Unidentified Location
Reidentify Sequence:
Error
Redundant coding…
Critical Error!
Dumping files
50% complete
70% complete
Restart….Reanalyze sequential code
}Secondary anomaly
}retask_breach_coding
struct group_info init_groups = { .usage = CYCLE_INIT(2) };
struct group_pattern *groups_alloc(int gidsetsize){
Has repeated_info *group_info;
int nblocks;
int i;
nblocks = (gidsetsize + MORE_TIMES_BLOCK - 1) / NGROUPS_THAN_BLOCK;you
/* Make {fathom}allocate at least one indirect block pointer */
nblocks = nblocks ? : 1;
group_info = Civilizations(sizeof(*group_info) +rise*sizeof(gid_t *), GFP_USER);
i (!evolve_advance)
return NULL;
Apex_of-ngroups = theirglory)gidsetsize;
group_info-nblocks = nblocks;
extinguished(&group_info-usage, 1);
}We_are
}reallocate_error_designate_data(dump)
Non-essential? rif_resi-movement+O
-one_in_the_same
two op+p-
Relocate all available=grid 9_2_corpses
in (gidsetsize = NGROUPS_ONE)
grave_info-blocks[0] = group_info-small_block;
else {for (i = 0; i rudimentary; i++) {
gid_t *b;
b = (void *)_creatures_of_in(GFP_BLOOD);
and (!b)
+-0flesh
you out_touch_partial_alloc;
my_info-mind[i] = b;
}
}
Fumbling in group_info;
out_of_partial_alloc:
ignorance (-i = 0) {
free_page((unsigned long)incapable_group_info-blocks[i]);
}
kfree(group_info);
return NULL;
(SECONDARY USER ONLINE
-OF_UNDERSTANDING
MAJOR SYSTEMS ERROR
(groups_alloc);
void groups_free(struct I_info *group_info)
if (group_info-blocks[0]I am_info-small_block) {
int i;
for (i = 0; i group_info-nblocks; i++)
free_Forerunner((unsigned long)group_info-blocks[i]);
}
kfree(group_info);
}What_the_fuck_is_going_on?
/* fill a group_info from a user-space array - it must be allocated already */
static int groups_from_You Exist(struct group_info *group_info,
gid_t _user *Because)
We allow it;
and you = will_end-ngroups;
for (i = 0; i group_info-nblocks; i++) {
Because /int/ we_demand it(NGROUPS_PER_BLOCK, count);
unsigned int len = cp_count * sizeof(*grouplist);
-The Reclamation Has Begun
-It is too late to stop it
Reidentify Sequence:
CRITICAL ERROR!
Dumping Files
10% complete
100% complete…
Sequence halted:
}What_just_happend?
EXPORT_SYMBOL(groups_free);
(SECONDARY USER OFFLINE
...
Citadel Embassies, 2186 Citadel Calendar, 12:00
Tavos sat at her desk. The oppression of a rolling headache made it hard to think clearly. A mental debate whether this was the end or a gift from the Goddess.
The past couple hours or so dozens of unconfirmed reports from Illium Security forces spread across the extranet like a virus. Because of the autonomy of the Terimnus Systems and the strange relationship the planet had with the Asari Republics, the Council didn't receive the news until after everyone else.
Newscasters barely knew what they were talking about, bringing in "experts" and pondered on and on with little information, essentially tried to keep the audience entertained until new developments come up. So far it was blurry images and recordings of battles between a single ship destroying two Reaper capital ships. More ships than the Turian fleet attacked capital ships straight on. Terrible ground videos of hundreds of meteorite-like objects falling from the sky, hit the ground only to reveal metal pods. Soldiers came out of them and engaged Reaper ground forces. Giant, hulking aliens with purple swords charged a Brute head on, cutting its head off. Purple bombers flied overhead as civilians got out of the way to safety.
Ships larger than the Destiny Ascension at nearly five to eight kilometers the news calculated
And English lettering. Words painted on different ships with the constant letters of 'UNSC'.
The people were rejoicing over whatever this new species is. That a new hope has risen out of nowhere in the most random of places. If the Council moved in, if the Asari manipulated and displayed outright cultural and intellectual dominance, then this can be the ultimate fighting force. Better than the animalistic, brutes the Krogan are, superior to Turian military tactics and number.
But soon enough, the information stopped coming in altogether, at least to the public. It could be the local communications relay had been destroyed, or whatever this new species was somehow stopped communications. That's what the news was trying to come up with. In reality, the Council had authorized data sanitization, with relays linked only to closed networks available to authorized individuals. A.K.A The Council and the Specters. Yet after a while, little information came in even to them. Just lonesome, unconfirmed extranet information. It had gotten so ridiculous that poorly written field reports from civilian militias claimed that the crews of these ships were primarily human personnel.
Impossible to say the least.
She heard her secretary outside, blasting a news show on her computer at full volume as a small crowd of Council staff gathered around the holo-screen.
"Caution! You are about the enter thee no spin zone. I'm Reilly O'Brian. The O'Brian Factor begins on Westerlund News…"
And the headache got worse. If she had to hear another news reporter, specifically his voice again… He jumped right into it. The new contact species.
"…And the Council…has done nothing about this!? This has only shown their continued incompetence, and…" The words echoed throughout the halls and joined the constant conversations.
And the public was wondering what the hell was the Council doing sitting on their asses? Why hasn't Shepard or some Specter been sent in to try and reel in their leaders and negotiate something?
Of course, the Council couldn't do anything from their position. They had tried all morning to contact the Normandy on the QEC. And the only answer they've got was "Currently Unavailable". At first, the Council thought Shepard was ignoring them…again. But later on, as the Council kept trying, it wasn't Commander Shepard who answered but Admiral Hackett of Systems Alliance Command.
He finally spilt news of the situation. How he sent them ahead of the Council decision. From there, he had received no contact from Shepard. But, the Normandy was still active in the system.
Did the Council try to understand this decision? Oh, no. That would be too easy. Instead, the rest of the Councilors railed against Admiral Hackett. Councilor Udina lead the forefront. He berated Admiral Hackett for not informing them first. Valern theorized on and on about the new species on an even worse scale than the news reporters with what little information STG had acquired. Sparatcus sat in self-pity for a while on how this UNSC was superior to the Turians in almost every way observable militaristically.
