A/N: Liberties were taken with certain details of this chapter. That's all I'm gonna say. #Sorrynotsorry
"You did not express a desire to extort your allies when you said you wished for my help returning the Guardians to hibernation."
Briar set the Forerunner ship down inside Infinity's hangar bay as Exuberant hovered back and forth behind her seat. "I plan to ask nicely first."
"You did not seem to believe this would work when you explained your plan."
"I like to have contingencies in place."
"Are you certain your mate cannot aid you in this?"
"I'm not involving him - and stop calling him that. We're not mates." It was clear that detail should have been corrected long ago, but there'd been larger issues at hand at the time. Through the viewscreen, she could see Palmer advancing across the deck accompanied by an armed Spartan-IV Fireteam. Leaving the craft powered up, she rose and headed out to meet them. "Commander," she acknowledged as she stepped off the ramp.
No one had their weapon trained on her, but they did have them to hand.
"Lieutenant," Palmer returned. "You've got a set."
"Something like that." Briar noted the guns jerk up suddenly. "Relax - it's with me." She glanced over his shoulder. "I told you to stay in the ship."
The Monitor had drifted out into the loading door. "I am still inside the ship."
"Stay in the cockpit."
Exuberant's photoreceptor brightened momentarily before it whirled and floated out of sight. Was the AI giving her attitude now?
"If that thing starts poking around unauthorized, it's going to get dusted," Palmer warned.
Briar almost rolled her eyes, but recalled she wasn't wearing a helmet to cover the gesture. "Copy that." She wouldn't mention the Monitor was more than capable of defending itself.
The Spartan-IV commander waved her Fireteam back and approached, voice lowered when she spoke again. "I already told the captain this was beyond stupid." Her brow was furrowed.
"Agreed."
Palmer's eyes narrowed. "You don't need me to point out this is a court martial waiting to happen for him. He's already stuck his neck out for you."
"Then he must think it worth the risk. I'm actually strapped for time, so if we could carry on?" She had a sense Palmer had the very real urge to slug her, but to her credit, the other merely glared a moment and then swung about to lead her to the lift, where the Fireteam was standing by.
They rode in silence to the deck dedicated to their contingency and Briar was escorted, not to the expansive chamber surely containing a hundred or more sets of curious augmented eyes, but down a corridor to a much smaller room. The doors slid back to reveal a raised assembly platform, and behind it the MJOLNIR Lasky had reluctantly promised her. The variant was unfamiliar and entirely unadorned apart from a simple UNSC logo on the breastplate, its flat obsidian paint job lending it an unassuming appearance.
"That doesn't look Gen2," she decided as she walked in, Palmer now trailing.
"It's not." The other woman appeared more than irritated. "It's the Gen3 prototype. They're using the Mark VII as a testbed, so Tom figured you would find the transition fairly seamless."
Briar let the slip pass without comment. "Generous of him." She began shucking her clothes since Palmer didn't seem inclined to leave. The doors had shut, leaving the Fireteam outside.
"I don't know what it is you're holding over him, but I will come for you if this-"
"Spare me. Spare yourself, for that matter. I'm not holding anything over him, but even if I was, one Spartan-IV gunning for me is a drop in the ocean," she cut in before the threat could even be made. Dragging the zipper up on the back of the bodysuit, she stepped onto the platform for the exoskeleton to be applied.
Palmer shot her a look that was pure malice as she nailed the control column to initiate the process.
"I take it you don't want it getting out that you'd go to hell and back for him for more reasons than loyalty."
The Spartan-IV commander considered shooting her in that moment. Briar could tell.
"I don't give a damn, Palmer. I'm the last person you need to debate putting a bullet in for knowing." The automated equipment secured the titanium plated pieces, whirring around her with efficiency. "But you might want to tone it down a bit if you don't want it coming to Brass's attention."
A flicker of doubt passed over Palmer's features, but she continued to glower as Briar took up the matt black helmet once the armor was affixed and came towards her. "You and the Master Chief-"
"Yeah, me and John," Briar confirmed before she could say more. "You do with that whatever the hell you want." It didn't matter, it was done. "Tell Lasky I said he's not the worst officer I've met."
