"Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door." — Coco Chanel
Chapter 21: The Banished
"28-years missing all hands onboard captain. That's...a long time". Lasky stated. "I am interested what you have been doing these past years but lets keep our focus on the task at hand shall we?" He continued. "If I have understood correctly you ended up here on Ark trought slipspace...But you don't have your Shaw-Fujikawa drive installed?
Cutter gave Lasky a sheepish smile and answered "Yeah, we were forced to use our slipspace drive to blow up a forerunner shield world. That's why we were drifting". Cutter's face turned darker for a moment and Lasky pressed intrigued "Something wrong captain?" Cutter gave him a unreadable look and answered negatively.
"How about your shipboard AI?" Lasky asked next. He wasn't aware that he just hit home and twisted a giant knife inside a unhealed wound.
Cutter gave him another look and answered coldly "Regulations are quite clear about AI dispensation after their 7-year lifespan. I believe this current situation is quite a remarkable evidence why this rule exists". Of course he didn't mean what he said but after Serina's "passing" it has been a tought spot for the captain.
Lasky eyed him for a moment, surprised by the captain's sudden hostility. "I believe I explained why Chief had to do what he did fairly clearly. Without his actions...earth would be no more". Lasky took a deep breath and continued "Without Cortana, the greatest hero of humanity would be dead". Lasky always had idolised Chief and Cortana saving his life made her just as much hero in his eyes than the man himself. "She was rampant, barely able to keep herself together at her final moments and still her only goal was to keep Chief save. That is something I respect over everything else".
Cutter had no answer for this and Lasky decided that it was high time to move on to other subjects. They had gone trought the basics. What had happened to Spirit Of Fire and her crew. What was the situation of the war and now it time to talk about The Ark.
"How did these Banished get here?" Lasky asked confused. Their ship was fully functional so they didn't drift here. So how did they do it? Was there another portal like the one on earth? Did the Banished know something they didn't?
"Probably the same way we did. A slipspace portal. The problem is we do not know how we opened it. Neither do we know when and where. The only reason we even know we arrived here via slipspace is because The Spirit Of Fires Computers believed it to be just a regular slipspace jump". Cutter answered.
"So basicly...We have no idea how to get out of here". Muttered Lasky, clearly allready frustrated. His short line of thoughts was cut off by Cutter speaking "We've had researchers studying The Ark constantly and very recently we ran into a problem when The Banished tryed to use a forerunner ship against the Spirit".
With this Lasky raised a eyebrow "What they tryed to crash it to your ship?"
Cutter gave another sheepish smile and answered "Sure as hell looked like it. One of our ODST sguads stopped the launch sequence but it was a tiny bit closer than I would have liked".
Now Lasky was intrigued "So you are telling me there are still working forerunner ships on the ark?" Lasky put his face in his hands and muttered "Oh boy I will never hear the end of this". Cutter looked at Lasky confused and asked "How so?"
"Because I have the two must brilliant and frustrating eggheads in the entire galaxy onboard this ship". Lasky answered finally looking at Cutter "The first one I can deal with but the old lady is a pain in the ass".
Cutter looked at him for a moment eyebrows high "Who might this ol' lady be?"
lasky was quiet for a moment before he answered "Doctor Catherine Elisabeth Halsey".
"The inventor of the spartan program". Muttered Cutter. "A young lass when Spirit Of Fire took off". Lasky gave a light chuckle and answered "Not so young anymore".
Tom was quiet for a moment clearly deep in thought and continued "As much as I hate to say this we need her down there. During our episode inside the Maethrilian, she was able to recover some vital information about the Guardians and the Halos. The information will be rather useless if we are stuck here. We need to find a way out".
"I agree but that still does not remove our banished problem. They almost already found a way to contact reinforcements, im sure they are more than capable to find another way to get a message out".
They were interrupted as one of Infinity's "Paperpushers" As Palmer called them entered the room. She met Lasky's eyes and blushed almost purple. She was quiet for a moment and then mumbled everything she had to say at ones "SirCommanderPalmerwishestospeakwithyou". And she was off before eather of them managed to get a word in. Cutter looked at Lasky amusement clear in his eyes "What in the world is going on in this flying bathtub?" He questioned almost breaking into laught.
