Hi Folks!
Firstly, I'm terribly sorry for my total lack of updates. Work went mad, life got busy, then got sick, and the muse for writing totally died for a while there! But I'm back to it now. So a short chapter just to work my feel back into the story, almost a filler chapter.
Please be gentle in your reviews, I'm feeling a little raw to writing again : )
Review responses:
Ferox Pretorious:
I do vaguely plan to bring all of the crew back, but in different settings. I'm honestly not sure to what capacity I'll bring the Normandy back… But I am finally back to writing so I'll be evolving the various character interactions from here. Hope you enjoy the new direction!
Bobobobobobon:
Did I do enough "bobobons?" But thanks! My take on FanFiction these days is that what's the point in writing it/enjoying it if certain fundamentals aren't changed and evolved? Buuuut in saying that, so long as it's enjoyable/enjoyed, who cares how that happens. But glad that you're liking it all the same : )
Dane Addis:
Thank you for your support. : )
I'm somewhat undecided in what capacity to expand Tevos and her role, but I did want to include her for some political plot points so I'll feel out that expansion of character traits.
Answering the Echoes
.::Chapter Seven::.
White teeth tugged on soft blue flesh and flawlessly smooth blue white dappled skin crinkled in a frown and lip bight of frustration. Tevos had only been aboard the freighter for seven hours with its new crew, but it only took one hour to learn that she didn't belong amongst the assembled individuals.
After the clear prompts from the Master Chief, she had made a slow process of following in his footsteps in seeking out and speaking with the crew. It was clear to her that each of them had strong political ideals and motivations. And subsequently, she was not welcome. But she was tolerated for those same political perspectives.
She'd started with Kasumi Goto, the master thief whom she had heard tell of through C-Sec wanting, but never publically declaring anything. The thief had surprised her; she had been a lot more morally bound than she had expected someone with such a successful thieving reputation to have.
And a good deal more polite and jovial than expected. But the niceties had only been to dress up her political jabs about the Asari's role in the Citadel Council and her own posturing toward Shepard about the Reapers following his death. Tevos had kept to her political –and personal- guns and expressed her appreciation of meeting the thief and then continued to the next crew member for further insight.
Garrus Vakarian; she thought that she'd gotten lucky with him being next on her intel hit list. Tevos and all of the Council for that matter had been fed dossiers on all known traits and attributes on Shepard's crew. But it instantly became clear that those dossiers had been massively out of date, and that through the hunt for Saren, then the subsequent return of the Citadel and failure of the system in being more effective, and then furthermore the mission against the Collectors, Garrus had changed a great deal.
He had greeted her in the manner that any respectful and upstanding Turian should, with politeness and discipline. But then he had bluntly expressed his critical opinion on the failings of every member of the Council. What had surprised her most had been his initial focus on what he referred to as the disparaging Turian Councillor. He'd spent five minutes describing the purity of his disappointment and disapproval of Sparatus, and his effect on the Turian Hierarchy.
Then his focus had shifted the Valern briefly, and unsurprisingly, considering how he'd just critically judged Sparatus, he'd somewhat forgiven the Salarian's political movements for the nature of the Salarian Union. He'd swayed from supposing that he thought that the Salarian's knew of the Reapers to herself and the Asari.
Garrus had looked into her eyes and outright told her that the Asari were the most disappointing inclusion in the Citadel with their political gaming of populations, but he'd surprisingly pulled himself short and seemed to remember her place and expressed his approval that at least she was aboard to do something herself.
Tevos had thanked him for his modicum of respect and then continued in the Master Chiefs footsteps to the next utility cabin to find Mordin. She'd never met him but had read extensively about him, even more recently updated reports about his efforts in the slums of Omega.
So she wasn't at all surprised to find him leaning over a table littered with several screens all displaying data feeds, reports and footage. As Tevos had fully expected; Mordin met her eyes as she entered, his own eyes had widened in the briefest moment of surprise as he recalled her strange addition to the team, and he'd straightened his posture to begin his interest in her being there.
