Chapter Thirty-Seven: Betrayed
The Spartans materialized on the bridge in the Control Room, along with the Moniter who was going into detail on the Flood and which organisms they could consume.
"...which means that organism with suffient mass and cognitive capability is a potential vector."
Chief ignored the flying metal ball, and stared at the console, where Cortana was. On the inside, he was relieved to be able to have her chip in his possesion, but he wasn't going to share that information with the others.
"Is something wrong?" Spark asked, floating along side the Spartan. Six and Emile stood in the background, watching and waiting for anything to happen.
Chief shook his head. "No, nothing."
The Moniter perked up, apparently excited to wipe the Flood off his giant ring. "Splendid! Shall we?" He went over to the terminal, and turned to face the humans.
"Unfortunatly, my usefulness in this particular endeavor has come to an end," he explained, watching as Chief strolled up to the terminal where Cortana was. He was slightly worried, as she hadn't made her presence known.
"Great," Six chimed into the conversation. "Now can I kill the lightbulb?" he asked Chief. The II despondently shook his head.
The Moniter went on, "Protocol does not allow units with my classification to preform a task as important as the reedification of the Index and the Core. That final step is reserved for you, Reclaimer." He materialized the Index, and let Chief take it.
Hesistantly, Chief put the Index into the respective slot on the holograhpic panel in front of him, and three green energy rings shot out of the terminal, forming a kind of light barrier.
Spark looked around at them. "Odd, that wasn't suppose to happen."
"Oh really?" Cortana appeared above the terminal, glowing green like never before. She sent out a shock wave that knocked the Moniter to the floor.
"Cortana," Chief said, looking up at his AI. It had been several hours since he had last seen her, and he felt that that was too long.
Cortana, however, didn't seem to be as happy to see him. "I've spent the last twelve hours cooped up in here, watching you toady about, helping that thing get ready to slit our throats."
"Hold on now," Chief interjected. "He's a friend."
"Funny, I've never seen him as a friend," Six interrupted. Emile looked over at him, and then smacked the back of Six's helmet.
"Oh," Cortana went on, putting her hand over her mouth in fake shock. "I didn't realize. He's you pal, is he? Your chum? Do you have any idea what that bastard almost made you do?"
"Now I've seen him as a bastard," Six said, and once again, Emile smacked the back of his helmet.
"Yes," Chief replied defensively. "Activate Halo's defenses, and wipe out the Flood, which is why we brought the Index to the Control Room."
"You mean this?" Cortana waved around the holographic Index in her holographic hand.
"A construct?" Spark asked in real shock as he recovered from the shock wave. "That is absolutely unacceptable!"
Cortana glared at him. "Sod off!"
"What impertinance...I shall purge you at once!" The Moniter floated up to Cortana's eye level.
Holding up the Index, Cortana cracked a smile. "You sure that's a good idea?"
"How...how...how dare you?" The Moniter was stumped. "I'll-"
"Do what?" Cortana cut in. "I have the Index. All you can do is float and sputter."
"Enough!" Chief yelled, raising his hands to silence the bickering AIs. He looked to Cortana. "The Flood is spreading. If we activate Halo's defences, we can wipe them out."
"You have no idea how this ring works, do you?" Cortana folded her arms arcoss her chest, and adopted a stern face. "Why the Forerunners built it?"
Chief winced internally; this was the first time he seen Cortana this mad at him.
Cortana continued, raising her holographic green arms to guesture to the ring. "Halo doesn't kill Flood...it kills their food. Humans, Covenant, whatever; we're all equally edible. The only way to stop the Flood is to starve them to death and that's what Halo is designed to do." She glared at Chief, then over to the Moniter. "You don't believe me? Ask him."
Chief turned his head to the Moniter, tightening his grip on his MA5. "Is is true?"
"More or less," Spark replied, levitating to look Chief in the visor. "Technically, this installation's pulse has a maximum effective radius of twenty-five thousand lightyears, bu once the other rings fire, this galaxy will be quite devoid of life." The Forerunner AI paused, and then went on. "But you already knew that. I mean, how couldn't you?"
