Thompson Log #001… Data Found
There was a bright flash of light and as soon as it came, it faded away. The source, a small blackened cube shook violently, sparked once and stopped.
"Damnit! I was sure that configuration would work too. I'll have to reset the plasma flux from scratch, fix the quantum generator and on top of that, it looks like I have to refine some more Carbon-21 for the casing."
Aliisa appeared out of the shadows and took off the thick welding glasses that shielded her blood red eyes. She ran a hand through her silver hair and gently bent down to pick up her device. The remaining case crumbled away at the lightest touch, leaving the still smoldering insides bare for all eyes to see.
Heavy footsteps are heard approaching Aliisa from behind and a deep, heavily accented voice rings in the small chamber.
"Ali, the new squad leader is due in soon. We need to get ready."
Ali turned and marveled at her latest achievement, a fully functional mechanical body for her AI. It had taken her quite some time to acquire all the parts for the body but she had done it. Viktor had actually been the one to request the body and Ali, sensing a challenge, accepted. Viktor could perform any function a normal human could but better. The body had first been designed to be a physical shell for Viktor but Ali had gone overboard with the project and now Viktor was comparable to a battle hardened Spartan IV. Ali used Viktor as a lab assistant, sparring partner and most importantly, a source of much welcome company. When something broke and she needed a hand to fix it, Viktor was there. When she felt like practicing her hand to hand combat but didn't feel like getting beaten to a pulp by Nova, Viktor was always there ready to fight. When she needed someone to brainstorm her latest invention idea with, Viktor was there. When she was lonely and working way too much, Viktor was there to stop her and talk to her. In essence, Viktor was the best friend she ever had.
"Ali? We need to get ready for the new replacement leader. He will be coming on board in approximately 30 minutes."
Ali broke out of her small trance and towed Viktor by the arm back to her room. "Well then what are we standing around for? Let's go!" They arrived and Ali locked the door behind her and turned to look at Viktor with a glint in her eyes.
"Alright, old friend. I know how much you don't like to do this, and how last time you escaped and we were almost late but, this time, I locked the door. You can't get away. Come easy and I won't use your override code." Viktor looked around the small room and shook his head. He backed up a few paces and went into an advanced jujitsu fighting stance.
"If that is your decision, then I have no choice. System override function Zero-four. What is Life without Death." Viktor's body seized up in mid stride and he toppled to the floor. "Sorry about that but, I need you inside my head." Ali shrugged and went over to Viktor's body and pulled out his memory crystal.
Ali took the sliver of crystal and placed it inside the lock for her MJOLNIR armor. The case soon swung open, exposing Ali's MJOLNIR suit. Ali's suit was the most unique MJOLNIR suit ever built for one reason. She built it herself. Ali was the only candidate of the Spartan program to ever build her own suit. But, even then the statement was fully true, because she had produced the parts for the suit but that was where it stopped. She had taken all the parts and assembled the suit herself.
Ali was dragged out of her bed early in the morning and thrown into a pitch black room. The lights snapped on and several Section 5 techs were inside.
"Instead of you running around and killing people for your final exam, we decided to have a much more stimulating exam for you, Aliisa Thompson." One of the techs stepped forward and displayed a large table full of components.
"This is all of the hardware that is built into your MJOLNIR mk.6 battle armor suit. You have until this time tomorrow to built said suit. All the tools you require are inside this room as well. If you do not complete the suit or it does not function properly you will be discharged form the program. Do you understand these orders?" Ali nodded and the tech gave her a small grin as he and his partner walked out of the room.
Ali went over to the table and picked up the close to 3000 page manual for putting the suit together. She skimmed through the book and tossed it over her shoulder. She smirked.
"This is going to be a riot!"
Her hands flew over the pieces inspecting them all for impurities and functionality problems and tossed several parts over her shoulder like the manual. Finally selecting two pieces she sat down with a soldering iron and began to work. Her augmented ears picked up the gossip from the guards stationed outside the door.
"It's a shame. I guess the UNSC spent so much money to make her what she is today and now they're just going to burn all that cash. Not even the people that designed the suit can put it together that fast."
"Yeah I heard that it takes a 3 man team of techs almost 5 days to put on of those together. She has no chance." Ali just smiled and worked even faster.
Stepping back from the stand, Ali wiped her forehead with the sleeve of her long discarded trainee sweater and looked at her handiwork. The suit was finished, to her specs and she was proud. There were times where she doubted that it would all come together but here it is. She took a deep breath and powered up the suit. She couldn't do anything with it yet because she didn't have an AI mated with the systems but they could run their tests when she woke up. She lay down on the table which previously held her suit and took a nap. She woke up to a cup of cold water running down her back.
"Ali, the time has come. Are you finished?" Ali rubbed her eyes awake and looked up at the tech with a glare.
"Do you think I'm stupid enough to sleep if I'm not?" The tech glared back at her. "Well let's see how much money we wasted on this suit… It's a shame you know. We will start with the simplest thing. Does it even power up?"
Ali rolled her eyes. "No, of course not. I built it to look pretty."
She keyed in the start-up code in her data pad and the suit powered up. The tech looked at Ali sideways.
"How did you get it to start-up with out a retina scan from inside the helmet?" Ali shrugged. "Did that scan involve that busted scanner in the corner?"
She hiked her thumb over her shoulder to the pile of scrap in the corner. The techs jaw dropped. "Oh and over there too," Ali continued, "Is all the gear that is useless for the suit and its optimum combat readiness and operation." She went over to the scrap pile and dug out a piece of metal.
"You guys really threw me a curveball with this one though. Placing an explosive charge in my suit? You guys tried really hard. I noticed it when the piece wasn't in the manual." She tossed the piece over to the tech who dropped his clipboard to catch it and gave Ali the 'What the hell were you thinking throwing explosives at me look'.
"Easy there tiger. It's defused. I placed a call into my good friend Alan Wolfsheim and he walked me through it, so knowing him, it still could very well go off at any time… He likes blowing stuff up too much." The tech whirled on the guards.
"You let her make a call?!" Ali giggled.
"Of course they didn't. I used the comm system in the suit. You are a lot dumber than you let on to you know?" She walked over to the suit and patted it gently. This suit is 100 percent battle ready, minus an operator and an AI mated to it. Which, seeing that this is my suit, naturally I will get to choose which AI does get used." The tech smiled for the first time after waking Ali up.
"You don't get to choose anything. We already decided on the AI that would be mated to the suit if you passed, so you have no choice. Although I'm sure that you won't be disappointed. We created an AI using your brain Ali. It is you and yet a different person. He has been waiting to meet you for some time now too. But that is a later date. You are dismissed." Ali huffed at the man and stalked out of the room.
"Those were the good days…" Ali smirked to herself and suited up once more. She reached around and grabbed Viktor's memory crystal from her armor case on her way out of her room. While walking down to the hangar bay, she removed her helmet and plugged the thin slice of memory into its receptacle at the base of her neck. Ali preferred to have her AI inside her system instead of her suit. The cool presence of Viktor washed over her and his gruff voice echoed in her head.
"Ali, this new guy is going to get a good piece of my mind. I want him to be sure that he knows who it is that watches over you."
Ali giggled to herself before putting her helmet back on and continuing to the hangar bay.
"Go easy on him Vik. I don't want you to scare him out of the squad already. He is a newbie you know."
Arriving at the hangar bay, she found that she wasn't the last one to arrive. Ali stood next to Alan and waited. Nova showed up soon enough and the Longsword fighter docked. The boarding ramp fell and Ali saluted.