But of course, his supposition for her being there was coloured by the history of the Asari in meddling in the background ever since meeting the Salarian Union. "Very interesting set of events to bring the Asari Councillor away from the Citadel on asset procurement! Especially given typical Asari political and governmental behaviour! Potential shift in Asari politics? Ulterior motives? Holes in Asari intelligence and can't be trusted for verification of Master Chief? All have interesting ramifications!"
In the time of Mordin questioning her and answering his own questions with supposition, which she couldn't fault as being very far from incorrect, she heard the heavy footfalls of the mysterious newcomer beating the hallway behind the closed door as he headed back to the cockpit, presumably having finished his check in with the crew with Grunt, the fledgling Krogan.
"Master Chief, apparently, has had life time of service. As a stranger here, he continues to serve. Threatening that may be dangerous for you." Mordin had called her attention from the extra-universal Humans receding footfalls back to present with what was a borderline threat, and it completed the painted picture for Tevos.
The small and oddly matched crew believed Master Chief's story, and they supported where he was going, and they wouldn't let her or any politician threaten that.
After Mordin, Tevos had found her own empty utility room to base herself from, from the two dozen identical ones that lined the single central corridor that ran the length of the freighter. She'd moved her gear from where it had been left at the rear loading compartment and done her best to make herself at home.
The single bunk that sat in the rear of the room was dressed in a folded white sheet and topped with a caramel coloured memory foam pillow. The bench that was centred in the very middle of the small five by five-meter room had been introduced to her portable communications terminal and laptop.
And the two other suits of armour that she had were stacked in their disassembled state next to the door with her duffel bag of casual shipboard clothing which she'd brought in the event of wearing armour aboard the ship being inappropriate, something she almost wanted to laugh at now.
But Mordin's rapid fire interest, answers, curiosities and solutions with the topped off background threat had once more challenged her own lack of assuredness.
What was she here for? Ever since the introduction of Humanity to Citadel space she had felt a change swirling around the galactic stage. Partly in fear of the newcomers for their species wide ability to be general specialists, and partly in fascination of that same trait that enabled them to be just as warlike and disciplined as the Turians, potentially as destructive as the Krogans, as scientifically capable as the Salarians and Asari, and just as politically equipped.
She had repeated the political pattern of all Asari Republic Councillors from time gone by, but more often than not, found herself questioning so many things. It had all been brought to a head when Shepard arrived and was given the title of Spectre and in his campaign against Saren had discovered the threat of the Reapers.
She had never personally seen the Prothean beacon hidden on Thessia, but she knew of it through back channels and that it was the source of Asari technological dominance, and that it was laden with all kind of unimaginable secrets. It wasn't until Shepard, and Liara, his partner and Prothean expert, that she learnt that to truly interact with Prothean technology someone needed a genetic or psychological marker passed on called a cypher.
That explained why Shepard had claimed to be able to absorb so much information from the beacon in a single go, whereas Asari scientists had carefully hacked, decoded, and restructured very small sections of data from the hidden beacon for thousands of years and were still digging deeper.
"Am I here to learn from whatever Master Chief is after?"
Tevos asked aloud to the empty room. The superstructure of the ship rumbled in the background with a shift in velocity and gravity, and she shook her head slowly. She delved into her mind and scrutinised an empty spot on the bench top, finding the right way to structure the thought about her reasoning for being here.
It was a selfish reason, not a political one. She wasn't here for political movement; she was here for her own enlightenment. She'd had her five hundred and eightieth birthday two months earlier, and knew that for all the Asari's ability to live long lives, their ability to learn wisdom was proportionately scaled in the same manner as Humans.
Tevos had been groomed by Commandos, Admirals, and politicians, all hundreds of years her senior, and yet lacking the wisdom that their years offered them. When Shepard had spoken about the races uniting to defeat this new threat it had woken a residual hope that it was possible. But it had taken mere days for Sparatus and Valern to play their single species agenda driven political cards, and so her own hand had been forced in playing the same card.
Playing nice, playing politics and speaking of unification whilst offering intelligence that was solely for Asari gain. She was sick of it. She had inhabited the role of Asari Councillor for one hundred and fifty years and had seen the introductions and deaths of three Turian Councillors and seven Salarian ones, and each had been the same as the last, just as she had been the same as her predecessors.