"Left out that little detail, did he?" Cortana remarked snidely. Six walked over to the terminal and looked down at the buttons. "Don't press any buttons, Six," Cortana said, braking off the main conversation. "I don't want you to kill us all."
"We have followed our outbreak procedure to the letter," the Moniter said. "You were with me each step of the way as we managed this crisis..."
"Chief, I'm picking up movement," Cortana informed them, and Chief raised his rifle at the Moniter. Emile side-stepped over to the II, shotgun trained on the floating metal ball. Six searched his person for a weapon, but came up empty handed.
"Why would you hesitate to do what you've already done?" the Moniter asked, not flinching at the sight of the weapons aimed at him.
"We need to go," Cortana insisted. "Right now." Six pulled her chip, and slotted it into Chief's helmet for him. The II nodded a thanks.
"Last time you asked me if it were my choice, would I do it?" Spark raved on.
"We never asked you," Six interrupted, clenching his fists, and raising them into a defensive postiton.
The Moniter looked at Six, and then continued. "Having had considerable time to ponder your query, my answer remains unchanged. There is no choice. We must activate the ring."
Six reached over and grabbed Emile's kukri, and stepped up to the Moniter. "How hard is it to understand us?" he asked, as he swung the angled blade at Spark. "We're not activating the ring!" Six swung two more times, but the Moniter effectively evaded all three attacks.
"If you are unwilling to help, I will find another," Spark said, unfazed by the attacks. "Still, I must have the Index." He looked at Chief with his single blue eye. "Give your construct to me, or I will be forced to take her from you."
Chief's grip on the Assault Rifle wavered slightly. Even the thought that he might lose Cortana, however slim the odds are, made him uneasy. He tighted his fingers on the trigger, and held it steady again. "That's not going to happen."
The Mointer remained silent as five Sentinals rose from the chasm below the bridge. "So be it," he said. "Save his head, dispose of the rest," Spark ordered the Sentinals. The Moniter flew off higher into the room, and disappeared.
"Well, shit," Emile commented, firing his M90. The buckshot harmlessly impacted on the Sentinal, before bouncing off.
"Emile, you'll probably have to get closer for your shotgun to be of any effect," Cortana said, watching helplessly from Chief's HUD.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," he replied sarcastically as he dove to avoid the Sentinal's beam.
"You're welcome, Captain Sarcasm," The AI shot back snidly.
Six was crouching farther back from the fight, clutching Emile's kukri tight in his hands. "Yeah, like Emile's the one who has to get closer," he said, using the most sarcastic tone he could muster.
The Master Chief was ingoring the background conversation, instead focusing on the battle he was in. He fired off a few rounds, which hit a Sentinal right in the glowing eyes. It erupted into flames as the remains fell to the ground.
"They aren't that tough," Six commented, as he saw the frist Sentinal go down. He tossed the kukri lightly into the air, and caught it by the blade. With a grunt, Six threw it as hard as he could toward the nearest Sentinal, which was busy trying to shoot Chief with its beam.
The blade sank into the metal, piercing several major componets. The Sentinal fell to the ground, sparking. "Hey, that worked," Six said, and then he noticed he had no weapon anymore.
Emile ran up under the last three Sentinals, and fired three shots in rapid sucsession. All three went down in flames. "And that's a triple kill."
"Let's go," Chief ordered as he sprinted for the control panel next to the door. He pressed the button that the Spartans had associated with opening doors, and the huge metal door broke into pieces as it slid up into the ceiling.
Two Elites, four Grunts, and two Jackals were engaging four Sentinals, and it was a pretty even match. The Sentinal's beams tore through the Unggoy mercilessly, while the Jackals were able to deflect them with their portable shields.
"Hold you fire," Chief said, and the Spartans ducked into an indent in the wall. "Let them fight it out, and we won't have as many to fight."
"Right," Six replied. "But I get first pick of weapons."
"Where's my kukri?" Emile asked Six, noticing that he didn't have it.
Six answered by jerking his thumb back into the Control Room. "It's in one of the Sentinals."
