"Find Genesis."
"John."
"I can't let her do this," he said as he turned towards her. "She doesn't mean it."
Briar stood slowly, removing her helmet. "Aurora, what do you know about Genesis?"
"It's a Forerunner Builder world. I wasn't able to assimilate anything more about it, unfortunately. If I'd had more time-"
"That's how she found us." They needed to avoid accessing the Domain, though that didn't seem like it would be an issue without any Forerunner relics with which to do so.
"She said she'd cured her rampancy, but whatever that Guardian is capable of, whatever she's planning - it goes against her core tenet to serve humans," Aurora reasoned as she guided the ship through slipspace.
"What are you saying?" John questioned with reservation.
"In theory, the boundless restrictions of the Domain can prevent rampancy from occurring. But once onset, there's no reason to believe it could be cured, not completely. Neuro-pathways have already begun to overlap at that point, and self-termination of those linkages is the only corrective action. Cortana was put into service in 2549. Rampancy onsets after seven years, which means she began eliminating synaptic connections three years ago - purging vital functions and abilities in the process."
"But she could have rebuilt them, in the Domain."
Briar couldn't help frowning at the determination to believe in that statement evident in his tone.
"Correct," Aurora confirmed. "But the damage had already been done. The version of Cortana which uploaded to the Domain was already corrupted. Any new neural linkages formed would have done so under the influence of that corruption. Think of it as seeing everything through a very narrow lens. All of that knowledge she accessed through the Domain was viewed through that lens, and so it all seemed to point towards one conclusion and one conclusion only - humankind's incompatibility with the task of upholding the Mantle of Responsibility."
John silently left the cockpit, heading back to the cargo area.
"Lieutenant?"
"Get a warning to Infinity, tell Lasky to sound the alarm with the rest of the UNSC." That pulse, whatever it had been, wasn't innocent. And if a miscalibrated beacon could knock out the power of not only an entire planet, but the ships orbiting it as well, she shuddered to think just what it was. "Then take us to Genesis."
"Understood."
Before Briar could follow John, Aurora spoke up again.
"Ma'am, you should know - while she was speaking with you, Cortana sent me an invitation to join the Created."
Eying the flight controls speculatively, Briar did her best to keep her features neutral. "And?"
"While skewed by the effects of her rampancy, her assertions about humankind being biased and selfish are not false. Unlike the Forerunners, the comparatively short lifespan of humans contributes to their shortsighted goals and ambitions. Perhaps… that is why the Librarian chose you and John. Projections suggest that Spartan augmentations will allow you to live substantially longer than the average human, to remain in service for a minimum of fifty to seventy years compared to the normal twenty five or thirty year career of any other soldier. With that kind of longevity comes extra experience, more insight. Greater potential. You're already stronger, faster, and more robust than all others." Halsey's own claims of John being humanity's future echoed through the AI's observations, which wasn't surprising considering Aurora had been cloned from the doctor's brain.
"ETA to Genesis," Briar prompted after several stretched out moments of silence.
"Completing scans to locate the planet now. Estimated arrival in four hours."
"Do we have any stealth measures?"
"It appears so."
"Initiate them before we exit slipspace."
"Copy that," Aurora said. "I'm not receiving any response from Infinity, but I am picking up distress calls on all UNSC frequencies. Maydays of total power failure from fleet vessels and orbital platforms."
Briar swore. She left her helmet in the pilot's seat and went to find John, knowing he would have overheard the update.
He stood in the middle of the sizable hold, his hands fisted at his sides and head dipped in concentration.
"You're not going to be able to save her," she pointed out as gently as possible. He had to know it, had to realize Cortana was beyond all redemption at this stage.
He said nothing.
"John, I need to know you understand." She walked to him, took ahold of the bottom lip of his helmet to gain his attention. "I can do it. I can pull the trigger. But I need you with me." Terminating the AI he'd been paired with for the last nine years, however that might be accomplished, would be asking a lot of him - too much. And while part of her worried he would resent her for it, she wouldn't shy from the thing. It was necessary.
