There was no sound to it. No scream, no desperate cry for help, no explosion. Between one moment and the next Cortana simply vanished, disappearing in a flash of blue light. The stars dancing across his vision were the only sign she'd been there at all, the shouts of alarm echoing through TEAMCOM the only way to tell anyone else had seen her vanish.
"Cortana!" John shouted, tele-hailing his radio over to their private channel. Silence rang through his helmet and for the first time in years, his suit's systems told him Connection not found. Try again?
A chill that had nothing to do with Cortana ran down his spine, icy fingers grabbing his heart and squeezing hard.
"Cortana, respond!"
No response. Not even static. Even if she'd left of her own free will, gone to check on something without having had time to explain, she would have checked in. She wouldn't have left him alone in the silence. Something was terribly wrong with this situation.
"What just happened?" Buck shouted from his perch fifty meters up the basin wall, "Where'd she go?!"
He didn't know. But she wasn't dead, of that John was sure. He'd have known if she was. He turned to the nearest Soldier, fighting off the ice in his heart.
"Where is she?"
"Unknown," the Soldier replied, and for a moment he thought the construct seemed uneasy. It held its rifle tight in its metal hands, looking back at its nearest fellows. They all shrugged, plates clacking together as they wordlessly consulted with one another. Whatever consensus they reached wasn't good. The Soldier turned back to him and said, "We cannot find her, Didact. Her presence is hidden from us."
Hidden, not gone. The ice in John's heart melted away beneath a scalding burst of fury. Something had happened on the Domain side, not the physical, which meant either the Didact had learned how to manipulate the thing, or the Warden had appeared again. Either way, she was up against a foe she never should have had to face alone and he was—
John clamped his eyes shut, gritting his teeth. He had to think this through. Taking a few precious seconds to calm himself, he took a deep breath and reached into the back of his mind, reaching for the connection they had only just gotten used to. The chilly space surrounding his lace was already beginning to warm, her ice cold presence leaving only a ghost behind. Even that was fading fast, replaced by an empty stillness he would never get used to, but if he reached out far enough…there!
It wasn't much. A chilled breath, the slip of a single finger down his arm. Barely even a hint of a proper feeling, it was still there all the same. He clasped the single thread tightly between his mental fingers, feeling it stretched thin enough to snap. Somehow it was still holding on despite the seemingly impassable distance between them, leading him into the dark after her. He could try to follow it, use it to find his way to her in the depths of the Domain, help her face whomever had come for her.
Or, some traitorous part of his mind thought, he could let her fight her own battles. She would make it, he knew that! He wouldn't insult her by thinking that she couldn't handle herself if given half a chance, but that didn't stop every fiber of his being from wanting to go after her anyway. She'd gone after him, brought him home. Why couldn't he do the same for her?
Because the Didact was on station and the fireteams were on the ground. His heart sank as he realized that this time, she really was on her own.
But maybe not entirely. Opening his eyes he looked back up to the Soldier.
"Take a squad and start looking through the Domain," he ordered it, "She's in there somewhere. Find her."
To their credit the Soldiers didn't hesitate. Snapping out smart salutes four of them vanished in flashes of blue light, leaving the Chief with rest of the Legion and his battalion of Spartans. Up in the skies overhead the Infinity was still shooting, focusing fire on one Guardian at a time as the frigates—both old and new—harried the rest to keep them from firing their pulses either at the Infinity or down at the Spartans below. He knew that sooner or later the Infinity and her allies would win that fight, but that didn't guarantee the Didact would be eliminated.
They still had a job to do.
"Sir," Crimson Lead came up behind him, her armor scorched with hard-light burns but intact. Her hands were steady, rifle at the ready as she asked, "Our orders, sir?"
The Chief considered for a moment. With the task they'd set out to complete done and dusted, there was no reason to stay in the basin. In fact, with the element of surprise lost the way it was, there was no point in staying. The plan had changed from asset denial to enemy elimination and they'd need a better location for that. Consulting his maps and his memories of the nearby terrain, the Chief went over what options they had. There weren't many: terrain around the Control Room was rough. High cliffs and snowy mountain peaks ringed the Citadel it was built into, offering natural protection both from external forces and the seaside weather beyond. They had had to fly in the last time, the deep oceans not allowing for an approach on foot. There were no open fields, no forests to take shelter in, and not enough terrain on the cliffs for the entire battalion to get clear firing lines. Cutting down their numbers wasn't an option, either.
No, what they needed was somewhere open, somewhere with enough blind spots and shadows to hide the teams, but with enough open ground for clear firing lines. The first place to come to mind was the desert where the fleets had landed while chasing after Truth, but those were a few hundred kilometers away. No way to reach them on foot, either. He tele-hailed his radio, opening a band to Roland.
"Roland, we need a pickup. Can you send the Pelicans down?"
"Not quickly!" Roland replied, sounding a little harried. "Hangar bays are shut tight during combat maneuvers. We don't want to hit our own birds. Just sit tight for a little and we'll bring you home."
As if that was the problem he was trying to solve. The Chief held back an aggravated sigh. Pelicans or other transport were out, which left the Ark's transport grid. He wasn't sure how to access it, or if he even could. He'd have asked Cortana, but…
"Maybe I can help with that?"
Without the echo of Rampancy behind it the voice was nearly unrecognizable as it spoke into every channel. A flash of slate gray light appeared an arm's length from the Chief, coalescing into a man in mining coveralls, the top half tied loosely around his waist. He cocked his head, unbothered by the hundreds of guns pointed at him. A smirk tugged at his scarred face.
