Since Friday the 19th, Argentina has been declared under mandatory quarantine due to coronavirus. So, if I suddenly stop updating the stories, you bet your ass I was infected by this shit. Either I will return when I'm better or I guess I'll just die :P
ALL ABOARD THE FEEL TRAIN! It took me years, but it's done now and we all can move on, await patiently for Halo Infinite and see what's going to come out of that. This is a huge event in my life, PLEASE share it with me; leave your thoughts on the box below, it will be greatly appreciated.
.
RECOMPOSE
by Ladywolvesbayne
.
.
This would be the "pretend" course of events after everything we've seen on its path to Halo 5, as it is predicted in the summary. I'm taking some creative licenses over the actual game's script to fit things with my narrative. Enjoy!
.
.
41. ARGENT MOON
.
.
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
AS PER OFFICIAL RECORD: from start to finish, Operation OVERKILL lasted twenty-seven minutes, twelve seconds.
However, when the affected MJOLNIR power armor suits were repossessed and analyzed, it was discovered that the Spartans involved in the event had recorded sixteen hours, fifty-seven minutes and thirty-five seconds of active time and a video file of white noise of the same duration was allocated in their data-banks. Nobody can explain why, or how. It is normal, natural real-time white noise, not a recording error.
It is also unclear how said Spartans had suddenly appeared unconscious in the UNSC Infinity's main docking bay, or how the ship itself had returned to normal space with her engines dead after the triggering of an EMP device.
All involved Spartan assets were individually cross examined, psychologically and medically evaluated, and returned to duty shortly after. Recordings of their interviews are stored under the label OVERKILLDEBLOGS and are accessible under request, although heavily edited.
There were no traces found of the component H-22HARPY-class stealth SpecOps Gear. It is also presumed that the Smart AI assets RLD 0205-4 and SGD 0306-7 were lost in the climax of the event, nothing concerning them has been recovered so far. The case is still open and being investigated.
As it concerns to the asset Doctor Catherine Halsey, she has been also interrogated and placed under confinement. Uncooperative and misleading as usual, further charges await to be pressed.
None of the assets CTN, SVN or ELV have been located either. No bodies were found in the surrounding area of the event. Their whereabouts are still being investigated, but chances of making contact again are close to none.
As of today, the specifics of the event remain incomplete and unconfirmed, access to files is classified and highly restricted under ONI SECTION-III SPECOPS TOP SECRET label. Nobody with a clearance lower than Admiral can access them, and even then, the files are heavily redacted.
One thing is clear: the actions and decisions made by all these brave men and women saved us from yet another war, one that Humanity probably wouldn't have survived.
DELETION OF THIS DOCUMENT IS ADVISED
.
.
OCTOBER 23RD, 2558
LOCATION: CROW'S EYE NEBULA
OPERATION BIRD IN HAND
MISSION OBJECTIVE: Recovery of compromised asset UNSC Argent Moon
CONTINGENCIES: Hostile activity is likely to be found. Proceed with caution.
standard time not recorded
.
The darkened cabin was silent.
The Pelican's engines had been shut down a while ago and were now cold; they were moving by sheer force of inertia alone, drifting aimlessly towards the mass of the station cramped into the asteroid field.
With a little bit of luck, the occupants wouldn't notice their approach.
John had been driving, and this time nobody questioned his piloting skills. As a matter of fact, nobody questioned him much about anything, lately. And that was good. It was almost showtime, yet he found himself incapable of feeling the usual thrill of anticipation that came with every new campaign or mission. He was just ready, missing the edge of a trigger under his index finger.
Sitting at the pilot's post, the Master Chief reached out for his helmet. He'd been commissioned a new model of MJOLNIR, better, faster, modern. It fit like a glove. It was powerful, like never before. The on-board computer didn't talk back, which was highly satisfactory. John looked at the back of the helmet, the slot specifically designed for AI insertion was empty.
He'd been issued a new armor but rejected pairing with yet another Smart AI. He'd been wise this time.
John couldn't help but to rub the tip of his thumb across the slot.
Something like dread invaded him. It was gone in a few seconds, anyway.
He put on the helmet and locked it properly, then he opened a radio channel.
.
x.x.x.x.x
.