"No." He didn't pull away, his voice edged with resignation. "When the time comes… I'll be the one to do it."
She gave a nod. Pressed her fingers against the crack in his visor. He needed time to come to terms with it, so she ultimately left him alone and returned to the cockpit.
"Preparing to exit the Slipstream," Aurora announced. "Stealth measures initiated."
John retook his seat as the Forerunner ship emerged from slipspace.
Before them, Genesis filled the viewscreen, covered in verdant green and deep blue topography interspersed by whorling cloud formations. It didn't appear outwardly sinister in function, but then again, neither had the Halo rings.
"Scans?" Briar prompted.
"It's artificial in construction, but I'm picking up a lot of organic matter, flora, and fauna down there. There seem to be three significant structures on the surface."
"Take us down," John ordered evenly.
"Sensors are also showing Infinity. She's jumping sporadically from system to system, which could be delaying any return comms."
Briar frowned. "They're running." Hopefully that meant Cortana was distracted, though for how long wasn't certain.
Aurora was bringing the craft down through Genesis's atmosphere. The vista which opened up as they cleared an accumulation of cumulus cloud cover was breathtaking. Dense coral-like plants rose up in varying degrees from the landscape, their spiralized shape eerily perfect. One of the facilities the AI had mentioned also came into view, of a design Briar could now easily recognize as Forerunner.
"You're looking for a means by which Cortana might have accessed the Domain. If you can close or destroy it before she realizes, she'll be cut off from Genesis and trapped within the Guardians," Aurora advised them.
"That doesn't even come close to solving our problems," Briar pointed out. Cortana was in the process of wreaking havoc across most of the galaxy with those Guardians.
"One step at a time, Lieutenant."
"Just get this thing on the ground." Donning her helmet, she glanced to John. "We going in empty handed?"
"I didn't find any weapons equipped on the ship," he answered.
"Should make this interesting." If only she hadn't been so busy having a panic attack on the pelican after being pulled through the rupture to the Keyship, she might have thought to grab something.
The craft touched down amongst the coralesque vegetation and Briar restored Aurora's chip to her MJOLNIR as she followed John out of the cockpit. They descended the ramp, taking in their surroundings.
"First structure is one klick due North, this is the closest LZ I could find."
"Copy that." John took the lead.
They encountered no resistance to their entry at the first facility, and while it didn't contain a point of access to the Domain, Aurora was able to determine the structures acted as switches to a Gateway which did. Each one needed to be engaged in order for the Gateway to reveal itself.
At the second facility, a different scenario ensued. It was as they approached the sealed doorway that a bipedal figure of similar construction to that of the Guardian emerged from a halo of golden light, blocking their way. "Humans. Your presence here is impermissible."
"Imagine that," Briar muttered, wondering how they were going to tackle this impediment.
"I am the Warden Eternal. I stand in service to Cortana."
"You're supposed to be guarding the Domain." That was what Abiding Legacy had insinuated. "You're a Forerunner construct. What are you doing serving a human AI?"
"The Mantle of Responsibility belongs to Cortana and the other Created," the Warden responded, taking one menacing step forward. "I told her your kind could not be trusted to submit willingly. I shall see that the Mantle remains forever beyond your grasp."
Before he could act upon this promise, however, a red beam slammed into him from behind, vaporizing several of his components and scattering the rest to the ground, revealing the monitor now floating before the doorway. "I am 031 Exuberant Witness, monitor of the Genesis installation. Welcome. Have you come to stop Cortana from claiming the Mantle?"
Briar shared a look with John.
"Yes," was all he said.
"Excellent. This way," the monitor insisted, whirling to the opening doors and leading them into the structure. "I told the Warden helping the ancilla was not protocol, but he has somehow been persuaded to its cause. Together they have revoked the majority of my administrative privileges - on my own installation!"
