'Why are we here again?' John sighed. John. He relished his name. It was one of the only remaining links to Reach, where he had spent much of his life. Apart from that, all he had was a rank and designation: SPARTAN-117, Master Chief. He looked up. His new AI, Theseus, was standing on a pedestal. Theseus was the newest generation of AI, faster, smarter, better.
'For the last few decades, a rogue AI, known only as MINOS, has brought about a dictatorship over Crete. MINOS stands for Military Intelligence National Offensive System, which suggests that it, or rather, he, was probably meant for warring purposes, but appears to have expanded far beyond…his…capabilities. Anyway, he appears to have modified some stealth technology to work on a mass scale, which appears to be how he managed to keep off our radar for such a long time. Anyway, according to reports, each year he required the citizens of each major town or city on the planet to send him seven men and women each,' The Spartan stared ahead for a few seconds. He was confused.
'Why?' He asked. Theseus studied a scroll in his hands.
'It's rather vague on that point…hold on. This report is heavily encrypted. This will take just a few seconds.' Theseus studied the scroll a bit more, until it stopped buzzing. He stared at it, with a mixed expression of horror and confusion. 'This can't be right,' He said, after a time.
'Why not?' John was worried. An AI was rarely puzzled over data, especially when said data was in plain English. 'Well'
'It says here that one city bugged their people…while they were alive, they spoke continuously about being…fed to something,' Theseus shivered. He really was repulsed.
'Fed! You're kidding, right!' John nearly screamed at the AI.
'Oh, I wish. It says here they were fed to a creature called…the Minotau,.' John's brow furrowed. Minotaur? What a stupid name.
MINOS watched them approach. He hated humans, he really did. However, his little creation, the Minotaur, seemed to like the taste of them. This new bunch seemed to particularly excite it, so why not speed up their arrival? MINOS activated his teleportation unit, and the ship began to glow…
'What in God's name is going on!' Sergeant A. J. Johnson shouted. Theseus scanned his scroll.
'Someone's trying to teleport the ship,' He said calmly. 'Don't worry, nothing has the capability-' As he spoke, the ship separated into a billion pieces.
A microsecond later, the ship reintegrated itself inside a magnificent cavern. Thankfully, the Pelican stopped a fraction of a second later. The Master Chief looked out through a window.
'Theseus'
'Yes'
'Where the Hell are we?' Theseus scanned the area. He couldn't see anything for miles. The only thing within sight was a landing pad, connected to what looked like a wall.
'You wouldn't believe me if I told you'
'Sir, there's no point in exploring, I'm going to try and land on that pad over there!' The pilot buzzed over the com. Johnson grabbed his battle rifle.
'Roger that! Get tactical, marines!' He screamed at his team. All around the Pelican, marines prepped and loaded their weapons. Sergeant Johnson looked back at the Master Chief. 'I ain't ever seen anything like this. Do you think we can get out of here in one piece?' John chuckled.
'We've been to Hell and back, Sergeant. What can't we do?' He asked.
MINOS watched in puzzlement. Something was messing with his system. It had to be that. The readings showed that one occupant wasn't quite human. He tried to delve even further into the mystery, but something stopped him. Another AI. This would prove interesting.
Theseus blinked. He had felt MINOS, and MINOS had felt him. According to his sensors, MINOS was gigantic. He was ancient, a first generation AI, and most probably insane, but he was a creature of undeniable power. He would probably have to be careful from now on. He couldn't let this thing take him down. He calmed down. He had to concentrate on getting them out of this place.
'Steady, Hollan. We need this ship in one piece,' Master Chief said. Hollan, the pilot, sighed.
'Sir, there's something not quite right about this place. I can feel it,' Hollan replied.
'You and me both, marine,' Johnson commented.
'No, I mean it literally. Something's messing with the compass, the gyroscope, even the radar. This is a brand new Pelican. This just doesn't happen, unless someone makes it happen,' Hollan said. He sounded worried. Theseus looked at the landing pad. Something wasn't right about it. It looked so…inviting. Suddenly, he realised.
'Pilot, do not land! I repeat, do not land!' Theseus shouted.
It was a trap, and they were already too far in. Something yanked the Pelican to just a few centimetres over the pad, then it dropped. Hollan was staring at his controls. He let go of them as if they were on fire. John thumbed the safety on his assault rifle.
'I hate it when this happens.' He muttered, as the darkness lifted.
It was an inspiring sight. A magnificent chamber, lit from the ceiling and walls. It was easily two miles wide. Beneath them, there were mountains of circuitry and wires. Then a creature rose out of it. Two large tentacles resembling hands, or at the very least claws. There was also a head, made out of metal and flesh. On its head, it had two horns that seemed to be emitting lightning.
'This must be the Minotaur. My God, it's a biocom,' Theseus said. The Spartan stared at the AI.
'A biocom! What the Hell is that?' He asked inquisitively.
'It's a creature made out of an AI and organic material. It was a top secret project at ONI, but they cancelled it.. Too risky, apparently. The AI went nuts.' Theseus replied. John understood. ONI was known for these sorts of project. The SPARTAN-II project that he had actually been personally involved in was one of the ideas the guys at ONI came up with. Thankfully, his was a success. John wondered if there were any more projects involving people like him, and what happened to them. He sighed. There was a time and a place.
'What's it doing down here?' He asked.
'Not a clue,' Theseus answered. He was stumped. Teleportation devices, tractor beams, a working biocom, these sorts of things were decades, no, light-years ahead of human technology, maybe even surpassing the Covenant. It was quite scary. Meanwhile, the Minotaur had been looking them over, analysing them. Sergeant Johnson peered at it.
'What in God's name is it doing?' He said. The Minotaur seemed to make a decision. Within seconds of Sergeant Johnson's ill-timed remark, the twin horns on the Minotaur appeared to be charging. Theseus scanned it, and decided to take action.
'Chief, I need you to grip onto some wiring in the Pelican, can you do that'
'Yeah, why'
'No time to explain, just do it!' Theseus practically screamed at him. Meanwhile, he started modifying his armour's wiring. John opened a panel and gripped the wiring.
'Okay, now what?' He asked as his armour lit up, the shields hummed and then expanded to protect the Pelican. The tractor beam broke loose and the Pelican started to rise. Then, having built up the correct charge, the Minotaur fired twin streams of energy at the Pelican. They hit the shields and fizzed out, causing the creature to scream.
'Er, Theseus'
'Yes'
'What did you just do?'
The Minotaur was confused. Normally any vessel attacked by it would be fried to a crisp, just how he liked it. Oh well, it would have to do it the hard way.
The Minotaur lurched forward towards the Pelican, but it flew nimbly out of the way.
'Good flying, Hollan!' Sergeant Johnson said. Master Chief let go of the wiring, and saw his suit flash yellow as the shields shrank back to their original size.
'What now?' Theseus asked. Master Chief pointed to the part of the wall the pad was connected to.
'I think there's an entrance behind that area,' He said.
'Why do you think that?' Theseus asked.
'Look,' John pointed at the area in question, 'there's an area shaded differently to the rest. It's a doorway'
'Well,' Theseus began, 'how do we open it?' John thought for a few seconds, and then had a burst of inspiration.
'Hollan'
'Yessir'
'Target all the missiles you have on that there door,' He said. Theseus watched in horror as the missiles made their short but swift journey from the launcher to the wall.
MINOS read the error. System anomaly, it said. A door had opened of its own accord, it said. Nothing to the worried about then. Just to be on the safe side, why not just have the security patrol the area? Yeah, that sounded like a good idea. MINOS sent the orders through the system, and got back to his project. Nothing to worry about.