For all that it nor its counterparts had so much as blinked a photosensor in the interim since Cortana's elimination, the Guardian towering before them was no less intimidating.
Briar understood all too well what it was capable of, which was why she was determined to bury the Forerunner enforcement-constructs as deep inside Genesis as possible, where they would hopefully remain out of humanity's or any other species' clutches for a while. It seemed unlikely her kind would ever prove responsible enough to control such tools of suppression, and she could well imagine what might befall should the Guardians ever come into the Jiralhanae's power. Anti-treaty Sangheili factions were already claiming ownership of the construct which had risen from their planet, while the Swords of Sanghelios remained ominously silent - either too caught up in continuing to protect the homeworld from Covenant-remnant aggressors and stifling the embers of rebellion which continued to simmer to weigh in, or more likely in response to the chaotic political landscape of humankind's colonies. Peace talks had been suspended with the Created uprising and now an air of distrust and lack of confidence seemed to permeate the once budding alliance between Sangheili and humanity.
"How long is this going to take?" she questioned Exuberant as she disengaged her thruster's, drifting the remaining distance to the Guardian and latching onto its exterior.
"That will depend largely upon whether Cortana employed any failsafes against reprogramming and, if so, their complexity." The Monitor's purple photoreceptor bathed a particular panel in light and it became translucent, revealing a maze of circuitry within.
"You failed to mention this before."
"You did not ask."
Briar sighed. They'd located one of the enforcement-constructs at the outer limits of the Inner Colonies. It had appeared to be only under guard by a patrolling frigate ancient enough that she felt comfortable assuming it was a relic which had been dug out from some long forgotten backwater base in the asshole of the galaxy. Since it had escaped being rendered useless by Cortana's attack, she supposed that made it invaluable to the UNSC, who were still struggling to get the majority of their fleet back online. Their crippling reliance on AIs had become starkly obvious in the aftermath of the Reclamation.
"Well?"
"I will need time to assess."
"Can you be more specific?" She felt like there may as well be a bullseye painted on her back, hanging off the side of the Guardian in plain sight.
"Your outer shell's stealth measures should be adequate to keep you hidden," Exuberant responded, unperturbed.
Glancing down at the MJOLNIR, she could see the pulses of energy passing through the suit, the adaptive camouflage capability she'd been somewhat tickled to discover on the trip from Infinity. However, the fact this was a prototype which had been in the early stages of being field tested before recent events had put that on the backburner brought with it a touch of reserve in trusting the new feature entirely. "Guess I'll find out." The frigate should be coming into visual range on its circulatory route around the Guardian any moment. The fact that chances were about fifty-fifty the old battle-axe had had its sensor suite upgraded for this post made her feel a little better about it all. She quashed the urge to press the Monitor for an estimated timeframe, which it had failed to provide thus far. The expedition-craft was cloaked and waiting nearby, worst case scenario they'd beat a hasty retreat.
The frigate sailed into view off to her left and Briar tracked its course. Well, missiles weren't being launched at her. That was a good sign. Exuberant had seemed confident it could thwart any scans in a manner which had gone totally over her head, but she'd just nodded sagely instead of admitting that. Best not to let the AI know it had too much of an edge on her.
A flash from the far side of the Guardian drew her attention, though she couldn't see what had caused it from this angle. Another UNSC vessel coming to join the frigate? They were returning ships to service in a slow and painstaking fashion. Almost in answer, her HUD lit up with the harsh glare of an intense beam of plasma fire plowing into the aft of the meandering frigate. The resulting explosion was enough to make her throw an arm up to shield her eyes, even though her visor auto-tinted in response.
"Shit."
The CCS-class battlecruiser responsible emerged from behind the Guardian, the glow from its energy projector still fading after delivering the devastating attack.
The section of the frigate which remained intact was free-floating, a trail of debris in its wake, all running lights gone dark.
"Tell me you're nearly done," she prompted Exuberant.
"It would be a false assertion."
Briar cursed again. "We don't have much longer." The ex-Covenent ship would possess much more sophisticated sensor arrays than the dilapidated frigate had. She watched pensively as it recharged its weapon and dispatched the other half of the UNSC vessel, feeling a chill run down her spine at the needless loss of life. Peace times, indeed. Tell that to the men and women who wouldn't be returning to their families.
