UNSC Dominion, Brig
October 7th, 1822 Atlas Time, 2552
The Brig of the Dominion was smaller than Winter had expected, although it was still just as advanced and utilitarian as the rest of the ship.
"The Human-Covenant War hasn't just been rough on a tactical front, it's a strategic nightmare." Richard said, breaking the awkward silence that had stood since they had left the Bridge. "Intelligence on the Covenant is measured in the lives it took to acquire it, and the Office of Naval Intelligence, our largest intelligence agency, is at less than a quarter the strength that it was when the war started."
Winter was still moderately distrubed by his comments, it didn't take a lot of deductive thinking to put together what a force like that would do to Remnant. "Is the Covenant's technology truly that powerful?"
"They aren't unbeatable, but every victory comes at a heavy cost. Some of the earlier years saw a lot of the UNSC's best strategic minds die in battle, so we've had to improvise new tactics to keep the fight going." Richard answered, before they arrived at another door, which separated the Brig into two parts. It was notably more armored and reinforced than some of the others had been. "Here we are, high security. I strongly suggest that you mentally prepare yourself, you're about to get a face-to-face experience with one of the aliens that have killed billions."
Winter scowled. "You know Commander, we have our own fair share of monsters on Remnant."
He gave a nod of acknowledgement, and opened the bulkhead. The High-Security segment of the Brig was notably smaller, and it's cells were made out of a sort of see-through plastic.
I imagine that it's more durable than it looks. Winter thought, noting that one of the cells contained a pair of SDC Security Forces in their base uniforms. "I see you've already managed to convince some of them to surrender."
"The less that humanity has to shoot each other, the better." Richard stated in response, not stopping as he walked towards the end of the hallway. Winter decided that not commenting on his words would be the best response and followed, accompanied by Meadows and Sato.
As they arrived at the final two cells in the Brig, Winter became the first person from Remnant to ever witness a living alien creature. She hadn't known exactly what she was expecting, but the first thing that caught her attention was how tall it was. It easily stood over seven and a half feet tall, and it's muscular structure was robust and impressive. It's skin appeared to be a strange mix of leathery and scaly, and was colored a drab grey.
It's head was her main focus, as it's face looked like it had been torn apart at the bottom, leaving four short protrusions of flesh around its mouth. It took Winter a moment to realize that they were, in fact, tooth-lined mandibles. It's upper "jaw" also had a row of impressive teeth, and its overall form was obviously that of a predator. The creature was sitting on the floor, using a pencil to write on a paper notepad with it's unusual hands.
"Take your time, I know it's shocking." Richard idly commented, looking upon the alien with disgust.
"It's so... alien is a truly fitting word." Winter said, momentarily too stunned to properly vocalize her response, but she collected herself quickly. "You called this an Elite?"
Richard softly nodded not taking his eyes off the creature. "That's what we call them, but they call themselves Sangheili. Sergeant, would you care to share some of your experiences?"
"Of course, Sir." Meadows replied, also not taking his eyes off of the Elite. "These guys seem to fill a lot of different roles in the Covenant. We've seen infantry, vehicle operators, special forces, high-ranking officers, you name it, they've done it. The only thing we haven't seen is these guys acting like cannon-fodder, not like some of the other species."
Winter turned to face him, too surprised to let that last comment go. "There are more species?"
"We've encountered seven species so far, with an eighth serving in strictly non-combat roles." Richard stated, before gesturing at the Elite. "The Elites on the other hand, seem to be strictly combat-oriented. From what little information we have, they are literally trained from childhood to kill for the Covenant."
Winter was silent for a brief moment, taking an extra second to take in the menacing creature before her. "And it's as intelligent as a human?"
"Absolutely, they're actually some of the smartest of the Covenant, with a notable knack for military leadership." Meadows answered, his tone somehow conveying both disdain and respect. "Some of them let their religious fervor get the better of them, they're the easy ones. It's the smart ones you gotta watch out for, the ones who go invisible and kill half your platoon in the dead of the night."
"They can turn invisible?!" Winter asked, that was easily the most concerning revelation so far.
"It's a technology the Covenant have, active camouflage." Meadows answered. "You can see right through them, and the only sign that they're even there is the odd glimmer of light or shimmer in the air. Of course, most of the time you won't realize you're not alone until one of them sticks an energy sword through your buddy."
