Chief had encountered plenty of things in his time of service: dealing with every form of Covenant, the Forerunners, and the Flood. He had faced the Didact, on more than one occasion, and the Gravemind. He had blown up every form of structure and vehicle known to the UNSC- including a planet and a Halo ring. He has had almost every wound, physically and mentally. Most people viewed him as a robot, a machine, a statue. The only people able to see through his solid form was Cortana and what he considered his family, his Spartan 'brothers and sisters', maybe even Dr. Halsey.
But that list was short. To the rest of the 10 trillion life forms he was the humanity-saving-machine, his reputation and accomplishments were known to most, unless highly classified. Chief never pondered this before that the things kept quiet were not meant to be heard about the public. More than once he wondered if the UNSC had been corrupt and covering things that were…inhuman. He was an example of this, and so was Cortana.
But on top of all of this, if there was anything in this entire universe that made him more traumatized it was the idea of cameras watching his every move, and everything he says.
"Chief," Cortana grabbed his arm to avoid him from slamming into a doorway. He shook his head and blinked a few times, remembering where he was.
"Chief look at me," Cortana continued to hold his arm tightly. It was strange there wasn't a layer of gel material and armor blocking him from any contact. He realized how tight her grip was, and even the warmth coming off of her skin. He could even feel her heartbeat through her fingertips…
He jolted his head up to break him from his continuous thoughts, Cortana held her expression, it was stern and sympathetic. He didn't say anything; he didn't have to Cortana knew he was listening.
"It doesn't matter you know, none of this. It's just for show…a way for the UNSC to wave there medals around to make themselves look good so they keep getting money and funding to buy overpriced machines and for that fancy armor of yours." She paused, he finally looked at her.
"All that matters is that you know who you are, and nothing these political hungry bastards think is going to change that. Even though you may not get all the recognition and respect you deserve, just know that you've impacted more people than you think Chief.
He had never really thought about it either, what he does, how it effects everything.
"I don't need any of that anyways," He relaxed his shoulders feeling comforted by the words, and a little less horrified. "I have everything I need." He looked at Cortana and they didn't speak for what felt like hours. But he meant it. He didn't need anything else. Halsey was alive, and so was the rest of his 'family' including Cortana.
Cortana smiled and let go of his arm. "Come on Chief, let's go for a ride."
He laughed at that, and didn't bother to hold back a smile.
"Now, getting to the important stuff," She turned on her heels and faced him crossing her arms.
"How should we make an entrance? I was thinking something along the lines of riding a pink banshee in the room with some of the music they use in the weight rooms, or maybe I can take a few seconds to hack the lighting system and make all the lights go out and you walk in and receive a spot light." She was smiling but what startled Chief was the seriousness in her eyes.
"Because the last thing I would want is a spotlight." He continued to laugh, something rare for him.
She faced the door and Chief followed as they stared at its grey features.
"On three?" She turned toward Chief who was sinking back into his thoughts.
"Just promise me there will be no pink banshees or spotlights?"
"I promise," her voice was genuine but she still had this excited look in her eyes.
She was looking forward to this.
On three she pushed the doors open Chief took breath, and glanced at Cortana one last time before the crowd consumed them.
The room was filled with hundreds of filled seats, all of different kinds. White uniformed soldiers, reporters, civilians and high command. They were swarmed by cameras - hungry political monsters that were facing their attention towards Cortana.
Cortana held herself gracefully though, making small remarks, or ignoring them all together. Chief followed Cortana mind blank and nervous with all the cameras. She made her way over to reserved seats, and he was satisfied. They were against a wall in the corner.
"The best seats in the house," She joked as they seated and directed there attention towards the empty platform, that would be used as a stage.
He looked around, reading people's faces and marking all the exits. He glanced around looking for anyone with weapons or any weapons he could use in case something happened. He turned around stiffly and observed the people behind him, taking extra time to analyze the person sitting behind Cortana. When he concluded that there was nobody but soldiers and civilians in the room he turned back around and focused his gaze on the dog tag he held in his hand. He turned the thin worn silver plated tag in his hand, and wondered if he could get it re-engraved so his name didn't look so dull.
Cortana glanced around and pulled out her tablet, Chief watched her curiously. He examined her expressions, her eyes darting around at inhuman speed, her face suddenly sinking into worry.
"What?" Chief sat up straighter and started scanning the room as if a brute was about to jump out and tear them to pieces.
"Chief, we need to go, now." She tapped at her tablet quickly swiping the semi glass-hard light.
The lights dimmed signifying the ceremony was about to start.
"Cortana, what's wrong?" He was on the edge of his seat, ready to jump.
"I'll explain on the way there." She looked shaken up as if someone had thrown her off of a Pelican. He didn't ask any more questions, this is what he does, surprise situations.
They jumped up and slipped out the door, people noticed and started murmuring. To Chiefs surprise Cortana broke into a run down the hallway.
"Cortana," He easily kept up with her anxiety filling his head with every step.
"Remember Installation 04?" She continued to look forward as they meandered through the hallways.
"How can I forget?" He mumbled.
"Well, the notes Halsey gave me, that's what they were about, the effects of Installation 04."
"Why is this important now?" Chief asked as she turned a corner and halted at an elevator shaft.
"Because this whole ship is about to become infected," She jumped into the elevator and placed her thumb on the panel.
Chief imminently knew where they were heading.
"I don't understand." He meant it.
"When Installation 04 fired it shook itself to pieces. Most of it turned into dust but some of it blasted pieces at the speed of light years, so powerful that some pieces even passed through multiple galaxies. ONI discovered one of the rings pieces in our galaxy near the suns orbital. On that ring there was an unknown chemical that was created from the blast that selectively affects humans. They sent a team out to destroy it but out of the entire combined squads only two returned."
"Wouldn't it have been uninhabited?" Chief was trying to digest all the information.
"Yes, most of it was made of hard rock and ash. But there was a species known as Lekgolo, worms that were attracted to technical signals in the armor and other technology. With limited oxygen they had to power off everything, and there plane was attacked by Lekgolo. The only thing left was the tug plane. They had only a certain amount of hours because being so close to the sun it could reach up to 900 degrees at sunrise." She paused to take a breath as the elevator jolted to a stop and Cortana stepped out jogging.
"How does this have anything to do with the ship being infected?"
"I was scanning the mission and Halsey's notes and they had something related.
"What?" Cortana stopped in front of a door he knew well at this point and placed her hand on the scanner.
"Agent Locke."
A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry if you read the previous post of this, but for some reason the program decided to throw out all the formatting so here it is, fixed. Thanks for everything! I just hit 80 reviews and for a first story it means a lot, I've put a lot of time and effort into this and although it maybe far from perfect I'm really proud of my work and thankful for my readers! Happy New Year everyone!