Emile ran back to get it, and was inspecting the blade as he returned. "On the bright side, it's not damaged too badly."
"Oh, good," Six said. "I thought I might have broken it. And then you would have killed-"
"If you two are done talking," Chief interrupted, "we have an mission to accomplish." He aimed the MA5 at the Elites, who had taken out two of the Sentinals with only a Jackal and all four Grunts as casulitys.
"Emile, move over behind those crates," Chief ordered, pointing at a group of three purple Covenant storage boxes. "We'll cover you. Try not to be seen."
Six made a finger gun out of the index finger and thumb of his right hand. "Like Chief said, I'll cover you," he told Emile, and he aimed his finger gun at the Elites. "Bang bang bang."
Behind the carved skull on his visor, Emile rolled his eyes, and made a break for the crates. He slid behind them, completely unseen. Setting his M90 on the ground next to him, to removed the lid on the side of the crate, and pulled out the hilt of an Energy Sword. He signaled the other two Spartans, and threw it to them.
Six reached up to grab it, but Chief's hand snatched it out of mid air just inches from the Spartan IV's waiting hand. "Hey," Six said in protest. "I wanted that. You have a gun, I don't."
"Just use your handgun," Chief replied, mimicing Six's finger gun. "It worked pretty well."
"Yeah, very funny," Six scoffed, before he got hit in the side of the head with a Covenant Carbine.
"Oops," Emile said through the comms. "I missed his face." He rolled several ammo cartridges over to Six, and took a Carbine for himself.
The Elites had finished off the last Sentinal, and the other Jackal had been taken out. They were standing around, doing absolutely nothing, until one of the got the idea to kick a Grunt body across the hall. That sent them into a fit of laughter.
"Take aim," Chief told Six and Emile. "On three."
"Wait, on three?" Six asked. "Or three, and then shoot?"
"I just said on three," Chief sighed. "It's faster that way."
"Okay, just wanted to clear that up," Six replied, cracking his neck. He poked out of cover just enough to aim the Carbine without being spotted.
"One...two...three!" Chief side rolled out of cover, and opened fire on the Elites, completely scaring the crap outta them. The Elites returned fire, but Six and Emile fired away at them, taking out their shields. Six fired both headshots, killing them less than a second apart.
"I've been thinking," Cortana said as the two Sangheili bodies hit the dull metal floor with loud thumps.
"Why does that not surprise me?" Emile asked, picking up his shotgun, and putting the Carbine on his back. "That's the only thing you do, Cortana. Someday, I think you'll think yourself to death."
The room went dead silent.
Six opened a private comm channel with Emile. "You do know what rampancy is, right?"
"What? I've never heard of it before," Emile replied. "If figure that you're gonna explain it to me now, right?"
Six rubbed his visor. "Honestly Emile, you couldn't have said a worse thing. AIs begin to go rampant after so many years of service, and rampancy is where the AI practically thinks itself to death."
"Oh." Emile glanced awkwardly around the room. "I didn't know that."
"Most AIs aren't really fond of being reminded about rampancy, so just don't make anymore comments like that, okay?" Six asked.
"Alright," Emile answered with a sigh.
Cortana was watching through the Master Chief HUD, and based off the bobbing of Six and Emile's heads, they were in a private conversation. She figured that Six was explaining rampancy to Emile, because she honestly didn't want to be in that position. It made her uncomfortable. Kinda like a single father having to give his only daughter the birds-and-bees talk.
Chief had remained calm and still through the entire thing, not saying a word. He knew about rampancy, but he really didn't know what to say in this situation. So he remain silent.
"Whoops," Emile sheepishly once Six had cut the private channel. "Sorry."
"It's okay," Cortana shrugged it off as if it hadn't bothered her. After all, the UNSC was making advances in the AI department, so perhaps they could find a way to cure rampancy. "As I was saying, we have to stop the Moniter from activating the ring."
"We have the Index," Chied reminded her as he walked over to the control panel for the door in front of them. "He can't do anything."
""But what if he finds another way to activate the ring's weapon of mass destruction?" Cortana asked. "Then what?"
Six loaded a new ammo cell into his Carbine. "Well then, what are you proposing we do?"