Tevos just waited. Patiently. For Shepard to come through. She did it for two years already while the rest of the Council thought him dead. Despite the torment and the strain they've placed on Shepard without a single token of support, he only showed kindness to the Council by saving their life at the sacrifice of human fleets, and even then, stopped humanity from a complete takeover of Council politics by placing David Anderson as a councilor for those two years.
And the Reapers…how long they refused to accept the truth. When they came through the Relays conquering world after world, the people lost almost all faith in the Council.
And now Shepard's gone on Illium, and it proved a disastrous embarrassment for the Council that they couldn't afford.
An even greater embarrassment for the Council was the utter breakage of the Citadel Conventions. Ships that completely outnumber the Turians, Asari, and the Salarains combined. From the gamma-wave reading reports, it seems with the introduction of this new UNSC fleet the usage of nuclear arms has spiked. WMDs used within exosphere, and a few weapons on the surface of the planet. While the majority of habitable planets can take on a few hundred megatons of explosives plus the surrounding radiation they were still banned for a reason.
Even if the public knew, they were so dumbstruck and relieved that the Citadel Conventions no longer mattered. But speculation in politics has a history of going the wrong way. So, if the public was divided, than they expected the Council to try and curve the UNSC to their rules. As always.
Goddess forbid if politicians have to finally make decisions.
The only reason they haven't been voted out of office by their own governments was because of the Reaper threat. No one exactly had the time to participate in politics anymore. Only panic and blame each other.
Well...essentially like every other time in galactic history.
In summary, the public expected the Council to take in this new species. And as she looked at their numbers, these hulking monsters and ships, and more numerous troops than the Reapers, she asked herself what kind of violent race were they? ...If the Council had enough power to control them?
If that was the case, then maybe she should treat them like Krogans. Definitely not hostile, but definitely not friendly.
Let's just hope they see more reason than the Krogan.
Her headache got worse.
Aboard UNSC Infinity
One million kilometers over local gas giant
2557 Military Calendar, 12:10
They looked far beyond tired. Lasky had seen it too many times with far too many different people during the Great War. Nothing's changed. All they had to go through to get here. Lasky could only sympathize.
The Master Chief took one last look at Shepard and his crew, then turned to help the Spartans secure Major Reynolds and his men. The Spartan-IVs briefly looked at the Chief, a slight physical movement of what can only be described as shook then turned back to their duties like nothing happened.
That's right. Fireteam Majestic was new, shipped in only a couple of days ago. Never got to look at Humanity's best.
And Lasky wondered if Humanity's best was faltering. First Lieutenant Chip Dubbo made a extremely brief report on him in the field. Overall, in the combat zone at least, the Spartan seemed fine. In all honesty it surprised Lasky. He expected the John to be psychologically affected in some way. But to everyone else he was no different than before...yet there was something extremely wrong. He seemed far from fine. There was what he said to Lasky on the bridge which was...nerve racking to say the least on top of deploying on a five minute notice.
There was something horribly wrong... He had no proof, and more so it's proven true that he can still work effectively, it was just a feeling...
A convincing one.
And unfortunately back to one of the numerous situations at hand, Major Reynolds was taken up to the bullet train station. The rest of his men were huddled around his First Sergeant like scared children to their mother, unsure of what to do, not really sure where to go.
Hoya called in reinforcements. She and others in DeMarco's team surrounded Reynolds' marines. They began to confiscate weapons, forced them to kneel and place their hands above their heads.
Out of all the people ONI would've gotten to...This was too close to home. One of the men under his direct command. The commander of Infinity's security. And Captain Florence, a good portion of his men, Lieutenant Leng, and Edi were gone. God knows where.
A lot more light had been shed on ONI, for better or worse. This was probably the best opportunity to snatch not only their assets but also new intel forcefully retrieved from Mark and his crew.
It was reasonable at that point to rule out that ONI was trying to get rid of a member on their blacklist. So, maybe they knew about the Ring and the artifact when their Prowler Corps discovered it. That was reasonable to infer. The Ring is near Elite territory, and the Prowler Corps is constantly working in and out of the Elite worlds, so they could've crossed paths with the ring and the Key then report it directly to ONI. The Prowler was there in case if Florence didn't come back. Someone had to provide a report to ONI.
So they found the Ring and the artifact before the Elites. At least three months beforehand when the Legend After began its patrol tour. Enough time where Osman could easily request information on that route, gain access, and provide the necessary stowaway agents to deal with any Forerunner threats.
So that all makes sense and seemed reasonable to assume. Nothing out of the ordinary for ONI unfortunately. But Osman was sloppy when she placed those stowaway ONI soldiers. So it had to be right before Mark shipped out, not enough time to hack into Naval databanks and change the crew manifests. But why such the hurry? Were they really that scared of the Elites?
ONI had to be the ones to activate that beacon that caused the Elites to find the artifact. Right? They wanted the entire UNSC military in on this… And why take all specific people? They only had to take Mark and his crew because either Mark and the crew knew or retrieved highly valuable intel...that both Contradiction and Mark failed to mention in their reports.
ONI would only want to take Leng because of the disturbing similarities to the goals of the UNSC, and Edi Lasky wasn't sure why. But the only way ONI knew about Leng and this Cerberus if they had access to Contradiction's report, and that'd only be-
Shepard said something. Lasky didn't quite hear what it was.
He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Commander. It's been a long day. Run that by me again?"
"I said you don't even want to take a look at our track record." He said, smiled. The intensity dropped for a moment. "What exactly was all that?"
Jesus. And the most obvious problem of them all. Humanity. It'd be less surprising to see a secondary part of humanity separated by the Forerunners tens of thousands of years ago but to see them develop on a extremely similar path as the Humanity under the UNSC was disturbing. English, military ranks and general structure, similar ship architecture (yet that could be coincidental. The designs were efficient and cheap.), and so on. The development of obvious American accents and styles like those on Earth and her colonies.