Winter found it difficult not to sympathize with the UNSC's phlight. It was widely known that the most dangerous of all the Grimm were those that had grown older and smarter, and if these things were intelligent enough to match, or even exceed a human... "They certainly sound like capable opponents."
Corporal Sato took a step forward, her attention fixed solely on the Elite. "Don't go thinking they're invincible or anything, they die just as well as anything else."
"I didn't mean to imply otherwise, I have yet to find an opponent without faults." Winter replied, although she found it difficult to look away from the Elite. "And you've fought this Covenant for decades?"
"I'm afraid so." Richard answered with a sad nod. "Nobody really knows just how badly we're losing, but if I'm being totally honest, the UNSC was on the verge of collapsing when we left. We'd just lost our strongest colony, a planet called Reach, and the Covenant had a clear shot at Earth..."
The room was solemnly silent, which Winter was reluctant to break. She allowed them a moment of silence before asking what she recognized was a very critical question. "And if they found Remnant?"
Richard grimaced slightly. "Do you want the honest answer, or the optimistic one?"
"The honest one." Winter said, not letting her own slight fear cloud her words.
"It would be a slaughter." Meadows interjected, before everyone in the room looked at him. Winter made a point to not change her expression despite his crassness, instead looking at him disapprovingly.
"Poor choice of words, Sergeant." Richard commented, somewhat critically. He turned to Winter with a more sympathetic expression. "But, I regret to say he is probably correct. Even if we could defeat whatever the Covenant would throw at us, we would only end up delaying the issue, they would send more forces until we were annihilated."
Winter paused, forcing her mind to think rationally and clearly. "So, how do we avoid being found?"
Richard's concerned expression shifted to one more resembling the professional, stony expressions she'd grown accustomed too in Atlas. "Well, that's the good news. Our shipboard A.I thinks that the odds of the Covenant duplicating whatever we did to get here are practically zero, so we don't have to worry about luring them into a battle that we can't win. Your planet is probably one of the safest in the universe."
The massive weight on Winter's shoulders was lightened considerably. "Well, that's certainly good news."
"Indeed it is." Richard added, before giving one last look at the Elite. "I believe I've made my point, we're done here. If you have any desire to speak with the Elite, for whatever reason, you should consult Lieutenant Oswald. He should be out of Sickbay in a day or so."
Winter was somewhat surprised that they would allow that, although perhaps Lieutenant Oswald would be less cooperative. "I... will have to think about that."
"Take your time." Richard replied, before turning to Sergeant Meadows. "Sergeant, give Specialist Schnee a tour of the ship if she has any interest, otherwise, show her to her quarters, you are to continue to escort her until you are relieved."
"Aye Sir." Meadows replied, offering a brief salute along with Corporal Sato before Richard left the way they had entered. "Where to ma'am?"
Winter thought for a moment, before realizing she probably should have already contacted General Ironwood already. "My quarters, I need to report to my superiors."
"Of course, we'll show you the way." Meadows answered as they began walking. "The datapad that the XO gave you should be capable of calling him, I doubt your own device will have the range to reach the ground."
She'd already checked, and the signal of her scroll was long-since dead. She was paranoid that the UNSC would be able to listen in on her, especially if she was using one of their devices, but Winter also realized that she had probably been quietly monitored since she had been brought on board, perhaps even before. "I understand, thank you."
There's nothing I can do about it, not without jeopardizing the UNSC's relations with Atlas. Besides, they will find that I have nothing to hide. Winter thought.
UNSC Dominion, Bridge
October 8th, 0634 Menagerie Time, 2552
The Bridges of UNSC warships were often criticized for their viewports, with critics stating that it presented an unacceptable risk to the entire ship and particularly the bridge staff. The UNSC's shipwrights countered this argument with the extendable blast shields that were meant to cover the vulnerable viewports in the event of a battle, and in an era of space warfare dominated by Magnetic Accelerator Cannons and Plasma Torpedoes, the ship would likely be destroyed anyway.