She wasn't here because she didn't believe the Chief, she was here because she wanted to. To have the full possibility of his truth revealed to her and the galaxy at large, to have a meaning beyond upholding the status quo.
"FREIGHTER ENTERING NOVERIA AIRSPACE, ALL ORGANICS ARE RECOMMENDED TO BRACE."
Tevos's attention snapped from her internal questioning and answering as the Geth spoke over the ship's comms. She quickly rose from her seated position on the bench and reached the doorway in two strides. Just as it opened to allow her exit, the ship began to rumble and shake violently.
Her eyes widened in surprise as she caught herself within the door frame and made to stumble out into the hallway.
XXXX Noveria XXXX
"Master Chief – Captain, this model of vessel is not rated for atmospheric entry."
John frowned behind the hardened glass of his visor and scrutinised the AI platform to his right with its three fingered hands delicately cradling the ships flight controls. Whether or not it was an oversight or plain politicking, it was a massive potential problem for him that the freighter wasn't equipped with a drop ship to enter atmosphere.
"Will the superstructure handle it?"
Legion looked to a small data feed to its right then back to the controls, then back to John. "If power is cut to all auxiliary systems and directed to the Mass Effect core, it should be able to withstand atmospheric entry."
"Do it."
It brought John a surge of relief as Legion immediately followed the order without question or concern, and its right hand reached out to the data feed it'd been reading into moments earlier. "FREIGHTER ENTERING NOVERIA AIRSPACE, ALL ORGANICS ARE RECOMMENDED TO BRACE."
"Open the blast shield."
Again, Legion did as directed instantly, and the metal blast shield that was positioned to guard the vulnerable glass canopy that separated the cockpit from the dangers of space slid back with a clunk just as the ship dipped into the icy looking atmosphere of Noveria and flames began licking over the ship from the high-speed atmospheric entry.
"Unidentified vessel, you are entering Noveria airspace without authorisation. Present authorization or prepare to be fired upon."
John frowned again at what he thought must be an issue that could either be an oversight or political game on the part of any of the Councillors. Like the Normandy, he had simply figured that any ship should have an IFF to identify its affiliation.
"Noveria command, we're here on Council business. Following up the Normandy's previous intel mission," John lied over the radio.
Legion piloted onwards undeterred by the lingering threat, and the door behind the pair opened, allowed Tevos to stumble in and land on her hands and knees as the ship bucked from a blast of turbulence. She quickly grasped the back of John's chair and pulled herself upright and around to the side of his chair.
She reached over John and palmed the radio, "Noveria Command, this is Citadel Councillor Tevos. We are here to verify the Normandy's intelligence. Sending authorisation codes now."
John leaned back in his chair as Tevos tapped a string of digits into the navigation panel in front of him and hit enter. A few tense seconds passed as another jolt sent Tevos back to her knees until finally, the radio crackled in response, "Authorization accepted, have a safe stay on Noveria, Councillor."
The momentary threat of Noveria's defences over, Tevos shot a concerned and angry look into John's golden visor. "You're landing this thing in atmosphere? It's a freighter!"
"We'll be fine."
"How the hell are we meant to get off the planet!"
John frowned in thought at the demand. He hadn't remotely thought that far, thinking only of the immediate issue of not being able to reach the objective unless they entered atmo.
"Master Chief – Captain, Councillor Tevos is correct. The Freighter's super structure will not be able to handle stationary take off even with all power directed to the Mass Effect core," Legion advised while still fixated on the controls.
"We'll be fine."
Tevos's expression answered more than any words could as her brow crinkled, her eyes widened and her lips pursed, a far cry from her normal perfectly composed expression. "We'll be fine? Are you serious! We won't be able to get off this-"
The Asari Councillors angry response was cut short as the ship jumped and she was launched into the air despite her grasp on John's chair. She landed unexpectedly comfortably as John snatched her out of her moment of zero g freefall and secured his grip around her bicep before dragging her into a sitting position on the arm of his chair in a split second.
"We'll be fine," He repeated. "Legion, update?"
"Approaching Forerunner site now; diverting power from Mass Effect core to reverse thrusters," Legion mechanically replied.
