RECOMPOSE
by Ladywolvesbayne
People, I want to announce that now, thanks to the watchful eyes of master Trance Sephiroth... this story will be well written! Yay! This means no more misspellings and grammar errors, for as long as he's willing to support this little project. I can't really describe how much I thank his expertise in this area, and I didn't knew how ignorant I was about so many things :P Enjoy this perfectly spelled episode!
Also, I edited the music mix at 8tracks, added more songs and improved others; you'll find the link in my profile if you want to check out some good inspirational beats!
8. SERVED COLD
AUGUST 1ST, 2558
LOCATION: UNSC INFINITY
07:30 AM standard time
She wouldn't come all by herself, obviously. Admiral Osman brought along three platoons of her people amongst other specialized personnel. The total population of the UNSC Infinity increased by three figures in less than twenty minutes; Roland already had all of them accounted for by CSV, face, voice and fingerprint recognition.
The meeting was held in an isolated room above the bridge. Although the Arbiter and his warriors were still aboard, he wasn't allowed to attend since it was a human matter only concerning those involved with the case. That meant both Captain Lasky and Commander Palmer, Dr. Henry Glassman and some of his technicians, all three fireteams (Majestic, Crimson and Bravo) and, of course, the Master Chief and Cortana. Osman's guard was a party of five highly trained agents armored in black, all of them armed and ready. It was pretty much crowded in there.
John already decided how he would disable the guards, if it was required.
The Admiral strolled around the table, her arms crossed.
"I must say, you managed to get yourselves into quite a mess."
She wasn't talking to anyone in particular, but the hint of despise in her voice was absolutely clear.
"We are determined to solve it, ma'am." Lasky said, quickly.
"But you reported it to me, Captain."
"Because it was mandatory, at that point. We are in a state of emergency, the message must be spread across the galaxy to all UNSC stations and ships; something I can't do without official support."
"What makes you think you have my support?"
"I think your presence here, today, has something to do with it, ma'am."
The tall woman turned to face the Captain, her arms still crossed. The expression on her face was deadly serious.
"I'm afraid you are mistaken, Captain Lasky. You don't have my support, you only have my permission to take proper care of this business. You'd have my support if you hadn't hidden this from me. I'll tell you how things will be from now on." the Admiral growled, "You will not scratch your nose again without telling me about it. And if you dare to do it without telling me, don't worry, someone else will report it. The difference is, if you do the reports yourself, you will keep your captainship and everybody else, their positions. Remember, there may be new faces aboard, but the known faces are not the ones you should be worried about. Do I make myself clear?"
Lasky swallowed his breath. The sole idea of the head of ONI not knowing about something was the epitome of success, but at the time it meant only more trouble. Not just for him, unfortunately.
"Yes, ma'am." he responded, compliantly.
"Fine. I concur with your obligation to spread the word. It's already taken care of. However, this mission has many branches and you won't be handling all of them alone, in the meantime all personnel involved will be properly debriefed on my account. Any questions?"
The Admiral's sharp eyes searched the room until someone took a step forward.
"What is your official position regarding Cortana?" Palmer asked, flatly.
"As you know, my technicians are setting up their gear at your medical bay, they will provide a detailed examination of... the subject. She will be released after the tests and then I'll make my statement. It is implied that any resistance would only hurt the outcome."
The Admiral looked at Cortana, her poker-face not to be taken lightly.
John subtly shifted his weight from one foot to the other, vigilant. That didn't seem good. It sounded invasive, somehow he knew there would be pain involved and he knew this Cortana was susceptible to pain. He gave her a sidelong glance; the girl was standing by his side and she wasn't delighted with the situation either. Cortana's face was paler than usual and her lips compressed in a thin line.
"You won't imprison her." Lasky deduced, cautiously.
"I'm not Del Rio." Osman confirmed, to everyone's ears it sounded like she said she wasn't as stupid as Del Rio. The Admiral turned to John. "That woman is a very valuable asset, she can be a lot more useful in the field rather than isolated in a cell. She'll keep her privileges as long as the Master Chief here can speak for her. We don't want her following the footsteps of her creator, do we?"
"Aye-aye, ma'am." John responded, instantly.
Cortana bit her trembling lower lip, furious.
There was a very good reason why she never liked Serin Osman, and there it was: Osman resented Dr. Halsey, therefore she wouldn't have peace of mind as long as the Admiral lurked around.
"Excellent. The Vociferous will continue with the pursuit of Dr. Catherine Halsey, the Infinity and its fleet have a new mission objective. Search and destroy. The target is this Rampant Spike and whatever other copies of her might be out there, posing a threat to the UNSC. You started it, you finish it."