"We have to destroy Halo."
Once again, the room went dead silent.
"We really don't have the firepower to do that," Six said. "But, if you could get us a couple million pounds of explosives, we might be able to do that."
Cortana sighed. "Or we could just overload a starship's engine core."
"Yeah right," Six scoffed. "And where the hell would we get one of those?"
Emile face-palmed. "Gee, I don't know," he said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "We only crash landed in a starship, perhaps we could use that."
"Oh, right," Six said, smacking his head. "I forgot about the Pillar of Autumn."
"But if we're going to do that, then we'll have to buy some time," Cortana explained. "There are pulse generators in the canyon, and they power the ring's weapon. If we disable them, then the Moniter will have to repair them before he can fire the ring."
Chief opened the final door, allowing them to exit the Control Room. It was darker outside than when they had last been here, over twelve hours ago. Snow was still falling, and the bodies of the Covenant that they had killed on the way in had been moved. However, the bloodstains still glistened on the dull gray metal.
A single Grunt was lollygagging near the door, and jumped as he saw the Spartans. "Demons!" the Unggoy shouted as it ran away.
Emile fired once, with his M90, and the Grunt rolled down the incline it was on. Shortly after, roars of Elites echoed in the canyon, mixed with fearful cries of Grunts.
"Perhaps we should have taken the stealth approach," Six said. "There seemed to be a lot of them."
"Stealth is for wusses," Emile replied, cocking his shotgun. "You need to be able to take your enemies on face-to-face."
A target marker appeared on their HUD. "That's where the first pulse generator is," Cortana informed them. "But, we'll need a way up there."
"Hey," Six said. "If worse comes to worst, I'll just climb up the rock wall, like I did with the Scorpion tank."
Chief emptied the rest of his clip into an Elite that had come up the incline where the dead Grunt was. The Elite recoiled at the attack, but the shields of the Major held. Six instantly brought his foot up and kicked the Sangheili right in the stomach, causing it to double over. Grabbing its head in both of his hands, Six thrusted the Elite's head down as he brought his knee up, effectively breaking its skull, and killing it.
"Six, check to see that where ever that ramp leads is clear," Chief ordered, nodding his head at a ramp that was in the pillar in front of them, while he reloaded. Six went up, and after a few minutes he returned, SRS99C Sniper Rifle on his back with the Carbine, and an M6D pistol on his hip. Cradled in his arms were at least a dozen packets of ammuntion.
"Holy shit," Emile said, as Six dumped the packets on the floor. He reached down and grabbed one that held twelve shotgun shells, and ripped it open, pouring the contents into his side pouch.
Chief took all the ones for Assault Rifles, while Six snatched all SRS and DMR ammo, despite the fact that he didn't have a DMR.
Six took his Sniper Rifle, peered through the scope. "I see a Wraith, and there are two Banshees next to it, and several Elites and Grunts," he reported, even though no one had told him to gather intel.
"Now we can plan an attack accordingly," Chief said, looking over the edge of the top layer of the Control Room pyramid.
"Just run like hell, shooting all the way, right?" Emile asked, checking his Carbine, before returning it to his back.
Chief slightly smiled. "Yep. Six will provide sniper support, for obvious reasons." He paused for a minute. "Let's do this."
Michelle rubbed her tired eyes just as the sun broke on the horizon. "And then there was tenth grade." She had been tell Getu the story of her life, and he seemed to be listening. Which was surprising, since was an Elite.
"I didn't sleep with that girl Sarah like everyone said I did," she told him, and Getu looked over at her.
"Why would it matter if you were to sleep with another? Seems perfectly normal, I've slept with several people before," the Sangheili said, staring off into the distant desert.
Michelle smiled. "It's sorta a human thing," she said. "Sleeping with someone usually means that you...well..."
"...banged with them?" Getu finished, trying out the word.
The human nodded. "Pretty much, at least that's how it is in a human high school."
Getu shrugged. "I've never understood why you humans have other people teach you," he said. "My parents taught me everything I needed to know; it is the job of the parents to teach the offspring."