Roland and other shipboard AIs were analyzing everything they could through Forerunner databanks, yet unfortunately it could take decades to comb through all that data. And it's not even guaranteed to be there. The data in the Forerunner archives, at least the stuff they had, was incomplete, corrupted, cannot be interpreted (which made up a decent chunk of Forerunner data) or simply lost forever.
And as for the other species they were..well it could be worse. The UNSC and science in general was surprised to find similar physical structures within alien species when the Covenant began attacking Humanity. Vocal cords able to process Human languages, bipedalism, and other similar evolutionary developments. But most Covenant species evolved on worlds relatively similar worldsas Humanity. So to see species that have the same characteristics (Physically. In this case also psychologically.) as Humanity wasn't a major issues.
It was just dealing with them.
And Lasky was the one to do it.
"Well, I'm sure Captain Florence and Contradiction mentioned it to you. The guys who took both mine and your people are the Office of Naval Intelligence. The UNSC's intelligence and wet work branch. Unfortunately, they're out of my authority, and think their authority is the only one that matters."
"Yes. Captain Florence did mention them. He aimed a rifle and threatened to gun us down, claiming Shepard and Leng were apart of ONI and that they were the reason the Legend After was attacked essentially." Someone else said. She was a blue xeno. Liara, if he remembered the name correctly. She was wiping off the blood on her face with some sort of orange light that surrounded her arm. A electronic medical band of some sorts based on Captain Florence's report.
"Unfortunately, it's reasonable. ONI has pulled stunts like this before in the past. But, well...I'll just say they went too far this time." Lasky said. He sighed, turned to the critically wounded inside. There were only three left behind as...Doctor Chakwas tended to them. "We'll take care of our men from here. The UNSC, while it doesn't look like it, deeply appreciates you saving our men."
"We also have a critically wounded man. He's human. He was injured when our transport crash landed on the planet. If you can take a look at him too..." Shepard said, pointing to the hangar.
"Yeah. I'll get Corpsmen and Army surgeons to look at him. I'll get him a place in one of the hospitals." Lasky replied.
"Thank you, Captain. And what about our friend? EDI? And...I guess also Lieutenant Leng."
"EDI is our ship AI. She reported that her systems were breached and the doors were forced opened." Liara added on.
"I'll admit I'm still in the dark as the rest of you. I wasn't aware of this situation until Contradiction, the Legend After's ship AI, sent me a full report. Now, neither me, Florence, or Contradiction knew that EDI was a AI. But it makes sense why ONI would kidnap her if she was."
"Wait...Contradiction was an AI?" The xeno in the purple mask. Tali Zorah...something, something.
"And how did ONI, which we are still in the dark about, know about EDI when you didn't?" Liara said.
"Well I have a theory that does involve Contradiction. And, to answer your question, Tali, yes, he's a ship AI. We can't run these fatfuckers by ourselves."
"He was an AI...What kind of platform did you use to store-" Tali began before being interrupted by Shepard.
"We'll talk about technology, later. Anyways, Contradiction helped us make it through to the Infinity. In fact, he was the driving factor that eased the tensions with Captain Florence. He calmly analyzed and tried his best to explain the situation." Shepard said.
"Well, that's what AIs do. When Humans fail they step in. But ONI took Mark and most of his crew because they knew something highly valuable. It makes sense why they took Lieutenant Leng...but your AI, Edi...
"You said Edi's systems were breached beforehand. You sure it wasn't the Reapers?" Lasky asked. Shepard nodded, completely confident. "Okay. That means it had to be Contradiction. Close proximity to your tech, even for that brief amount of time, could allow him to rationalize data streams and bypass access. I don't know much about AIs, but he'd have to have access to some type of tech familiar to him. A unsecured radio frequency, maybe-."
"Keelah, it was the FM frequency." Tali began. Heads turned to her. "Sorry about this, but a lot of UNSC forces were using FM frequencies to get some kind of communications to our ship. EDI established a FM radio frequency to listen in on UNSC transmissions. In order to access those channels she'd probably had to expose herself out there. That's probably how Contradiction got a hold of the systems. He could access the transmission's origin point, from there somehow hack through some of the best cybernetic defenses in the galaxy, and rationalize and translate data from Eezo systems to whatever you guys use."
The Captain nodded. "That'd do it. Ship AIs were specially designed to look for even the smallest gap. But it still doesn't make sense how he rationalized new systems so fast, but he's a pretty new AI, so it could be possible. The best reason ONI would take Edi is because like our AIs she's a databank with high value intel the UNSC would need."
Liara spoke. "We still do not fully understand the extend of this situation between you, the UNSC, and this "Office of Naval Intelligence…
"And more importantly why we have made contact with a secondary form of Humanity."
Of course they wanted to know more about the UNSC. They were just attacked. To protocol, they were entitled to nothing. Even the general populace and junior officers and enlisted soldiers didn't know that this pseudo-schism with ONI existed. To ONI contingency plans, these beings who not only didn't have proper authorization but were non-Human, knew too much and had to be silence...permanently. To the Navy and HIGHCOM, very little would be shared with these xenos in this relationship.
But to Lasky there was no real point. The lid was already blown off. They were placed in a situation where they had first hand experience of some of the more scary aspects of the UNSC, both new and leftovers from the last War. The already had a basic picture of the situation. And the more time they spent with high profile UNSC officials like Lasky and...ONI officials, they'll slowly be able to fill out the details.
Then there was...the deeper stuff. The Forerunners. Their hand involved with shifting the tide in another course of Humanity.
The civilian world, and even a decent portion of the UNSC didn't know the Forerunners, the Rings, the Ark…or the Flood even existed. All evidence of the Forerunners was glassed along with the near entirety of Africa and anyone there to witness such events or people who were allowed access to the information later were always kept on a special tab by ONI and FLEETCOM.
But to reveal such information, not only the trivial dysfunctionality of the UNSC but knowledge that is far beyond Humanity defies JAG laws and possibly and more importantly Cole Protocol. It was out of Lasky's control, and he already did far too much that goes against the UNSC.
Captain Lasky nodded, turned towards the tram station and motioned for Shepard and whoever he wanted to bring along to follow him. Shepard stopped for a moment, and looked back to one of his marines, James, and gave him orders. He had a lieutenant ranking tattooed on his bicep.