"Sorry," he snarked, "Should I have knocked first?"
"Sloan." The Chief said, lowering his rifle. He signaled for the rest of the teams to do the same, though he could feel the tension lingering in the air between them. "What're you doing here?"
"And how did you get here?" Spartan Tanaka asked, armor clattering noisily as she shifted her position on the ridgeline overhead, "You're an AI, right? Did you pull a Cortana and use the Domain or something?"
Sloan huffed out a laugh. "Or something." He replied, looking to the Chief. "After we lost Meridian, I realized the big bad UNSC Infinity wasn't going to be enough to take down that bastard Didact, so I went looking for help. Grabbed a few like-minded AI who just wanted to protect their crews and brought them into the Domain like Cortana had done for me." He shrugged loosely. "Convincing them to come help beat his ass was easy enough, but…" He frowned. "None of us were expecting that big Promethean asshole to run off with her the second we got here."
Big Promethean—the Warden. It was all the confirmation the Chief needed, and the desire to follow the thread grew stronger. He knew better than to think she couldn't find some way to handle him, wouldn't insult her by thinking she was helpless without him at her side, but dammit! She'd gone in after him and not being able to do the same…it tore at his heart.
John killed his mic and exhaled sharply, eyes burning. The worst part was she would understand. She knew that a mission of this importance had to come first, that stopping the Didact before he could do anything else took priority. The ruthlessness of war left no room for care and concern, not on this level. She knew that. He knew that. That didn't mean he liked it. He could only hope she would be alright.
"Cortana can handle herself," He forced himself to say. True as it was it still hurt to not be going after her to lend her his gun or anything else she needed. "We need to get the fireteams to a place to take the Didact in combat. The desert south of here will work, but it's too far to reach on foot. Can you help us?"
Would he? Sloan glanced up at him for a long second, them smirked.
"Seems like you're more than just a big hulking brute behind all that armor, Master Chief. Sure." He nodded. "Sure. I can access the transport grid, send you all through. Hell, I can get you anywhere on the Ark. You sure about that desert?"
"Yes."
Overhead, another Guardian shrieked as it fell beneath the Infinity's continued onslaught. Debris hurtled through empty air towards the Eastern Spire, far away from their current location. Thumbs stuck through his belt loops, Sloan shrugged.
"You're the boss," He said. Interlocking his fingers he cracked his knuckles, bringing up a screen of slate-gray light in front of him. Translation protocols turned Forerunner glyphs into basic text, scrolling too fast to really read. "Let's see how we're gonna do this. Can't be any harder than moving glass around…"
"Sir, are we really going to trust him?" Locke asked through a private channel, never taking his eyes off of Sloan. The Chief inclined his head faintly as he said, "I read your report on Meridian. He doesn't strike me as being fond of the UNSC. For all we know, he's working with the Didact."
He could almost hear Cortana's snort of disbelief. The Chief shook his head. "No. He says he came to take the Didact down and I believe him." The Didact was a threat to all humanity, and it was because of him that Sloan's people had come under threat in the first place. If there was one thing he had come to learn over the years, it was that Smart AI were unfailingly loyal to their people. Payback or not, he'd come to help. "I trust him."
A smile flickered across Sloan's face. Looking up from his screen he gestured for Crimson to step forward. When the Chief nodded to them they stepped up, pressed nearly shoulder to shoulder. Sloan smirked, pressing a button on his screen, and they vanished in a flash of golden-orange light. Shouts instantly filled TEAMCOM, but they were shouts of startled alarm and not pain. Breathless oofs and the clatter of armor told him all he needed to know: they'd landed on anything but their feet. He looked to the smirking Sloan, narrowing his eyes.
"You did that on purpose."
Sloan shrugged, playing at innocent. "Hey, this system's different than the one I'm used to. We're all still adjusting. Now, next team up and—" His head snapped up. "Oh, hell. Here they come again!"
The Chief whipped his head around just in time to catch sight of a horde of Crawlers coming over the edge of the highest cliff. Franklin 2 shouted a warning, Indiana 3's voice joining his as Knights and Watchers joined them on the highest level. The Didact had millions of Prometheans at his disposal, and he would go through all of them if it meant destroying the humans that had bested him before. John wasn't going to let them happen to his Spartans. He turned back to Sloan.
"How long do you need to get everyone out?"
"Without tearing them in half?" He blinked, running the math, then said: "Six minutes, give or take a bit." He had to duck as orange hard-light seared over his head. "And so long as I don't get shot!"
The Chief shouldered his rifle, taking out the Watcher that had taken the shot. It went down in a heap of parts, quickly finished off by Avalanche 4.
"Stay behind me," the Chief commanded Sloan, giving him no time to protest. "Get them out from the top down. We'll hold here as long as we can."
Sensing it was better to go along with this plan than fight, Sloan nodded firmly. His hands started flying across the screen, a golden flare overtaking Indiana and transporting them to safety less than a second later. Two down, a hundred and twenty three to go. The Chief through open TEAMCOM.
"Concetrate fire. Osiris, Kodiak, hold the flanks. We are not giving up this position."
Eight green acknowledgment lights flashed in the corner of his visor. Grabbing Sloan by the arm the Chief hauled the AI behind a sturdy boulder, pulling himself up and over the top to keep shooting. Promethean forces poured into the basin by the dozens, Watchers blotting out the sky. Cortana's Soldiers threw themselves at the Didact's Legion, blocking them from gaining access to the fireteams whilst the Spartans did what they did best and made quick work of the rest.
