Halo: Reclaimer
Chapter 10
Unknowns
Cortana spends a few moments trying to figure out what is going on. She stops for a moment and flashes red.
"I can do this." She says to herself resuming her task. Black Four and Three join them having had made the trip up to the control room.
"So what's going on!? What was that back there!?" Victor says entering the room complaining about the events that ended the battle and followed.
Cortana flashes red as she tries to keep the ship from standing out as to not draw any more attention to them. "But how!?" She says in surprise.
"Is that AI alright?" Victor asks. "It's not malfunctioning is it?"
"IM NOT MALFUNCTIONING!" Cortana snaps before trying to concentrate on finding out where they are. She is still blinking between red and her normal blue coloration.
"Looks like you are to me." Victor says under his breath.
"Stop trying to pick a fight with a machine. If it wants to strobe light it can strobe light." Otto replies trying to end the conversation between the two.
"I'm not malfunctioning, not now, I'm not." Cortana says to herself trying to stay blue while conducting her search. "OK got it!"
Chief and the others take a moment to rearm themselves and relax in the control room. Chief sits in the shipmaster's chair as black team finds various places to sit.
"These covenant call themselves Storm. It's true that Chief helped with ending the war. These Storm covenant don't appear to be like the covenant we've fought in the past. From what I gather they're allied with some insurrectionist group and are trying to find whatever this Devil Titan thing is."
"Insurrectionist? What are rebels doing here?" Otto ask
"Helping Storm for some reason. Speaking of Storm Covenant, they are occasionally speaking a dialect that I don't have a database to translate. Covenant speak a common language so this is odd. But what is the most odd is that I've been picking up conversations about units called Yonet and Sharquoi. They may be like the Huragok that the covenant use it that they are maintenance workers or who know we may have new things to shoot at."
"Huragok? Oh the Engineers." Roma says after taking a moment to remember that the large gas filled sacks with tentacles that they encountered on prior missions were called. "Those are biological computers. Sometimes the covenant rigs them to emit shields to their units. I remember those but the Yonet and Shar-thing never heard of those."
"Might be since we only encountered elites and grunts. They might be trying to bolster their ranks. My question is why we haven't seen these things before. I mean that would be some nice tactical info if we knew how they fought or anything really." Otto says
"It's likely that they were positioned in non combat roles. When Chief and I invaded High Charity, the covenant capital, I heard them referenced but nothing else. But that aside we are still stuck due to gravity wells on the planet. We don't have the fire power to deal with these." Cortana says blinking red halfway through the conversation.
"You don't think that they're after the flood do you?" Chief remarks knowing their relation to the Ark.
"No, Covenant is smart enough not to mess with that. And they would have called it the parasite if they were. They're after something else. It doesn't look like the covenant knows what to call it. These Titan Devils are either a weapon or some sort of deity from how they are talking about them."
"What do you mean? Is it alive or what?" Victor ask
"Can't say for sure. But I've located a place where they're attempting to talk to them. I'll head there as soon as you give the word. I suggest that you all prepare because there is no way that we're not in for a fight."
With that bit of information Margret stands up to give the team their new mission orders.
"We recon and assess the target come morning. For now rest up load up and get some shut eye. Cortana a nav point to the mess hall. We're eating covie grub tonight, and yes again."
"Oh yes more of that disgusting elite crafted synthesized meat. What I wouldn't do for a moa burger right now." Otto complains as they leave to find something to eat.
Chief looks at Cortana for a moment reassuring her that he will get her fixed before he leaves off to join the others.