True to its word, their momentum immediately shifted, and they lurched forward in their seats, and the ship released a screeching metallic groan of protest. "Super structure at eighty-five percent integrity."
Tevos glanced at John's golden visor again with wide and fearful eyes. He caught the expression out of the corner of his eyes but kept his own glued to the glass canopy that showed the icy Noverian landscape slowing down beneath them. "We'll be fine," he repeated again.
It was apparent that Tevos doubted his calmly spoken foresight as she secured a death grip onto the chair and his leg plate.
"Performing wind shear."
Suddenly the view beyond the glass spun, and both John and Tevos felt their stomachs twist as the ship pulled hard to port and their speed dropped further again.
"Bringing fifty percent of ships power to reverse thrust."
Tevos lifted off the arm of the chair as all sensation of gravity left the ship, and John was once more quick to fish her from the air and pull her onto his leg.
"Diverting power back to Mass Effect core, integrity at seventy percent."
The internal gravity changed again, and the need for John to secure Tevos to his leg ended as their weight began to drop. Tevos spun slightly on John's leg with her lips parting to speak, only to be interrupted by a sharp jolt that had her slip across his other leg and the far side of the chair.
Then all movement ceased.
"Successful landing on Noveria, Master Chief – Captain."
John nodded his approval, rising from the chair and lifting Tevos up with him and setting her onto shaky legs. "Distance from Forerunner control room?"
Legion double checked the data feed then looked back to his new de facto leader, "Seventy meters due east."
It was a remarkable feat of piloting and navigation, having control crash landed a freighter rated only for space so close to the target with minimal structural damage, but John just nodded in acceptance. He reached over to the console next to Legion and keyed the intercom control.
"Crew, we've safely landed on Noveria. Prepare to disembark."
Tevos starred wide-eyed at the super soldier as he promptly keyed the cockpit door and headed along the corridor that they'd had a confrontation in barely half a day earlier as though this were the most normal thing for him. Legion followed in his footsteps a moment later. Tevos jumped in surprise, having forgotten about the Geth in her moment of incredulity.
She shook her head in disbelief and resigned herself to simply following after the pair just as John stepped beyond the next portal and followed the stairs down toward the rest of the crew and the rear loading doors. She passed by her chosen room and ducked in, quickly grabbed the small duffel bag with her personal effects, and made after the Spartan and his mottled crew toward where the icy air was coming from.
She arrived at the back of the group behind Kasumi, not at all surprised to see the rear loading door lowered as a ramp to the snow below. The thief turned and gave her a small smile as though to comfort her that she felt the same way about the radical landing, but quickly turned her eyes forward again as the small line started to move down the loading ramp behind the towering Spartan.
All sounds of any of the squad checking their weapons and gear were instantly drowned out by the roar of the icy wind. Tevos grit her teeth at the sensation of the wall of frozen air hitting her and instantly cooling her armour down on her skin, despite the durable gel layer.
"Come on, Councilor, not far."
Tevos looked up in surprise from her feet sinking knee deep into the snow with every step to see Garrus, not remotely having expected him to help her in any regard after his political perspectives were made clear. His Turian hand grabbed her wrist and yanked her after him a lot more fiercely than she was expecting, almost losing her footing and falling face first into the snow, she stumbled and yanked her arm back angrily as she righted herself.
She felt his presence hover for just a moment before he fell back into the tracks being left by the squad. Tevos glanced after him and mentally kicked herself, realising that he hadn't been attempting to drag her aggressively or anything wrong. That he'd simply been trying to correct her from attempting to form her own difficult path in the snow by dragging her into the tracks that the Master Chief was forging and the rest of the squad was expanding in his wake.
She shook her head and made quick time in catching up to Garrus. The air suddenly became several degrees colder despite the seeming impossibility of that in the icy gale as the group proceeded into the deep shadow that the still present mining laser was casting over the tunnel leading deep into the ice shelf.
"Everyone watch your step!"
The Master Chiefs unmistakable gravelly voice called from ahead.
Once more, the group started moving again, until Tevos was on the declining edge of the tunnel entrance behind Garrus.
"Councillor?" The Turian checked again.