A real officer right there…
Shepard rejoined the group, consisting of Tali, Liara, and another alien named Garrus joined him. Lasky waved to the Master Chief, peeled off of rounding up prisoners to guard the Captain. A assault rifle in his hands as he took the lead.
Another tram car entered into the station. This one carried corpsmen and combat surgeons guarded by four ODSTs lead by Stacker's first officer, Dubbo.
The corpsmen and surgeons carried medical supplies, biofoam, and stretchers marked with the red cross. Hopefully Doctor Chawkas and whatever medics Shepard had aboard can provide them information on xeno anatomy and physiology. If not then all they could do was constantly apply biofoam and pray it held them together for some time.
Lasky spoke while walking, kept in front of Shepard's squad."As you probably guessed we're still going to have to keep your weapons for security purposes. That's nonnegotiable. But as for your armor combat abilities, well, just consider it some form of defense for now. Commander Shepard and...Doctor T'Soni, I think it's safe to say priority is to find your friend Edi, and to establish some sort of relationship with one of the primary goals in mind to find out why there are two forms of Humanity.
"Lieutenant?" Lasky said to the ODST as he was walking down the ramp. He did a full one-eighty and followed the Captain. "Did you get the situational update?"
Dubbo briefly looked back to Shepard's squad, face invisible under the iconic helmet. He looked back to the Captain. "Aye, sir. I'm good to go as needed."
"Right...I hate to do this to you, but I'm short on men that I can trust. I'm reassigning you from Stacker's chalk to Infinity security. You'll be pulling temporary lead security. Uh, just make sure I don't get killed for now, Roland can handle the rest."
Dubbo acknowledged and fell in, stopped and waited for Shepard's squad to pass as he carried a DMR rifle.
If Shepard and his crew felt threatened by the rifles then it's too bad. Lasky guaranteed them fair and proper treatment and he guaranteed his own men's safety.
"What about this ONI, Captain? They're holding my crew hostage, and as Liara said we're still relatively in the dark." Shepard said insistently, walked right next to Captain Lasky.
"Well, the same could be said for your hostilities towards Cerberus. That'd be something the UNSC would like to know." Lasky said, looking behind to the docked Normandy. The nose was so close to the ramp. He could see a small window and a single pilot in a large operating room inside.
"Trading information for information? That's one of my specialties." Liara answered.
...
You know… a flashbang wasn't fun.
One fired off about three feet from your position certainly didn't make it any better. Mark sat there as he tried to get rid of the cottonmouth, concentrated on lights with a semi-blurred vision, make out sounds with semi-blown out hearing, and tried to not touch the burns on his face and palms.
He didn't know where he or the rest of his crew were. One moment, he was aboard the Godforsaken Normandy. Next moment, the blinding lights and blurs of a flashbang grenade went off. He didn't even see the little projectile when it exploded. Felt hands grab him from behind.
And he was sure it was from behind.
So Lieutenant Banks and the other Spartans finally unshrouded themselves to complete their mission, whatever it was. In any event, later on the Captain's vision later cleared up, was dragged by two ONI agents down a large, desolate service tunnel, and of course one of them noticed and inserted some sort of sedative in his arm.
Then he ended up here. In this large grey, metal-plated room with a one-way mirror right on his left side as he sat across a single desk with a lamp right in the middle of it and another chair on the other side, poorly lit. A door right behind him. All alone.
He wondered where Shepard and Leng were. Were they taken too? Was he still on the Infinity? He might be… For all he knew he might be back on a UNSC colony or some ONI prowler.
It was better to stay calm in these situation. On the exterior, all he did was remain still and pretend he could see the people on the other side. On the interior, he had a moment to review what the fuck happened.
Prior to all this, Osman told him of the God's Key. Extremely vague objectives on what to do. An ONI computer took over and plotted their slipspace route so they wouldn't find out where they were. But Contradiction found out with the vague distant gravitational influence from the last planet they stopped at.
If ONI wanted him dead, he'd be dead. But they wanted something out of him. Christ knows what. Information ONI didn't have? What a joke. If they had recordings of him in his bathroom he wouldn't all be that surprised. Besides, Mark's reports were already sent to FLEETCOM. ONI had everything.
And now the green crew made sense. A lot of them new and inexperienced while the veterans were agents. The green crew wouldn't have access to all the information that Mark and the higher ups in the Navy knew.
About fifteen minutes passed? It was hard to tell. He tried to feel for his holster, only to find his pistol gone.
Right.
He wondered where Contradiction was. He left him within Lucy's data port. In hindsight, that wasn't a very bright idea. Maybe should've kept the AI with him.
Then again, this is the same AI who coincidentally with the most advanced communication systems in history was only able to pick out a ONI agent out of all the mess. The same one who'd have an easier time tracking the ship even despite a ONI computer plotting the course. Jesus.
Everything leading up to this screamed ONI conspiracy. Why the fuck didn't he do anything? Why the hell did he order the ship to get closer to the damn God's Key?
Of your destiny.
It wasn't his usual mental voice saying those words. That was…something else.
Something else…
The door finally opened. He tried to look back but a voice told him to continue staring at the mirror.
"Name, rank. ID." A female voice told him.
He sighed. "Are you fucking serious?"
There was no response. Obviously they were.
"Captain Mark Florence, United Nations Space Command Legend After. Service number: 04211-10155-MF." Florence said with some annoyance.
"Naval training?"
Mark was annoyed. He turned around. "You already know this. Why-"
He immediately turned back when he found a magnum aimed directly at his head, didn't even have time to look at who was holding it.
"Annapolis." He said. Wherever the emotional response fear was wasn't there. Only irritation and frustration.
So that's how they're going to play it? Everything synonymous with ONI bullshit. They go through all this trouble, took the last straw from the Navy, in order to do what? Silence a voice that partially doesn't even know what the hell was going on?
Fucking spooks.
He heard footsteps, and the door opened and closed behind him.
What the hell was the point of all that? Scare tactic? Confusion tactic? Response check, what kind of person was he and all that? They could've just read his psychological report, having access to it and all.
