"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." ~Gandhi

Chapter 5: The Ring Of All Rings

"What's happening? Why did we drop out of slipspace?"

She was curious, and confused. She had seen many things, from a forerunner shield-world to The Ark, but this… This was marvelous! An actually working halo ring. Something many would kill for just to see.

… Yet she knew that there would be no looking around, and most definitely no researching to be done.

What wouldn't she do, just to talk to the monitor of this marvelous piece of machinery?

Ellen was about to open up the command interface again, when she felt the halo shake, then give a noise, and then the systems shutting down. Suddenly everything was dark around her, only thing giving her a small source of light was the emergency lightning, ment to guide her to the elevator that just conveniently happened to come down exactly as the halo stopped.

She could hear strange noises all around her, metallic and alien in nature. Giving the massive megastructure even more ominous atmosphere. It was strange, what could have caused such an event. "A malfunction? Unlikely." The ring might have been old, and clearly it had been modified, the width of its arms didn't match any known halo in the galaxy, but forerunner technology was build to take the damage of time and space. The constant monitor and sentinel presence kept them mostly intact. Where the ring got its resources for repairing was beyond her knowledge, but she was sure a technical issue couldn't have been the cause for such a failure.

Stepping onto the elevator, she took one last glance at the object of her marvel, and gave a deep sigh. There would be other changes, she was sure of it. Reaching UNSC's high command should be her priority now. The rest could come later, if she was lucky enough.

The elevator was fast, amazingly so. The strange part was that she could barely feel or hear it moving. If it wasn't for the glass walls, she probably would have thought that it was standing still. But that was not the case, and she could see the elevator going up, she could see every floor she passed, and there were many. Clearly the command room had been much deeper than she had thought, multiple kilometers if her estimates had any value.

The elevator came to a quiet stop, revealing a breathtaking view of the dark forest in front of her. The quiet chirping of grasshoppers could be heard around her. It was quiet, eerily so. It felt like The Ark was completely dead, or in a deep slumber, waiting to be awakened so it could fulfill its terrible purpose. There was a dirt path carved to the forest floor, perhaps a frequent route for animal movement?

She could see the end of the forest, it hadn't been that large, probably artificially created to cover the elevator and the structure surrounding it. As she was pushing the final branches aside, she was suddenly blinded by a bright blue light. She had to cover her eyes, and almost got smacked by the branch in the process.

When the light finally subsided and she uncovered her eyes, she was met with quite a sight.

Where only moments ago Atriox's armies had stood, now floated a ginormous Guardian. Completely covering her view from everything else. It felt like the steel creature was staring right at her. This prompted Ellen to take a couple of slow steps backwards.

Almost stumbling due to the same tree branch for the third time, she could only marvel at the sight before her: "Oh good job Ellen, you would have been much safer on the ark."

Deciding that if she wanted to stay alive, the most logical course of action would be to run.

And she ran, fast.

oooOOO UNSC Infinity slipspace OOOooo

Master Chief was walking through the dark corridors of The Infinity. He was wandering, something not usually done by him, or any other Spartan. They were creatures of precision, and wasted movement was wasted time. Unacceptable.

Yet here he was, two decks below the "Spartan town", wandering without a destination, walking aimlessly deep in thought.

Chief was recalling a moment with Cortana. There had been a small window of silence, during the Didact's slipspace jump between the science laboratory and Earth. He was sitting inside their "borrowed" longsword. Cortana was standing on a pedestal next to him, there hadn't been much talk, she had been uncharacteristically quiet after her outburst onboard the station. Not that he blamed her, he might have come to terms with his mortality a long time ago, but she was almost like a civilian, it was what made her... well her.

At first it had been a nuisance. He was trained to strictly follow rules and protocol, and until this day, that's exactly what he had done.

Except with her. He had gone through hell and back for her, and now he would do so again.

Even if it took his own life.

Except that didn't happen did it? No, it all went wrong. So very wrong. Instead of him giving his life to give her a change, she had given hers to save him. That was not what was supposed to happen.

Yet it happened anyway, didn't it?

He had been cleaning his assault rifle, largely uninterested in the things surrounding them, yet Cortana's quietness worried him, there wasn't a single moment in history where she had been this quiet during their "trips", and he had a nearly perfect memory: "Cortana, you okay?"

Cortana didn't seem to notice his question, instead of answering him, she started pacing around the pedestal. Her gaze was somewhere far away, completely unfocused: "Cortana can you hear me?" Still no answer.

"Cortana!" Hearing Chief nearly yell, something he had never, not even once in his life done before, Cortana finally turned her head and looked at John, but instead of the acknowledgment he was hoping for, she asked him a question: "Have you ever wondered what death feels like?"

John blinked under his helmet a couple of times, he had guessed this was coming sooner or later, but that did not mean that he had to like it. "No" He confessed. "Never really had time to". It was true, he was always in battle or in cryosleep. There wasn't much time to think.

"But I've come to terms with it. I've accepted that my time could potentially be counted with fingers, but that does not mean that you should follow in my footsteps."

"But what if it happens anyway? You are good John, we both can acknowledge that, but I'm afraid... I'm afraid that not even your luck will help us out of this one" She whispered sadly.

John didn't answer.

"Master Chief report to the bridge immediately".

Damn.

Turning around, Chief entered back inside the elevator he had stepped out of only moments before. Now heading multiple decks upwards, from there it would be a decently long trip to the bridge, and hopefully, to some answers.

Chief had barely managed to ask for permission to enter, when Lasky called him in. Chief took the few necessary steps in, and saw the bridge, full of life and activity. It was evident that they were still taking emergency jumps, and that it was taking its toll on the crew. He turned his attention to the Captain, who was waiting for him to approach.

"This is our target". Lasky made a hand gesture towards the holotable where Roland was standing next to a map.

Master Chief's eyes widened when he realized what he saw. " Sir that's…"

"Reach. Where this all began, one of its moons to be precise." Lasky finished gazing at the super soldier's reaction.

"Why, what do we have to gain from going to Reach?" Chief asked puzzled.

"We have this" The image changed to what looked like a Guardian underground.

"Why would Cortana leave a Guardian deactivated?"

"It isn't a Guardian or at least not a Guardian in a common sense". This time the soldier turned to look at him directly and Lasky continued "It's a vessel for something."

"For what?"

"We don't know. That's what you and Blue Team are here for."

Palmer stepped in and continued "You have three hours till our arrival. Make sure you and your team are ready to go groundside. This might be our only shot at taking down Cortana so I don't have to remind you of the importance of this mission."

"Lasky gave a signal and the map deactivated: "I'm nearly certain that Cortana does not even know about the Guardians existence. I would very much like to keep it that way Chief. Go in, but do it quietly."

Both Palmer and Lasky watched as the veteran exited The infinity's bridge. They waited until he was out of earshot before talking: "What do you think they will find?

"Hopefully answers because we can't run like this forever. We are already low on supplies, the ship was in the middle of restocking when Cortana attacked, im nearly certain that my order for emergency took more than few lives. Taking in consideration that there were workers still inside the airlocks and boarding tubes when we left.".

Palmer turned to face him: "You know just as well as I, That these decisions are necessary Tom, and I'd prefer to lose the lives of few dockworkers, than the entire Infinity and her crew. Might sound like im a cold bitch, but that's the truth, and you know that Captain."

Lasky just shook his head: "Doesn't mean that I have to like it Sarah, and you know that."

Palmer merely shrugged.