"Dream big and dare to fail." ~Norman Vaughan

Chapter 4: Plans And Schemes

The pair of giants followed the rather small captain of the most advanced UNSC warship in history, into a rather small, white, and minimally decorated briefing room. It was quite clear that this was designed for the ships managing staff, not for hulking Spartans like them.

Captain Lasky took his seat, facing the two still standing Spartans, and gestured to the seats opposite of him. Both soldiers gave each other a stare, before sitting down, now facing the captain.

Lasky took a short look at his standard issue Holopad, before sighting and throwing it on the table. He took a short look and inspected both of his top Spartans, Chief while still covered by a helmet, was clearly even more tense than usual (if that was even possible), and Sarah, while helmetless, remained a plank and stone faced.

"I'm not going to lie to you, im sure at least the Chief is more than aware of the graveness of the situation we are facing."

Lasky shifted his gaze to the holoprojector situated in the middle of the conference table, and an orange hologram of the Cortana's Guardian fleet appeared. Roland, who was leaning against one of the miniature superweapons, continued from where Lasky left off: "Cortana is spreading her Guardians across the galaxy, she doesn't have enough of them to directly subjugate every colony and every planet, but their advanced slip space flight capabilities make up for insufficient manpower."

Roland brought up a large map of the galaxy, slowly zooming in on random planets and showing how they seemingly suddenly went dark: "Cortana is using her Guardians EMP pulses to shut down pretty much every planetary defense grid in existence, the Guardians pulses are so powerful that they seem to take even the defending fleet with it, leaving nothing more than a shell of a planet behind, reduced to its most primal elements."

For this Roland stepped aside and opened his arms wide: "Behold, ladies and gentlemen, the last transmission received from earth before complete shutdown."

Again the holo changed, now playing a shot clearly taken from a phone, and made by an individual running from someone, or something. Gunfire could be heard, women and children screamed so loudly, that Roland actually had to turn down the recording's volume. Shops were set on fire, buildings crumbling and street lights flickering.

The sight was gruesome and sickening.

Thomas pulled his gaze from the recording, he needed to see his subordinates faces, or face. He needed to know their reactions. Palmer was more than familiar with the sight of a fallen world, she had seen more than few of them. So was Chief, but this was their home, this was Earth, and for the second time, it seemed that it was taken from them, and there was nothing they could do to stop it.

Slowly Palmer turned her gaze from the screen, her eyes connecting with Tom's. She did a double take at the monitor and asked quietly: "So how can we stop it? Them? I don't even know." Shaking her head she rose up and started pacing.

"Don't look at me, that's why the green guy is here. To give us some answers...hopefully."

Chief had been quiet thus far, both Palmer and Lasky knew that Chief had deep ties to humanity, no matter how ironic it sounded. He took whatever was happening back Earth as a personal failure.

"Halsey."

It was a simply statement, one hard to mix up with anything else or mistake out of context. Yet it left both of the soldiers confused.

"Halsey?"

"Halsey." Finally Chief removed his eyes from the horrific scene before him, now turning to look his captain directly in the eye. "Halsey might have a questionable past, but if nothing else, she would go to any lengths to ensure the survival of her Spartan. I am confident she will give us the answers we need."

"Alright, let's say you are correct. Halsey will give us the answers we seek. She will give us a destination, a purpose and the needs to complete that purpose. Tell me Chief, if that task involved the immediate termination of Cortana, would you be capable of following that order? It wasn't the easiest of tasks, explaining that death might be the only solution for a problem that with each passing second seemed to get more and more out of hand.

Chief took a moment to reply, very unusual for a Spartan of his decor, but when the eventual answer came, it was cold, calculated and made by a man ready to do anything for his people:

"I will do what is necessary, Sir."

This calculated coldness made alarm bells ring in Lasky's head, because he stopped the conversation there, and simply kept staring at the Spartan.

"That's all?" He asked clearly not convinced at all by his answer.

"That's all" Chief answered.

"Chief, I want you the understand, that whatever happens, whatever needs tobe done, is done out of pure and utter necessity, and if we find any other way, I promise you on my honor, that we will use it. I also want to be very clear with you, that if I could, I would use any other asset or unit for an operation like this., but your… Intimate knowledge and unique skill set is required for an operation like this.

"I understand, Sir"

Lasky gave him a curt nod.