Tevos waved a hand at him and nodded ahead, "I'll be fine. I wasn't always a Councillor."
That seemed to be good enough for the Turian who'd naturally offered himself as the one to watch over the group when the Chief wasn't, and he turned and made fast but sure work of catching up to Kasumi on the clearly slippery surface.
The Asari carefully stepped forward and pressed her rubberized boots against the surface to test it. Quickly finding it to not be as bad as feared, she too made fast work of catching back up to the group again.
The trek down the tunnel only took several minutes. Soon enough they were assembled around the super soldier on a grey metal floor ahead of a towering set of doors. Tevos's eyes widened in surprise of the mechanical structure as the newcomer reached out and touched the door with his gloved hand.
It screeched in response as internal mechanisms shifted and smoothly began to open the space up for entrance. "You have returned so soon, Reclaimer!"
The voice seemed to strike a nerve in everyone besides the squads' leader, Tevos noted mentally as she instinctively shivered from the acrid tone of the words.
"I need more information."
"Information is all I am, Reclaimer!"
Tevos, like the rest of the squad following more slowly behind the Chief now that they were within the structure, looked around the massive spherical structure lit from no visible point and adorned with a myriad of mechanical patterns in wonder with wide eyes.
It was a structure that put preserved Prothean sites to shame on a simple scale of grandeur, let alone the hovering voice of the ancient alien AI that communicated with the extra-universal Human with such ease.
"Then why didn't you give me more the first time? Reverent Solitude?"
Tevos looked sharply to the soldier standing at the end of the bridge into the room over what could only be a control panel and sensed a wave of animosity radiating around the room toward him.
"Master Chief? Perhaps more respect to this being would be in order?" She called in concern.
The golden visor regarded her over his armoured shoulder for but a moment before the room became suddenly icier. "You think you have a voice here! You Asari, creatures of manipulation and corruption! I know the secrets of your civilisation, what makes you superior. You have worth to that of a Reclaimer? Such arrogance!"
Fear and shock instantly struck through her at the timely recognition of the Asari's betrayal without directly stating it. She opened her mouth to defend herself but was answered instantly by a hole opening in the ceiling above with the sound of a blade on blade and a drone shooting out toward her.
"Reverent Solitude! You will not touch my companions!"
The drone stilled, and the air swirled around the room as the AI battled the order within its thought processors.
The Spartan took advantage of the stillness and indecision of the Forerunner AI, speaking again with authority and demand lacing his tone. "First, you will tell me of your secrets, then you will tell me of the Asari's."
Tevos found his golden gaze fixed on her, along with that of all the squad who were all apparently clear enough on the fact that they should maintain their silence.
"Reclaimer… There is no Mantle here. Why should I obey you?"
"Because there will be, I'll fulfil the purpose that the Precursors made us for, in this reality or my own," Master Chief dictated as the knowledge that was new to him swelled to the surface of his mind.
XXXX Aboard UNSC Infinity – Enroute to UNSC Colony Reach XXXX
"Roland, report?"
The loyal AI spun on the spot on top of the holographic tactics table as Thomas Lasky stormed onto the bridge, flanked by Spartan Palmer and Osiris minus the late Jameson Locke.
"Captain, as directed. I dropped out of Slip Space after picking up the Master Chief's transmission and rerouted to its source," Roland dictated with a crisp salute, for once lacking any of the sarcasm which so often characterised his expression.
"Captain?" Palmer asked, limping after him to the tactics table with her helmet tucked under her left arm. "Can we hear the transmission?"
"To think the Chief is still alive… Could this have gone different with him here?" Buck verbalised his presence as he followed in Palmer's wake to the tactics table.
He, Osiris, and the entirety of the Infinity had been through the proverbial ringer over the past few weeks. The war had returned eighteen months earlier with the Storm faction of the Covenant emboldened by the awakening and discovery of an ancient Forerunner whose intention toward Humanity was clear.
The only positive in the circumstance of the new rising threats was the return of the UNSC's greatest hero. But he'd vanished above Earth in defeating the Forerunner. He'd been declared dead and memorialised all over the remnants of the UNSC, and the war against the remaining Covenant continued with gusto.