On the back of the same Pelican, all remaining three members of Blue Team were getting ready as well. Going through their strict routine, they all checked and double-checked their weapons, armors and required inventory for the mission. It was supposed to be a simple assignment: recover control of a kidnapped UNSC research station, lost with all hands after a classified catastrophic event and now found again. It was occupied by Kig-Yar pirates, apparently.
They weren't counting on easy, but it had high chances of being so.
After he was satisfied with the status of his assets and armament, Fred-104 turned around and muttered:
"I haven't seen Chief press himself so hard since boot camp."
Kelly-087 almost interrupted him: "He's fine, Fred."
Linda-058 tilted her head towards the other woman, startled by her harshness.
The Lieutenant's reply didn't take long, neither was entirely tame.
"This many missions non-stop isn't fine." he said, wary.
Their private conversation ended when the TEAMCOM main channel opened in their HUDs and caught auto-uplink with the UNSC Infinity's encrypted frequency. They heard John speaking, clearly. Mechanically:
"Sierra-one-one-seven to Infinity. Blue Team has located Argent Moon. Signs of hostile activity, but she's still here."
"Copy that, one-one-seven." replied INFINITY COM. "Eliminate all hostiles, secure Argent Moon, you may deploy when ready."
"Affirmative, Infinity. One-one-seven out."
The channel was closed. Brief and to the point, as usual.
It had to be showtime, now. Kelly turned around when the airlock to the cockpit opened and the Master Chief exited the cabin, she was quick to hand him his preferred weapon of choice:
"Here you go."
"Thanks, Kelly." John received the gun and swung it to his back, to secure it in place. "Everyone ready?"
"Affirmative." replied Linda.
The sniper gave him one sharp nod, and then pressed her fist hard on the release button, to open the cargo bay's door. As the door's mechanism whirred to life, Fred stepped closer to John and when their faceplates met in an indirect gaze, he whispered:
"You good?"
The Master Chief nodded once.
Taking the lead -also as per usual-, the thrusters on the back of his armor flared on and he jumped straight into the vacuum of space, as he commanded over their shared radio channel: "Blue Team, fall out."
They dived expertly through the asteroid field, maneuvering in a compact group as they had done countless times before. In forty years of close partnership, these four particular Spartans had come to know each other more than well, to trust each other more than with their lives, and to sense when something was troubling one of them, with great accuracy.
If the team was unstable, their efficiency dropped.
However, despite the unspoken animosities, their efficiency as a team was higher than ever. And it was all because of John.
It was true that they had been through a lot in the previous fifty days, even more so with the added pressure of everything that had been left unsaid between them. Fred, Kelly and John still owed each other a talk, with high chances it wasn't going to happen any time soon. Just because John, in his appointed position of team leader, more often than not kept to himself instead of speaking out what was bothering him, and this time it wasn't the exception. If anything, he closed himself even more. Fred didn't want to pull rank on him over something so simple, but every day that passed, he felt more and more like he should do so.
John never told them what happened after the Havoks detonated, at the core of the Singularity. He claimed not to remember. But it was extremely strange that all of them had woken up relatively unharmed inside the Infinity and not been obliterated into mere atoms. That the Infinity herself was relatively safe and sound, and that the Fortress and its menacing Halo ring spinning over its axis had disappeared.
They had been interviewed by ONI officers many times over it.
The answer was always the same: they couldn't explain, they didn't remember.
All the attention usually fell on John, since he'd been the compromised asset of the operation. For over two weeks, they had zero contact with him, didn't even know where he was. It was after the sixteenth day that he returned to his post with new orders for Blue Team, composed and clad in a new suit of armor.
That's when the fun times began, Kelly would say.
John didn't speak of it, but Blue knew that he had underwent some sort of surgery very recently to fix something about his implants. There was no mistake: he was in his prime. Sharper, stronger, smarter and more ruthless than ever. Motivated.
The look in his eyes was dark. Not empty or disembodied, just dark.
What did the doctors do to him?
What did he do to himself?
Kelly acknowledged his odd behavior, of course; she wasn't the only one to do so but she was the first. She'd known John since they were children, they had always been tight as ropes and survived a lot together. The Master Chief had always been disciplined and respectful, always mindful about his teammates and adamant about the completion of missions with the highest degree of success, but not at this machine-like level. She once observed him during a meal, huddled the four of them together in the back of the Pelican, and she would swear that he chewed every mouthful the same exact amount of times before swallowing, absent eyes fixed into something nobody else but him could see. She wondered what he was thinking about…
It was more than odd. It had become disturbing.