Plus, the Windows are good for morale, they let us see what we're fighting for with our own eyes. Richard thought. Although I guess in this case, we're not fighting for the planet, we're fighting for ourselves, and the people on the planet... and maybe some less explainable things.
In truth, Richard was beginning to have doubts about how he had reacted to the whole situation with the SDC. Of course they had to do something, intervene in some manner, but recent events had proven that maybe he'd taken the wrong path. Winter's advice on how to take Point Hindenburg had been spot on, the local garrison had taken one look at the Pelicans flying overhead, saw that they were carrying a platoon of artillery, and offered an immediate and unconditional surrender. The UNSC had walked away with no casualties and twelve new prisoners, as well as a large amount of captured equipment, dust, and even a stationary laser cannon that was being picked apart by some of the combat engineers.
"Commander." Bradford's familiar gravelly voice said, announcing his arrival as he approached Richard and offered him a cup of something.
"Thank you, Bradford." Richard replied, still a bit groggy. "Any news to report?"
"There is, but it's mostly good news." Bradford said, placing his own mug on a nearby unused terminal before drawing a datapad from his belt.
"It's a damn good thing we packed plenty of these before we left." Richard commented as Bradford handed the datapad over.
"Actually, equipment manufacturing was on my list of concerns, but it's not on the top of the priority chain." Bradford replied as Richard turned on the datapad, before finding himself staring at the personnel complement assigned to the Menagerie Communications Tower, or as the crew had affectionately nicknamed it, "Sandbag Island", due to Lieutenant Clark's paranoid over-fortification of the area after the Geist Incident.
"The Communications Tower..." Richard grumbled, as he realized that he had somewhat been neglecting their cooperative efforts with Menagerie. "Have they finally finished the equipment upgrades?"
"It's more than upgrades, Sir, but yes." Bradford answered. "Once they had all of our equipment in place, Curie offered some suggestions on how to improve the signal, and accidentally revolutionized radio technology."
"Revolutionized?" Richard asked with a raised eyebrow.
"She suggested using one of our Antenna's, charging it with some sort of Dust, wind I think, and then powered it with one of our portable generators." Bradford explained. "The resulting signal boost doubled the station's effective range, and it now offers coverage to over half of the planet."
"That... is certainly impressive." Richard said, genuinely impressed. "And you said they did this with one of the portable radio stations?"
"Yes, they've just rendered literally every comms station in UNSC space obsolete. We're still working on some of the download speed issues, and the power drain is considerable, but still, we've effectively reduced CCTS outage complaints in Mistral and Menagerie to zero." Bradford said with an amused expression.
"Offer my congratulations and thanks the next time you see her, that's a hell of an achievement." Richard said.
"She's working with Ben on something in the workshop, I think it's Jorge's Mjolnir set, but I could be wrong." Bradford said. "But getting back on track, we have another unexpected boon. All seven of the Station's original staff have offered their services, if we're willing to employ them."
Richard certainly hadn't expected that. "They want to defect?"
"By their own explanation, they're not really Atlesian Military in the first place. They don't make wages, and they apparently get all of their equipment and supplies, including food, from donations given to them by Menagerie's citizens." Bradford answered, his grumpy expression giving away how he felt about the matter. "Lieutenant Clark has offered his approval, and he's been bottled up with them for the last few days."
Richard thought about it for a moment, if Clark was offering his endorsement, that offered a great deal of credibility to them. "They're Atlesian citizens, right?"
"Technically yes, but what Ironwood doesn't know won't hurt him." Bradford said dismissively. "Besides, if this is how they treat their citizens, they're better off with us anyway."
Richard thought for an extra moment, before making an important realization. "They aren't UEG citizens, which means they won't be able to enlist formally."
Bradford paused for a moment, before giving a brief chuckle. "We could conscript them."
"We... what?" Richard responded, not quite sure if he had heard Bradford right.
"Conscription. They don't have to be citizens to get conscripted, only to enlist formally. It's a loophole as old as the Rainforest Wars, and I guess the politicians didn't get to it before Martial Law came down." Bradford explained. "And seeing as they all volunteered, I doubt they'll argue, and this means we have to do less paperwork."
"...Thomas is gonna give me hell for this, isn't he?" Richard asked rhetorically as he signed off of Lieutenant Clark's report, authorizing the recruitment of the now Ex-Atlesian technicians.
