Chapter 7: Reboot
Five hours since reviving…
Karen lay sleeping in a bed still in her under suit. The Master Chief had put a 24-hour watch on her to catch any complications since her revival. Cortana had been watching her vitals since she left the tube. According to Cortana her vitals were the same as a fifteen year old who was sleeping. Her armor would need to be upgraded with some of the new components developed since she was killed. According to the techs she would need to be 'rebooted', as they called it. Because she had been awakened after she was killed they believed that she forgotten most of her battle skills and would need to have a quick training period to bring them back.
"Spartans, ten-hut!" The twenty Spartans in the room all snapped to attention and planted their eyes on the spot where the Master Chief would appear. Instead the ten-foot tall Veras walked into the room.
"What the hell is that?!"
"I need a Battle Rifle!"
"Troops formation Alpha!"
The room was chaotic as the Spartans tried to get back to order. Some were stunned looking at the Forerunner, others were trying to find some kind of weapon so that they could kill it, but the three officers were trying to get their troops together for strength in numbers. Appearing behind Veras was the Master Chief.
"Calm down! This isn't an enemy. This is… a Forerunner." A small murmur traveled throughout the Spartans as they wondered what a Forerunner was.
"What is a Forerunner?" asked an unknown person.
"These are the creatures that developed most of the Covenant's weapons and armor," replied the Chief to everyone.
"Why are helping them?" asked another.
"What's going on is…complicated. The Forerunners used to be the Covenants masters before a large uprising. The Forerunners have been in a vicious cycle after that. Whenever the Covenant hit a brick wall on new technology they bring the Forerunners back to life to help them. Once they have what they need the Covenant kill them all." The whole room was silent as they took in the information. "One thing that you can thank the Covenant for is this." The Master Chief left the room and went down the hall and disappeared.
"Can you talk?" Veras looked over at the person who asked the question and stared at them.
"Whoa…" All of the Spartans looked at Veras with orange visors and stared.
"He didn't even move his mouth."
"How did he talk to us then?"
"Telepathically." Standing in the door way was the Master Chief. "He uses his mind to send messages to whoever he wishes."
"How?"
"Not sure, he doesn't even know how. We all think that it's just instinct, like survival for humans. It just…happens. Anyways, here is what I want to show you." The Chief sidestepped and revealed Karen standing in her under suit. As if synchronized, all the Spartans in the room let gasps in amazement.
"He- hello," she said nervously.
"Faster, you need to go faster!" Karen was running a gauntlet type course in a large holo-building. She swerved back and forth through huge pines. The MJOLNIR armor was instantaneous in its response. Her battle rifle was across her chest as she raced against the clock.
"Put some Covenant out there."
"Yes sir."
In front of her a Grunt popped out of behind a tree and aimed it's plasma pistol at her, but she was faster. Into it's skull went five of the 8mm rounds. One scored a hit on its respirator and sent it flailing in the air. Experimenting, she pulled out a frag grenade and put it near the grunt. Whump! Looking from behind the tree she saw a blossom of greenish red flame where the Grunt used to be.
"What is she doing?"
"Don't worry, she doing what I wanted to her to do."
She was already twenty yards from where Grunt blew up when she saw a Pelican behind another 150 yards of foliage. From behind almost all of the trees the purple-white needles from a needler. She dodged most but was still hit by five or six. Her shields flared as the needles exploded. Judging by how many needles came at her she guessed there were probably ten. Tossing three frags in an elongated triangle she killed eight of them. The other two ran away in fear and were torn to pieces by automatic gunfire.
"Wow."
"I told you doctor, she didn't need to be 'rebooted'."
Karen ran into the back of the Pelican and saw that she had almost a whole minute left till she missed her ride. She slammed the holo screen and the simulation ended. The trees around her melted away along with everything else in the simulation. From a door about two hundred yards away came the Master Chief. Even though he wasn't within shouting distance he still had his mic.
"Good Job."
"Thank you," replied Karen. She reached behind her helmet and hit a small button that unlocked her helmet. She lifted it up and put it under her armpit. She extended the small earphone/mic around her ear so she could hear if the Chief said anymore as he moved towards her. Her hair glistened in the artificial light as sweat poured down her face and to her neck.
"You can take your armor off if you want, we still need to install a couple more systems into it." Hearing this she tore off every piece of armor by the time the Chief arrived.
"Your under suit can be turned into shorts and a t-shirt."
"How?" she asked.
"See the blue dot near your right wrist." Karen looked down and pushed the small dot. Instantly the legs disappeared to the middle of her thighs. Once that was completed her stomach was exposed to till it was an inch below her chest. Sweat was all over her body.
"I thought you said it was a t-shirt."
"My mistake." The two walked back to the same door the Chief had come out of quietly.
"Why did you bring me back?" she blurted out, "There were others who deserved it more than me."
"I don't know. I felt that you were special."
"How, I'm no better than the others."
"Oh contraire. I was going to tell you later but now seems be to better. I brought you back to help with an attack on the Covenant main base. Once that falls the rest of the planet will fall easily. But I need you to help me get in ahead of time and find the Covenant Forerunners and kill them before they can get to the battlefield. But you'll need covert skills first."
"When do we start?"