Enough for Fred to make a comment, for Linda to make a face from time to time.
But none of them confronted John, although they had more than the right to.
John-117 was never rude neither had to rise his voice or lose his temper, he was a perfect example of an ideal soldier, an excellent leader and friend. For all those reasons, to notice how his voice sometimes pitched a little higher when he corrected someone's assumptions was a bad sign. The way he stared blankly up front when being briefed was enough to make some officers falter when they looked at him.
He was fine. That's what he always said, anyway. Kelly wanted to believe him.
They all wanted to.
Blue Team fired a quick salvo against one of Argent Moon's side viewports until the thick tempered glass shattered, and they breached through unharmed compromising the atmosphere inside. They landed firmly on their feet to find a group of Sangheili Elites prowling about, which upon seeing the Demons arrive immediately prepared for a fight. They weren't counting with the decompression that followed, dragging everyone out of the window quickly except for the Spartans, whom had maglocked the soles of their boots to the metallic floor.
Once the breach was sealed, Argent Moon's internal AI spoke through the PSA and atmosphere began to build up again. Blue Team steered through the corridors, halls, platforms and elevators looking for their target, eliminating every hostile on their way with sheer efficiency. The research station had been overrun by ex Covenant survivors, all kinds of alien species came into their sights.
None of them was left alive, for sure.
They reached an unstable walkway, just shy of their next target. A hidden Hunter charged at them, stalking out of nowhere fast and hard on the walkway until it wobbled and in a moment of clarity, the creature realized it had a better strategy at hand:
The Hunter slammed his shield-arm against the walkway, breaking it in half and dropping the Spartans into the darkness below…
.
x.x.x.x.x
.
John landed alone and on his feet in a darkened environment.
Immediately, his sharp senses pushed him into action and he aimed consciously around, looking for targets. There was a thick fog, but it began to dissipate after a short moment, when he realized his were the only vitals the system was reading, and that the premises were something like… a cave.
Despite all, the Master Chief didn't lower his guard.
"Blue Team, report." he demanded, over TEAMCOM.
A few seconds went by, there was no reply.
He tried again: "Sierra-one-one-seven to Blue Team, report!"
Nothing.
His heartrate spiked up one notch.
"Sierra-one-one-seven to Blue Team, does anyone copy?" he asked, once more.
There was no other response beyond a faint hiss behind him, he'd swear it had sounded like words. A voice calling him. It could've been the wind howling through the dark stone formations, for all he knew, but… he turned around, anyway. John winced slightly when he felt a shot of pain through the back of his skull, directly into his neural interfacing port.
Of course. Someone or something was broadcasting into his implants.
It didn't sit well with him. His heart began to pound inside his chest, involuntary readings of stress levels appeared directly before his eyes on the HUD. He dismissed the window and his sight focused on a distant blue hue.
There was a radiant object lying on the foot of a stone formation.
After a brief hesitation, John stalked carefully towards that light.
Every step he closed in allowed him to identify the object better. It looked like a standard UNSC data chip. The color was so well known by him, so precious. Something like hope took over him as he knelt down and reached out with his arm, only to see the chip flicker, fade and disappear the second his fingers touched it.
That's when the voice sounded again, clearer this time.
JOHN.
He didn't see anything relevant in his HUD because this wasn't happening outside of his head. Instinctively, John knew from which direction the voice came and looked ahead. The blue light, like a path of ocean waves, fluctuated against the rocks of another passageway, slightly to his right side. This time, with his senses in full alert, the Master Chief moved slow across the labyrinths of the cave system until he reached, at last, the end of the way.
Nothing but a precipice, seemingly endless.
A massive breach separated two landmasses, he observed the white and shining silhouette of a huge moon hanging over the clear, nocturnal sky. What was this vision, now? He had managed to control the pace of his breath, but he couldn't do anything about the unhinged speed of his heartbeats. John felt his own skin on fire under the suit, every square inch prickling with expectation.
After almost two months, was it possible that…?
CHIEF.
His head shot up again, the voice was hers. It was hers, no doubt.
He looked anxiously for a point of origin, taking a few steps back from the edge of the cliff. When he looked towards the moon again, his breath halted.