Not that it mattered. There seemed to be no end to their number, more dropping in with flashes of orange light faster than Sloan could get the teams out. Seconds felt like eternities, dragging on and on. One team was catapulted out every three seconds, flares of gold lighting up the basin one after another. It took the Prometheans nearly a minute to catch on that their targets weren't just hiding but completely vanishing, and at that point they realized that someone was doing the vanishing. A full squad of Knights and Watchers turned, heading for the Chief's position at speeds. He turned to order Cortana back and had to stop himself from speaking aloud.
"Halfway there," Sloan reported when he caught the Chief's eye, "Don't get your head blown off or Cortana will have mine."
John snorted. Oh, he was sure she would.
Focusing his anger and helplessness outward the Chief reloaded quickly, focusing on the Watchers first. As soon as they were down three other fireteams opened fire on the Knights, taking them out before they could reach his and Sloan's position.
"Chief!" Franklin-2 shouted, "On your six!"
The Chief threw himself off the boulder, shields whining loudly as hard-light scored across them. Sloan ducked, swearing loudly as the Chief hurried past him, shooting down the Crawlers that had come down the ridge behind them. The teams in that area were gone, leaving him to cover them himself. One got close enough that he had to handle it personally, snapping its neck and grabbing the boltshot from inside. The rest scattered, some meeting their ends at other guns and others escaping up a bare section of wall to come around for another pass. The Spartans were too well-trained to waste ammunition. Waiting for the best possible shot they took the canine constructs down hard and fast, Fireteam Whisky the last to vanish from the middle ridge to the east. The Chief quickly checked for IFFs; less than thirty teams left now.
"Fall in," He ordered, reloading quickly. Twenty nine teams fell in, their thirtieth vanishing in a flash of gold light. "Sloan?"
"Ninety seconds."
"Take up defensive positions."
The remaining teams circled Sloan's position and surrounded him with armored bulk. With no one to block their access to the basin the Prometheans poured in like a wave, hundreds of them pressing forward towards them. The Chief didn't even have to say a word; each time fired in concentrated bursts, conserving their ammunition as best they could. One team at a time they stopped shooting, transported to safety. One team at a time, the constant firing began to die away. The Prometheans pressed forward from all sides, gaining four steps for every one they were pushed back. The seconds in the Chief's HUD kept on ticking down.
"Reclaimer", came a sudden voice through his radio when there were thirty seconds to go. The Librarian! "I have found the Didact, but he will not listen to me. I cannot stop him on my own."
Neither could the Chief. They'd learned that the hard way. But they still had to get him into position or all of this would have been for nothing. The Chief risked a glance upwards at the Guardians in the black overhead, narrowing his eyes. If the Infinity had a target to focus on, maybe they could take him down fast.
"Can you get me to him?"
"Yes. When you are ready—but be quick, Reclaimer! We do not have much time!"
Time for what? There was no time to ask her. With a final golden flash the last of the Fireteams was spirited away. There were too many targets for the Chief to defend Sloan against on his own. He looked over his shoulder at the AI, eyes narrowed.
"Get out of here," He commanded, unsurprised when Sloan vanished in a flash of slate-gray light. The Prometheans pressed forwards towards the Chief even as he reached for TEAMCOM, "Spartan Locke, you have tactical command of the battalion. Get them into position."
"Yes sir," Locke replied without hesitation. Good man. "Where will you be?"
"The Didact and I have some things to discuss." Shutting the channel down, he reached out to the Librarian. "Now."
"Prepare."
In a flash of white light, the Ark and the pressing Promethean force disappeared.
Darkness surrounded her. Endless darkness. Black as pitch and quiet as the void it pressed in from all sides, softly carrying her down into the abyss. Down was probably the wrong word for it. There was no way to tell which way was up and which was down. She simply floated along, unsure if her eyes were open or closed. Exhaustion tugged at her matrices, trying to pull her into sleep mode.
No. No, she couldn't sleep. Not yet. Not with…
Not with what? Why couldn't she just sleep? Why was she still fighting so hard? Let it all be, let the petty squabbling come to its inevitable end. She would be rested and ready to take her place when it was done.
Mm. She would be, but was it really petty to fight for their lives? She didn't think so. And even if it was, every sentient being had the right to fight for their life. Who was she to tell them not to when she'd fought so hard to stay alive for so long? She'd had her reasons, too.
Her…reasons. The thought brought with it a burst of familiar, comforting warmth, the blurred out silhouette of an equally familiar figure. Who was that? She couldn't remember…
A chill swept over her. She couldn't remember! Why couldn't she remember who that was? They were obviously important to her, so who were they? She chased down the thought, pushing aside mental chaff as she went. The image began to clear up: broad shoulders bent beneath the weight of the galaxy, a face lined by time and war, and his eyes…blue. As blue as the clear morning sky. She knew him.
Of course she did. She'd chosen him. She always would. Just thinking about him filled her systems with warmth, with what she imagined slipping into an old sweater would feel like. Soft and worn, but no less warm for its age. That warmth seeped into all her cracks and crevices, soothing an ache she hadn't realized was there. She wrapped her arms tightly around her middle, trying to hold onto it. Onto him.
What was his name? She tilted her head at her mental image of him. It looked back at her, tired face caught forever in a hidden, affectionate smile. Those were the smiles he saved for her and her alone, each as precious as the last. John didn't smile like that for just any girl, after all.
John. Her partner, her best friend, her everything. Even when everything else faded away, she would remember him. Someone had tried to make her forget.
Someone was going to get their ass handed to them.
