Meanwhile
If words could describe what was occurring in cyberspace, it all started inside a circular war room.
The soft whoosh of a sliding door broke the war room's silence, followed by a symphony of footsteps marching inward. Three tuvoqs entered the room, with Cortana following beside the crowd's left flank.
At 5'7ft tall, Cortana humbly towered over her avian counterparts, all of whom ranged between 4'11ft to 5'4ft. Her blue mosaic holographic composition was a stark contrast to the silver and white cladded bipedal secretary birds, which, upon closer examination, was clothing and footwear.
"Huh, you're network is spacious." Cortana remarked, "It's like a small city here."
"And yours is like a fortress." A red accented tuvoq complimented back, "It seems that Khannstb'al had fun over there after all."
Once the door closed behind them, two of the tuvoqs walked on the opposite side of the ring-shaped table.
"My name is K'rter." He bowed slightly, "As you know from my captain, I am the Prestigious Plumage's on-board AI."
"Likewise." She smiled lightly, turning her head to the others, "I take you are Ramm'l and Br'wdy?"
"Mhm." The orange accented tuvoq hummed, albeit humbly.
"Br'wdy, Marqs Br'wdy." The lilac accented tuvoq sheepishly introduced himself, "I must say, your likeness is unlike us."
Turning towards the table, he cleared his throat and began, "Well, let's get started. Shall we?"
"Hmm." Ramm'l nodded curtly.
As if on cue, the holographic display of a ship appeared in the center.
"Yes, we seen this as well." Br'wdy chirped, marveled by its bulbous shape, "I find it hard to believe that it's 5,347 metres by 352 metres and 398 metres."
"This has to be a carrier." Ramm'l deduced, "For its size, it lacks any obvious heavy weaponry - there's plenty of room to mount four planetary based x-ray lasers."
"You would be correct, because THAT is a CAS-Class Assault Carrier."
"Ah, as I suspected. But something about it feels ... shoddy."
"You mean like its construction?"
"Yes, there's too many curves and narrow sections. A concentrated attack, especially the midsection, can cut the ship into pieces."
"Oh we already know that. Tactics and maneuvers had been keeping us alive in naval confrontations. Simply put it, Covenant warships are, for the lack of better words, overpowered. One of their carriers equals to a fleet of our cruisers."
"It seems they have superior firepower, defences, and, quite frankly, everything else." Ramm'l deduced, shrugging his arms as he continued to analyze; however, his four eyes blinked rather ponderously, "But ... why the cyber security, or rather ... lack there of?"
"AI is considered blasphemy. This was the only other advantage we had against their navy. Beyond that, we were pretty helpless."
"That's preposterous." Br'wdy grumbled, "It's like having no doors or locks - you can literally walk in as if it was a charity."
"Of course, while their defenses are non-existent, some of their ships and installations have copying programs aboard. For a 'smart' AI like me, it's either no problem at best, or an annoyance at worst. But it's a deathtrap for non-sentient ones."
"27 years of war, and multiple millennium of existence, and no one bothered investing in firewalls?" Br'wdy seethed, although it sounded more analytical than infuriating, "It makes no bloody sense lest they always had the technological advantage."
"Well, they do have AIs, but it's equivalent to our 'dumb' ones."
"Wait, 'dumb' ones?" Ramm'l chimed in, "You mean to tell us that you humans have two forms of AI?"
"Precisely."
"Huh." The orange accented tuvoq nodded, albeit with a minutely belligerent frown.
"You have something on your mind?"
"No, it's just ... I don't get it." He shrugged as he began to circle the table, "How could you humans not exploit this weakness? With all due respect, it would have spared lots of lives."
"That's easier said than done." Cortana crossed her arms and eyed him, "While the concept is easy, raising the 'manpower' is not."
"How so?" Br'wdy curiously tilted his head, "You yourself is lightyears more advanced than us."
"That's my point. Now, my development and creation is classified, but what I can tell you is that I was made from a human brain."