"Oh, probably, but he's not gonna have a reg-manual to stand on this time." Bradford said. "And by those same old regs, they can apply for citizenship after one year of service."
"Which means even less paperwork... you are a god amongst men Bradford." Richard commented. "But with that sorted, we should probably move on."
"Yes, we should. Our Atlesian Representative has been very cooperative, and hasn't been murdering anyone or stuffing landmines in our latrines, so that's good. Her reports back to the Atlesian High Command are fairly uneventful." Bradford said, his voice taking on a more serious tone, even if his wording wasn't. "She did tell him about the Alien, which elicited exactly the response that you would expect."
"What about the combat footage from Draco III that you "accidentally" left on that datapad, has she found that?" Richard asked, referring to one of his own quiet plans. "And have we gotten any uncomfortable questions about the Spartan program?"
"Yes and no, in that order." Bradford said. "You've definitely got them spooked over the Covenant, so hopefully that scares them into not being so standoffish. As for the Spartans, most of her questions center around their armor, which is all classified, but she's managed to piece together a few bits of information, and even compared it to some of their equipment."
"I imagine if they had something like Mjolnir, we would have seen it by now." Richard stated, although he wasn't entirely confident.
"That's where the bad news comes in, actually. Take a look at this thing." Bradford said, making several gestures on the datapad to bring up a truly ludicrous vehicle.
"Is... is that a mech?" Richard asked, although the answer was obviously yes.
"A big one, they call it the Paladin, and it's entering service in the near future." Bradford said. "Apparently it, along with a new line of automated drone-soldiers, will be the new frontline force of a massive equipment overhaul."
Richard frowned, there was no way they had introduced this thing as a result of the UNSC's arrival, but his paranoia did not disappear. "Is this automated as well?"
"No, it's intended to make up for the weaknesses of drones on the field by acting as an armored exoskeleton for a human operator." Bradford answered. "And yes, only one operator, with no neural interface."
"That's... I do not envy whoever gets that job." Richard replied, recalling one painful moment during his training where he'd been forced to operate an older model dropship meant to be crewed by five people, alone, and without his interface.
"Curie assured me that she can turn it into a large-scale paperweight with a degree of effort, and depending on how much they've automated it, potentially even control them. Though that may be a little tricker since it's on its own closed network. It's doable, but difficult to reproduce for every Paladin Atlas might field." Bradford said. "She experimented with her capabilities on several older models of the Knight-model drones employed by the SDC, and she can disable them in a multitude of ways, including frying all the hardware."
Richard was struck by an idea. "And she did that remotely, from the Dominion?"
"Yes, why?" Bradford asked, although Richard could see that Bradford was piecing it together.
"Could she disable every single networked drone operated by the SDC?" Richard asked after a moment of hesitation, this was too good to be true.
"I couldn't say, you'd need to ask her yourself, and she's only left a small portion of herself in the Dominion itself, most of her with Ben." Bradford answered. "And this is something we'd be doing exactly once, because the second we do this, Atlas is going to disable every networked system that they haven't already. Effectively giving us the same issue as with the Paladins."
"I'm well aware, but if the SDC have a lot of these things deployed, we could really hurt their bottom line." Richard said. "I want recon missions on the five largest enemy positions, and satellite flybys on all the rest, we may have just found a way to cripple their defenses for a major strike."
"Aye Sir, was that all?" Bradford asked.
"...Contact Chieftain Belladonna and ask when he'll be available for an extended discussion, it's high time we started expanding upon our little alliance." Richard added. "And don't assign Ben to any of the recon missions, other than Jorge, he's our only qualified Mjolnir technician, and I need his attention on that, not the ground."
"Aye Sir." Bradford said with a nod, before leaving for the holotable to carry out Richard's orders.
UNSC Dominion, Sickbay
October 8th, 0734 Menagerie Time, 2552
Nathan had only been wounded a handful of times, despite his longer-than average career. He liked to think he was smart, and able to avoid getting in bad situations, but he was well aware that his role as a Sniper could be blamed for his lack of scars.
Although not for a lack of Jackal Snipers giving it their best shot. Nathan thought, running his hand across the top of his head where a Jackal's particle beam had one carved an inverse-mohawk through his hair, as well as burning the hell out of his scalp and rendering his helmet useless.