Curvaceous. Still petite and yet so strong.
But most of all, she was solid. He couldn't see through her.
She approached walking on her own two feet, her dark figure outlined by the giant white moon stood before him, all the way up the other side of the breach.
THE DOMAIN IS OPEN. MERIDIAN IS NEXT.
"Cortana?" he called, trying to maintain his voice serene.
JOHN. FIND MERIDIAN. FIND ME.
She had promised. More than a lifetime, she had said.
He wanted to ask her so many things, but the words died in his tongue when the stone under his boots began to shake. When he looked up again, she had disappeared, the sky was darkened with clouds, the moon was no more. The cliff on which he was standing shook and shattered, almost at the same time he lost his footing, pain invaded his neural interface again, and he fainted.
.
x.x.x.x.x
.
"Chief, what's wrong?"
He came back to his senses hearing Kelly's concerned voice.
In fact, it was Kelly who kept him more or less straight, kneeling beside him as he tried to steer himself back to his own knees. The pain on the back of his head pulsed a few times and receded, at last. John blinked fast, trying to catch his breath, to ease the rush of blood inside his veins. He closed his eyes for a moment, until he caught himself at last and stood up again.
His teammates approached, between curiosity and apprehension.
"She's on Meridian." he said, a ring of surprise laced his voice.
"Who?" asked Kelly, cautious.
"Cortana."
"That's not possible." Fred shook his head.
Linda followed up, she sounded concerned: "You said she was gone."
"In a way." John tried to explain, as he shouldered his weapon again. "We need to move."
With a little bit of hesitation, Blue Team fell into formation again and they kept moving through the station, towards the last target. Fred led the way towards the main control room, at some point it was required to turn on the headlamps to see clearly any enemies or obstacles in their way.
Kelly couldn't keep it to herself: "Chief, what did Cortana say to you?"
"Not enough." he muttered. "Something about Meridian."
"Meridian's a backwater. If she's active again, what's she doing so far out on the frontier?" wondered Fred.
This time, John didn't respond. He had nothing to say.
Upon entering a new section of the station, they were received by a few Elites and Unggoy, charging towards them with their weapons and explosive devices on the ready. For the legendary Blue Team, to get rid of them was akin to a walk on the park. John approached the massive viewport to his left when a purple light invaded the hall, the energy signature of a slipspace wormhole.
"The Covenant battlenet just lit up." Kelly informed. "And I think I know why: Covenant ships exiting slipspace."
"Yes, Covenant ships exiting slipspace now." John had visual confirmation.
He braced himself for what was to come.
.
x.x.x.x.x
.
After a long and bloody hour of combat, Linda finally called it: "Clear."
"Remaining time?" the Master Chief asked.
"Eighty-nine seconds." the sniper informed.
John moved to a nearby terminal, brushing off the dead Grunt still clinging to it. He tapped into the controls and hit the launch button, kicking off the exit strategy. The platform on which they were standing startled and moved upwards, carrying them to the ventral entry hatch of an experimental Prowler. Extraction was coming out nicely, much to Fred's comfort.
A burst of fire came rushing through one corridor, the self-destruction sequence of the station had finally reached zero and the fireworks were beginning. As the structure around them shook and rattled with the sound of detonations far and wide, falling apart, Blue Team entered the underbelly of the ship.
The Master Chief opened contact with INFINITY COM:
"Sierra-one-one-seven to Infinity, Argent Moon scuttled." he informed.
"Acknowledged. Make your way back safe, Blue Team." mission control replied.
"Negative, Infinity."
Fred, Kelly and Linda turned to look at him, as soon as they heard that.
John was standing very still, rifle caught in both hands. The sound of explosions reverberated in the background, rippling like waves. Argent Moon would soon become bits and pieces, and nothing else.
"John?" this time, Fred asked.
"I'm reassigning myself. Possible contact with Cortana."
"Negative, one-one-seven. You are to return to the Infinity, immediately."
"Chief…" Linda started.
"Sir, I'm telling you…" John began again, with intent.
"Master Chief, you are ordered to return with your team to Infinity. Whatever this is, another team will be assigned to deal with it."
His heart nearly stopped. Another team?
Why? They knew he was the one supposed to deal with her.
He was the one supposed to take care of her.