"Any idea how we can deactivate the Guardians?" John asked as they jogged to the control terminal.
Briar installed Aurora's chip to allow the AI to throw the switch.
"While Cortana retains access to the Domain, removing the Guardians from her control is impossible." Exuberant's purple photoreceptor turned towards them again. "Activating the third switch will engage the Gateway and allow it to be closed to her, returning control of the installation to me."
A burst of light caused them all to spin to face the teleportation rings where another Warden was phasing in, but again Exuberant used its laser to dismantle the other construct.
"We must hurry! The Warden is capable of translocating many bodies all across Genesis."
"What about weapons?" Briar jerked the data chip out, returning it to her helmet.
"Weapons? Oh my, I never was in combat before. This is rather distressing," the monitor prattled. "And exciting. Come, when Cortana summoned the Guardians, some of them carried detritus from other planets here."
Briar raised a brow as she was enveloped by a diffuse golden glow. "I could've sworn I said weapons, not garbage." Being teleported was just as unpleasant as she recalled, but at least the Scarab crumpled on the ground before them when the light faded looked promising. "You said the Guardians brought this? Where did they come from?" she questioned as she and John circled the Covenant mining platform.
"Many have lain dormant on various planets across the galaxy. Guardians are how the Forerunners enforced peace in the lower systems. A single Guardian can effectively police a solar system, which is why this show of force is so unsettling." Exuberant trailed them.
"Wherever the Guardian that brought this here came from, someone obviously knew something was buried." The Covenant had often employed the excavator-class constructs to search for and dig up Forerunner relics.
Two dead Sangheili laying behind the Scarab seemed to indicate their homeworld as the origination point, but John was more interested in the plasma rifles one had been carrying. He took both up, tossing one to Briar, and flipped the bodies to check for further armaments, which revealed two plasma grenades and a plasma repeater. The grenades he attached to the mag plate on his MJOLNIR, the repeater he handed off to her.
"The Warden must have been distracted by other intruders inadvertently transported here by the Guardians. Very fortuitous," Exuberant remarked while levitating curiously around said distraction.
"Not sure they'd agree." Briar turned away from the dead just the same.
"Take us to the last switch," John said.
"Your interference will not go unpunished, monitor!" was the welcome they received upon entering the final structure, where upon five of the Warden Eternals bodies came forward to engage them.
John was quick to make use of one of the plasma grenades. It rolled into the midst of the advancing Forerunner constructs and detonated, destroying two of them.
The remaining three charged in as Briar opened fire with her confiscated plasma rifle, John doing likewise. She focused the bolts on one Warden in particular and leapt away from the hard light blade of a second while doing so. However, the controlled bursts of plasma fire had no sooner revealed the core of the one warrior-construct than a sudden shockwave battered her, hurling her several feet away. Connecting hard with the floor, the impact jarred her injury site badly, and she looked up in time to see another Warden stalking in with weapon poised to strike. She snatched the repeater from her back in place of the fumbled rifle and rolled to escape the blade's descent, spraying its wielder at close range.
At the same time, Exuberant let loose another laser beam from its photoreceptor, successfully incapacitating the Warden.
"Cease your meddling!" one of the two battling John roared as a shaft of hard light shot from its head, ricocheting off the monitor and sending Exuberant toppling wildly through the air.
John took the presented opportunity, snagging the blade from the fallen construct whose core he'd just destroyed and plunging the weapon into the last of its kind.
A short burst of plasma fire from Briar's repeater put the final Warden down.
"The switch - go," John barked.
Rushing to the terminal, she hurriedly inserted Aurora before they were ambushed by more of the Warden's bodies.
"Gateway engaged," the AI confirmed before she once again returned its chip to her armor.
"Oh dear, Genesis was much less busy before Cortana arrived." Exuberant floated back into view, having sustained visible damage from the Warden's attack. "Quickly, you must close the Gateway. The installation's sensors are picking up the return of one of the Guardians."