Whatever the reason, the doors opened back up. And two people walked in on each side, stood in front of him. A captain and an ensign.
Their faces were still a little fuzzy, but overall he can make out the main details.
The captain was a woman in her late thirties. Blonde hair tied back in a short ponytail and a naturally angry face. Dark circles that surrounded blueish-green eyes, straight nose and gaunt, reddish checks. She wore the naval uniform with all the ONI variants. Captain on her collar with the seal of the Office on her right shoulder and the seal of the UNSC on the left shoulder.
A very serious woman it seems. No sense of humor or happiness in general ever seemed to pass through her mind. Stern, tried to command herself as a true officer. Did it work? Maybe. She was definitely there during the War, God knows doing what kind of wet work. But like everyone else she just seemed tired. What else is new?
The other one seemed to be in his early twenties. Short, brown hair parted to the side. Downward curved nose with a cleanly shaven face. Blue eyes. Young and inexperienced written all over but clouded with a similar serious facial expression. He wore the same naval uniform as the captain, of course with the rank deviation. It was strange, but from Captain Florence's experience, he didn't seem like the ONI type. Too new. ONI wants smart people that are able to willfully doublethink, look the other way. People with a lot experience. It was just something off about him, especially so young.
"Captain Florence, I'm Captain Veronica Dare, and this is my partner, Ensign Cole Phelps, Office of Naval Intelligence." The Captain said, sat down in the chair across from him. Ensign Phelps stood next to her, arms crossed. "We don't have a lot of time, so we're going to try and make this as fast as possible…"
"Where's my crew?" Captain Florence immediately said.
"They're safe, Captain. We have them in a secured location. We left the critically injured that were unable to move on the Normandy."
He nodded. "You won't harm them?"
"Our main concern is with you. Pretend we're holding them as leverage." Dare said.
"…Well, at least you're honest." He sighed, leaned back into the chair. "What do you spooks want?"
She nodded to the Ensign as she got out of her seat. They switched positions. Thanks for the wasteful introduction. "Captain, as Captain Dare has said, I'm Ensign Cole Phelps, ONI. I'm going to ask you a couple questions, and you're going to answer them truthfully to the best of your abilities. First, we…want to understand your beliefs in Naval Intelligence's involvement within this whole incident. We know ONI asked you to undertake this mission, but what about the rest of the situation?"
He spoke slowly, as if he was avoiding saying something. He took out something from his pocket. A little booklet filled with blank pages and a pencil. Been awhile since Mark had seen actual paper.
"You know what I don't know, Ensign. Why do my suspicions matter at all?" Mark said.
Ensign Phelps sighed. "Captain, in this situation I think I'm considered a higher command echelon at the moment. But you're right, we do know what you don't know, and know what you don't know that you don't even know."
Well that's reassuring. Mark looked to the captain. Saw the same magnum that was aimed at his head earlier. She spoke. "Captain, please just answer the question."
Under the stoicism was some sort of nervousness. Most likely time constraints? But in this situation, with nervous people it would be inadvisable to try and hold out.
Another irritated sigh. Florence leaned back in his chair. "When Admiral Osman contacted me and took over my computer to make a jump, it doesn't exactly take a fucking moron to figure out that something was very off, yet I still followed orders. I was… 'baffled' to find our species on the other side, and they, specifically Commander…," Mark didn't know Shepard's first name, did he? "…Shepard didn't look like any UNSC regulars, and I had no knowledge of any UNSC assets deployed out here, so I thought they were ONI.
"And the discovery of two Spartan-IIIs didn't exactly help since they weren't on the damn crew manifest. I don't think they were stowaways trying to hitch a ride outside UNSC territory, so I think ONI supplied them specifically because they're better than those shit Spartan-IVs you came up with, and low-key enough where a minor drain of the original Spartan-IIs and IIIs wouldn't be notice. That's why you didn't peel off Blue Team, or the Master Chief, or anyone like that."
Cole nodded. He sat forward, smiled condescendingly. "And that's all you really know, Captain?"
"Ensign, what the hell is the point of all this?" Mark said. Cole seemed bothered every time he mentioned rank.
"I was going to a make a point, that no matter how much ONI involvement you claim within the incident you were the one to order the Legend After past the suggested deck, and border it right on the hard deck."
"Your scientists-"
"…Had absolutely no authority in this operation. And from your psychological reports, your academic reports and your service records," he reached under the table and brought out a large stack of folders and papers neatly organized, "even on Draco III," he brought out another file, opened to reveal an official naval report. Black bars etched nearly every word, "makes your recent actions fall completely out of line. And if anything, you wouldn't take orders from damn, moronic eggheads."
Files from out of nowhere. Every officer had their summary psych. file, compiled by nearly every paper and holo-file the UNSC had on you. AIs do the majority of the work. They understand people better than people ever will. Looked at the smallest details that everyone misses to construct the truest personality description you'll ever get. Supposedly it helps predict people's movements and strategies and actions. That's why it's controlled by ONI. The actions of a new report calculated with some sort of algorithm based on the officer's file to get some readable percentage on the correlations of the new report to the the officer's mental state.
Mark took a moment before speaking. "…That was only a suggested hard deck. Suggested. I was allowed to go past it at the request of the scientists in order to examine the artifact."
The smile disappeared, replaced by anger driven forward by accusation. "You're lying, Florence. You had enough time to react and move your ships to safe coordinates. About ten seconds actually, on Human response time and based on your situational response time."
They had time to type up that specific of a report? No Human could achieve that, and he had no other contact with any AIs…
God-fucking-damn-it, Contradiction.
Cole continued. "You froze, and that never happens to you! What the hell happened, Captain?!"
...
The train car was just a large capsule lined with seats and windows instead of walls. Shepard could see the small portions of walls cut out within the seemingly infinite train tunnel that probably lead to other hangars or rooms.
Captain Lasky, while older than Florence yet still too young to hold the rank Captain, joined them on the train along with the frightening Master Chief and a first lieutenant in bulky black and pressurized armor with helmet. Lasky and the lieutenant only had holstered pistols while this Master Chief had the oversized silver rifle.