The Master Chief fell silent for a long moment, contemplating his options. There weren't many to choose from, and most of them ended in court martial. If he wanted to follow his instinct, that is. He'd been waiting for a sign. He'd been clinging to that hope and made some bad choices along the way.
Two months didn't seem much, but for John, it had been an Eternity.
In the end, he made another poor choice, but a practical one at that:
"Negative, Infinity. I don't like it." he declared, and cut off the COM link.
John punched the airlock release button, as he felt the growing concern hiding in the silent TEAMCOM line. He was expecting his teammates to jump over him, pin him down to the floor and arrest him, because that's exactly what he would've done in any similar circumstance. The new thing was that he was willing to fight them off, maybe even render them unconscious if he had to. He knew he was capable.
Nothing happened, though. The Chief sighed deeply:
"Out with it." John encouraged them, with a growl.
"John, what are you doing now?" Linda asked, she was truly worried.
"She said she would find me. I think she's in trouble." John explained, as best as he could. It would be useless to go in further detail about the broadcast, the invasion of his implants. It had to be her. "I have to go."
"If you think so, then we're tagging along." Fred offered, moving forward to enter the Prowler. "You might need backup, we can help."
John laid a hand on his shoulder and stopped him: "Fred, stand down. You know what this means."
Yes, they all were well aware of the implications of refusing commands. Even if they managed to return, there would be harsh consequences. Even harsher for a Spartan. Kelly was the only one who hadn't pronounced herself about the subject yet, and she was still standing away from the others.
"And you know how this goes, Chief." Fred fought back.
"I need to do this alone."
The Lieutenant grabbed John's shoulder in return, holding him the same way. It was the closest thing to an embrace they could manage, both because of their armor and their customs. "They can't court martial all of us, the PR scandal will be madness."
"He's right." Kelly said, at last. "He has to do this alone."
Linda and Fred looked at her, now. The sniper began to shake her head in denial, slowly. She couldn't see this through in any positive way. John was implying that he was willing to become a fugitive of the UNSC, the pursuit would never end. He would never have peace. And he didn't want his brethren sharing the same fate.
He was going to do it for her. For that woman.
All three remaining members of Blue Team wished they could understand what was so deep and uncontrollable that could bend the will of the Master Chief himself. It must've been something incredibly important to him, more important than family and certainly more important than duty.
Bigger than any belief. Kelly felt a ping of envy.
"Let's get back to Infinity." she decided. "We can always say that we hit our heads again and can't remember where the Master Chief went. He might have blown up with Argent Moon, for what we know."
"I'll take you to the Pelican, so you can go safely." John proposed.
Linda and Fred were still hesitant.
But at last, the Lieutenant withdrew and his arm left John's shoulder.
They stepped back to Kelly, siding with her now.
"I guess this is goodbye?" Linda said, she sounded sad.
"I'll be okay. I promise." John said. "You don't have to worry about me."
"Goodbye, John." Fred raised his right hand and saluted, sharply. "It was a true honor serving with you. Good luck, brother."
Linda imitated the gesture, and then Kelly did the same.
At last, John returned the salute and they held their faces up for a long time, just acknowledging the moment. The countdown was close to zero, Argent Moon began to shake more violently, the explosions sounded closer every time. Soon that hangar would be engulfed by flame.
"Be careful." was the last thing Kelly ever said to him.
"I will. Thank you." John replied, and it was the last time they heard his voice.
Before entering the Prowler the four Spartans shared a secret gesture, an ancient form of sympathy: they slid two fingers across their faceplates. Nothing else was said between them as they made their exit, and the station finally became as bright and hot as a small sun.
.
x.x.x.x.x
.
"I wish I didn't have to say 'I told you so', Tom, but I TOLD YOU SO." Sighed Commander Palmer, rubbing the bridge of her nose with an armored hand. "Oh God, this is going to be such a pain in the ass…"
Captain Thomas Lasky just shook his head, incredulous.
"This has to be a joke. I can't…" he started.
"He's gone. It was bound to happen, sooner or later."
They both inferred the underline to Palmer's words: the Master Chief had grown rebellious in the past eighteen months, after being MIA for over four years. Whatever happened to him during his course through Requiem, whatever the Forerunners had done to his genetic makeup, it had changed him in more ways than imagined.
He couldn't be stopped, that much was also true.
And try to bring him back would be so much worse than a pain in the ass, for sure.