It wasn't like that, but who would argue with her?
Lasky and Palmer saluted, in unison. Everyone else imitated them.
"Thank you for your aid, ma'am." said the Captain, not relieved at all.
"All right, dismissed. Not you, Thomas. I'll debrief you myself, now."
AUGUST 1ST, 2558
LOCATION: UNSC INFINITY
06:50 PM standard time
Cortana left the medical bay trembling, but she wasn't cold.
She'd been punctured, measured, weighed, probed, exposed and even scared. The technicians extracted her blood, collected skin, hair and fluid samples of all kinds, from every imaginable source. They observed her, they placed her in an MRI machine for hours and performed insignificant chemical tests on her. She knew the importance of all the procedures she was submitted to, but she was utterly certain that nobody would ever be the same after such torment.
She could still feel the cold gloved fingers touching her everywhere, both with solid purpose and without it. It wasn't just standard procedure, she realized. She was the first Smart AI ever to be transfigured into a human being, but beyond the technicians' curiosity and prudence there was something else. They did it to shock her. It was deliberate psychological torture.
We will gut you like a fish if you're not compliant. And we can say we are doing it in the name of science, after all, you are still military property.
Her whole body was shaking, but she wasn't about to cry.
On the contrary, she felt... violated and angry, so angry.
The Gravemind attempted to digest her mind and almost succeeded, the memory was still fresh and it was somewhat painful, but these people went far beyond that. Her human body was an entirely different matter; it had tangible, moral limits that worked differently from an AI's processing core. It felt like an invasion in every sense of the word.
When she turned quickly around the corner, she carelessly bumped into him.
More like she bumped into his breastplate. It wasn't nice, her nose hurt.
"Cortana?"
"Chief!" she took two steps back. "Why are you here?"
"I was on my way to pick you up. You're under my custody now." John answered.
"Of course."
Another annoying part of being human was the inability to know everything that was going on around her. Seeing John calmed her, but when Cortana quickly studied his body language, she realized that he was restless too. That only added more weight to her worries. They haven't talked much since three days ago, when she denied him entrance to her quarters, the same night the Chief started taking double shifts. Not that he had ever been inside her quarters before, it was different. It didn't have anything to do with that embarrassing episode after her first cryo-sleep either.
She was afraid. John knew that, but he wasn't sure of how to help her.
"Come with me. I'll take you to the labs." he said.
"Can we go somewhere else?"
"What do you mean?"
"I need... a moment. With you, alone. Please?"
The Chief just stared at her, an intimidating seven-foot tall mountain of hyper-light alloys and man. Every second was more awkward than the previous. She was about to take back what she just said when he unexpectedly pointed with his thumb towards the south of the ship.
"Have you ever seen the engines? Thorne says they're quite a sight."
Cortana frowned. The Infinity's Forerunner engines? She recalled taking a peek at the blueprints long ago and had a slight impression about unthinkable dimensions, but not much else. Oh, wait. Yes. She had an idea.
"Now that you mention it, no, I've never seen them." Cortana said, nonchalantly.
"Off we go, then."
It took them almost half an hour to travel the distance to the back of the enormous flagship and reach the area. They crossed paths with several of Osman's agents in the way, Sigrid identified all of them by face and rank, displaying summaries of their CSV's in John's HUD. The AI survived her shutdown at Dr. Halsey's hideout, he wasn't sure about what happened but when they boarded the Shadow of Intent to return into UNSC controlled space, she was working again. Sigrid also seemed to have no record of those days of inactivity. He wasn't going to ask, anyway.
The 'trip' itself was particularly quiet, since both seemed interested in keeping the silence as it was.
When the Chief and Cortana finally reached the destination, Roland granted them access to the gigantic room, but warned them about the surveillance. New policies had been established since Osman's arrival that morning.
"Too bad. I was just thinking about stealing one of those big wrenches, you know, for my collection." she snorted, while they were on the elevator. A very dim blue shine poured through the blast doors as they slid open, revealing the observation deck and the massive machinery humming in the background. She let out a surprised whistle. "This is bigger than I thought! Come on, let's take a closer look."
He followed, quietly. Cortana leaned on her elbows over the guardrail, balancing the upper half of her body pretty much on the edge of the observation deck. She wanted to look down. The humming noise was much louder there, but John managed to hear her amazed laugh; it was somehow comforting to see her smile again. The Chief reached the safety locks of his helmet and removed the whole piece, took in a deep breath. The air had a strange scent back there, almost like the electricity was alive.
Then, he leaned in like she did and they stood like that for a moment, peacefully watching the enormous engines run.
