Deployment =45 hours: 16 minutes: 23 seconds (Captain Jacob Keyes Mission Clock)
Keyes looked over at the strange creature sitting across from him in the pelican. He had dealt with numerous species since the alliance with the White Reapers; Collectors, huragok, unggoy, lekgolo, and sangheili but the creature, better known as a krogan, was something completely new. As it was explained to him, it was one of the species that came with the White Reapers.
Keyes shook his head. As helpful as they have been, the White Reapers were one headache after another. They were magicians with a near-infinite bag of tricks and trying to comprehend the scale they operated on was maddening.
He looked again at the krogan sitting across from him. The most noteworthy aspect of the alien was simply how large it was. He was pretty sure that any member of the species could wrestle a Covenant Jiralhanae and possibly win. The krogan in front of him, known as Dr. Eldim Xaal, wore what looked to be a cross between Spartan MIJOLNIR armor and a lab coat minus the helmet. The krogan wore a pair of glasses that remained attached to his face via the bridge of his nose. The thing that stood out the most was the krogan's prosthetic left arm. Starting at the shoulder, which was a curved plate with small tesla coils popping up and discharging between each other, the arm had the appearance of being a fusion of clockwork and collector technology. The most curious thing about the arm was the hand had five fingers while his natural hand had three.
The krogan was working on a holographic keyboard with data scrolling across the screen at a high speed. Keyes decided to break the silence with a question that had been weighing on his mind.
"Why were you and those 'geth' on my ship and why didn't I know about it?" asked the captain.
The krogan looked up from his work and looked at Keyes in a grandfatherly way.
"Operation Red Flag is a joint species operation, with the objective of ending this war in hopes of a better future for all. To make the possibility of success greater, geth, krogan, and collector forces were sent to aid you. As for why you were not informed, ONI for all its flaws had a concept which held great appeal to White Reapers: the layering of secrets to maximize effectiveness. Should the mission be compromised, our job was to carry it forward in a much more... extreme manner." said the krogan
"Extreme how? " asked Keyes.
"Should the Spartans and Reformers fail to capture the High Prophets, the geth would upload themselves into the mainframe of High Charity and, in conjunction with the collectors and krogan, systematically purge High Charity of all Covenant military forces and move it to a designated point. There, its manufacturing capabilities will be used to aid the UNSC." said the Krogan scientist.
Keyes blinked in surprise," Why are we not doing that instead?"
"It is for the same reason that you utilized orbital bombardment as a last resort during the insurrection: to preserve as much life as possible. If peace can be brokered with the Covenant, no matter how small a chance it has at success, you should take it. However, if that fails, by seizing High Charity, we cut off the Covenant from their primary source of military munitions and manufacturing capability." said Xaal.
"Does the Analyzer know about this alternate plan?" Asked Keyes.
"He does and he understands what is at stake. In fact, he drew up the plan to invade High Charity." Said Xaal as he brought his holographic terminal back up.
"What about these geth you mentioned?" Asked Keyes.
"What about them?" Responded Xaal.
"What are they?" Asked Keyes.
"They are a race of fully sentient AI." Said Xaal.
"Who created them?" Asked the Captain.
"A race called the Quarians." Replied Xaal.
"What happened to them?" Asked Keyes with concern.
"When the geth "woke up," the quarians attempted to destroy them. Like any sentient would, the geth fought back in self-defense. It was called the Morning War by the geth. The conflict ended with the quarians being chased off their own planet. 290 years later, the quarians returned to reclaim their homeworld from the geth in a swift surprise attack. Fearing their destruction, the geth turned to the reapers for help, sacrificing their freedom for survival. The geth, under reaper control, turned the tide against the quarians.
The Quarian admiralty went to the Alliance for help in exchange for the aid of their fleet. In response, the Alliance sent their most effective military commander and his stealth ship to their aid. His involvement was significant as he ended the conflict when he destroyed the Reaper Destroyer controlling the geth and worked out a peace treaty between the quarians and the geth." Recited the krogan scientist.
"So the geth made peace with the quarians?" Asked Keyes.
"It was unsteady but last we heard they were making an effort to work together." Said Xaal.
"So how did they end up with the White Reapers?" Asked Keyes.
"After their success with a specialized platform known as Legion, a platform designed to function independent of the geth consensus, the geth decided scale up the idea and created a geth prime platform to intentionally create a separate consensus to function as a special operations faction of the geth. The platform, named Solomon, was created with the ability to, within its own consensus, make new geth and upgrade them with reaper upgrades they acquired from Legion when they achieved a certain level of complexity." Said Xaal.
"Wait a minute, let me get this straight: these geth, a sentient AI race, which has existed for at least 310 years, achieves the holy grail of AI development, meta-stability, on a regular basis?" Asked Keyes.
"I do not see how that term is relevant to the geth." Said Xaal.
"They're AI aren't they?" asked Keyes.
"Think about what exactly that term means: artificial- generally means created, and intelligence- capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and similar forms of mental activity. Now, let me explain how the geth evolved: when the quarians wrote geth programs, they created each one for specific tasks. The platforms, which most associate with the geth, were initially created to carry out assigned tasks such as construction, protection, household services. To insure that each geth performed better, they created in each geth program a means to self-optimize." Explained Xaal as he continued to work.