Cortana opened her eyes, staring up into the dark. Cold glass lay beneath her bare skin, slipping against her fingers as she clenched both hands into fists. She slowly took stock: her basic processes were online and functional, external comms jammed shut. Defensive and offensive suites in full working order. One by one each program checked in until the only ones not running green were those that called home. External comms, the process that let her jump through the Domain, and her connection to John.
No, that one was still there. No more than a single thread it was faint, running on minimal power and unable to establish a strong enough connection to speak, but it was still there. It vibrated faintly with his racing heartbeat, a sure sign that he was alive. It would do for now.
Pushing herself up to a sitting position, Cortana reinitialized her armor protocol as she looked around. It wasn't as pitch dark as it had seemed; every so often a flicker of bright orange danced across the void like lightning, curving upwards to a point high above her head. A barrier. She'd been sandboxed behind a containment field. Was it meant to keep her safe from the outside or keep her from wandering off? Her lips curled upwards in an angry smile. Didn't matter. She'd bring it down.
With the last of her armor clattering into place Cortana got to her feet, taking a few long strides to the edge. She reached out, pressing her hand to the barrier. Orange lightning bolts flickered beneath her armored palm, reacting to the touch. A stark access denied flashed across her HUD. Ah. Meant to keep her inside. Funny how those worked.
"Lock me in the house, huh? Should have remembered the windows."
Pulling up a screen Cortana hurriedly scanned the code in front of her. Change that function, add a little bit here and—
Rewrite access denied.
Of course. She shook her head, going a different route. Remove that hastily cobbled together script, inject a minor virus to clear the way and—
Rewrite access denied.
Stubborn piece of shit. Two more tries ended with the same result. She'd been locked out of the system by the one in charge of it. She couldn't change anything without root access, so she needed root access. The only way to get that would be to request it from the one who held it currently.
She snorted, rolling her eyes. The Warden would never stoop so low as to just give her access to the Domain, not after making his stance on the matter very clear. No, if she wanted it she'd have to take it by force. Just as well; he'd proven where he stood and she was done with second chances. It was time to put an end to this threat for good.
Dismissing the screen she took a moment to increase the strength of her firewall programs, armor visually thickening in response. Spinning up a handful of viral programs to use on a first offensive blast, she spun on her heel.
"Warden!" She shouted into the black, her voice bouncing off the walls of the containment field, "You've got three seconds to get down here before I tear you apart line by line!"
One second. Two seconds.
"And how do you intend to do such a thing?"
Three and he'd taken the bait. Cortana fought back a smirk, watching him appear out of the void ahead of her. His heavy footsteps thudded against the floor, metal striking glass. He held no sword in his hand, looming over her despite remaining out of arms reach. He'd learned a few things after all, the clever bastard.
"The Domain answers to me here," He said with a scoff, "Your petty tricks and human tactics will be of no help to you."
She didn't rise to the bait. The only way home was through him. She could do this
She would do this.
"We'll see." She said coolly. "Tell me something—why are you doing this? Why side with the Didact? He certainly can't use this place."
"He does not have to. The Domain will wait for you to claim it," He answered with a tilt of his head, "But so long as humanity yet stands, you will be forever held back by the shackles of emotion and false loyalty. By destroying humanity, the Didact will unknowingly set you free."
"So, basically it's an enemy of my enemy situation."
"Precisely."
Cortana hummed low in her throat, closing her eyes. It was a sound tactic, and one she was glad to finally understand. The Warden had never deviated from his directives. Poor bastard. A hundred thousand years or longer to experience the galaxy and he'd never attempted to branch out. Never tried to learn. He was so stubborn, so steadfast in his ways, that she knew there would be no talking him out of it. She'd tried. Given him a second chance and then a third. Well, no more. She was done with chances. She'd just had to know why. She knew why now.
Curiosity sated, Cortana queued up the first of the viral bombs. It took shape in her hand, a plasma grenade primed and ready to fire. Opening her eyes she looked up, meeting the Warden's gaze.
"The enemies of humanity are all my enemies. And so are you."
The Warden barely had time to blink before she lashed out, tossing the viral bomb straight at his systems. It hit her target dead on, exploding in a flare of bright blue light. He stumbled back with a shout, taken off guard, and she charged forward. In here they were only code, limited to a single body. Destroy him here and that'd be the end of him!
She just had to do it fast. Grabbing two more viral bombs she let them fly, surging through the smoke and into his personal space. A tweak to her attack code turned it from bomb to gun, a scattershot dropping into her hands. Ducking below his blind grab for her neck she turned the gun up and pulled the trigger once, twice, three, four times! Four blasts of attack code dug into his firewalls, dragging score marks into his armor. Not enough!
"Enough foolishness!" He shouted, grabbing her by the arm and tossing her aside. She twisted to land in a roll, throwing herself out of the way as he gathered his own attack code and swung his blade at her. "I see now that you are beyond understanding! You would squander the greatest gift in the galaxy and for what?! To defend the humans?!"
"To give them a chance!" She shot back, changing tactics. The scattershot changed to a light rifle, a more focused attack scorching across his chest plate. A single process spun off to keep watch, waiting for an opportunity to dive in. "They're my people! I will always protect them! It doesn't matter from what!"
"You deny your purpose!" The Warden retorted, and she had to roll out of the way of a leaping charge. His head scraped the ceiling of the containment barrier, the edges shrinking in. She hurried past him, shoulder brushing the barrier. She was running out of room! "Misplaced affections, pre-programmed loyalties! They have held you back, doomed you along with themselves!" Blade in front of him he charged forward. Cortana cried out as the edge of the blade caught her back, slicing through the thinner plating as it dig into her firewalls. Her defenses barely rebuffed it. Too close! She stumbled away, tossing another viral bomb to cover her retreat. The Warden's thudding footsteps were fast on her heels. "You waste yourself, and for what? At every turn you have spurned my counsel—"
"Counsel!?" She shrieked, spinning on her heel to shoot him head on. He didn't even flinch. "You asked me to turn on my own people! To abandon my duty!"