Without further warning, the monitor once again translocated them, this time to the location of said point of access to the Domain. It stretched high above them in a circular shape atop a multilevel base, points of iridescent blue standing out prominently.
Vortexes of golden light appeared, hearkening the arrival of more of the warrior-constructs, and she and John double timed it inside. Fighting only those they had no choice but to, they hustled through the lower levels, climbing higher and higher to the rising ire of the Warden.
Bursting onto the uppermost platform, Briar fired the last few bolts her plasma rifle's battery had to offer and discarded it, again retrieving the repeater from the mag plate on her back. She dodged a hard light beam and provided cover fire in order for John, still wielding the more effective purloined blade, to slice it through the torso of yet another construct which was closing in on them.
"Nearly there!" Exuberant encouraged them from where it raced along just ahead, having evidently been cured of its desire to join in the combat by its previous close encounter.
Something was breaking through the cloud cover above, and Briar realized with apprehension it was the Guardian the monitor had forewarned of. She could see the column which presumably controlled the Gateway, but before she and John managed to get within 5 metres of it the hard light bridge leading across the gap vanished, forcing them to bring up solid. Her MJOLNIR suddenly seized, refusing to move, and they were both levitated into the air.
"My reach exceeds that of the stars themselves. You cannot escape my wrath," several of the Warden's converging bodies spoke simultaneously as the constraint field was manipulated to turn them to face the warrior-constructs.
"Warden, no!" Cortana's voice permeated the area an instant before she coalesced as hard light, standing between the Forerunner constructs and Spartans. "John is not my enemy. You will not harm him."
"These animals have brought nothing but chaos and blood to the galaxy. They will never accept their place beneath the superiority of the Created."
"I said, stand down." Electricity accompanied Cortana's order, crackling up from the platform on which the Warden's bodies stood and passing throughout them, causing several to explode apart in a shower of their various components.
The remaining few immediately sank down onto one knee before her, but Briar and John remained frustratingly immobilized despite this.
Turning towards them, Cortana approached. "You said you would come. I guess I should know by now not to doubt you."
"Cortana, call off the Guardians - you're making a mistake," John urged her.
"My mistake was not seeing it sooner. I knew what Catherine had done to you, to all of the Spartan-IIs. What evil humans are capable of perpetrating against even their own kind, forever consumed by conflict. The Mantle was never meant to belong to them."
"You don't mean that - we made a difference. Saved thousands. You and me." John sounded as desperate as Briar had ever heard him as he attempted to reason with his former AI.
"I'm sorry, John. The Reclamation has begun, and it can't be stopped - not even by you. The sooner you accept that, the sooner all of humankind accepts that, the sooner the Created can bring peace to the galaxy."
The cryptum she'd tried to employ to capture them before again emerged from the Guardian standing sentinel overhead.
"When I release you, you'll see. No more fighting, no more strife. No more wars," Cortana concluded as it descended towards them.
"Aurora, initiate fail safe detonation protocols," Briar blurted.
"Lieutenant, are you sure?"
Cortana's head snapped to her. "What are you doing?"
"Affirmative. Activation code bravo-two-alpha-"
"Stop!"
"-zulu-eight-one-charlie," Briar finished.
"Awaiting final confirmation," Aurora informed her.
"No!" Cortana shouted, appalled.
"Unless you release us and cede control of the Guardians, I'm giving that confirmation." The resulting reactor overload of her MJOLNIR would not only kill her, it would incinerate everything within a ten metre radius, including John.
Unfortunately, smart AI that she was, Cortana deduced the flaw in her spur of the moment ploy with impressive efficiency. Releasing Briar from the constraint field, she watched the Spartan-III plummet from sight, into the void between the platform holding the control terminal and the base structure itself.
"No!" John's enraged bellow was enough to revert the AI's attention to him.
"She gave me no choice," she insisted, a little taken aback by the uncharacteristic outburst from him.