"He said something about Cortana. Do you think…?
"You know what I think?" Palmer cut Lasky off, frowning. "I hope he's having a luxury vacation somewhere nice with a beach and palm trees, with that cute chick by his side. We all know he deserves it, anyway."
Now it was Tom's turn to frown, and he looked up to find Sarah's chocolate eyes.
The Commander's expression was stern, but she didn't seem too upset.
Lasky muttered: "You know protocol, we have to set a team on his trail."
"And I also know that you sure as Hell don't want to do any of that, Tom. But at least look like you're upset for the right reasons, or Osman will get your head. I'll get Osiris on board, they're our best shot to find him."
"I thought you wanted him to be on vacation."
"My ass is also on the line. I have to look like I'm trying."
"… maybe he will find out what happened with her and the fragments."
"Maybe. In the meantime, I'll have to file a lot of paperwork for this. Ugh."
Palmer left the bridge, stalking angrily.
Tom just stood by the holo-table, leaned into the console and rested his weight on his hands, shoulders and head slumping forward. None of the bridge's crewmembers said a word, but they had heard it all. Concern was growing, all around the Captain's post. This had the potential of becoming a troop morale catastrophe.
Roland's orange figure showed up near Tom's hands, he looked worried. This was the intact copy that the original Roland Smart AI had given to Tom, before they left for the Fortress and he disappeared.
The hologram shook his head. "So, I suppose it's official, sir?"
"Yes, Roland. It's official now. The Master Chief has gone AWOL."
And this would be the last time any of them would ever see John-117 again.
.
.
OCTOBER 30TH, 2558
LOCATION: OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE'S BLACK SITE 13
DETAILS UNDISCLOSED
standard time not recorded
.
The room had only one source of light: directly above her head.
It was bright enough for her eyes to be clouded, so she wouldn't make anything of the shadows moving in the background. Doctor Catherine Halsey sighed, tired. She felt a phantom itch on her missing arm, but her mind was aware enough as to not try and scratch it. It would've looked a little strange.
The ONI interrogator paced slowly before her, she couldn't see his face.
But he was a man, he was young, and he was asking stupid questions:
"Tell me about the children." he said, trying to play it casual. When she didn't answer, absorbed in her own machinations, the man pushed a little: "Doctor Halsey?"
The woman lifter her head, her expression was full of disgust.
"You already know everything."
"You kidnapped them." the interrogator made a gesture spreading his hands, encouraging her to continue.
Oh, he was a dense one. Fine, then.
"Children's minds are more easily accepting of indoctrination. Their bodies, more adaptable to augmentation. The result was the ultimate soldier." she summed it all up to get over with it quickly. "And because of our success, when the Covenant invaded, we were ready."
The man had sat at the table, with her. His face was barely visible, still.
He made a grimace, clearly in disagreement.
"Doctor Halsey, you're bending history for your own favor and you know it." he accused, tilting his head. "You developed the Spartans to crush human rebellion, not to fight the Covenant."
Whatever made him angry fueled the interrogator enough to make him get off the chair and step back into the darkness, beyond her line of sight.
"When one human world after another fell, when my Spartans were all that stood between Humanity and extinction… nobody was concerned about why they were originally built." Halsey snarled, almost mockingly.
"So you feel that, in the end, your choices were justified."
Ah, they were reaching the point. She knew that after the catastrophic events at the Fortress and her subsequent recapture, ONI wouldn't take too long to decide on her sentence and make it effective. But they were stalling for some reason, too.
She rested her only elbow onto the table, looking a little too nonchalant.
"Mi work SAVED the Human race." she objected, with absolute calm.
"Do you think the Spartans' lack of basic humanity helped?"
Oh.
Oh, no. Just when she thought she had it all figured out…
Halsey reared a little, her expression switched from peaceful to alert.
"What are you after?" she asked. "The others before you were Naval Intelligence, but you… you're something else."
"Records show Spartans routinely exhibited mildly sociopathic tendencies: difficulty with socialization, borderline…"
"The records show efficient behavior operating under hazardous situations." Halsey cut him off mid-sentence, her tone was sharp. "I supplied the tools to maintain said efficiency."
The man approached the table again, resting his hands on the back of the chair.
"But, do you believe the Master Chief succeeded because he was, at his core, broken?"