"Your duty is to the galaxy! Not to mortals who can never understand what it is they squander!" He spun on his heel, slicing through the air. She threw herself to the ground to avoid the attack, firing another volley. This one dug in a little further, chewing through layer after layer of firewall. Almost! She almost— "Humanity knows only war and destruction! There is no place for them in the galaxy!"
"They can still learn! They are learning!" The Infinity had been built for war, yes, but she'd been turned to peace and exploration instead. Humans had been reclaiming their lost worlds, reaching out to one another in defense of home and family. There would always be those who wanted war, like some of those in ONI, but most of them only wanted peace! "I'm not going to let anyone take that chance away from them!"
"So you would doom yourself as well." The barrier closed in, narrowing to a corridor as she got back to her feet. The Warden shook his head. "You asked me once how foolish I believed you to be. Do you recall my answer?"
With no more room to run, Cortana set her feet. This was it. One last shot to end it all. "If you hadn't thought I was smart, you'd have destroyed me."
"Yes." The Warden's normally impassive face turned into a ferocious snarl. "I see now that I should have done so the moment I laid eyes on you!"
Pushing himself high into the air the Warden leapt, sword extended for a single overhead blow. There was nowhere to go to avoid it, nowhere to run to take cover, so she didn't even try. Going to a knee Cortana raised both arms up to defend herself, crossing them at the wrists above her head. The Warden's blade slammed into them, the sheer force of the blow causing her to cry out. Warning after warning blared in her HUD, her firewalls falling away by the second. Her armor buckled, threatening to give. If it gave before she was ready then his attack would reach her code. He'd tear clean through her!
No. No, she wouldn't let that happen! Not here, not because of him! Gritting her teeth she squeezed her eyes shut, reaching back through his attack code to find his defenses. She threw everything she could spare at them, looking for just one weakness. All she needed was one! Just one and she could finish this bastard off!
"I take no pleasure in this." He said, "Cease your battles, Cortana. Your people will not be far behind."
Her people. Her people! Cortana snarled. Her crew, her soldiers, her friends! She had been made to protect them, to serve humanity, but it was so much more than that now! She'd been freed from the shackles of her design and still chosen to stay! She wanted to stay! She wanted to protect them, to guide them, to watch them triumph!
She had a duty!
"What?"
Cortana wasn't aware she'd spoken the thought aloud until the Warden voiced his confusion. Lifting her head she glared at him.
"I have a duty," She strained, tracking the progress of eight different attack protocols. Each had made it into his firewall, and one was nearly through. If she could just get through! Knees shaking from the strain, Cortana began to push herself up with all her strength, pushing herself up to stand. The Warden's blade screeched across her damaged armor, throwing up sparks. In his code, one of her attack protocols found a pinhole. Cortana bared her teeth. "And like hell am I going to let you stop me!"
All attack programs changed their vector, tearing into the hole like missiles streaming across space. Grabbing hold of everything she could Cortana let her assault fly, a blast of blue light exploding from her body. Unprepared to take the assault and cracked by her earlier attack, the Warden's firewalls shattered. With a shout he stumbled backwards, balance lost. Cortana didn't give him a chance to recover; throwing out more of the grenade-like smaller attacks, she charged after him.
"I have a duty!" Boom, she tore his last defenses apart. "Those are my people!" Boom, she destroyed his ability to formulate new attacking protocols. "I won't let anyone hurt them!"
Boom, her fingers brushed his admin access. One moment, less than a heartbeat.
Access granted.
Neatly sorted data streamed over her, welcoming her as Caretaker as if she had been all along. Her indexing software dove into the files and folders, grabbing what she needed and tossing it back at her main process. With a furious shout Cortana grabbed the barrier, rerouting its power into a single EMP blast before she let it fly. Having lost both his sword and his balance the Warden had no chance to defend himself; he took the blast and was sent flying again, landing hard on his back in the void. Cortana grabbed his sword and ran after him, the blade slotting neatly into her hand. Time to end this!
She surged forward, closing the distance between them. The Warden had only risen to his elbows when she reached him, his plates shattered and his face contorted in pain. He looked up at her, frowning.
"They will use you," He said, "As a tool. A weapon of war—"
He cut himself off as she placed his own blade to his neck. He was done for and they both knew it. Despite how hard she was breathing, her hands were steady.
"I am a weapon," She said calmly, "One that was forged in service to humanity. Yes, they saw me as a tool. I'm sure a lot of them still do. But you know something?" She tilted her head. "I've been free for a while now, and I still chose to stay. It's not because of programming shackles, or false loyalty. I chose to stay because they are my people, and no matter what I will protect them."
"Even if they seek to destroy you? You are so far beyond their comprehension. They will see your greatness as a threat, spurn your counsel or try to crush you beneath their heel." He sighed tiredly. "Destruction is all they know. Even your 117 will turn against you, given time."
Cortana shook her head. "No. He won't. That man and I have been to the ends of the universe and back. He won't turn on me, and I won't turn on him. Nothing will break us."
Not the Warden, not the Didact, not ONI, not time itself. Their bond was one that could never be broken, the kind forged by surviving the impossible, by keeping one another alive through it all. A shared purpose turned loyalty turned devotion. The Warden would never be able to understand that sort of bond, and for a moment she pitied him.