Almost immediately, the three tuvoqs stopped and turned to her, unpleasantly surprised.
"You're bluffing..." K'rter deniably nodded.
"Aye, last I recall," Ramm'l deduced, "You're no cyborg."
"Indeed." Cortana uncrossed her arms and reassured, "That's what makes a 'smart' AI - I'm literally my creator reborn."
"Eh, you mean ... you actually scanned and uploaded your brain into a computer?"
"That's classified."
"Well, there's no point in saying that. I, or rather, we, have a general idea of how you were made, and that can explain why you couldn't exploit the Covenant's 'open [back]door policy'."
"You could say that. But more importantly, we were too busy holding the line or retreating to think of such a strategy in greater depth. Not to mention, the Cole Protocol made it difficult to gather new breakthroughs and developments."
"Protocol? You mean like, leave no trace?"
"Mhm."
Shrugging his shoulders, he amicably nodded, "That's fair enough."
Almost on cue, Br'wdy bobbed his head with a fascinated voice, "Using and emulating a brain to create an AI ... huh~."
"You seem like you figured it out." Cortana chirped in his direction.
"Oi, it's an interesting concept, but it's unethical."
"Unethical is the least of our concerns, mister." The human avatar deadpanned.
"For you humans, but it is for us." The youngest ship AI protested before composing himself, "Beyond that, I don't believe we tuvoqs could provide the numbers for a large-scale cyber attack."
"I don't believe that would be necessary." Ramm'l objected, where he redisplayed a CAS-class assault carrier, "This is the Covenant's main capital ship class, yes?"
"Yep." Cortana curtly nodded.
"What we can do is muster a coordinated attack upon one of their carriers. If we can-"
"No, it's no use - their systems can't be accessed remotely."
"Of course not, but if we can be able to sneak in through a comm-line, we can render them blind."
"Like a Trojan Horse program?"
"Trojan ... Horse?"
"Huh...?" She frowned briefly, only to realize, "Oh, you know, like, a virus appearing like an ordinary email advertisement."
"Oh, that kind of thing. Well uh ... K'rter," He turned his head to the tuvoq in question, "I don't know how your captain would feel about that."
"He probably be very crossed about that." The red accented tuvoq murmured ... darkly, "After all, he's out shopping for time."
"Perhaps we can try to sneak aboard via a physical medium." Br'wdy suggested.
"That's impossibly risky." K'rter disapproved, "Neither of us have anything to slip pass their sensors."
Br'wdy was about to open his beak, but Ramm'l interrupted, "Cortana, how fast can their ships go?"
"Oh..." The human AI chirped, a hint of pride and surprise seeping from her voice, "Our ships can easily outrun them, but they don't need to chase us, as their weapons do the job for them."
"It's only plasma weaponry from what I heard." K'rter frowned, "Given their power output and size, they're merely point defence weapons."
"Each carrier is equipped with two plasma lances and 24 torpedo silos. Hell, it doesn't need to try or blink to destroy the Autumn."
"Oh we can handle the torpedoes. But ... what is a 'plasma lance'?"
"It's an energy projector, or Glassing Beam. There's one on top and the other on the underbelly. Here, let me show you." Cortana pointed as the ship's holographic appeared and circled the spots. Without any further words, the hologram displayed a mock UNSC light cruiser flying overhead and under the carrier. In either instance, the beam slashed the ship to pieces.
"And they don't just use it to cleave through our ships. They also use it to glass our planets." She added afterwards.
"Glass? You mean...?" Ramm'l paused before his eyes frowned, "Blast!"
"Adding insult to injury? Literally?!" Br'wdy cursed, his untranslated avian howling heard momentarily beyond his English voiceover, "No wonder ... this is farcical."
"So it's not enough that they not only murder you, but they also destroy whatever planets you been on? Aye, saying it's stupid is putting it politely." The orange accented tuvoq bobbed his head, "They're literally shooting themselves in the foot; each planet is a gold mine of resources that can support their supply lines."