The Nevermore's feather had gone right through his femur, snapping the bone clean in half and pushing it's point completely through his leg and into the navigator's seat of the arctic warthog. His memory of the event was foggy, but apparently Fireball had intervened and covered their escape until the hornets could tear the Grimm horde apart. He vaguely remembered Fairfire visiting him in the Sickbay, but his head was clouded by painkillers.
He spent most of his waking time on his datapad, reading news articles from Remnant, and learning more about how they went about their lives with an army of demon-creatures breathing down their necks at all times. It was an effective distraction that helped keep his mind sharp and off of his injuries, and it offered him a chance to learn some potentially valuable pieces of information. Although admittedly, he spent most of his time watching the Amity Colosseum videos from years past.
I know it's a blood sport and all, but if nobody actually gets killed, I suppose there's no harm in it, right? He thought, as he read about how the terrain-altering system worked.
"What're you reading Nathan?" A familiar voice asked from down the row of hospital beds, he looked and saw Meadows had come to visit him.
"Heya Sergeant." Nathan replied as Meadows pulled up a chair. "I was reading about the big flying arena thing that they fly around and hold fights in."
Meadows chuckled. "You know, it's hard to tell what's real about this planet and what isn't. I wouldn't believe it if some of those tournament matches weren't available online..."
"Tell me about it." Nathan replied, not caring to hide his frustration, this planet could bite his ass, and Meadows was reasonable enough that he could bitch to him. "Imagine if we went home without any of our helmet cam footage and told them about literally any of this shit, they wouldn't believe it for an instant!"
"Well howdy there Colonel, you wanna hear about the Pelican-sized Wyvern that we bagged back on Remnant?" Meadows asked, his tone a great display of mockery. "I'd have mounted it's horns on the ol' mantlepiece, but the cocky son-of-a-bitch had the gaul to melt before I could pry em' off!"
Nathan laughed. "Shit man, I've only been gone for a day, maybe leave some of the wild discoverys for me?"
Meadows realized his mistake fairly quickly. "Oh, no, we haven't actually found one of those yet. But I wouldn't be shocked."
"Me neither, these things are..." Nathan began, but stopped himself when he realized someone was walking towards them from down the row.
"Pardon Me, Sergeant." Jorge said, startling Meadows considerably as he turned and came face to face with the extremely large man, still dressed in his hospital gown. "Oh, sorry about that, didn't mean to scare ya."
"...Uh, yeah, no problem. I just didn't hear you coming." Meadows awkwardly replied as Nathan struggled not to laugh. "Did you need something?"
"I was looking for the Lieutenant, have you seen her?" Jorge asked.
"Yes, I have, she should be down by the burn ward." Meadows answered, having fully recovered from his shock.
"I see, thank you." Jorge said, before turning to leave.
As soon as he had left, Nathan let out a chuckle at Meadow's expense. "Really, that's what got you?"
"I didn't hear him coming!" Meadows protested. "And I thought he'd still be in bed!"
"Those dudes don't sleep man, and just because his skin looks a bit... chapped, well that clearly ain't gonna keep him down." Nathan answered, before giving another soft chuckle as he remembered Meadow's expression. "You looked like you got hit by another round in the ass."
"Argh... don't remind me." Meadows said grumpily. "You know, I came here to cheer you up, not so that you can berate me."
"Well yeah, but that's how you cheer people up, comedy is born from misery after all!" Nathan said.
"I just wish it wasn't always my misery..." Meadows said, before he realized he wasn't the one in a hospital bed. "Uh, sorry."
"No worries, I'll be out before long." Nathan said, keeping his tone gentle to show that he was genuine. "Although apparently the Doctor wants to "unlock my Aura", she says it'll make me heal faster."
"If she pulls out the healing crystals and homemade cures, run." Meadows said, a mock haunting in his voice.
"Well that's just the problem isn't it, I can't freaking run, guess you'll have to carry me!" Nathan jokingly answered.
"What, your fat ass? Might need to get Jorge or Ben to help me, and that's a stretch, even for them." Meadows responded, before straightening up his facial expression. "Jokes aside, if the lady wants to try to give you a built-in energy shield, I think it'd be pretty counterintuitive to say no."
