometheans? asked a Builder named Truth Dreams Eternal Happiness.
"What? Oh! Yes, them. Sorry. I do not detect any Promethean data signatures as of yet. Though I do detect-"
Bornstellar backed away no longer listening to Exuberant's words, his mind was racing too fast to pay attention. He looked out the window overlooking the recently crashed ship. The last time he had saw the Composer it was being locked away on Installation 03, away from the Didact's reach. However, the Mantel's Approach was locked away on Requiem. Put there so that when Humanity had freed him from his Cryptum he would lead and guide them on their path to the Mantel.
Or that was the hope the Librarian had.
He would've rather seen the Didact punished severely for his crimes. Stripped of all honors and ranks, and sentenced to die.
He was a traitor. He had betrayed the Mantel, the Didactic code, his wife by mercilessly killing thousands of defenseless humans on Omega Halo. He let his pride, anger towards humans, and fear of the Flood control his actions. He deserved to die!
Though he guessed that all Forerunners acted out of desperation and fear during the end of the Forerunner/Flood War.
Especially himself.
He had fired the Halos. He ended all life in the galaxy with simple press of a button.I was a guilt he would have to live with for the rest of his life.
The only difference between his actions and the Didact's were the results.
For Bornstellar, thanks to the Librarians careful and precise planning, life was restored to the galaxy shortly after the Halos were fired. The saved species would continue to live on, free to do as they pleased.
For Shadow-of-Sundered-Star, the composed humans would remain the fragmented and tortured abominations who would answer only to the Didact's every whim. An eternal life of suffering servitude.
"Bornstellar?"
The Forerunner shook his head and looked toward Chant-to-Green and the rest of his team.
"I apologize. My thoughts were ... elsewhere."
Chant waved her hand in dismissal. "No apologies necessary. We were just asking what the best course of action is for us."
Bornstellar took a deep breath and sighed. He looked out to the crash site once more before he turned fully to the group of Forerunners. He moved through them towards the weapon's cash, picking up a Lightrifle.
"Here's what we know. There is a crashed ship outside with a supposed Composer aboard it. We do not know if it is the ship the ship we believe it to be. Or if there are survivors aboard and wether they are hostile or not. But there could be lives in danger and we need to know how it got here." he loaded his Lightrifle
"Exuberant prepare your constructors and sentinels. We shall investigate."