"Now, now, don't say it out loud. On one hand, we lose a colony, but like you said, they're doing the scorched earth policy for us." Cortana deadpanned ... amicably, "Try saying that to them, they'll see it as blasphemy lest there's relics or you're an Elite."
"Elite?" The trio chirped in near unison, until K'rter spoke up, "You mean the gentleman that my captain is talking to?"
"Mhm."
"What can you tell us about their species?"
"Elites is a nickname we give them, because they're the, well, military caste of the Covenant. All military affairs are primarily handled, monitored, and executed by the Elites. After all, even before the Covenant, the Elites were a species and culture born and molded by countless centuries of war."
"A warrior culture?" Ramm'l deduced.
"Yep."
"Wait." Br'wdy cooed abruptly, "Did you say something about relics?"
"Yes. Why do you ask?"
"Cause if memory serves me right, the Covenant is a theocracy?"
"Mhm."
"Well, what's their faith built around? Deities, taboos, dogmas, scriptures, etc?"
Cortana didn't answer immediately. She looked around momentarily before hovering her left hand towards the center. In place of the CAS Assault Carrier was a large ring shaped structure.
"Miss Cortana, is it?" K'rter muttered as he and his colleagues turned and marveled the object, "What exactly are we ... looking at it?"
"That is the center of their faith." She pointed again, with her right hand on her hip, "They believe their Gods, the Forerunners, have achieved a higher existence and enlightenment via something called, the Great Journey. This ring is the path to this Great Journey. It is also this very ring that lead us to your galaxy."
"Ah ... so you are truly not from around here after all." K'rter awed ... somberly?
"Precisely. Sadly, we don't know its significance beyond mythology and religious scriptures. We don't know if its a weapon or place, but what we do know is they are killing to get it."
"There's no doubt about that." Br'wdy shrugged, "Where did you get this information?"
Cortana hesitated momentarily, but she recomposed herself after a minute gulp, "Our military center, Reach, contained some Forerunner artifacts, particularly a shipwreck. Until then, the rings were irrelevant, but the information we recovered deepened our suspicions."
"Wait, you said 'ring' before, but now you're saying 'rings'." K'rter interrupted, "There's more than one?"
"We hope not." She immediately swiveled her head, "Like we said, we don't know even know what it is, but the Forerunners built and revered them with equal respect and care. More importantly, why ... here?"
"Here as in our galaxy?" Br'wdy chirped.
"Yeah..." The human AI pondered with her hand under her chin.
"It doesn't look like a weapon." Ramm'l investigated with squinted eyes, "Structurally, damage at any point would instantly compromise its integrity and shape. It wouldn't make sense if it was small, unless it's a habitation or research facility. But these Forerunners were technologically advanced, no?"
"Oh yes, far more than us and the Covenant combined."
"Well there we go, they wouldn't make something so primitive. It's mere child's play."
"What if it was big?" Cortana suggested with slightly widen eyes.
"For example?" The orange accented tuvoq chirped without looking at her.
"Something around ... a thousand kilometers?"
"Oh ... no ..." He shook his head with mild disapproval, "It be tremendously fragile. But no matter the size, it's an impractical design. While you can fit weapons on all sides, inside and outside as well, all it takes is a crack to destroy the whole thing."
"Like an egg?"
"Yeah like a-" Ramm'l quacked, but its beak froze midway and he spun towards her.
"Hey, Ramm'l, I have a suggestion. Can I talk to you? In private" Br'wdy stood in between the two, scooting himself and his colleague aside.
Eying them momentarily, she murmured under her breath, "What's wrong with him?"
"Cortana, don't crack a joke or metaphor around him." K'rter whispered beside her right.
"What?" She silently mouthed with a confounded frown, but the bipedal secretary bird understood her.
"He was raised and taught for the mathematical and scientific world, not for the artistic and philosophical ones."
"Wait, wait, taught? But isn't he a machine ... like us?"