Whoever this interrogator was, whatever she said now or had said before would be extremely dangerous, but not for her own wellbeing. Something must've happened to John. Something bad. They wouldn't have come looking for her, otherwise.
The good Doctor couldn't help to feel uneasy, shifting her position unconsciously.
"What does John have to do with this?" she inquired, coldly. When the man didn't respond, she tilted her head, studying him intensely. No, this man was ONI, but he was from another branch. Probably the same branch that had churned out several generations of SPARTAN-III and used them as cannon fodder. "You want to replace him. Make more like him?"
Again, the man didn't answer.
Halsey exhaled a surprised sigh: "No, no. You don't want to make more like him. You want to capture him."
"The Master Chief is dead." the interrogator said this time, trying to be concise.
"John is gone. He's gone AWOL, isn't he?"
She couldn't help but to smile faintly. It was a foreseeable consequence, she had considered and predicted that, eventually, John's own moral code would grow and come to surpass the constraints of indoctrination, and he would find his own way. The UNSC had millions of good men and women, but it also had thousands of evildoers meddling around, pulling the strings. If anything, she wanted the most that her Spartans could be free of the clutches of that people, specifically.
"Catherine, with thousands of younger, ruthless and more advanced SPARTAN-IV under our command, do you honestly believe we couldn't find and capture one single aging SPARTAN-II?" the man smiled, maybe a little too smug.
And like that, he had just confirmed it. John was gone.
For some reason, Catherine Halsey felt relieved. He would be okay, now.
"Your mistake is seeing Spartans as property, military hardware." she began, her voice had softened now. She stood up slowly, facing the interrogator at his own level. "My Spartans are Humanity's next step. Our destiny as a species. Do not underestimate them."
She tilted her head back, rising her chin with pride.
"But most of all, do not underestimate HIM."
.
.
OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE - SECTION-III
Fragment of conversation between POIs captured via infiltration device
Dr. Selena Waters Psy D. (SW-35766-7)
Dr. Julia Quinn Ph D. (JQ-14132-8)
SUBJECT: the following corresponds to an account of intelligence linked to asset ABSENT WITHOUT LEAVE CASEFILE 446675A-1-S117
.
MARCH 2ND, 2559
LOCATION [REDACTED]
[PEOPLE CHATTING IN THE BACKGROUND, CROWDED SPACE]
SW: So, the head of propaganda gave me a call yesterday.
JQ: Oh, really? What did they want?
SW: Asked me about how can we use what happened to make it look good.
JQ: Assholes. They can't stop beating up the dead horse, can they?
SW: It's a major scandal, at this point. First, the Master Chief goes AWOL, now we have HIGHCOM breached and a specimen removed from their containment center... Jul 'Mdama alive and his Hand cult resurging, against all odds? It's a big cake. Plenty of shit that eventually will spill over lots of important people.
JQ: You think he was involved?
SW: [CHIME OF PORCELAIN CUP] No, I don't think he would be that reckless. I've seen the reports, HIGHCOM claims the job wasn't done by human hands. I don't know what to think.
JQ: Wait, are you implying…?
SW: [PAUSE] They never found remains of them, after all. Might be.
JQ: [DRINKS FROM CUP] I wish there had been a way to help, to prevent this witch hunt. Osiris was deployed six months ago and still I haven't heard a single rumor. I should've insisted to him about...
SW: Don't blame yourself, Jules. He's always been three steps ahead.
JQ: [PAUSE] You think he had been planning to go for a while?
SW: I mean, he had it everything well placed, I can't understand how nobody saw it coming. Returned the rights of his dog to the K-9 SPECOPS division, had his implants fixed up, got his house in order. Either he was actually planning on doing it, or he was just getting ready for whatever might come.
JQ: Perhaps if he hadn't refused to see you again, he wouldn't have left.
SW: [PAUSE, CHIME OF CUP] Honestly, I don't think I could've done anything for him. As per oath, of course I'd be willing to keep trying, but something tells me he would refuse to acknowledge. Halsey broke him good.
JQ: [CLEARS THROAT] Don't bring her up, will you? I've heard enough.
SW: Sorry. Still, if you want my professional opinion, I'd say that it's not entirely Halsey's fault. She gave him a family, after all, so he was somewhat contained as long as he kept to his unit. [LONG PAUSE, LOWER TONE OF VOICE] It's possible to die of a broken heart, too.