"You shouldn't waste your time babysitting me." Cortana said, calmly.
"Babysitting you is my current assignment."
"You were downgraded and nobody told me?"
She drew a wider, warmer smile, looking back at him. She wasn't upset anymore and that was good, but...
"What's wrong?"
"I just wanted to be alone with you for a while, Chief."
Bullshit.
"What did they do to you?" he insisted, trying a different approach.
A shiver ran down her spine. She stood still for a moment, her eyes flared with a hint of indignation and hurt pride. Cortana turned her gaze away to study the engines again, and refused to say a word.
Bingo. He felt something boil inside.
"Cortana..."
"Tests, standard procedures." she answered, flatly.
"Cortana." John growled. It was his 'don't fuck with me' tone. "What did they do to you? You were pale as a ghost when we ran into each other a moment ago."
"Well, part of it was standard procedure. I'm not sure about the rest."
"Tell me everything. Now."
She hesitated again, troubled.
But then, Cortana placed her hand over the cold piece of his gauntlet and leaned closer to him, looking for refuge. And she told him most of it. She told him as carefully as she could about the most uncomfortable parts, about the dubious procedures and the irrelevant tests. She shared the anger with John. The impotency and the humiliation she felt, she was poked and observed like a circus freak and it was awful. With every word she gave away, Cortana felt the shame wash out a little more; but now she was upsetting him and she didn't want that.
She felt weaker than ever, helpless. But she could use this in her favor, someday; after all, revenge tasted better when served cold.
And she was, in a certain way, a daughter of her mother.
When John released the guardrail, the metal was left dented by the strength of his grip.
"You have to report this to Lasky." he started.
"No." she said, with strong resolve.
"Then I will."
"No, because that's what she wants. We are her closest links to Dr. Halsey aboard this ship. Osman thinks she can manipulate us. I knew it was too good to be true. That woman wants me locked away on Earth, dissected like a fucking frog. What happened today makes it very clear."
Her words were cold, yet they did not ease John's mind. Not even a little.
"And I thought Palmer had a grudge on us."
"Palmer is the Easter Bunny compared with Osman; she's still on our side, Chief." Cortana took in a deep breath. "I want to take a nice shower and forget about this. Just play it with me this time, I know what I'm doing."
"It isn't over, you know that." he pointed out, serious.
"I'm counting on it."
"Cortana..."
She shook her head, trying to dismiss the subject.
"It's okay, Chief. I was made for war and she caught me off guard this time. But I survived the Gravemind and its tricks, Serin Osman won't take me down. I promise."
"Careful. Now she has eyes and ears everywhere."
"I don't think so. These engines' energy fields and noises create almost the perfect distortion, the audio and video feeds of your armor will be scrambled with static. That's why the engine room is sealed. This is actually the safest place to talk right now."
He frowned again and somewhat snorted, when he realized.
"Smart move."
"You gave me the idea. But they'll find out very soon, so don't get cocky."
She gave him a small punch in the shoulderplate and smiled, pretending he just said something funny. John didn't know exactly how to play that along, but smiled back and tried to keep up.
"We must be cautious from now on, Chief." Cortana said, later. "Something's up. Don't say anything that can be used against you, even if it's the truth. ONI may still be part of the UNSC but they are not our people."
Another pretending game.
Well, he was good at poker; he could learn how to be good at this too.
"I won't let her hurt you again, Cortana."
"Who's the shield now?" she whispered, softly. "Come on, soldier. Escort me to my quarters, maybe I'll let you in this time."
AUGUST 1ST to AUGUST 5TH, 2558
LOCATION: UNSC INFINITY
For the next few days, the Infinity was like an enraged ant colony, boiling up with activity. It was made public to the crew that Admiral Osman and her people would be stationed with them for some time, conducting an official investigation, but no further details were disclosed. The confidentiality made things more complicated, in a certain way; humans tended to be paranoid.
That acted both as a distraction and an opportunity, according to Cortana.
Although the Admiral clearly said that she would clarify her stance regarding Cortana's case after her supposed tests, she didn't. Maybe she wasn't pleased with the results, or maybe she was expecting something else to happen. Either way, Cortana felt like she'd won that little battle.
The Arbiter chose to accompany the UNSC fleet, but he was eager for a solution to his current problem. He collected intel from all his most trusted sources across the galaxy, yet nobody seemed to have seen or heard anything about the Rampant Spike's current location or activities.
It was like she vanished into thin air. More bad news.
As a (well received) gesture of good will and interest, Captain Lasky invited the Arbiter to be a part of the strategic council. There wasn't much to do until they could get a hint on the Spike's whereabouts, but proper plans were being made. Admiral Osman oversaw the process and approved the solution. The Master Chief would be both bait and executioner, that part was his own idea.