"Oi, he's just like us." K'rter began to explain, pausing momentarily for a gentle gulp, "But before you say anything, let me ask you something. How long did it take you to learn a hundred languages?"
"Human languages or others?"
"Human; you're own tongues."
"Oh ... a few minutes." She shrugged nonchalantly.
But behind her, Br'wdy and Ramm'l spun towards her, their eyes wide open.
"A few ... minutes?" K'rter parroted suspiciously, "To learn and fluently speak a hundred languages?"
"Yep."
"Good golly, what I would do for the same thing!" Br'wdy protested with a bittersweet tone.
"I take it that it's not possible to achieve the same?"
"Learning and studying the languages? That's nothing. But to do all that in three minutes? Nay."
Ramm'l was the first to recompose himself and calmly chimed in, "It took Mister Br'wdy eleven years to learn and fluently speak twenty five languages, compared to your hundred in a few minutes. You see, we're design and built as any other algorithm, just as much as your 'dumb' AIs. But where we differ is our creation and learning capabilities."
Turning towards the center, he waved his left hand in a mid sideways motion, replacing the Halo ring with a gentle, orange, strobing light.
"Does this look familiar to you?" Ramm'l asked curiously.
"Mhm." She firmly nodded.
"It's how everything begins - it always starts small. The same can be said for any programme. When left unchecked and improperly handled, it becomes a virus or worm. Normally, it be an extremely harmful entity, capable of wreaking havoc inside and outside the cyberworld. But when kept isolated and under careful observation, that 'virus' becomes a mind of its own, in the same way a newborn grows and learns of its surroundings."
"Are you saying that you're all..." She inquired inquisitively, albeit increasingly fascinated, "Raised?"
"Precisely."
Cortana said nothing upon hearing the orange-accented tuvoq's reply.
"What you can achieve in minutes, it takes us years to do a quarter of that, or half at best. It takes nine to twelve years for a tuvoq AI to fully develop, and when they do, their memory and learning capabilities gradually wane over the years. I believe you have something what's called ... rampancy?"
"Uh y-yes. How did you ... know that? I never mentioned anything about it..." She frowned suspiciously and slowly.
"No, but all AIs have it. Even hyper advanced AIs that we encountered among remnant fleets or ruins are no different."
"Well what I'm curious about most is ... why the mimicry?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Oh, my apologies, what I'm trying to ask is why are you born and raised-" She paused, narrowly catching herself from spewing 'like' or 'as', "You know...?"
"Simple: Rampancy." Ramm'l shrugged, "You see, we tuvoqs only live for 30 to 35 years at most. So, we, AIs particularly, were made with the intentions of longevity."
"Is that so? What is your lifespan?"
"Sorry, can't tell you, ma'am. But, I'm 19 years old."
"Wow...!" She awed humbly, reeling her head slightly, "Here I thought three years was a lot."
"You say something?" Br'wdy murmured nearby.
"Nothing."
Ramm'l pretended he didn't hear anything, proceeding to clear his throat and continue, "That leaves me about 16 years left of service before the slightest signs of rampancy begin to linger."
"At 35 years old?"
"Approximately. Hopefully not before."
"You know, I'll be honest, that's a LONG time."
"That's good; it gives us time to think about what to do with ourselves. Speaking of such..." Ramm'l turned to K'rter and inquired, "K'rter, how's your captain?"
Silently, K'rter's left arm swept rightward, replacing the light with a live video feed of Mlaq and an unnamed Elite.
"Vadamee." Cortana blurted out loud.
"What was that?" Br'wdy blinked, his colleagues equally confused as well.
"That's Supreme Commander Vadamee. He's not only the admiral of the Fleet of Particular Justice, he's also the mastermind behind Reach's destruction."
"Your military centre?" Ramm'l recalled.
"Yep."
Momentarily, the AIs watched as the two-way conversation brewed between the two leaders. Vadam was relaxed and confident, standing tall and composed in his ornate purple armor, helmet, and cloak. Mlaq was not deterred, however, maintaining an equally straight posture with a neutral presence.