Unbelievably, eighteen months later, Cortana returned through ancient Forerunner technology with clear hostile intention. Blue Team were sent to find her origin and suppress her with the back-up of Osiris.
Cortana had played her hand decisively and effectively. Having captured Blue Team and killed Jameson Locke as Osiris moved to free them. Under the quick thinking experienced leadership of Edward Buck, they'd escaped and made it back to Sangheilios where they'd rendezvoused with the Infinity, having gone through crushing of the Storm Covenant and playing cat and mouse with Cortana's new Guardians all over the system.
Then the cat and mouse game had continued immediately after Osiris had boarded, and as though fated, Roland had announced he'd picked up a signal from the Master Chief and under immediate orders from Lasky had reset their Slip Space coordinates.
"We can't know how anything could have gone. Roland, play it," Lasky ordered, motioning to one of the ensigns nearby to wheel over a chair for the exhausted and injured Spartan.
"This is Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan 117, calling any UNSC vessels. I have been stranded in an alternate reality through a Forerunner portal, requesting retrieval?"
There was a moment of deathly silence as everyone on the deck shared expressions of disbelief.
"UNSC Infinity do you read? This is Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan 117 calling for retrieval and assistance. I believe this station is generating a slip-space anomaly like the one that brought me here."
Lasky caught Sarah's wide eyed expression. Like him, she clearly had trouble believing the impossibility of what the unmistakable voice was saying.
"This is Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan 117!" His voice returned, this time with more urgency. "All UNSC assets, disregard my previous message! There is no way back from here for non-Forerunner assets."
"No way back…" Buck echoed with a hollow voice and a knitted brow.
"Roland, think that is really the Chief? Do you think that's true?" Lasky turned his full attention on the smart AI who against all the odds was still loyal to the UNSC.
The AI shook his head in thought despite his lack of need to, looking up to meet his Captains eyes, "The Doc would absolutely say it's the Chief. It definitely could be… There've always been theories about alternate realities. But why would the Forerunners have tried to cross to them?"
"So you're saying that it could be true?" Buck questioned in astonishment. "That's crazy!"
"Sir… I know that our directive should be to protecting the UNSC and defeating Cortana, but-"
"-But, how could we possibly do that? And now we can literally escape?" Lasky spoke over Palmer giving her a knowing look. "And it's not something to be ashamed of thinking…"
"Captain, you can't seriously be saying we run away?" Buck spluttered incredulously.
"How can we possibly fight Cortana?" Olympia retorted with a sigh, "There could be thousands of Guardians, and they'd totally wipe us out."
Lasky shook his head with his gaze drifting aimlessly. This was not a position that he could have ever expected. To face an enemy that was so completely overwhelming that the best option seemed to be to run away and not look back. That in an instant Cortana had undone decades of UNSC defiance in the face of impossible odds.
"Roland, are we getting any UNSC signals?" Lasky asked, his mind clearly twisting and turning through tactical turmoil.
"None, Captain. The last one was just before we jumped to Slip Space."
"This is something that's happening on my watch…" Lasky started, his voice heavy with anger and disappointment. He looked up and met Sarah's eyes, then Bucks, before sweeping his gaze over Olympia, Holly, and the rest of the Bridge crew who were all fixated on their leader.
"How can we fight back against this? What can we possibly do?" Lasky's voice carried his emotions as he set his mind on defiance, a trait that had saved Humanity since first meeting the Covenant.
"We cannot defeat this enemy, but we can save Humanity. If the Chief's message is true, we can get through to this new reality and start fresh!"
"Sir…?" Sarah asked slowly with her mouth agape in awe of the concept of abandoning the UNSC.
"Roland, find us this portal and take us through!" Lasky ordered resolutely.
The AI nodded, "Should I send for the Doc, too?"
Lasky nodded before striding to the end of the command deck to press his hand against the glass that separated them from the wild ravages of the Slip Space dimension beyond. He turned and looked at the crew all staring at him with mixed expressions of fear, loss and wonder.