Maybe an ambush wasn't the best plan he could come up with, but they were running out of options.
With a little aid from Roland -off the record-, Cortana worked on the coordinates she kept safely on that piece of paper. It was the only piece of information that wasn't revealed to ONI, and she was convinced that those numbers were important. Tracing the destination was proving to be far more difficult than expected, since it was uncharted space and it could be millions of light years away from them.
She was positive those were the coordinates of the Fortress' exact location.
It was August 3rd when more bad news reached them. FLEETCOM informed them that several cities on a secured planet in the inner colonies were burnt to the ground by the malfunctioning of their own orbital defense systems. The official report stated that the super MAC guns' circuitry got fried by solar bursts and the cannons fired themselves on the civilian population.
Osman's private report, however, said something different: the orbital defense grid was hacked and activated by an unidentified terrorist. The MAC guns not only fired at the planetary surface, they also destroyed the orbiting defense fleet and fired at the lifeboats that were trying to escape the burning hell. Then, they fired at each other until nothing was left but smoking debris.
Three point seven million lives were vaporized, just like that. It was a low blow.
Cortana felt horribly sick after hearing the news, she felt guiltier than ever. The attack only reinforced John's eagerness for another close encounter with that murderous bitch, he was certain that she was behind it and he'd make her pay for it. Killing her wouldn't be enough; he wished he could erase the Rampant Spike forever, he didn't want to think of her related to Cortana in any possible way.
She said she would strike down the UNSC, that she would kill him, not innocent civilians. John had tried all along not to think of the whole matter as something personal but he failed; it had been personal from the very beginning. Attacking the very people he swore to protect made it even worse.
Lasky resolved to aid the survivors, since they were closer to the system than any other fleet at the moment. It was both a merciful call and an opportunity to locate the Spike, if they could track her somehow. It was a known fact that the best way to hack the orbital MACs was to raid the primary space station that controlled them all. There was a small chance that the station's black box record was safely adrift in orbit, waiting to be found.
By August 5th, the Infinity exited slip-space nearby the aforementioned planet and found a terrifying picture: a gigantic black spot in the main landmass, at the same place where two big cities used to be. It was a nightmarish sight. The fleet caught several lifeboats that made it safely out of the colony and rescued the survivors. They were only five hundred and something.
Time passed and the black box record wasn't found, neither the Rampant Spike.
She had vanished again.
AUGUST 7TH, 2558
LOCATION: UNSC INFINITY
03:13 PM standard time
Roland was scanning the floating debris around the planet in search of any remaining lifeboats. The Infinity had recovered at least twelve (half of them full of dead bodies) in the last eighteen hours; mostly small carriers with charred hulls, touched by the deathly kiss of the sabotaged MACs.
A moment later, a signal appeared amongst several pieces of drifting wreckage.
Captain Lasky raised his head to see, the alarm called out his attention.
"A Pelican, sir. The serial number doesn't match any of ours." informed Roland.
"Another lifeboat?"
"I think so." said the AI, and turned around to face the Captain.
"Fine. Hack their navs and drag them over here."
"Sir, we're one hundred and forty seven passengers away from a life-threatening accommodation problem, I know the Infinity is big but she's not ever-expanding like the Universe."
"Supplies are in check. It's our responsibility to rescue any survivors, Roland."
"Never said otherwise, sir. Just a little reminder."
"Pull them in."
"I've got radio contact. Opening the comm channel now."
The crackle of static filled the air, there was the faint sound of a male voice in the background. Roland tried to clean the frequency and kept trying until the cyclic message became discernible. It was a man's voice, yet it seemed calm, restraint. It wasn't like the usual distress signals they've been picking up:
"... do you copy? I repeat: Infinity, do you copy?"
"UNSC Infinity here, we copy. Come in."
"Who is this?"
The Captain cocked an eyebrow, Roland's little amber figure imitated him. They looked at each other.
"This is Captain Thomas Lasky. Do you have any survivors aboard?"
"Negative, Captain; it's… complicated. Permission to approach."
"Absolutely denied. Identify yourself."
A short moment of hesitation. Then: "I can't prove my identity right now."
Lasky leaned in over his elbows, on the edge of the holo-table.
"Target locked, sir. On your mark." said Roland.
The Captain made a halt gesture with his hand. "Who the hell are you? And watch it, I have a full battery of Archer missiles ready to fire."
"Then again, sir: if I tell you, you won't believe it. I request sanctuary."