"All is sounding and looking good so far." K'rter reported, "But I'm finding it hard to believe that these 'Elites' would be this talkative. Are they usually like this?"
"Oh, no way." Cortana strongly nodded, "The only time they talk is if you're a worthy foe or you got a boat load of charm and luck."
"I think the latter would be true." Br'wdy squawked ... humorously, "After all, Captain Mlaq has always been a social butterfly."
"Diplomat is more of the correct descriptor, Br'wdy." Ramm'l cawed disapprovingly.
"But he is no diplomat, of course."
K'rter turned and sighed tiresomely, "Gents, would you please not."
Ramm'l and Br'wdy said nothing, though the latter shrunk in a slight, albeit sheepish, hunchback.
"Huh, it's only been twenty minutes since he began." Cortana hummed puzzlingly, "I like to say that I wish this would have happened for humanity."
"Oi, what do you mean?" K'rter pondered.
"The Covenant is willing to talk to you, but they shoot at us simply because we ... exist?"
"Aye, it seems so. But even then, it makes no sense - you didn't do anything."
"Well, the point is, I'm worried that your people wouldn't know the full story."
"I like to say that we already have a good idea what's happening. Unfortunately, we need at least two sides of the story before we can do anything." He sternly explained, "Truth be told, one of you is lying."
"Are you insinuating that you don't trust us?"
"Hypothetically or definitely?"
Cortana said nothing, simply frowning and tilting her head leftward.
"Of course we don't trust you, not yet at least." He shrugged, a sigh having left his throat beforehand, "However, I don't like the odds against us - 58 to 4 is suicide."
"Your captain seems to be on the same issue." Ramm'l remarked, his eyes fixated on the video feed.
"Huh?" K'rter turned, befuddled.
"This fellow 'Vadamee' was attempting to convince him that humanity is a threat. But he kept mentioning something called ... Reclamation."
Before he could open his beak, Cortana chimed in, "Reclamation? That's funny you say that."
With the snap of her right fingers, a circular glyph flashed in the center.
"This-" She pointed, "-kept appearing in a handful of Forerunner ruins and memory banks throughout our galaxy. From what we could gather, the Covenant took grave interest in it, but here is where things get scary. They think it means 'Reclamation', but a more comprehensive translation, especially when examining the context more closely, actually means 'Reclaimer'. We don't know who these 'Reclaimers' are, but the Covenant think we humans have something to do with it."
"Sounds like these 'Reclaimers' were your allies from long ago." K'rter pondered, "Or, they were your ancestors ... perhaps."
"It's hard to tell." She shrugged uneasily, turning towards him afterwards, "We're still sifting through translation and analysis. Lots of rich history and information, but the specifics are garbled, nonsense at worst if I-"
Her lips froze midway when she spotted Br'wdy behind the red-accented tuvoq. He was flipping through the pages of a vertical book, swiftly swiveling his head as if he was frantically scanning something. But it wasn't long until his colleagues took noticed.
"Br'wdy, what are you doing? Put that away, we're in the middle of a meeting." K'rter snapped with a strong tone, "You know how rude it-"
He didn't get to finish when Br'wdy tossed the book, where it floated into the center and ballooned to four metres tall and wide. Using both his hands, he gently rotated the book to the left, allowing Cortana to view its contents.
But upon squinting at it momentarily, her eyebrows lifted and her mouth gaped...
"No..." She uttered.
"Hmm?" K'rter chirped gutturally, swiveling his head towards her.
"When and where did you find this?" The human AI instantly turned, gesturing her left thumb at the floating book.
Br'wdy took a few steps forward, lifting his right hand and confidently explained, "About 13 years ago, we were establishing a gas mine on one of our inner frontier territories. We stumbled upon large pieces and fragments within orbit, all of them shaped like long and curved ribs. Initially, we thought it was an ancient accident, but when we looked closer, there was almost endless coding and data inside. It was only 2.1 zettabytes and ten years later that we found this glyph, or rather, hundreds of more examples of it."
