After the short elevator ride, and the long tram ride, I finally arrived at the science lab. It was always busy, with all the researchers scrambling to examine the latest promethean artifact ground teams recover. Usually, it is just weapon tech, but occasionally they would get a big find like the artifact Crimson recovered the first mission, or the artifact they and majestic just brought back. Science was also usually busy developing new tech for the spartan ground teams, and it was always Fireteam Atom that was the guennie pig.

"Ah, Spartan Thompson. Glad your here. Now, if you could follow me, I could answer any questions you may have about your armor's 'improvements.'" Dr. Conners,the one who always greets any Spartans visiting Science. I don't know would disappoint me more, if he was he head of the Spartan tech group, or if he was just the one they appointed to talk to Spartans. Conners was a rat of a man, thin, scrawny, every time I saw him it was like he was always trying to wriggle out of my sight. He always seemed like the typical mad scientist, always placing the importance of science over the safety of individuals. I guess that's why they always sent him to see me.

I followed him into a lab separated from the large room that is home to most of Science's activities. He sat behind the desk, completely at ease. "I know what you're wondering. You're probably wondering something like 'Oh I sure do wonder what the great and almighty Science team has developed for me today and why I need to have new armor to use it. I hope it's something that will be wonderfully useful.' Well, wonder no further." Dr. Connors seamed to always be trying to deliver a sales pitch. Probably from dealing with what he thought were corporate executives too worried with outdated notions like 'safety' or 'ethics'.

"Let's start off with the simple things first. I'm sure you noticed that lens on your left palm. That is a reverse-engineered Forerunner scanner, similar to the one that first scanned the Infinity before we crashed on Requiem last year. I'm sure you can remember that. Anyways, we decided that we are not satisfied with just what artifacts we can recover from the mission sights. Most artifacts are too big to get back to the Infinity anyways. That's where you and that scanner come in. If while on missions to Promethean sites, if you would kindly scan artifacts, that would be very helpful to us. 'But wait!' you say. 'What about the modifications to the rest of my armor, and my undersuit?' I was getting to that, just be patient." I let him rant on. Sometimes he can be like a supervillian. Sometimes it's just better to let him rant on, with the chance that he'll reveal some of his evil scheme.

"Thanks to some interesting Forerunner artifacts and data teams have recovered, we may have found a way to prevent Rampancy in AIs. Naturally, this is a complex process, so I won't bore you with the details. Lets just say that while, much of the original creation process stays the same, still requiring a human brain, there is one crucial new step in the process. Again, it's complicated, so I won't bore you with the details. So far, we have only created one of these new AIs, just for testing. After extensive brainstorming to come up with a non-essential purpose for the AI, so as not to have any issues if we are wrong about this, and it just makes the AI descend into Rampancy faster, we decided to give the AI to you." I gave a soft groan at this.

"Now, now. It's not what you think. It's not that you're not important, it's that you're somewhat easily replaceable. Anyway, the undersuit has an added memory processor superconductor layer, to allow the AI to exist in your suit. Since the AI will be residing between your suit and your head, it will help speed up reaction time, as well as further speed up your movements in the suit."

"Wait, what do you mean, 'between my suit and my head?'"

"Well, the AI will reside in your neural interface. Because of the fact that the interface connects your mind with the suit, the AI will be in both the suit and your head at the same time. Don't worry though. The AI has limited access to only parts of your brain. Nothing important. In fact, the relationship will be beneficial."

With the clarification settled, he turned partway and reached into a cubby built into the wall. I knew from experience that that was where Connors kept all the new toys he wanted me or my squad to test. He turned back around with a card, maybe about the same size as a deck of cards, but half as thick. He set it down on the desk, and a hologram was projected from the center of the card.

The hologram was of a woman, blond, most likely tall. Kind of hard to tell based on the size of the hologram. She appeared to be some kind of hunter, at least based on her dress. She wore a tunic and leggings, partially covered with a long, animal skin cloak. She also wore leather boots, with a tuft of fur coming out the tops.

"Spartan Thompson, allow me to introduce you too..."

"I can give my own introduction, thank you, Dr. Connors," The hologram cut into Connors' speech, giving him a cool glare. She turned back to me. "My name is Saria, and it is a pleasure to meet you, Spartan Thompson. You have a very impressive service record."

"Thank you. It's a pleasure for me as well. And please, call me Nick."

"Yes, yes. We're all very pleased to meet each other. Now, if you would be willing to turn around and kneel down, I will put in the chip for you." Dr. Connors was clearly annoyed that Saria had cut off his surely carefully planned speech. He clearly wanted to get the meeting back under his control.

I gave a small shrug and complied. It was a second before he slid the chip in, but as soon as he did, the effect was noticeable. It was an odd feeling, sort of like a cool liquid dripping down the back of my skull, but it did not last long. "Nice place you got here. Roomy, but not too roomy. I approve." Saria came in through my helmet speakers, but it seemed like there was a slight echo. I may have just been imagining things though.

"How do you feel?" Connors was clearly doing an impromptu medical examination.

"I feel fine. Can I stand back up now?"

"Good, good. Yes you can stand back up, but slowly. Be careful." I could hear a soft scribbling from behind me, and I could tell Connors was taking notes. Probably checked a box labeled 'Did not die' or something like that. Safety tests were not high on Connors' priorities.

I stood up and turned around. I managed to sneak a peek at his clipboard. I was right. "Now hold still. I'm just going to scan your head, to make sure you are not having any adverse reactions to having another entity in your head." There was a pause, followed by a slight buzzing in my head. "Nope, you're fine. Now, back to business."This time it was Saria who have a groan, at least just inside my helmet.

"Naturally, we need to test how well you two can work together. So I went ahead and pulled some strings with Spartan. I set up a War Games match for you in three days. You will be going up solo against Fireteam Majestic."

"What?! One vs. five? How is that fair?"

"Thompson, please. You know this can't be fair. This is a test of how well you work together. If you had your team, then it wouldn't be an accurate test. And Majestic is an average group. They won't be too hard so that you have now hope, but they won't be too easy that the test will be ineffective. Now then, if you have no further questions or concerns, you can leave."

As soon as the sentence was finished, I uttered a quick "Good" and left. It felt good to be away from Dr. Connors. And a sigh of relief through the speakers told me I was not the only one who felt this way. "You don't like him much either, do you?"

Saria was quick to reply. "Not really. He always gave me the creeps. It's good to finally be able to get away from him. And don't worry about the War Games. I'm sure we'll do fine. Besides, you forgot. It'll be two vs. five."

"Right."


Happy holidays to anyone reading this. Hope you all have a happy New Year. Just wanted to say that incase I don't get another chapter out before the New Year. Anyways, here is another chapter. Sorry, I had it mostly finished for 3 days. Took me a while to work out Saria's name and appearence, but I'm finaly happy with it.