"No ammunition or explosives detected." Roland informed. "The engines seem to be ruined, they won't hold for much longer. Even if it tries to crash into us, it would be like a mosquito in our windshield. That Pelican is harmless, sir."
"He's either crazy or he's got some balls." Lasky mumbled, then he talked to the comm channel again: "Okay, let's do this one more time and if you fail to comply, you'll leave me no choice. Who are you?"
Silence, only soft background static for a moment.
Then, the air crackled again: "I have an idea. Get me SPARTAN Sierra-117."
"Repeat that, Unknown Pelican, I think I heard you demand something from me."
"Captain Lasky, sir, I have two very delicate packages aboard that need care. I'm wounded and this piece of crap will explode in any second now. This is not exactly a walk in the park. Please, if someone can confirm, it's him."
"Roland, are you reading life signals?"
The AI nodded: "Yes, sir, I'm picking up three of them. Actually, one is a child."
"Why didn't you say that first? Get me the Master Chief. Now."
"Betting on your hunches again, sir?"
"Just do it, dammit."
AUGUST 7TH, 2558
LOCATION: UNSC INFINITY
03:28 PM standard time
Fifteen minutes later, John entered the bridge and saw the confused faces.
He'd been quickly briefed about the situation on his way in and had a slight theory about what it could be, but he wasn't absolutely sure. The images displayed across the strategic command aisle showed the shape of something that could be identified as a dropship out in space, directly in front of the Infinity. Its windshields were darkened by several explosive impacts that also left deep dents in the hull. It was impossible to peek inside to see the pilot.
Captain Lasky pointed towards the Pelican with his open hand.
"All yours, Chief."
John nodded and Sigrid proceeded to link him up with the proper channel.
"This is Sierra-117, come in." he snarled, alert.
"Chief? Good, I don't know how much longer this thing will hold."
"That's your problem. Give me one reason why I shouldn't let the Captain blow you to pieces right now."
"I could give you forty thousand reasons, Chief." John's heart skipped a beat. He heard those words before. "But I'll just say that I know what Subject Seven's next target is. And I can help you take her down. I request permission to board the Infinity, sir."
There was a moment of tense silence.
"Chief?" asked Lasky, impatient.
"Let him in." John said, calmly. "If he tries anything funny, I'll just shoot him."
AUGUST 7TH, 2558
LOCATION: UNSC INFINITY
03:42 PM standard time
The Chief readied his rifle, so did the other three escorting fireteams.
The battered Pelican made it safely inside the empty hangar and hovered around until it landed on the gratings, then the cargo compartment door dropped open. The engines hummed for a few more seconds before they abruptly shut down with a puff of smoke and ugly sparks, clearly damaged.
The SPARTANS rushed to the back of the dropship and held positions again.
John was the only one standing on his feet, ready to fire at whatever could come out.
A man armored in shining black and furious red strode down the Pelican's lift, he was quite tall and well built although seemed to be on his late twenties. Fair skinned, his jet-black hair was shoulder-length and messy, and his eyes, a shade of electric blue. He wasn't alone, for he was holding hands with two others: one was a little girl, maybe two or three years old, same black hair and enormous blue eyes. She looked like the man's daughter, the resemblance was uncanny. However, the other was a woman about his same age, she seemed a bit lost, absent. Her dark hair was mid-chest long, curly bangs hanging over her face. She walked clumsily, guided by his hand. The female's clothes were gray, plain.
Actually, they all kind of looked like brother and sisters.
John's armored finger caressed the trigger, coldly.
"Hello, Chief." the man said. "Seems like all roads lead to you these days."
The smile he drew for John also proved something else: they weren't just siblings. They were Cortana's siblings.
TO BE CONTINUED
All right, I admit it, I've been thinking a lot about this idea of a male Cortana, and here it is, finally. Thank God this is not official licensed material, because you'd all kill me. Please, don't kill me! But fear not, this guy is the kick for a lot of shit, don't give up just yet. I promise you there's good stuff to come, more action-packed too.
Mk15; If I have the time, maybe I'll make some quick sketches of armors and stuff. I hope to get them right ^^ And I'd love to see your art, no matter if you think you draw like a blind person with no hands :P -hugs-
AF Redneck; that's actually the part I can't get straight, what COMMISSIONS are xD Since English is not my first language, some details are so damn technical that I don't clearly understand. Also, you're AF? Man, I dreamed of being a pilot, then at 16 I was diagnosed myopia and well... I had to let it go. My love for military aircraft is still there, though, stronger than ever. Such beautiful machines.
Guest; thank you! :D
UPDATES NEXT SUNDAY! I say this every time, but please be kind and leave your comments! It's awesome to read from you :)