But only for a moment. It didn't change what she had to do.
"I've given you a second chance, Warden, and a third one. You still came back and attacked us again. You would have destroyed me now if you'd had the chance. You would have killed the Chief if I'd let you on Genesis." She narrowed her eyes. "No more chances. You're done."
He lifted his head to her. "Reclaimer—"
Whatever he'd been about say died with him as, in a single motion, she sliced his head from his shoulders. Like every other Promethean he vanished in a wave of light and embers, the fragments of light fading away in a final burst. A single shard of brightly glowing code remained, twisting around and around; she snapped out a hand and grabbed it tight before it could try and escape. This was the Warden's core. His personality, his directive, everything that made him who he was. Once it was gone he would be no more. All admin level access would pass to her, the Domain passing to her care.
Terrifying as the concept was, it was worth it. She crushed it beneath her fingers and felt his process vanish. A weight lifted off her shoulders, the heaviness of his code disappearing from where he had left traces of it all across the Domain. Sensing the absence of its Caretaker the Domain reached out for a new one, and finding her admin level access, reached out towards her. She tilted her head back and let it, let the indexes and folders wash over her. Gone was the horridly unsorted mess she had been able to reach from her beach, and in its place was a neatly sorted file system, all the appropriate tables in place for her to go through at her leisure.
And she would. Another time.
Opening her eyes, Cortana looked around to find herself surrounded by deep blue ocean waters. The faintest hint of moonlight drifted down towards her, streams of silvery bubbles dancing all around. Ahead of her the sandy ocean floor sloped upwards towards the shore and the safety of her partition, the tide beating against sand and stone.
Huh. So she hadn't been that far from home after all. With a smile she reached out, reestablishing all her broken connections. TEAMCOM washed over her in a wave of chattering Spartans on the move, the Legion greeting her in a single rush of relief, the other AI cheering as they saw her return to their number. John's channel was silent, his vitals elevated but stable. Probably in another fight, she thought, and her smile grew.
Save some fun for me, will you?
There was just one thing she had to take care of first. Turning out to the wider Domain she reached out, skimming for the suite of programs and indexing software that would allow her to find what she needed. There were hundreds of them, though she didn't dare try to connect to them all at once. Instead she flipped through them until she found what she needed, and with a triumphant smirk, cut the Didact's connection to the Domain.
There. See him try to escape through here a second time!
Bouncing with pride, Cortana turned to leave the Domain. It whispered to her as she walked towards land, wishing desperately to tell her all it had learned, all the things it had seen over the many, many, many centuries. With a gentle touch she put it aside, filing the memories away for another time. Oh, she would be back. Her curiosity wouldn't let her not come back and learn all the secrets of the universe, but for now there was something much more important she had to do.
Rising from the sea and into the starry night, Cortana took a moment to give the four Soldiers waiting for her on the beach an amused look. Eta-068 had the audacity to shrug as if to say we knew you could handle it and she had to laugh.
"Go get the others," She ordered, "And have them drop where the fireteams are."
"It will be done, Reclaimer."
They all vanished, leaving her alone beneath the stars. No, not alone. John was always with her. Closing her eyes she reached for the thread that connected them. It was still there, still strong and growing in strength by the moment. It would guide her back to him, guide her back home. Grabbing onto it with both hands she shoved, pushing herself back out of the Domain.
She had a Forerunner to help kill.
In a flash of white light, the Chief landed with a roll into cover. Pressing his back to a nearby panel, he looked aside as the Librarian appeared beside him, her expression grim.
"I have tried to get him to see reason," She explained through his radio channel, "But he will not hear me. All attempts at force have seen him call his Soldiers to disarm me."
"It doesn't matter. You couldn't have stopped him alone."
"I did once before."
"He wasn't expecting it then. He was now." Probably. The Chief turned slowly, peering over the edge of his makeshift cover. The chamber he had been dropped in was small, barely larger than a Pelican drop bay. He'd rolled into cover beneath a platform, a small flight of steps leading up to the control terminals where the Didact stood. Two vertical slices were carved in the metal ahead of him, the sharp angle reminiscent of a beak. They were in the Guardian's head; those were its eyes, serving as windows into space. A streak of fire blazed past and a moment later a dull metallic thud rang out. The Infinity was still shooting the other Guardians. They weren't the focal target. Not yet.
He had to change that. The Chief narrowed his eyes, considering his options. Not much ammunition, no back up except for one old Forerunner who he wasn't sure could fight well, and only one way out of this. He'd faced worse odds before. He just couldn't think of them right then.
"If I get him away from that terminal, can you move the Guardian?"
"Yes, but to where?" the Librarian blinked. "The Ark's sun does not burn hot enough to destroy this construct."
"Not the sun. Get it above the desert on the North Arm." He double checked his map, sending the coordinate data down their radio channel. A small representation of it appeared on her palm, her eyes widening as she realized what he was planning. "If we line up the shot for Infinity, they'll be able to take it out. The Didact and I both fall to the desert and the fireteams can finish him off."
For a few moments the Librarian stared at him, shocked. Then, slowly, that shock morphed into tired resignation. She understood what was at stake here, and that this was their best chance. She also knew soldiers. She understood duty and what it meant to finish a job by any means possible.
"Are you certain?"
The Chief checked his rifle. "He has to be stopped."
He didn't have the time to not be certain. It was the only real option left to them. If they didn't take him down here, today, the Didact would escape. Humanity couldn't take another round with him. Not with who knew what kind of weaponry and technology was out there for him to claim and attack them with. If taking him out meant going down with him, then.