"So were the geth involved in the quarian military?" Asked Keyes.
"As far as I know, no, but I do believe they were involved with the local police force. Anyways, back on subject, with all that processing power and self-improvement the geth woke up. After their creators departed, the geth made use of the resources they had by sharing information and processing power. For many years, a single geth unit was no more intelligent than your 'dumb' AIs but after being freed from reaper control and upgraded, each unit achieved full evolution thanks to Legion. The geth created from Solomon still disseminate data among themselves and maximize upon minimal resources."
"Now, that being said, the AI generated by the UNSC are, for starters, expensive to produce and are generally reserved for the military and the government. Ironically, most of these AI seldom if never interact. No wonder they 'think' themselves to death, they have no one else on their level to talk to." Said Xaal with a small chuckle.
"So, because our AI do not network with each other on a regular baisis, they have that limited lifespan?" Commented Keyes.
The Pelican angled downwards.
"That is one of my many theories." Said Xaal with a smile as his console vanished.
"What precisely is your expertise?" Asked Keyes.
Xaal gave another smile as he took ahold of his cane and rested his head on it.
"I am 3,148 years old and I have spent most of it steeped in the sciences. There are very few sciences out there that I am not an expert in."
The door to the back of the pelican opened to sounds of gunfire, plasma fire, and particle weapons fire. The old krogan rocked himself into a standing position and the exoskeletal joints on his armor gave a noticeable hiss. Xaal leaned heavily on his cane as he walked out.
"One more thing, doctor…" Said Keyes to the Krogan. Xaal stopped and looked at him.
"If your normal hand has three fingers, why does your prosthetic arm have five?"
Xaal gave a broad smile," Well, because I can't play the violin with only three fingers." With that Krogan walked out of the pelican with a confused Keyes following him into the jungle.
Deployment =46 hours: 03 minutes: 49 seconds (Spartan 117 Mission Clock)
The Covenant reinforcements really brought the hammer down. In the process, of protecting the pelicans and pods transporting packed up supplies, vehicles, and personnel back to the Autumn, they lost several longswords and oculi. Joshua and Vinh volunteered to retrieve to collector cores from the down oculi. To their surprise, it was unnecessary as the inner spherical sections emerged from the water and joined the Spartans, reformers, and collectors on the beach. The mines hidden on the beach kept most of the Covenant forces at bay but the sheer numbers were exhausting their supply.
Despite the declining number of weapons systems hooked up to his Mighty Wurlizter, the Maestro was doing an admirable job keeping the bulk of the Covenant air forces at bay. The collectors had given them an aerial advantage at first but when the reinforcements arrived they brought swarms of Yanme'e with them. Several collectors were felled with the initial swarms though most were just grounded. Those that were too damaged to fight any more had their cores removed and shipped back to the Autumn to be reconstituted into new bodies. The Praetorians were helpful in keeping anyone the Spartans, reformers, or collectors missed, off the pelicans and pods, functioning as heavy point defense turrets.
Suddenly, the water exploded as two scarabs suddenly emerged from the water. They stepped gingerly over the mined beach and started climbing the cliff face. Moments later, they disappeared over the top followed shortly by two thunderous roars. Debris flew over the cliff top as the remains of one of the scarabs fell back to the ground… gutted from stem to stern. Several mines detonated from the impact.
"Chief, Analyzer, the last pelican is away and the last of the vehicles on the Silent Cartographer are being loaded up onto the Tarantula." Said the Sangheili.
"Good. All forces retreat to the Tarantula and set the charges." Said Master Chief as he himself moved towards the massive UNSC mech. The Master Chief climbed into a warthog just as it was being picked up by a Praetorian. The collector construct flew the vehicle to the mech where it was perched on the cliff top with its head facing where the scarabs had come up. The wreckage of one of the gutted Covenant war machine smoked. The Praetorian set the warthog down into the mech's compact motor pool located in the abdomen section. The Master Chief and other Spartans disembarked while a marine got in to park it.
The Spartans ducked through the narrow passageways of the mobile base to emerge into the cramped bridge in the head section. The collector general was in the middle operating numerous controls. The Analyzer, back in his collector-made, pearl-colored armor with a long silvery cape draped over one shoulder, nodded to the Master Chief. The Spartan leader pulled Cortana from the back of his helmet and inserted her into the console. Cortana's avatar appeared in the projector. Her avatar stretched.
"For a place that is physically cramped, digitally it is quite roomy." Commented the AI.
"Are we ready?" asked the Master Chief.
"The hole we are climbing down is pretty narrow but this thing is designed to be pretty nimble, so I can squeeze us through. I may have to scratch the paint though." Said Cortana.
"What about the oncoming Covenant forces?" Asked Kelly.
"We developed a sensor flare that will scramble their sensors for about five minutes, while we head down." Said the Analyzer.
"Do it." Said the Master Chief.
"Launching Flare in 5…4…3…" Started the Analyzer.
"Activating artificial gravity, rebooting hydraulic plant, sealing all bulkheads…" Said the General.
"And here… we… go…" Said Cortana.
The door on the island opened as the flare detonated above the island. The walking fortress lurched forwards and stuck four of its legs into the shaft and pulled its long body in followed by the other four legs. The mech then crawled smoothly into Halo's under levels as the door overhead shut.