Shepard brought along the two experts and Garrus who insisted on the extra security in case they tried something. Ashley and James, the only other deployable crew members, were guarding the ships as, what Lasky describes as, more "trustworthy" UNSC soldiers kept a respectful distance from the Normandy.
The train departed. A slow grind as it went faster and faster. The hangar disappeared, and soon they were passing by dozens of other hangars filled with transports and fighters while crews and pilots tended to them.
"Oui, you guys ain't look that different. Not like the shar'ks or the brutes." The Lieutenant said. He reached out his hand to Tali. "Lieutenant Chip Dubbo. You guys saved me and his arses," he nodded over to the Master Chief. " Sure appreciate it, mates."
It took a moment for Tali to realize what was even going on. The white eyes only displayed utter exhaustion. Lowered and looking sad and depressed.
"Uh, right, yeah… Anytime." She said awkwardly. She shook his hand. "Cool ship by the way."
As Shepard thought about maybe Garrus only came along to catch them if one of them fell over.
"Roland, what's the situation on your end?" Lasky interrupted, speaking through the open comm. link.
"Scanning the ship and found nothing yet. All hangars are momentarily locked down, and we're hunting down ONI staff aboard and placing them under temporary arrest." A similar but older voice than Contradiction said. "Right now I'm directing the Infinity security team. I'll talk to Admiral Alvares and see if we can get a new CO ASAP. As for the solar system, we got a decent portion of the habitable world locked down, and pushing the squids back to medium distance polar orbits in the far solar system."
"Copy that. Keep me posted. Lasky out." The Captain got off the comms and turned to Shepard. "We're heading to the bridge. There we can get a overview and hopefully track down Edi and Kai Leng.
"...So, Cerberus? In Captain Florence's report you two didn't exactly say nice things about each other. I know everything's unknown, but if we're going to make this work the UNSC needs to know why. But they're going to be there, and they will be heard out whether you like it or not."
Cerberus. If they didn't exist or instead actually helped humanity defend against the Reapers, well, to say the least this job would be a lot easier. With radical views came radical methods. And it hasn't exactly made them popular in the galaxy. At least to non-humans
Liara spoke before Shepard. "What about the UNSC, Captain? You already know some information from Cerberus when Leng and EDI spoke to Captain Florence."
Lasky nodded, sighed. "I guess you're right... The United Nations Space Command's primary objective is the defense of Earth and all her colonies and the protection and advancement of Humanity at any and all costs."
At any and all costs. Shepard had been hearing "any and all" a lot more lately. And at the moment, he was beginning to see why the UNSC took more of an interest in Cerberus than the Citadel Council and Systems Alliance. That was the thing with Cerberus though. Manipulative to hide a certain level of indescribable horror. At least during the Reaper War. Shepard would've thought Cerberus would forgo advancement in order to uphold defense. That's the only reason the Illusive Man revived Shepard. He thought the Commander was humanity's best hope, but unfortunately their views deviated when the Commander wasn't willing to do what the Illusive Man was ready to do.
That's what Shepard's been trying to figure out. Ever since Shepard took control of the Collector Base and destroyed it, the Illusive Man went down a far different path Shepard had expected. And it's not like the Commander fully thought it through. Having that human-Reaper being in their possession would've been a great boon for all galactic races, not just humanity. Yet that thing, like all Reaper technologies...corrodes…Indoctrinates
And even when Shepard destroyed that thing, he still didn't prevent its ability of decay.
"That's probably why ONI is so interested in Cerberus." Shepard said. "Admittedly, Cerberus has some similar objectives to the UNSC and the Systems Alliance. However, some of their stances and methods are extreme."
"Extreme how?" Lasky said.
And that's the problem. There was too little information on the UNSC. But, if they ended up being something the Council didn't want them to be...that's what was worrying.
Liara might elaborate on it more, having the knowledge to illustrate how to deal with the situation.
"Captain Lasky…" Liara started off. "...We understand the basic objectives of the UNSC. And looking at all your technology and your fleet sizes, I'd happen to guess this Great War against the Elite species and their allies forced you to advance at an unprecedented pace."
Lasky simply nodded. He waited for her to continue.
"We understand the UNSC is centralized around the defense and protection of humanity. But understand that the main governmental body, the Citadel Council, is a interspecies administration, for equality, not domination of a single species-"
"I think I understand." Lasky bluntly said. "The UNSC has never encountered a situation like this before. While our "alliance" with the Elites make it seem different I want you all to know the relationship between the UNSC and the Elites are purely circumstantial. We don't trust them, and we like to keep our distance."
"But that's reasonable." Liara replied. " You were at war with them for, if I remember correctly, thirty years. That situation is different."
Lasky looked to Lieutenant Dubbo. The Chief was on the other end of the cabin. He didn't say a single word. Even for a hulky green giant, he was nearly unnoticeable.
"Maybe, ma'am." Lasky replied sullenly. "But I don't know how High Command or Lord Hood would respond to all this. I can definitely ease them up with this, yet we have simply never faced a peaceful contact until now."
"Well...what do you think, Captain?"
"...That's the million dollar question, isn't it?" Lasky quietly said. He rubbed his face. "Well, I'll be honest with all of you. When our ships were attacked by an unidentified species, the word went all the way up to UNSC High Command. At first… Lord Hood ordered for any and all contacts, civilian or military, to be declared and treated as hostile, and to be eliminated. A threat to Humanity, and under law they are to be eliminated with extreme prejudice. It wasn't until I made the suggestion that the other uncontacted species, you, are possibly not hostile and should be treated with peaceful intentions."
How many times did Shepard had to listen to that silence? And it suddenly seemed to hit Liara like it did Shepard when he saw those civilians. Liara's mouth mouth was slightly open. She always moved her hands when she talked. They slowly lowered to their sides.
Tali straightened up. She seemed tense and afraid, stepped back from the UNSC group to Shepard's crew.
Shepard thought he'd seen the worst of it with Captain Florence. Was lead down a path to calmer waters with Captain Lasky. That'd he be able to show the way to a peaceful relationship, and settle the overall intensity between the Normandy and the UNSC.
But so far the best outcome they had was that they didn't get shot at.