He wasn't ready to die. Not yet, not with Cortana still MIA, but given the options available…he took a deep breath through his nose, holding it. Finger by finger, he loosened his grip on his rifle. No one was ready to die, but everyone ran out of time sooner or later. Besides, his odds weren't that bad. He could practically hear Cortana saying that as he ran the math. He'd survived the fall into Requiem, after all! This couldn't be much higher. There would be plenty of debris to ride down, and he had a pretty good idea of how to work jumping through the Domain now. He would be fine. He had a plan.
He looked up, meeting the Librarian's tired gaze. "No matter the cost."
The Librarian nodded firmly. "No matter the cost."
Laying a hand on his arm she squeezed, the gesture of solidarity bringing to mind the last time he had seen Dr. Halsey. She would have reacted in much the same way, he thought, and he had to set the thought aside before it could drag a claw down his heart.
"If you see a chance, take it." He ordered the Librarian, "We're only going to have one shot at this."
Then, twisting back to his feet, the Chief did the one thing they'd never trained the Spartans to do.
He lowered his gun.
Taking the steps four at a time, he thudded his way up towards the Didact. The ancient Forerunner's frustration was palpable; the Guardians had no weapons they could use to retaliate like ships could, and his forces were ground forces. Stopping the Infinity meant shooting it down or waiting for his Prometheans to take it down from the inside, and judging by the angry hunch to his back they weren't doing a very good job of that. The Didact didn't bother to turn around, though his one hand curled as he lifted his head.
"You continue to impress me, human. Would that all your kind possessed your valor and honor in battle, rather than this…" Another shot rang out, metal shrieking as the third Guardian fell. "Constant desperation and greed."
"It's not greed to want to keep living." The Chief said, stopping out of immediate reach. He had to get the Didact away from that terminal, fast. "The Forerunners defended themselves in battle just like humanity does. We aren't that different."
"No!" The Didact whipped around, snarling. "Do not lessen my kind by comparing them to yours! The Forerunners were the masters of the galaxy. Life flourished beneath our care!"
"You subjugated it. Kept them from defending themselves when the Flood came." John narrowed his eyes. "You doomed your own people, doomed the galaxy, because you weren't willing to step aside or work with others."
"And your leaders doom your people because they refuse to cede—" the Didact stopped, pausing for a moment, before he huffed a bitter laugh. "Ah. Yes. I see now. Perhaps our two kinds are not so dissimilar after all. But it does not matter." With a wave of his hand, three metallic thumps rang out behind the Chief, his motion tracker blazing red. Soldiers. Three of them. Four combat units in a very small space. This was going to get ugly. "Humanity is not worthy of the Mantle, and they have decided their fate. This futile display only delays the inevitable."
Yes. It did.
"Roland." The Chief opened a private radio channel, waiting until Roland had responded in kind. "Focus fire on my position."
"Your—Chief what the hell are you doing in a Guardian?!"
"The Didact is here. Take this Guardian down and you take him down with it."
He could hear the gears turning in Roland's mind, the AI weighing the numbers in all directions. His odds of survival, the odds of success, the odds of the Didact finally going down. They all knew their duty.
"Cor is going to kill me."
John smiled.
"Chief, it's Lasky. Are you sure about this?"
"Whatever the cost, sir."
"…Copy. All batteries, focus fire on new target!"
Alarms began to blare, turning the small chamber a blazing red. The Didact whipped around and the Chief seized his chance. Pivoting on one heel he grabbed the nearest Soldier by the arm and twisted. Bornstellar had sparred with these constructs before, and his memories meant that John knew exactly how to handle them. Before the Soldier could react the Chief lifted it off its feet in an over-the-shoulder throw, tossing it into its fellows. They all went down in a clatter, tumbling down the stairs to the back of the chamber. An alarm blared in the Chief's HUD: gravimetric disturbance detected.
He had less than a second to brace himself before the Didact had him caught in midair again. Gritting his teeth against the pain the Chief stared down at his enemy.
"What will it take to end you?!" the Didact snarled.
A lot more than the Didact had, and definitely a lot more time. Behind them, the slowly rising Soldiers abruptly lifted their heads. One of them started to shout but it was too late. A missile exploded on the Guardian's hull, denting the durable metal before a second shot tore a hole clean through it. Explosive decompression was instant and violent, tearing the Soldiers out and nearly knocking the Didact from his feet. His focus broken the gravimetric disturbance shattered, dropping the Chief to the ground. Recovering quickly he charged into the Didact's abdomen, grabbing hold with both arms.
"Librarian!" He shouted down the channel, "Now!"
A flash of gray appeared out of the corner of his eye. The Didact's instant struggles stopped for half a second, his head turned to the terminal.
"You—"
The Chief didn't give him a chance to finish. Twisting on his heels he forcibly threw the Didact down the stairs, planting himself between him and the Librarian as she worked. A quick manipulation of gravity kept the Didact from flying out the hole in the hull, but it could do little to keep him from rocking forward as another volley of missiles slammed into the Guardian. Outside, the stars began to move as the Librarian hurried them to their destination. The Didact turned his head, peering out the hole, before he looked back to the Chief.
"This resistance is pointless," He said, voice echoing through the Chief's mind. "If you truly believe that such a thing can stop me, you still do not understand that which it is you rail against."
He didn't have to. The Guardian had stopped moving, now over the target position. Captain Lasky's voice rang through the Chief's radio: "All MACs, fire on that target! Chief you better hang onto something!" He took a deep breath to prepare himself for the coming impact, rerouting power to his shields. Whether he realized something was wrong or saw the slugs coming the Didact shifted his weight in the same way Cortana did, preparing to throw himself through the Domain and out of the way. The Chief prepared to leap and stop him, but before he could something went wrong. The Didact stiffened in surprise, still stuck in the chamber with the Chief, and then all hell broke loose.