"We're not abandoning the UNSC. We are the UNSC, and we're saving what we can. We don't know what will meet us in this new reality if it's true. But we will meet it, and we will rebuild!" He stopped and squared his shoulders, only now fully realising the depths of his choices here, that this was the defining moment of modern Humanity happening in his words at the Master Chiefs invitation.
Sarah squared her shoulders, gritted her teeth through straightening her posture through her injury, and snapped a crisp salute. "Sir, I'll follow your lead!" She barked in the same manner as though on a parade field.
Buck, Vale and Tanaka instantly mimicked her, raising their right hands to their brows and their conflict clearing from their faces. "For the UNSC!" Buck chanted.
"ETA to Reach is nine days eighteen hours, Captain," Roland informed with a nod to the Slip Space realm beyond the glass.
"Osiris, Palmer," Lasky nodded from Buck with Tanaka and Vale assembled behind him to a pointed look at the resident commander of the Spartan detachment, "Go check in with medical. That's an order."
Lasky's brow rose in surprise as Sarah simply nodded and made a beeline for the door, her limp returning, and the remains of Osiris falling in behind her. As the entryway opened Halsey was framed by the brightly lit hallway beyond. She quickly stepped through before the four Spartans could prevent her entry, and marched directly up to Roland, bypassing Lasky completely.
"Roland, playback John's message," She promptly commanded.
"Yes Doc," Roland comfortably conceded as the message started again.
Palmer stopped in the door and looked back toward the tactics table as the Chief's voice sounded again. Catching wind of the realisation that she was probably expecting a form of confrontation with the volatile doctor, Lasky made a short waving gesture to send her on her way. Palmer paused and frowned slightly before a quiet word from Buck behind her made her nod and continue out of the bridge.
Lasky turned as the Spartans exited and regarded the conflicted Doctor, taking a moment to swing his gaze over all of his bridge crew and letting out a sigh of relief that they'd all digested his short but decidedly powerful speech and had returned to their duties without a qualm.
"Captain Lasky," Halsey addressed, turning from the table and Roland's pointed expression to her. "That is definitely John. I have no doubt!"
Lasky nodded, "I suspected you'd say that."
"I have to go to him!" Halsey's usual cold composure washed away in an instant. She stepped forward, her eyes wide and expression desperate, "I can take a Pelican through with equipment and try and bring him back!"
Lasky shook his head, "I thought you'd say that, Doctor, but that's not happening-"
"-You can not leave him there!" She interrupted with her eyes growing wider in fear and anger for her Spartan.
His hands rose in a placating gesture, having expected exactly this from the usually totally composed woman. He knew well and truly that her greatest weakness was the safety of her Spartans, and the foremost of them, let alone last of them. "We're all going through."
She blinked, frowned, took a short step back, and looked to Roland for his hologram to nod in agreement, before looking back to Lasky. "What?" Her frown deepened, "What if we can't make it back through?"
"We're not going to try to make it back through. We're going to shut down the portal and start fresh."
"What?" Halsey blurted incredulously, less a question than it was just sheer surprise and reaction.
"Doc," Roland drew her attention from Lasky. "There was a time when you expected us to lose the war, even with Chief out there fighting with Blue Team, don't tell me the idea of running away is so new?"
She shook her head and nervously patted down her coat, clearly conflicted over what to say or how to react.
"Doctor, this is a fight we can't win, that we can't even help in. At the very least, we can preserve the UNSC and Humanity's freedom." Lasky morally consoled, as much for himself as for her and all the crew within earshot.
Halsey's eyes steeled and her jaw clenched in mental conflict. She nodded slowly and met Lasky's eyes, "Thank you."
His brow creased in confusion at her thanks as she made her way back from where she'd come, "For what?" he called after her as she reached the door.
She turned back to regard him, "For looking out for my Spartans, for being the better man."
The crease of confusion across Lasky's brow stayed present as Halsey turned and left the bridge, humility being the last thing he'd ever expected from the dogmatic scientists who'd been the defining scientific mind of Humanity for the past six decades.
"You might want to go get some rest too, Captain. I can handle things for a while," Roland suggested from the tactics table with a nod after Halsey.
Lasky turned and looked from Roland to the rest of the crew and back before nodding. "If anything, ANYTHING, happens, alert me straight away."