Two phantoms peeled away from the battlecruiser, closing in on the Guardian with speed.
"Prepare for company." The nature of said company, she still wasn't certain of. It seemed unlikely the Sangheili rebels had gotten their hands on a ship of that caliber - unless the Swords had failed to fully terminate 'Mdama's fleet. It was a possibility, but the more likely explanation seemed to be the Jiralhanae. They'd probably been lurking in the shadows, waiting for the right opportunity to strike. She could guess what they wanted with the Guardian. "I'm going to buy you some time - use it well." Pushing off from the protrusion she'd been hold onto, she made her way around the exterior of the stationary enforcement-construct, finding hand and foot holds without difficulty thanks to its many separate pieces.
Once she judged she'd put enough distance between herself and Exuberant, she accessed the integrated weapons system on her HUD. If it wasn't for the fact the Gen3 prototype was utilizing the Mark VII as its platform, she would no doubt have found it much more difficult to accustom herself to. But she'd spent years in Mark VII and enough similarities remained between it and the new OS for her to find it fairly intuitive. Lining up the foremost phantom in the projected crosshairs, she launched the two Odin-classed shoulder-integrated air-defense missiles the MJOLNIR had come equipped with. The two streaked away, looping high before their trajectory brought them hurtling down into the alien dropship. It blew apart in spectacular fashion, flinging shrapnel into the path of its counterpart. Lasky hadn't held out on her.
Of course, this had given her position away, and Briar leapt away from incoming plasma fire from the second phantom. She stuck close to the Guardian, dodging blasts, using her thrusters when necessary as the dropship swept in closer.
As she'd suspected, six Brutes were disgorged from the craft when it was within range. They clambered over the surface of the looming construct, their size making this a more cumbersome process than it was proving for their enemy.
Briar reached back and grasped the DMR stowed on her back as the phantom continued to fire on her. Twisting mid-jump, she put two rounds into the faceplate of her nearest pursuer. Plasma bolts from the Jiralhanaes' Type-25 rifles splashed off her shields. The one she had hit had detached from the Guardian and was writhing around in an attempt to cover the holes she'd punched in his gear. She lunged into the midst of the five remaining, knocking another free and unloading three shots into the back of a second. She captured his plasma rifle as he swung back and drove the butt of the DMR into his helmet, smashing the visor. Letting go of her weapon, she grabbed him by the arm, used him to block more incoming fire from his comrades, and hefted him off into space.
The dropship had been forced to leave off firing or risk hitting its own, so instead of neutralizing them and blowing her inadvertent advantage, she crouched and shoved off from the Guardian, snatching up her floating DMR as she arrowed towards the phantom. The gunner must have decided his pals weren't worth it, as its plasma cannons flared back to life with alacrity.
Briar engaged her thrusters, rolling just wide of the incoming fire.
The pilot had obviously discerned his error in getting so close as the craft began to bank, but not fast enough.
Bringing the DMR up, she concentrated her remaining rounds on the pivotal fins which directed the thrust from the rear of the phantom. One flew free, riddled by her bullets, and the dropship lurched drunkenly as a result.
"I have successfully reprogrammed the Guardian to return to Genesis," Exuberant announced over the comms.
"I'd get back to the ship if I were you," Briar advised as she closed in on the listing phantom. The cannons hurled one last barrage, and she twisted, her HUD blaring a warning about depleted shields as the plasma crackled by a little close for comfort. She hit the port bay door hard, plowing through into the interior with a minor lack of grace.
The gunner surged from his station and made it three steps before being sucked out into space. Since the cockpit was sealed and she had an idea that back-up was likely on the way, she settled for driving her fist through the armament controls a few times, then bailed.
A quick check of her six revealed a dozen seraphs and banshees swarming in.
Ahead, the Guardian was already disappearing into a slipspace rupture.
"Coming in hot, you might want to prepare that thing to depart in a hurry."
"I have already done so, but you may wish to reconsider leading so many foes directly to your unarmed escape vessel in the future."
"Good point, I'll think about it."