"Go to Halsey, get her back to work and we'll discuss our next move after that. Dismissed."

"Sir" Came a sharp reply and salute as both Sarah and The Master Chief started to walk out of the room.

They had almost made it out of the door, when Sarah could hear Lasky's voice behind her, effectively stopping her trip too much deserved shower and bed, to a halt: "Commander if I may have a word with you".

Breathing a deep sigh, Palmer slowly turned around, now taking few steps back inside the briefing room. She came to a halt and answered: "Sure"

After Lasky was absolutely sure that Chief had left hearing range, he addressed his fellow officer and closest friend: Sarah, it's good to see you in one piece, had me worried there for a while."

Even in her tired state, Sarah managed half a smirk: "You worry too much to be an officer Tom."

Lasky cocked his head to the side: "My mum always said it was endearing."

That actually managed to get a laugh out of Palmer: "You did not just defend your military career with a mom joke."

Tom gave her a soft smile, leaning on the large desk and giving a more chuckle: "Well yeah, my mum is the big bad military Colonel if you can't remember, she might not have known how to be a mom, but her lessons certainly were something one should have taken to hard, no matter how harsh they might have been.

Sarah gave Lasky a solemn nod, she was well aware that Audrey Lasky did not have the best of relationships with her son, and in a way, the war had only drifted them more apart.

This did not mean that Thomas Lasky did not love his mother, quite the opposite. Thomas was a man that didn't have a single evil bone in his body, Sarah highly doubted that the man was even truly capable of hating someone. This was one of the many traits that kept pulling her to him, and what initially had made her try so hard for their friendship to work.

The largest drift between Thomas and his mother was created, when The Colonel had declined Thomas's request to attend to his brothers burial. She had not known Lasky then, but even today she could see the bitterness in his eyes and body language whenever his mother is mentioned.

She had tried to help him get over it, even if that help came years late, and from a woman that had enough problems as her own, but she had seen that he had been struggling, still is. Oh, she had noticed the extra pair of dog tags hanging around his neck, and she also knew why the Chief was Lasky's greatest idol and hero. In a way, more of a father than his biological father could ever be.

"You know, I know it hasn't been that long and you are probably tired, but you mind joining me for a dinner? Captains privileges and everything."

She was about to decline the request, telling him that she just wanted to get a shower and crash, but his hopeful yet subtly pleading eyes changed her mind.

She gave Tom a small smile and asked him to lead the way.

oooOOO Same time Infinity's science deck. OOOooo

Master Chief walked through the crowded corridors of The Infinity. Clearly every scientist currently stationed onboard had gotten word that infamous Catherine Halsey was aboard the Infinity again and wanted to have a chat with her. In spite of her less than reputable reputation, she was still arguably the most brilliant scientific mind in the universe.

After pushing his way through the large, confused and eager crowd, he finally managed to get himself inside her lab. It was fairly typical shipboard science lab, yet the good Doctor had already managed to make small, subtle changes to the small working space, making it quite distinguishable from the rest. A small coffee cup half drunk here and there, multiple data-pads that only Halsey herself could organize and understand, and the unmistakable smell of coffee hanging in the air.

It was clear that the scientist had not heard him enter, or at least gave no indication of doing so, as he kept reading the scientific instrument stationed in front of her. If her missing arm gave her any pain, she didn't show any of it. Yet it was evident in her tense frame and her intense frown that the missing arm made her irritated, and if a solution for the problem wasn't found soon, well Catherine Halsey would surely show The Infinity's science staff her legendary temper.

Chief waited silently for the Doctor to acknowledge him. It was more a habit at this point, when they were younger and had to visit Halsey's office, they had to wait for her approval to enter.

Naturally this habit had followed even through countless battles and conflicts. So here he was, behind his own captor, parental figure, mother?

His musings were cut short when he heard a feminine yelp, and turned his eyes to look at Halsey, who had her hand covering her heart and giving him a dark stare, that somehow failed to deliver any of the malice usually intended with such gesture.

"John, you shouldn't startle me like that, you are very aware that I have no Deja to announce you visits anymore."

Halsey turned around and grabbed her "currently being worked" on cup of coffee and took a small sip. She gestured for the clearly way too large thus it couldn't be meant for her chair and asked John to sit.

She watched as John made his way through and took a seat across from her. She again placed the cold mug against her lips and started: "Well John, I believe it would a high time we talked about Cortana."