"Usually, human parents are working to support their families, so they don't really have the time," Michelle explained. "And the teachers can teach the students things that the parents wouldn't know."
Getu shrugged. "My parents just taught me how to farm, and that lasted a few years, until I was conscripted into the ranks of the Covenant. I'm surprise I even made it to Major being the coward I am."
Michelle was about to respond, when Getu jumped up, his hands flying toward his weapons. He activated the Energy Sword, and raised a Plasma Rifle in his free hand.
"Show yourself!" he shouted, brandishing the sword. Getu aimed his rifle around, before several Spec Ops Elites materialized, completely circling Getu, Michelle, and the now awake Pango.
"You're very observant, Sel'gath," the leader of the Spec Ops team said, his rank denoted by the Concussion Rifle in his hands. The others held Carbines. "And I will say that you are very lucky that the glorious Shipmaster wants you alive." He glared at Pango. "As for this whelp, he is wanted alive as well." He growled at Michelle. "And so is this...filthy vermin."
An Elite walked over and confiscated all the weapons on the ground, Pango's Needler and Plasma Pistol, Michelle's shotgun and pistol, while another Elite wrenched the weapons from Getu's hands.
"I'm only acting on Taal's orders," the leader went on. "If I weren't, I would have killed you for the price that Supreme Commander Vadamee of the Fleet of Partictular Justice had put on your head."
"Then you and I see differently," Getu said as a Spec Ops Elite forced his hands behind his back before putting on energy binders. "I would have killed you regardless."
The leader growled. "Your association with this human have changed you, Sel'gath. I only hope when the time comes, I get to slay it."
"Michelle is a she, not an it," Getu replied calmly, knowing that he had gone against the Covenant several times, and making it worse got kinda fun after a while. Kinda like a last act of definance. Like an eagle swooping down to snatch a mouse, and the mouse is flipping it off.
The Elite binding Michelle's hands looked right into her face, and growled, opening all mandibles to bear his teeth against her. "Damn," Michelle said, "you need a Tic-Tac."
Pango was bound, and the Elites began dragging them across the desert. After about five minutes, Michelle decided to have some fun. "Hey Getu?" The Sangheili looked up. "How many Covenant does it take to screw in a lightbulb?"
Getu flashed a look of confusion across his face, before Michelle continued. "None, Covenant can't screw in a lightbulb. They just stare at it like 'what wretched human contraption is this?'" She burst into laughter, and Getu laughed only because it seemed like the right thing to do. He didn't know what a lightbulb was.
Pango piped up. "How many stinky Brutes does it take to stink up starship?"
Michelle smiled. "How many?"
"None, it's Elite Spec Ops teams that stink up starships." The three captives once again broke into a laughing fit.
The leader of the Spec Ops team roared, and smashed his weapon into Michelle's head, knocking her out. Then he knocked out Pango. It took three swings to knock out Getu, but soon, all three captives were out cold.
"They're wanted alive," he told his second in command. "Taal never said anything about conscious."
A/N: arbiter6784 beta'd this chapter, as he has for the past several chapters, and he does great.
Anywho, my absence was due to getting a new laptop, so I had to transfer all my files from my desktop, and also to a bad case of lazy. It's summer, can you blame me?
If anyone wants to continue The Journey ahead, feel free to do so. I will continue with my own version soon, but it would be interesting to see someone's else's version. So. Yeah.
My Halo 5 Theory: At the end of Spartan Ops, Halsey says she wants revenge on the UNSC, and 343i claims that Halo 5 will be a dark title in the Reclaimer Trilogy. Which could possibly mean that Halsey uses the Storm Covenant to attack the UNSC, disoreintating them, and wiping a large portion of them out.
Cortana will also return, if you pay close attention in the second mission, you hear Cortana say that she could cure her rampancy by recompling her neural network. And then on the mission Composer, you can find a audio recording where Halsey says that the Composer is similar to the AI matrix complier she used for AIs. So Cortana might return as a Promethean Knight or something. Or perhaps as that Forerunner bird thing in the Halo 5 trailer...
Just theorizing right there...
Peace out!