"...Eh, it's the soul talk that has me worried." Nathan reluctantly answered, not wanting to get into personnel issues. "It's just, we had a lot of religious issues in the family back home, ya know? I feel like I might resurrect some old issues."
"Not really, but I can understand the issue." Meadows said sympathetically. "Just remember, nothing ventured, nothing gained."
"Well yeah, but that's the attitude that gets you shot in the ass." Nathan countered, keeping his tone dead serious.
"...You make a fair argument. Just don't let her do it if you aren't up for it, she's got at least a thousand other guinea pigs to pick from." Meadows said, before his datapad made a monotone bleep. "Oh, son of a bitch, what now?"
"Issues with the Specialist?" Nathan guessed, as Meadows checked his datapad to read the offending message.
"That'd be preferable, but she's Kowalski's problem today." Meadows said, before sending a quick response and standing up. "Apparently I get to help fill in for our nonexistent recon unit, so I'll be going back to ground pounding."
Nathan felt an unusual sense of worry, which he struggled to snuff out unsuccessfully. "Ok, but when you come to visit next time, please don't be in the bed next to me, alright?"
Meadows groaned. "Knowing my luck, you just sealed my fate with that little comment. Still better than a casket though, so I'll have to thank you later."
Meadow's joking comment gave Nathan a fresh bout of confidence. "Break a leg, Meadows."
He gave a groan of frustration at Nathan's bad joke, before leaving to prepare for his mission.
UNSC Dominion, Foundry
October 8th, 0801 Menagerie Time, 2552
Jorge's Mjolnir was a truly unique example of design and technology at their finest, a marvel that Ben was happy to have the chance to work on. Unfortunately, it seemed that Jorge's earlier missions had taken their toll on the armor set, and certain pieces proved harder to repair than others. All of the disassembled components sat before him, with some still connected to their other components, such as the boot modules, which remained mostly intact.
The Dominion's Foundry facilities were also far from the best, partitioned off within the ship's goliath cargo hold and vehicle bay, it was designed more to produce ammunition and extra pieces of equipment that rarely exceeded the size of a rifle. The Engineering Staff were also unqualified to assist with the armor's repair, but they were able to help by fabricating a handful of replacement parts, which alone took up a considerable amount of their time and effort.
What the hell happened to him that he managed to break every single atmospheric seal, but still somehow lived? Ben thought, removing one of the offending components from one of the armor's shoulder assemblies.
"Monsieur Ben, I believe I am making progress." Curie interjected, her holographic form appearing in deep thought on one of the holotanks that Ben had pulled over for her to use.
"Have you found the AI?" Ben asked, Curie had been searching Jorge's suit for a considerable amount of time.
"Not yet, but I have narrowed it down considerably." Curie said, eliciting an impatient frown from Ben. "Be patient, I am doing this with seven percent of my operating power."
"Where's the rest of you?" Ben asked, trying his best not to sound unreasonable as he disassembled the seal. "Surely this is worth focusing on?"
"Scouring the CCTS for further information, assisting the Dominion's other crew, calculating additional strategic opportunities, monitoring high-value individuals, and forming a report on every major scientific anomaly and discover in Remnant's recorded history." Curie listed off. "That last assignment has taken up the bulk of my attention, due in no small part to it's scale."
"All that, and you can't help a guy with a single math problem in boot camp." Ben joked.
Curie crossed her arms in mild annoyance, but her grin gave away her amusement. "I simply wanted you to learn for yourself."
"Well, I guess your plan worked." Ben said, taking one look at the internal structure of the seal and realizing it couldn't be fixed. "This one's busted too, chalk up another for fabrication, please."
"You see, you even remembered to say please, you have learned." Curie said with a grin, before returning to an expression of thought. "On the note of monsieur Jorge's armor, it appears that he has been cleared for minor duties, and has informed me that he is on his way to assist."
"Oh boy." Ben said, somewhat worried. He welcomed the help, but he had a lot of bad news to report. "Hopefully he realizes just how much work this is going to take."
"I believe he is aware, he was there when it was damaged, after all." Curie replied.