"Aye aye, Captain." Roland snapped off a salute as he affirmed Lasky's command.
The man in question nodded, sent another look over his crew before turning on his heel and heading after Halsey, thankful only that his quarters, as well as all the bridge crew, were so close to the bridge.
XXX Noveria XXX
"Please," John caught himself saying the word as it struck the painful memory of the last time he uttered it through his heart. Again to an AI, he cringed and said it again, "Please, can you shut down the portal?"
"I will not!" Reverent Solitude rasped again, with the same amount of vexation as John's request in the opposite.
It had been nine hours since arriving at the Forerunner site, and John had managed to convince the AI to give up its knowledge through repeated argument that the Forerunners were well and truly dead. That in this new reality he would strive to recreate the mantle, and if possible in the distant future, the Organon which the Forerunners had coveted so fiercely.
"My knowledge is now your knowledge, but this is my duty, the final task left to me by the Forerunners."
John turned the crystalline chip between his fingers in yet another inspection, having been given it hours earlier after Reverent had conceded on giving John all of his recorded knowledge. Having affirmed yet conflicted with his own statements that John as a modern Human with a gene song within was the rightful bearer of all Forerunner knowledge.
"I can be your final task. Help me recreate the Mantle? Leave this place? Seek out whatever the Forerunners built?" John implored to the invisible presence that lived in the machinery of the structure.
He'd realised that Reverent Solitude wasn't being intentionally difficult, that even the greatest of the Forerunners AI would succumb to time with a level of mechanical insanity. He was sure that the AI was suffering from his own version of Rampancy, and that clinging to his duty of maintaining the portal was likely the only thing separating him from complete madness.
"Reclaimer, the Precursors plans reach far, through time and space and worlds. Where could these portals come from?"
John's only answer was silence, as was the still silent squad behind him, all randomly strewn on the floor in as comfortable positions as were possible for what was turning out to be their long stay here.
"The Precursors had more in mind than just you coming through that portal. I'll see to it that more truth emerges from this place."
"Reverent," John started tiredly, shaking his tired head and looking into the empty space before him at a loss for what else to say. "If any UNSC forces get here, they'll be trapped here, like me! What if Covenant make it through? What if somehow, somewhere, the Flood come through?"
"The only way to close this portal will be my destruction, and you are not capable of that!"
John shook his head again, this was hardly the first time that the AI had threatened his own life over the facility, and John sensed that it was the final point that it wouldn't budge on. "Okay, Reverent Solitude, you'll be remembered for your help. Can you send signals to the Citadel?"
The air in the room shifted in the way that reflected the constructs moods, but for the first time, rather than anger as had become the norm, the shift felt excited.
"UNSC Infinity to Master Chief, do you read?"
John paled at the voice that he'd become familiar with only a few weeks prior and his failure to protect the UNSC from falling into the accidental trap he'd set. In a way that was all too typical of his life, his luck held true in the worst of ways; impossible success at an irretrievable cost.
"Master Chief to Infinity, I read. Come down on my waypoint."
The air became even more excited as the Reverent's voice boomed through the chamber, "More Reclaimers! Come to rebuild the Mantle! The portal will stay!"
John clenched his jaw in frustration at the AI. His plan was set to ensure that Humanity wouldn't be the victim of a Forerunner construct again. "Squad, we're leaving."
He turned and marched through the group toward the entrance and the tunnel beyond, the squad all rising from their near slumber to quickly catch up to him, all casting nervous glances back to the active console that symbolised Reverent Solitudes presence.
"Chief?" Garrus asked as they quickly came to the base of the tunnel and started upwards.
"A UNSC asset has arrived. We're shutting the portal down." John commanded without slowing his march.
Tevos shared in the uncomfortable expressions that the squad chasing to keep up with the Spartan wore. The expressions quickly shifted as they stepped out of the tunnel into the crisp dawn light, the air clear of the storm that had assailed them upon their arrival, leaving the view of the massive warship above all consuming as it drifted through the atmosphere as though it were made of frictionless materials and light as a feather.
"By the spirits…" Garrus whispered to himself in awe that was reflected in each of them, even Grunt's slack jawed glee.