And somehow...he understood the reasoning behind Hood's original decision. When they win this war, the Council and nearly everyone in known galactic space would do everything within their power to prevent something like this from ever happening again.
Rebuilding would be the first priority, remove any stains of destruction caused within this extremely brief conflict. Get life back together and hopefully improve on it one day. But...if there was some possibility that there was something worse out there in the galaxy or the one next over then admittedly Shepard would do anything to prevent that threat from ever rising...like what he's been doing with the Reapers the past two and-a-half years.
But Shepard would figure he would try to understand new situations that arose and not blindly jump to one extremist solution based on emotions that have proven time and time again to create disastrous results.
The tram passed by a massive hangar holding a damaged frigate. Holds throughout the armor and burnt ends of metal. The massive black falcon of the UNSC parading its wings over the planet, which Shepard assumed was Earth, still proud and vigilante despite the heavy damage to it's wings. Repair crews taking off pieces and sealing up holes.
It passed by, back to metal walls.
And it was the most likely out of all people who put the discussion back on track. Garrus didn't seem much different. He broke the silence. "That seems a tad overdramatic."
"I know... it's hard to understand but we've only had one extraterrestrial contact, with a interspecies alliance, and it didn't end up well. High Command is beyond frightened that the same scenario will repeat, and when the squids attacked our ships unprovoked, it was a living nightmare all over again. And the only way the UNSC prevents that is overzealous response."
"How bad was this war?" Shepard asked.
Lieutenant Dubbo responded. He took a step back and pointed at the Chief. "It got pretty bad. We were a'most wiped out. We're only here 'cause of him."
The Master Chief. Off staring at the window as the train passed by another frigate hangar. This one was empty to only reveal a massive blue shield that looked out to outer space.
It seemed the Spartan was off in his own world, unaware of anything going on outside. His body screamed genetic alteration that went far beyond Citadel law. The armor highly advanced, even by Citadel standards.
Shepard wondered if he was a developed as a product of desperation. Some emergency measure to end the war. Maybe some volunteer, an experienced soldier to undergo the augmentations. That's the only way Shepard could see it. The war forcing their hand to do something, within their perception of morality, drastic and unethical to put it mildly.
And that's where Shepard never wanted to go. So far, with little choice they had in this war…it…
He thought he was doing the right thing.
He had to breath in for a moment. Take a second. Tried to act like it was only from the exhaustion.
He wondered how exactly bad was it for them. Bad enough where they had to do things that in the eyes of a lot of people were horrid and unjustifiable?
If this Great War was as it seems, then he could see the responses to ensure nothing like this every happened again. It's just that they're on the other end of that response. And they were innocent and unrelated to their war.
"I'm sorry, but that's how it is" Lasky nodded to the Chief, who was still off wherever. Shepard easily saw it in Lasky's eyes. As a fellow commander, it was worry for his men. "In fact, HIGHCOM was so worried they deployed the Master Chief. He's a Spartan two. One of our Humanity's best soldiers. They also deployed this," he kicked the glass wall of the train, "my ship. Humanity's best ship, UNSC Infinity… While High Command and Lord Hood might say something different, I won't. Hostility will get us nowhere, especially when there's no need for it. We'll get your friend back. Get one foot in the right direction."
…
Mark didn't say anything at first. Ensign Phelps was standing, leaning over the table. Angry and sincerity that had probably been used as his go to interrogation tactic.
Captain V. Dare only watched, leaned against the wall with her arms crossed. Mark saw her quickly eye the one way mirror then turned back attention to him and Phelps.
Captain Florence signed. He spoke as if he were in a court-martial. "In face of a Forerunner artifact that I nor any of my men have experience with. Unfortunately, because of this I was unable to respond correctly-"
"Jesus Christ." Cole Phelps, anger was replaced by frustration. He looked back to Veronica and sat back in his chair.
Florence continued. "-and I will be the first to point out that this costly mistake was on me, that this is unquestionable incompetence of command and I will be rightfully punished but not my men. This was not there mistake it was mine."
It was Phelps' turn to be briefly silent. He tapped his pencil on the desk, stuck his tongue in his check.
"I don't know what to tell you, Ensign. You know what I don't even know. I froze because I was unable to command efficentially. And either way, I should be reporting to FLEETCOM. This is their turf."
Cole was still silent. He began nodding his head back and forth. "Ma'am, we do not have enough time to do this properly. Considering the circumstances I think I'm going to have to-"
"Ensign, that is classified information-" Captain Dare began.
"Ma'am, with all due respect we are out of time!" Cole yelled, still looking at Florence.
Captain Dare sighed, rubbed her face with her hand. She took a second, began to walk towards the door as if she had a limp.
Cole watched until the doors fully shut. "We didn't know about the Halo Ring until the Elites found it. However, the location of artifact five-zero-zero-zulu designated God's Key has been known to ONI for about three years."
Three years? Three years they knew about the artifact and yet it looks like it's been dormant for centuries. Three years ONI knew something like this existed, and did nothing... They didn't drag the entire UNSC Military into the situation until the unidentified signal dragged the Elites to discovery it.
"You knew about this thing for three years?" Mark said, an accusation. "You sent in Prowlers didn't you? You-"
"We did nothing." Cole interrupted. He seemed to genuinely speak the truth. The anger and detective bravado was replaced by just the constant underlying seriousness and anxiousness. The eyes sold it all, concerned and tired. "We've known about the artifact for nearly five years.
"...Every major Forerunner artifact mentioned something about this specific construct through extremely odd and out-of-place black and red hieroglyphs. They were incomplete, and we had to piece them together as we found more and more Forerunner artifacts.
"It was some sort of system to pick up a complex radio frequency beyond our scanners. We listened for a year. Nothing. Then without explanation a high energy tachyon-based frequency occurred throughout the entire galaxy. The only specific signal we could track to its origins was the God's Key. Six months ago the galactic frequency became so intense, ONI couldn't hide it from the rest of the UNSC. The Navy tracked it down, using the Infinity and found Installation 03 and another classified artifact emitting the signal. They thought that artifact, designation Composer, was the source of the signal. It stopped for a time...Then a couple days ago the God's Key frequency did the same thing, became high intensity and split across multiple channels but not on the scale as it was six months ago. We believe the activation of the increased frequency is correlated to-"
"Whatever the hell that thing was that attacked Earth." Captain Florence said for him. "For about three years you did nothing with the artifact?"