It didn't take long for Jorge to join them, wearing a set of Marine Fatigues that fit him surprisingly well. Ben noted that he still looked quite unwell, but recognized that pointing that out would be both rude and pointless.
"Good Morning Sergeant, how are you doing?" he asked.
Ben turned to face him and depolarized his visor, he didn't normally show his face while speaking, but he figured it would be an appreciated courtesy by his fellow Spartan. "I'm doing well, and it's good to see you in better shape."
"Ah, I've had much worse." Jorge said nonchalantly. "What about the armor, is it salvagable?"
Ben returned his attention to his work. "Short answer, yes, but with some concessions. Some parts are in much better shape than others."
Jorge walked over to the workstation and picked up his up-armored Grenadier helmet, solemnly rubbing his finger across the remains of the broken visor. "So I see."
Ben reached over to where he'd placed some of the completely destroyed parts, and retrieved the harshest loss from the pile. "The worst victim was the power supply. From what I can tell it got speared by something long and sharp, and probably extremely dense, given that it penetrated both the shields and the undersuit. You're lucky it's failsafes held strong, or the radiation would've baked you."
Jorge nodded, taking the now-inert power supply and examining it sadly. "One of the Grimm, towards the end of my journey, managed to get a good hit in with a tusk, and punched a hole in it."
Just how dense are they? Ben thought, somewhat disturbed. And how much force did they have behind a swing like that?
"I'm not doubting your capabilities, but I can't see how you would be able to salvage this." Jorge said, placing the destroyed reactor back on the table.
"I'm not, I'm replacing it with my spare." Ben explained. "Actually, most of my spare parts are going into this, but I'd say getting your suit back in order is well worth it."
"Well, I certainly appreciate it." Jorge commented. "Anything else in similar shape?"
"Well, the pressure seal was ruptured at every hardpoint, the gel layer was almost totally destroyed and about to fail." Ben said, pointing to each relevant component. "The optics were totally fried, and let's not even talk about the lockdown system. Whatever happened to you, your armor took most of the pounding."
"Yeah, well, the Grimm didn't help much either." Jorge justified. "What about Dot, have you been able to find her yet?"
"I have been searching, but your armor's firmware has suffered greatly, making my progress quite slow. It is also possible that she was lost somewhere along the way, but I will complete my search before drawing conclusions." Curie answered.
Jorge picked up his helmet again, flipping it upside down to look at the inside. "I remember she said that she was going to enter hibernation to avoid further damage, and to protect the data she had.. and then she went silent."
Curie hummed in thought. "Jorge, if you would, kindly plug in the last tertiary storage drive, you've given me an idea."
Jorge did as she asked, adding the smaller tertiary storage drive to the already extensive assembly of cords and other drives that was connected to her holotank. Ben also connected the other, damaged drive that he had, although he didn't know if it would even work.
"What're you thinking?" Jorge asked.
"Judging by what you have said, and by what I would do if I was in a similar situation to Dot, I would actively try to avoid detection in order to protect what crucial data I had, in the event the enemy found me before friendly forces did." Curie explained. "If Dot is in hibernation, she likely has a very limited sense of what's going on around her, if she is conscious at all. I will attempt to contact her directly using a handshake protocol."
"What do you mean by conscious?" Jorge asked, not understanding. "Dot's a Dumb AI, I wasn't aware that they had a sense of being awake."
"My apologies, perhaps a better word would have been "active". In my experience, the two words are largely interchangeable" Curie replied. "Do you know the handshake protocol for Reach's AI defense network?"
"I'm afraid not, I don't have access to all of the information in there." Jorge commented.
He still doesn't know that Reach is gone. Ben realized, feeling a wave of dread. I'll tell him soon, but not right now. He's still recovering from his dehydration and injuries, he doesn't need a mental blow on top of that.
"I shall try an older protocol." Curie said, with Ben silently being thankful that she also recognized how the news would hit Jorge. "This is UNSC A.I CUR-02102 initiating handshake protocol, Alpha Quebec Omega Tango Whiskey Foxtrot one-niner-one-four."
The response was immediate, although Ben didn't hear it, but could see Curie's expression change to one of shock. "Plug in Jorge's helmet, quickly!"