JQ: He's not dead. Dying would've been losing. That man doesn't do losing.
SW: [AMICABLE CHUCKLE] Well, you're right about that.
[EDIT: AN EMPLOYEE APPROACHES. 30 SECONDS OF FILE MUTED]
[EDIT: RESUMING AFTER EMPLOYEE LEAVES]
SW: You know, there's one thing that bothers me.
JQ: What?
SW: Why did you do it? You knew it wouldn't do him any good.
JQ: [LONG PAUSE, RUSTLING OF LEATHER BAG] I did it believing it would appease him, soften his pain, Selena. Turns out that I was wrong. Whatever was going through his head finally became unbearable on its own, I guess.
SW: You're leaving already?
JQ: I'm expected to report for boarding in two hours. Thank you for joining me, darling. It has been lovely to see you. Keep me posted if you find out anything, will you?
SW: Will do. Have a nice trip.
[RUSTLING OF CLOTHES, PEOPLE CHATTING IN THE BACKGROUND]
[END OF TRANSCRIPT]
.
.
SEPTEMBER 28TH, 2558
LOCATION: UNSC INFINITY – UNDISCLOSED STAR COORDINATES
CMO'S OFFICE - MEDBAY
3:16 PM standard time
.
"I want you to take it away. Everything."
Doctor Quinn frowned slightly, a strange fear crawled under her skin.
She'd heard him patiently as he explained, in very brief words, what he wanted.
The woman hesitated, she didn't know very well how to phrase her response in a way that he would accept. She sighed and crossed her arms, standing before the big man in BDUs sitting on her examination gurney. His huge hands were holding the edges of the thin rubber mattress, a strange tension made his knuckles stark white.
She knew he had a rough couple of weeks. But this was new.
"It won't take away the memories." Doctor Quinn said, looking straight into his eagle-like blue eyes. "That's another entirely different procedure, Master Chief."
"I don't want to forget her, I just want it to stop." he whispered, looking down.
Doctor Quinn pressed her lips in a strong line. It was a hard choice to make, she had to give the man some credit for even daring to think about it. Maybe placing him under Selena Waters' care had been a big mistake from the very beginning, maybe the SPARTAN-II commandos weren't made to become people at all; it did more damage than good. Something was actually broken within him, something that couldn't be fixed by standard procedures.
He preferred it this way, because it was easier. And faster.
The Master Chief was a practical man who made practical choices.
She couldn't help but feel brokenhearted, just looking at the emptiness reflected in his eyes. The woman sighed deeply and removed her glasses.
"…I can have someone here by Friday that could replace the defective thyroidal implant, it should cut the process in half and reduce most of the side-effects. It won't reverse anything, just prevent it to keep developing... it will probably produce some degree of atrophy, too. Nothing that could affect your efficiency as a soldier, that is. We can take care of the rest with drugs, to keep it under control. With your foreign genetical alterations, I need to keep a close eye on you and this means a tight schedule and medical exams at least once a week. I refuse to intervene if you're not willing to follow my instructions."
"Yes, ma'am."
She made another pause, still uneasy.
It wasn't right. It wasn't right at all. She shouldn't even be thinking about it.
"Do you realize this isn't healthy, Master Chief?" the Doctor asked, carefully.
"SECTION-III approved it. And I understand."
"It could be useless. You have changed. At some point, your body and mind will become resistant to the drugs; at some point, you will find yourself in a similar situation again, and I fear for what might happen to you."
He didn't say anything. Maybe he'd considered that too.
The Master Chief stepped off the gurney and prepared to leave.
"No matter what, Chief, my advice remains the same: the only thing you're doing wrong, is being afraid of it." the woman added, hopeful.
"Thank you for your concern, Doctor. I'll see you Friday."
.
.
CONTINUE TO READ THE EPILOGUE
.
More notes on the epilogue, but please, tell me what you think so far *evil smirk*
NOTE: Regarding the alleged disappearance of chapters of the story, relax. Nothing is gone, I just deleted two or three entries that were just me ranting about Halo 5 and not actual story content. The comments left on those updates seem to remain. Also, to my special friend BOI who read everything that I have published in less than two days, DAMN, WELCOME. You're not late, you showed up just at the right time for the main event. Enjoy yourself!
.
HIT NEXT AND READ THE EPILOGUE, COME ON!