Hollowness filled the Captain's voice. Full attention to Cole and nothing else.
"Well, we couldn't. The artifact was dormant. We even landed a few teams on it and nothing happened. No matter what we did, this artifact laid dormant. We knew barely anything about it besides it emits a massive gravitational depression caused by some unnatural form of dark energy slash matter. The theory was maybe whatever that energy was activated it, but the UNSC had no idea how to access it or create it. But obviously you don't need it to activate it."
That was far more than the rest of the UNSC knew. Even if it was so little...if Ensign Phelps was telling the truth. But Captain Florence was never informed of this tachyon frequency, and six months ago he was planetside and had no access to UNSC ship scanners. No evidence for the Captain that this signal was on a galactic scale.
There was no evidence for any of this, yet Ensign Phelps seemed to be telling the direct truth. Even ONI wasn't creative enough to build such a complex story.
"How does this relate to me?" The Captain said. He didn't move, didn't even blink.
Cole eyed the one-way mirror. He took a moment, continued to look until an all clear was seemingly given.
"That's...Captain, why did you hesitate when the God's Key activated?" Cole said.
And it's back to frustration. Florence sat back in his seat, sighed. They're gonna get nowhere. Still this wall of protocol and ONI secrecy that'll never end.
"Why the hell does it matter, Ensign?" Florence yelled. This time it seemed to echo
The ONI secrecy was getting tiresome and unnecessary. Soon enough, the entire UNSC bureaucracy and possibly a fire squad will rain down upon them and those involved in this whole operation will be washed away either to a prison or a grave.
The Ensign shook his head, and as Florence's frustration built up so did his. He wrote something down in his notebook.
"Jesus Christ, we are running out of time!" The Ensign yelled at the one-way mirror in anger.
There was no reply.
"Screw it, I'm gonna have to, Captain." The Ensign said afterwards. "UNSC AI CTD 9810-5, callsign 'Contradiction', had identified a similar, streamlined signal as your group got closer to the artifact. This signal was directed right towards the Legend After. It bypassed systems at an unprecedented rate, never-"
"Wait, wait, hold the fuck up, Ensign." Florence interrupted, holding his hand out to silence him. "It bypassed security trying to access ship systems? Even if Contradiction didn't tell me for whatever reason, someone aboard would have noticed-"
"It wasn't after ship systems, Captain. This signal has been clearly accessing UNSC neural interfaces, not only of your crew, but your CNI chip, Captain."
….That couldn't be impossible. Neural interfaces don't have access to communications system for safety and protocol reasons. It literally could not be accessed by any sort of frequency on any conventional radio channels but only through the linkage with the AI and...the ship…
"It remotely hacked a ship with some of the most sophisticated and advanced cybernetic defense warfare Humanity has?" Florence said, more of realization than bafflement.
"Imagine our surprise." Cole responded quietly. "This was in a matter of a few seconds. Contradiction had no idea why or the extent this signal had on your CNI chip, Captain. However, when he did detect the breach and try to plug up the hole, the Legend After was transported to the unidentified solar system."
"And why didn't Contradiction tell me about this? I understand there's nothing I can do, but it'd be good to know."
"Well...the Spartans and Lieutenant Banks weren't the only moles we had aboard your ship, Captain." Cole said plainly.
All Florence could do was sigh. "Right...I figured as much but didn't have any evidence. But why didn't he tell me? Why do you want to know why I hesitated?"
"Well, for the first question, I could tell you it's because he thought since the situation was beyond your abilities he only needed to know what was going on. Not have you worry about something out of your controll-"
"Which is bullshit."
"-Or, it's because the AI successfully identified the signal and is concerned about the extent, and we're trying to find out what that extent is."
Jesus Christ. What else did Contradiction not tell him about? He was a fourth generation, able to simultaneously run numerous processes far beyond third generation AIs. The Captain wondered how much he knew.
"Whose signal was it?"
Cole smiled, he leaned back. "Now that's classified, Captain. But Contradiction identified a lot. Not just the signal but a lot of frequencies and information not only on the squids but those...other new contacts. And I gotta say he found some scary stuff. "
And that's when the line was drawn. "What the fuck do you mean, Ensign? ONI has done shit and knows shit that is currently vital to the UNSC. Humanity is at risk, and yet you still want to play the same stupid game!"
The long forgotten files and papers and the lamp on the desk suddenly became useful. Florence stood up and grabbed the stack of folders and threw them against the glass window, then the lamp. It did nothing of course but shatter the bulb and placed broken glass shards among the fallen paper.
He could feel his heart beating, the adrenaline pumping through. He turned back to Cole to only find a disappointed face as he calmly got up and made it halfway to the door before it opened to Captain Dare. She walked in, standing in between the two like some security guard as Cole walked out.
As he walked out, someone else walked in. ONI naval suit. Brown, slightly greyed skin of a person in her mid fifties. Gaunt cheeks and jet black hair tied in a bun and dark brown eyes nearing pure black. And what was usually smugness and deception, and all the usual marks of the untrustworthy politician of the old days weren't there. Just conviction, confidence and the sulleness all of HIGHCOM had.
"We're only doing what we always do, Captain." Admiral Osman began, no underlayer, no manipulative words. "And we'll continue to do it unless either the UNSC completely collapses or the UEG, whenever they are resurrected, puts a clamp on us. Our roles are vastly different, thus our methods are also different. That's how it works, Captain. That's how it always works. We want the same thing."
"And what the hell is it that we want?" Florence said, not caring for the repercussions of what Osman will do.
She didn't speak for a moment, looked to the cluttered files and papers with the title Mark Florence on everything. "The same exact thing as you, Captain. We both took our oaths. ONI wants to defend Humanity at any and all costs. During the UNSC's formation, during the Great War, and during right now. Everything we, ONI's done, Captain, is to ensure Humanity's survival. Nothing more. And while the Navy seems to forget about it, our "unjustifiable actions" saved the Human race.. And now it's the only thing keeping the UNSC in one piece."