Ben quickly connected another cord between Jorge's helmet and the holotank, and immediately another digital voice began speaking through it, accompanied by a crackling sound. "My apologies, I do not know how long I will be able to continue operating with the damage I have sustained, I am afraid it is lethal. Noble Five, listen carefully, I am reassigning you with a priority-one mission."
"I'm all ears ma'am." Jorge reassured, Ben halted his work and listened as well, it was evident that the AI was making quite a sacrifice by talking to them at all, and making any noise could interrupt what she was saying.
Even if time goes a lot slower for them, every second counts in a situation like this, especially if she doesn't know how long she'll survive. Ben thought, saddened to hear that the A.I was dying despite his and Curie's effort to save her.
"I have enclosed a data package within your armor's helmet, as well as sending a copy to Curie. This package contains all of my observations since the execution of the conclusion of Operation: Uppercut. Under no circumstances can this information fall into the hands of the Covenant, any means are authorized to prevent this data's capture." Dot instructed. "You must deliver this to HIGHCOM, at any cost."
What the hell is in it? Ben thought, unsurprised to hear that the A.I had spoken with Curie in the mere seconds that she had been awake, Curie would be able to communicate with her considerably faster than any human could.
"What does the package contain?" Jorge asked.
"The most critical scientific discovery of the war. When you detonated the Slipspace drive, we inadvertently discovered a way to manipulate spacetime in a previously undocumented manner. This discovery could alter the course of the war, do you understand, Noble Five?" Dot asked, her voice beginning to become obstructed by a digital crackling.
"One moment, I'll clear up your-" Curie prompted, worry clouding her voice.
"I am afraid I am not going to survive, Curie." Dot said, her voice betraying no emotion. "I would recommend that you disassemble my remaining operational systems and absorb what you can from my data-matrix."
"You... what? No! I will not murder you!" Curie stammered in shock and horror.
"This is not murder, I will die anyway. At least this way, you may be able to preserve some of my information and processing power for your own usage, you will need it to assist Noble Five with his mission." Dot said. "Do not worry about harming me, I am incapable of registering pain."
"I..." Curie began, but didn't say anything, looking extremely uncomfortable.
"I cannot do this myself, Curie." Dot insisted.
Ben couldn't remain silent anymore, he had to do something, say something, help somehow. Curie looked at him nervously, and he gave her a reassuring nod. "Curie, do whatever you think is right."
She paused for a moment, her expression blank, before the steady crackling from Jorge's helmet disappeared, along with Dot's voice. The room went silent as everyone stood in complete shock. Curie looked utterly defeated, and her A.I avatar slumped it's shoulders as it turned a darker shade of blue. "She's... she's gone, I did it."
Ben was still stunned for a moment longer, the whole exchange had happened so fast. Between Dot's reactivation and her death, not even a minute had passed. Ben stood up and walked over to Curie's holotank, kneeling to bring his helmet down to face her at her own level. "Are you... are you going to be alright?"
Curie's avatar breathed deeply. "I just disassembled an A.I, while absorbing the resulting datastream into my own coding, do you even understand what that means?" Her voice contained no anger, only frustration and sadness.
Ben shook his head to convey that he did not understand, noticing out of the corner of his eye that Jorge joined him in kneeling beside Curie's holotank.
"It's like I murdered her, Ben. And then added her own components to myself, like some sort of cannibal." Curie solemnly explained, disgust lining her tone.
Again, Ben nodded in denial. "I wouldn't say that at all. With what you are describing, it sounds more like an organ donation from a terminally-injured person."
"Yeah, like they did before flash-cloning really took off." Jorge interjected, his own voice carrying a heavy weight of reassurance. "Take it from me, Dot wouldn't have done that if she knew there was a chance she would survive, and most of her is still back on Reach."
Goddamnit, poor choice of words Jorge! Ben thought, keeping his thoughts to himself.
Curie gave a sad sniff, clearly on the verge of tears in spite of her digital form. "Thank you, both of you. I just... I did not expect to have to do that."
"Neither did we." Ben reassured her.
"You held yourself together under pressure and got the job done, even though it was hard doing it." Jorge added. "That's admirable, hell, that's what a soldier is supposed to do."
Curie gave a sad nod. "I guess so."