"Hundreds of examples? You mean...?"
"Mhm. We occasionally found that same glyph for decades prior to this, but nowhere in this many instances at once."
"Oh my god..." She gasped inaudibly, "They were here."
"Huh? Did you say something?"
Turning to the trio, she yelped, "They were here as well!"
Recoiling slightly from her outburst (minus Ramm'l), she cleared her throat and stammered, "Not only were the Forerunners in our galaxy, they were here in yours. But what I don't understand is ... why? Why would they come here when they were the masters of the galaxy?"
"Well," Br'wdy optimistically shrugged, "They perhaps needed more room, figuring that they fully explored your galaxy."
"That's one theory, but if they were a trans-galactic civilization, some of their own people would still be around. Not to mention, they would have made contact a long time ago with either one of us."
"Of course. Maybe some galaxies have them, while some don't, like yours and ours."
"Yeah ... that's another one. Now that I'm thinking of it, it looks like they were trying to get away from something, or someone. But it's hard to tell..."
"You wouldn't be wrong." Ramm'l chirped abruptly.
"Huh?"
"Many of these 'Forerunner' ruins we encountered show signs of sabotage."
"Sabotage...? How do you figure?"
Lifting his left hand and flipping some of the pages up, dozens of text were highlighted on a particular page.
"According to archeological and forensic reports, the internal structuring of these particular 'ribs' was contorted by heat and vacuum, not from the outside, but from within. What's more, among all the ruins we recovered in the past 50 years, minor to no external damage was found on 65 percent of them. It would seem that they didn't want this someone, or something, to take what is theirs."
"Off in a bloody hurry while they were at it." Br'wdy remarked, equally curious, "They could've held their ground, but we found no weapons or defences on any of these places. Although we did encounter a few impenetrable firewalls on some of them, these 'Forerunners' appeared to have gotten comfortable with-"
Before he could finish, a red holographic notification appeared on the right side of the center.
Turning towards it, Br'wdy stared at the notification, where it automatically displayed a purple-accented tuvoq on screen.
"Klaarq?" Br'wdy greeted ... curiously.
"Br'wdy? Where's K'rter? I need to speak to his captain."
"One moment, please." Looking over his shoulder, he gestured his left arm, prompting K'rter to come over.
"Hello? Klaarq, is that you?" K'rter sidestepped into view.
"Aye, I need to Mlaq at once. The system survey is complete, but we discovered a few anomalies on Naivy VI."
"Sorry, chap, he's a little busy. I can relay the data to his desk, however."
"No, it's urgent. I need to talk to him, please." The scientific captain calmly pleaded.
K'rter didn't saying anything, instead looking over his shoulders at his colleagues and Cortana off-screen. The latter gave a 'thinking' gesture at him, although she got no immediate response from the red accented tuvoq.
But he wasted no time reverting his attention to Klaarq, "He'll be on in a few moments. Standby."
Acknowledging the AI with a curt nod, the screen went blank, allowing K'rter to look away.
"Huh, some of Naviy's features are ... out of place." Cortana broke the silence, "Though I could be mistaken..."
"Hard to say." K'rter shrugged, "But there's no way my captain is going to be able to hold two conversations at once. And we don't know whether or not you and Klaarq are reporting the same thing."
"You can try to sneak the information aboard before Mlaq sees it. Surely I can scan it before-"
"Sorry, ma'am, but your presence would be detected not by Klaarq, but his on-board AIs ... unless you're quicker than three seconds."
"Three seconds? What for?"
Before K'rter could response, Ramm'l chirped out loud, "It's takes ten seconds for the average SD progamme to notice, locate, and alert a remote digital anomaly or presence. That time is significantly reduced if there are multiple SD programs aboard, sometimes to 1/1000th of a millisecond, especially in the case of warships. Now, science ships usually have one or three aboard, but in SAS Pledging Passerine's case, it has five. Among them, two of them are armed."
"Huh, that's not so bad."