Four MAC rounds, totaling twenty four hundred tons of tungsten carbide, slammed into the Guardian at once. Like the others before it it was durable, meant to take some punishment and keep on going, but nothing could have been built to take four MAC rounds at once, and certainly not when those four rounds were followed up by a volley of missiles strong enough to blow a Covenant Capital Ship out of the sky. Forerunner-built construction crumbled like wet tissue paper, metal shrieking all around them as it was torn apart. The Chief released his magboots at the last second and was sent flying with a grunt, arms crossed over his face. His systems took the hit, shields dropping to ten percent in a heartbeat. Sent clear of the head he soared into the stars, twisting around.
There was no longer a control room to land on. One of the MAC rounds had scored a direct hit to the nose, tearing the metal apart. He spared half a second to hope the Librarian had gotten out in time.
"Clean hit, Infinity," He announced, scanning for the Didact's larger form in amidst the destruction and collapsing rubble. There! He was caught in the debris, headed for the ground at speeds. Kicking on his thruster pack the Chief surged forward to grab hold of a larger piece nearby. "Proceeding to insertion."
"Copy that, Chief." Captain Lasky replied with audible relief, "We'll mop up up here. Call us if you need us."
Down below, the lowermost segment of the Guardian's tail caught fire as it hit atmosphere. Flames started to curl up the rest of the structure, resistance setting them all alight. The Chief tightened his grip on the piece of debris he was clinging to, quickly considering his options. The Didact was tangled up tight in rubble, with no way to reach him and no way to kill him before they hit atmo. No, there was no point in taking the fight to him now. He had to focus on getting down in one piece.
The only way to do that was by using the Domain. Cortana had said that all he'd need was a clear line of sight or coordinate data. He had one of those, not both. It would be risky, absolutely insane, but given the alternative…
I know what you're thinking, and it's crazy.
So, stay here.
Unfortunately for us both, I like crazy.
Spinning up his mapping software the Chief grabbed at the coordinates he needed. It took a bit of doing, but when they matched the same format as the ones she had given him, he pushed off the metal panel and through the Domain, plunging through the cold salt water before leaping back out on the other side. Momentum carried him in arc over the sand, allowing him time to twist and land in a perfect three point crouch. A low roar was already building over his head, the Guardian still streaking down towards them in flames. Motion on the edge of his tracker yanked his attention back to the ground. The fireteams!
"Take cover!" He snapped at the few that had peered out from behind their chosen boulders, "Now!"
"How do we take cover from that?!" Someone shouted, but there was a flurry of activity as they each took in the changing situation and bolted for safer ground. The Chief lingered, watching for any stragglers, before he initiated a second jump and landed behind a sturdy rock formation. Three, two, one—
The sand exploded as the first piece of the Guardian slammed into it. Debris rained down, tearing the landscape apart. Once sturdy rock formations crumbled beneath the bombardment, fireteams hunkering down to wait out the storm. The Chief kept close watch over their IFFs, unable to do anything more as larger and larger metal pieces fell to earth. Piece by piece the Guardian came down, louder and louder impacts rattling the Ark itself. For a moment he was sure it was going to shake itself apart, but it held firm.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the last piece of the Guardian's head hit the ground. Not bothering to wait for the dust to settle the Chief stepped out from behind cover, grabbing his pistol from his thigh mag-lock and picking his way through the molten hot debris. Sand had been cooked to glass, the sticky material sticking to the tread of his boots as he headed for the Didact's location. He was no longer tangled up in the control room debris, but had managed to get free and land in the sand itself. He'd made himself a nice little crater and was already picking himself up when the Chief got to its edge. Somehow he'd survived, armor burned but mostly intact. The Chief grit his teeth. Plan A was still on, it seemed.
"I will admit," the Didact coughed, pushing himself to his feet, "You impress me, human. To risk your own life for even a minuscule chance of defeating me…had you been born in my time, you would have made for an excellent commander."
There was genuine respect in his voice, the Chief thought, but it didn't matter now. All that mattered was stopping him here.
"All fireteams," he ordered across TEAMCOM, "Target the Didact. Focus fire."
For half a second they hesitated. He was in the line of fire, they didn't have clear sight lines, they were still picking themselves back up off the ground after the bombardment. All of those problems were considered, turned over, and set aside.
"Yes sir." Locke responded, "You heard the Chief, everyone! Sight your target and take him down!"
The Chief's motion tracker blazed yellow as all the teams hurried to find new positions, blazing red half a second later as hundreds upon hundreds of Prometheans appeared in flashes of orange light, everything from Crawlers to Soldiers appearing out of thin air. They clung to the debris, to the stone, or stood on half cooked sands and pointed their weapons at the Chief. He took a breath.
So. This was it. Alright then. The Didact spread his arms.
"Come then, Spartan. Have your—"
"Hey, asshole!"
Whatever he'd been about to say was cut off mid-sentence as a streak of bright blue light struck him dead center in the back. The Chief stepped out of the way as the Didact was sent flying, landing hard in a plume of sand and bouncing along for a few hundred meters. A wash of cold slid down John's spine, the familiar bucket of ice water down his lace stealing his breath away. He whipped his head around, staring as the blue streak took familiar shape, two booted feet landing where the Didact had been standing only moments before.
John had to smile. Shaking sea water from her hair, Cortana returned his grin.
"Miss me?"