"She looked almost unhealthy red". Lasky answered with a slight chuckle. Lasky did not tell this to Cutter but the young lady has had a crush on him even before he was made captain. This amused Lasky more than anything. He was certain that if the crew knew about his and palmer's little off/on relationship...Well let's just say he would not be getting any glances. At least from any woman that knew the feared temper of Commander Sarah Palmer.
"Back to the task at hand...The Banished are no fools. Their military are extremely well organised in some cases even better than The Covenant's. Their leader Atriox has been hunted by Covenant for a long time. They feared him. So many assassins, bounty hunters, hitmans whatever Covenant could find, all failed. He survived and everyday he lives, more people join his ranks. The banished need to be removed. How? I do not know".
"They have impressive amount of new technology I haven't seen before. Where did they get it?" Lasky questioned.
"Some they found from the Halo, most they probably looted from The Covenant". Cutter answered. "We don't have much concrete info about their technology but we do know their ranks are massive. They have a lot of troops here. I believe they came here for a reason and I want to know why".
"I agree The Infinity is pretty much a flying military base. We have enought recourses to battle the Banished but we need to know where to start. We also hold the entire Spartan IV branch, commanded under Commander Sarah Palmer". Lasky informed.
"SPARTAN IV?" Cutter almost yelled. "You are telling me there are two more branches of spartans?"
"The spartan III's and IV's were different from spartan II's. They are volunteers for the program. The newest spartans haven't gone nearly as extensive augmentations than the older spartans but they are impressive soldiers nontheles".
"Hmmh, I would very much like to see these spartans in combat, captain". Cutter muttered.
"Im certain you will get your change. Meet up with my second in command and give him a full update on the situation on halo. I shouldn't keep Commander waiting any longer".
"hahaha, very well. I shoul inform you if the situation changes and after we have established a camp. Pleasure to meet you Captain". Cutter gave Lasky his hand and he shook it "The pleasure was mine Captain".
Lasky arrived at his office. He guessed that Palmer must already be inside since his door was unlocked. He stepped inside after the door hissed open and he saw Sarah sitting in his chair. "Trying to steal my ship Commander?" He teased and Palmer rolled her eyes "You know Tom that I coudn't keep this boat flying for more than a week". Tom laughed at this and took a seat opposite of her...on the wrong side of the table. "You should give yourself some credit. There isn't many people that can keep a entire division of augmented soldiers in line".
Sarah gave him a look "We both know that's different Tom. I can handle a simple soldier but an entire ship...Nah. Besides I pity you for the amount of paperwork you have to do".
"In my eyes, the paperworks worth it. Anyways you wanted to see me? I take it this isn't just social call to chatter about paperpushing".
"Well you take it right mister. We need to talk about the II's". With this Lasky was confused "What about them?" Palmer gave him one of her dump looks "You series? First they tell us Spartans don't die, suddenly all but one Master Chief disappear. Then they tell us 3 more spartan II's were found and the infamous blue team was reforged. Now we found three more very much alive spartan II's, that are happily dozing of in their own barracks". Lasky was confused "What's the point Sarah? seven spartans are better than four". He stated.
"Of course it is but I find it very interesting that UNSC has given almost no effort to search for this "missing" spartans. At this point most of them are probably dead but that doesn't mean that there aren't ones that are actually missing and ONI or UNSC hasn't done a damn about it".
"That might be because there are still people who highly oppose the spartan program and see the spartans as nothing more than brainless robots". Said a calm but irritated voice from the doorway of Lasky's office".
"The both turned to look who invaded their conversation uninvited and of course it coudn't be anyone else but Doctor Halsey herself. "I apologise for the intrusion captain but I need to go down there and you need to authorise that operation". She galnsed at Palmer who gave her a murderous gaze and turned back to Lasky "I would prefer as soon as possible captain Lasky. You also know I prefer my own spartans as security over everything else.
"I will see what I can do Doctor when I get to it". Lasky said clearly frustrated that their conversation was intruded.
"Good". Was all she said and turned away.
The pair waited till Halsey's footsteps faded away and Lasky continued "I am sure that UNSC will do everything they can to find them after the Guardian crisis has been dealth with". Lasky knew that Sarah idolised the spartans and did everything she could to stand up to their reputation. He also knew even tho he shoudn't that spartan Kelly was her role model. "Right now I need your head here in this situation. Ones this has been resolved we can talk about the spartans allright?
"Allright I should get going before Miss Ice Queen starts rampaging because of our "slow way of getting things done". Lasky smiled to the nickname and saluted her.