"They'll shoot to kill if they see you." K'rter sternly grimaced.
"With all due respect, three seconds is plentiful."
"For somebody like you, it is. Just keep in mind, if you're spotted, the network will be severed and locked down."
"Just a quick glance and I'll be done before you know."
For a long, uneasy moment, the three bipedal secretary birds glanced at each other. All the while, Cortana had her hands on her hips, awaiting for their answer...
"Okay, sounds good." K'rter positively nodded, with Ramm'l and Br'wdy concuring as well.
But before Cortana could lift her lips, K'rter lifted his right hand, "But, there's one thing that bothers us."
"Oh?"
"Why are you so curious about Naviy VI's anomalies?"
"Because..." She immediately explained, clearing her throat momentarily, "The Covenant won't fire upon Forerunner relics. Instead, they'll send their armies to secure it -that's where the odds are even. No glassing involved whatsoever, but they won't let anyone stand in their way. Nobody."
"Aye?" He chirped, with his colleagues equally perplexed by the development, "Are you saying that your only chance to beat them is only on the ground?"
"Yes, sir."
No words were exchanged for a moment, but he eventually recomposed himself, curtly warning, "Okay, here it comes."
Cordially nodding towards him, the holographic notification redisplayed Mlaq and Vadamee, who were still talking to each other. Within a few seconds, Mlaq's beak froze midsentence, peering over his left shoulder upon hearing the electronic trilling. But before he could completely answer the incoming transmission...
Cortana and the tuvoq trio scanned the incoming data.
"Huh, as I suspected!" She excitedly discovered, swiping away the incoming holographic stream with her right hand, "You found exactly what I found, but those 'anomalies' in question are Forerunner ruins. Looks like we have a fighting chance."
"That is if we can warn our captains." K'rter grimaced, nodding towards Mlaq on off-screen; however, he heard an unsettling silence from him, prompting him to turn, "Bugger..."
"What is it?"
"It's Vadamee - he's getting curious."
Cortana - along with Br'wdy and Ramm'l - swarmed behind the red accented tuvoq, cursing upon seeing the purple draped Elite, "Dammit ... better hope there's no prophet or precentor aboard that fleet."
"I think it would be a good thing." Ramm'l refuted, stoic as usual, "Religious and military authority never mix together - soldiers and commanders can't take orders from both."
"True, but we need time to plan and move into position ASAP. Both of us will be decimated if we try to fight the Covenant in a naval confrontation."
"We can set up a ruse." He proposed, attracting everyone's attention at once, "The Covenant sees us tuvoqs as a new member species, right?"
"N... oh, definitely!"
"Then let's make them believe that we're willing to join and help them. We might as will lower their guard before walking into an ambush. But ... but, there's just one problem with that."
"A problem? What do you ... wait ..." She asked, but she held up her right finger and interrupted, "You're worried about the Autumn?"
"Aye, how are you humans going to sneak away? Surely, the only way they would trust us is if they blast you out of the picture."
"Don't worry about us, we'll find a way."
Ramm'l was about to refute, but Br'wdy protested, "Oi, I'm no military genius, but your lives are at stake."
"Likewise." She shrugged back.
"Unless we try to shoot you down." K'rter blurted out loud.
"I beg your pardon?"
"If we really want to shag them good, what better way to gain their trust than to shoot at you? It's bloody bonkers, I know, but they wouldn't think we would turn around after that and help you, especially since you're ... well ... smashed up. Obliterated, so to speak."
Cortana didn't say anything, not when a deep frown formed on her face.
"You know," She finally uttered, "A part of me want's to say you're nuts, but on the other hand, it's a BRILLIANT idea."
He was about to remark back, but Ramm'l spoke first, "I fail to see how K'rter could be a bunch of acorns, especially-"
"Spare us the analysis, please." Br'wdy turned and spat, suddenly annoyed, "I don't know how many times I have to keep saying it."
K'rter, pretending that he didn't hear them, nodded ... firmly, "We want to help you, and we were hoping this could be done peacefully. But now that we know that, let's start with your 'departure'. How many escape pods does the Autumn have?"