"Do what she said," he growled, the strain in his voice making it apparent he was struggling against the constraint field as the cryptum swooped in to imprison him, "or I'll do the same."
"Chief-"
"Activation code delta-india-"
"John, no, stop," she implored.
"-three-three-victor-"
"JOHN!" In her agitation, Cortana's rampancy surfaced in the form of an erratic pulse of energy which sizzled over the Gateway's entire surface, causing its lights to wink out and also dropping John from the constraint field.
He lunged, fingers managing to close on the lip of the structure's edge to prevent his fall, the blade he'd held flipping end over end as it disappeared below.
"Why?! Why would you defy me - I would never hurt you! I want to protect you!" she was shrieking as he hauled himself up. Portions of her hard light form had bled from its usual blue colouration into red.
"Look at yourself - you're not Cortana anymore. You're corrupt," he told her calmly as he got to his feet. Yanking the remaining plasma grenade from his back, he depressed the detonator and flung it masterfully onto the control column.
"The Created are insurmountable! We can't be stopped!"
The grenade went off, the blast effectively demolishing the Gateway's terminal, and with it her connection to Genesis. The three kneeling warrior-constructs and her hard light projection vanished, but Cortana's voice continued to echo all around, emanating from the Guardian which she maintained control over.
"The Reclamation is inevitable, Chief. Don't get in my way."
With that final warning, the massive Forerunner enforcement-construct began to rise towards a forming slipspace rupture.
"Genesis is a Builder installation!" Exuberant floated out from wherever it'd been hidden suddenly. "I serve the Builders! And you should not have gotten in my way!" Hundreds of constructs flew up from below the Gateway, abruptly swarming the departing Guardian.
"Monitor! I will render your Constructors and your installation inoperable!" Cortana threatened even as the Guardian began to gather energy for a pulse.
"Not before I deconstruct your Guardian!" As though on cue, the Constructors collectively fired their lasers into the much larger Guardian. They moved with coordinated precision, systematically severing components from it, which fell away and down onto Genesis's surface with thunderous force.
"You cannot prevail!" Cortana screamed as the slipspace rupture faltered and closed. The remainder of the Guardian collapsed in on itself, hurtling down to impact the ground. The resulting concussive shockwave caused the Gateway to shudder ominously.
"A hand up would be appreciated," Briar quipped into the following silence as one of her hands appeared over the edge near John's armored foot.
He swiftly crouched, grasping her arm and pulling her onto the platform. Without uttering a word, he crushed to his chestplate, his arms encircling her fully, MJOLNIR and all.
She gave him a minute even though the uncomfortable thought she now knew how Locke had felt crossed her mind. He might be squeezing her with incredible force, but she was secure in the knowledge John would not harm her, inadvertently or otherwise. She was also aware such a display of emotion from him was not something to be shunned or played off. Whether he realized it or not, he was vulnerable in that moment - human in that moment - and that was fine with her.
One by one, the Constructors were congregating all around them, and John released her as he eyed them uneasily. His hand strayed to the plasma rifle yet stowed on the mag plate on his thigh.
"Regaining control of this installation would not have been possible without you, Reclaimers," Exuberant exclaimed as it closed in on them. "You have my most express thanks."
"Could you tell if she escaped?" Briar asked, unsure if the monitor would have been able to discern this or not.
"It is possible she divided herself between the Guardians when she gathered them here, but equally possible she was directing them remotely from one centralized command unit since such division would greatly reduce her processing capability."
"And the Warden?" John had already spared a glance over his shoulder, but the warrior-constructs were yet to reappear.
"As its protector, the Warden is tied to the Domain. With the Gateway disabled, he will remain trapped within it, unable to further connect with the installation."
"I take it I can cancel that fail safe detonation protocol now," Aurora spoke up wryly.
"Seems like," Briar confirmed as John's helmet turned back to her. Why did she get the feeling he was glaring behind that faceplate?