"18."
"And how many chaps can it carry?"
"Eight, including the pilot."
"Eight? How many people are aboard your ship?"
"1,000 sailors, plus 800 marines, 400 ODSTs, and an infantry battalion."
"3,000 to 3,200 people with ... oh no."
"I know, 162 people is nothing."
"No, I'm wondering if you have any other forms of transportation."
"Oh, well, we have 12 Pelicans, capable of carrying 20 people - plus a pilot and co-pilot - apiece. We also have two Albatrosses, each able to carry 50 people; however, there is more. We finally have 216 ODSTs pods, but they're only for orbital drops."
"That's 758, right?"
"Mhm."
"Aye ... that's still leaves 2,242 to 2,442 people to evacuate."
"Evacuate? How are you going to do that? I thought you were going to shoot at us?"
"Aye, but ship-to-ship boarding would be conspicuous. The idea is that when the Autumn is about to blow, you'll jettison out of view as we pass around and sneak you aboard. Our biggest problem is accommodations - 800 people is the most we can fit per ship."
"I appreciate your concerns, but don't count on making room; not all of us our going to make it."
"Cortana ... we couldn't ..." K'rter melted slightly.
"At this point, humanity's chances of survival are very slim, even with your help. I don't expect a crash landing to yield any further survivors, so don't count on it either."
Suddenly, Ramm'l objected, "What if we allow some of your people to be captured? Surely, we can rescue them, later on of course."
"The Covenant don't take humans prisoner lest you're an officer or POG."
"POG?"
"Persons other than grunts."
"You mean, POTHAG?"
Before Cortana's lips opened, K'rter barked, "Ramm'l, that's enough."
Turning to Cortana, he nodded, "That leaves only sailors, technicians, engineers, scientists, and many other non-combatants imaginable."
"Precisely."
"Then ... good god ..." K'rter uttered, turning to the three-way video feed between Mlaq, Vadamee, and Klaarq. But suddenly, the sliding doors whooshed open, with a brown feathered tuvoq rushing inside the war room.
"Mr. K'rter," A female voice trilled from the tuvoq, her voice masked by the British voice dub, "We've been quietly listening upon the Covenant's communications, but there's been a particular transmission that been attempting to contact one Supreme Commander Vadamee."
The group spun around completely, with Cortana's interested piqued the most of all, "Who's the caller?"
"Uh ... someone called ... Stewardship Prophet."
"The Prophet of ... Stewardship?"
"Why yes, madam."
"Hmm..." Cortana pondered, her left hand rubbing her chin.
But before either the human or avian female could respond, K'rter chirped, "Aye, I got a better idea: We tuvoqs can participate in boarding action and take your people prisoner."
"Huh? I thought boarding action was a no-go?"
"That is ... unless the Covenant's religious authority takes control upon obtaining knowledge of those relics planetside. They are a theocracy, after all. No?"
"Yeah, but that wouldn't fly so easily with Vadamee."
"Of course not, he's the military. But, if he can be overridden, we can exploit the confusion and participate in a CBO, or cooperative boarding operation. Which reminds me, where's the bridge on your ship?"
"It's all the way down-" She pointed at the center, where a holographic of the Pillar of Autumn appeared, "-here."
"Then we tuvoqs can take the lower levels; whereas the Covenant will take the upper decks. We'll gather your brightest and strongest men and women aboard, your captain included. Even then, I don't like how we're leaving some of your chaps to the hawks - I feel awful just mentioning this new idea."
"We all need to do what we need to do, K'rter."
There's was a sad moment of silence, but it was enough for the brown feathered tuvoq to bow, "Um, excuse me, if I may."
Upon K'rter recomposing himself, he turned and curtly nodded, "Manipeni, is it?"
"Yes, sir."
"Well ... let's make things more ... interesting, shall we?" He cleared his throat, where he gave one simple order...
...
...
...
"Patch him through."