Chapter 19
No Turning Back
September 19, 2554
08:13 Hours, Earth Time
AESIR Main Facility
ODST Spec Ops Unit, November Six, aka Nova Team
Tech Specialist Catherine Armin
Location: New Mombasa, Southern Kenya
[Play Halo ODST - We're the Desperate Measures on YouTube]
Holden and Armin made their way through the corridor hot on the trail of the three Elites Armin pies the corner of the exiting doorway looking for enemies as holden shuts the door behind them. Armin aims in giving Holden the go-ahead to move to cover the far side of the room. As he moves it seems as if the enemy had a similar idea as a small team of jackals and grunts emerge with one of the elites at the rearmost position blocking another passage, they begin crossing the long room trying to overwhelm the troopers. Just then Armin let out several bursts from her SMGs, the grunts flinched, however after a moment realizing that she wasn't aiming at them. Gas-filled the air as her bullets puncture a fuel tank hidden in darkness. Before anyone could react, the heated plasma being shot through the air ignited the gas engulfing the room in flames that quickly dispersed taking the lives of nearly all the grunts and jackals with it. "I've been waiting for a chance to do that."Armin smiles and shoots Holden a nod to advance.
"Don't mind if I do," he smirked as he advanced. Armin moves quickly to Holden's six o'clock resting her hand on the small of his back so that he knew where she was. Leaning down she grabs a plasma pistol laying on the deck and places it in one of her cargo pockets before continuing her assault. Armin picks off the remaining grunts as Holden fires into the shield of the elite. The elite jumps back in surprise as the last of his shields are depleted only to then be peppered by the bullet of both Charity and Armin's SMGs.
Advancing into the passage Armin smirks when she sees a couple of grunts running away frantically. Holden starts to chase, pausing when he sees a bend in the passage, knowing a turret was no good for peeking around corners. He signals for Armin to take the lead. She takes a quick peek before immediately beginning to cook a grenade. "Fire in the hole!" She shouted letting the grenade slip from her grasp casually. BOOM! The sound was as sudden as it was unexpected. She looks at holden and with a quick bend of the neck signals him to keep moving.
As Holden makes his way around the corner he's greeted but the dead body of five grunts. They move by quickly still searching to find the last two elites. Finally making their way to a large empty server room. The mood shifts as one of the elites can be seen hiding in a nearby storage room.
"There's more! flush em out, I got you covered." Armin explained replacing one of her SMGs with the Plasma pistol she picked up earlier. Holden nods and heads down the small ramp leading to the floor of the server room. Both picking off the few grunts and jackals that remain. Until the swift flash of a plasma sword ignites. Armin seeing the face of the elite, acknowledged that this was the moment she was waiting for and began to move. The elite moved swiftly towards holden using the Server towers and the darkness of the room to cover his movements. Holden's barrel went left to right, right to left trying to get a beat on the elite's movements. Eventually, his eyes would turn to the top of the ramp where Armin was hoping for guidance only to find her nowhere to be found. In Holden's moment of confusion the elite tried to rush him lunging in, blade hungry for blood. Although the tip of the plasma sword was able to make it throw, Holden blocked the blade with the plating on the front of his turret. Without hesitation, he pushed the elite off of him and let loose a barrage of gunfire. Destroying the server room. The Elite took cover just as before waiting for his next opportunity to pounce. While Holden's display was impressive it was very much ineffective as he was still yet to touch or even find the elite in question. Suddenly the eruption of gunfire stopped and the room fell silent. Charity was out of ammo. Hearing a low growl, Holden looked up only to find that the elite had climbed on top of one of the server towers looking at him with murderous intent. The elite pounced sword in hand, quickly holden block the blow with the side of his turret. Slowly the elite's blade began melting through Charity inching closer and closer to Holden's heart. Suddenly the charging hum of a plasma pistol can be heard and shortly after the elite's shields are no more. "Hey," Armin said emotionlessly with her helmet off resting on a railing right above where Holden was positioned. The elite looked up at her, and his anger quickly turned to disbelief and fear, From seeing the cold look in her eyes he knew, he knew she wanted him to see the face of the one that killed him if only for a moment. A moment that seemed to last a lifetime.
Click. Armin Trigger rang as bullets rained down on the elite. The elite falls to the ground lifeless as Armin jumped down to Holden with a slashed and melted Charity in hand. She re-equips her helmet, but not before Holden is able to catch the cold, haunting look in her eyes. However, the moment is interrupted as she lets loose the remainder of her current magazine into the skull of the downed elite. Splashing dark blue blood all over the right side of her armor.
"Fucking A." She smirks reloading, "Look at you, all ready for a night on the town." Holden realizes that she had used him as bait. Moved to confront her, when the last elite still using the injured marine as a human shield started trying to make his way towards the exit. Only to be stopped in his tracks as Armin took aim at him. Holden without a weapon once more scrambles to scavenge one from the battleground. Noticing they weren't firing the elite grinned and said something in Sangheili. Everything was still for a moment until Armin finally spoke, "You're right." was all Armin said before letting a burst of bullets into the marine depleting the Elite's shields on the other side. Before the Elite even knew what was going on he's shields were down and it was too late to run. He drops the marine's body and starts to run away only for Armin to unleash another barrage into the elite's back. She whispers under her breath, "For a moment I actually fooled myself into thinking that things could go back to the way they used to be."
She started to make her way to examine if there was anything salvageable in the server room before being stopped by Holden. "That was lower than a snake's underbelly. When we get out of here..."
Armin brushed it off as her eyes fell to the floor and began to speak over the comms. "Yo Forge, it's all clear on our end."
Later as Armin enters the day where the scientist tries to explain the situation to both Monero and Lt. Miles but the faster she tries to talk the more she reverts back to her native language leaving the troopers at a loss. Armin fills a push from behind a Holden brushes his shoulder up against hers as he passes, shoving her to the side. Monero seeing this remakes, "You've upset our jolly meat giant; not easily done. What's that all about?"
"He'll get over it, Had to remind him what this was," Armin says as she makes her way back to the computer in the Emergency control room.
[Play Halo 4 Atonement on Youtube]
After finally coming down the lady begins to speak, "My name is Abagail Uberti. I was part of the original team that programed the Superintendant back before the Covenant ever set foot in New Mombasa." She looked around at the bodies of her co-workers, "We all were." She was a fairly short dark-skinned woman about 5'3 with short twists in her hair and a sophisticated-looking pair of frameless glasses on her face.
"That doesn't explain what you're doing here?"
"After the events of New Mombasa invasion." she began, "Those of us that were lucky enough to escape the assault on the data hive fled the city. Like people the world over we wanted some measure of safety."
"Safety is hard to come by during a genocidal campaign."
"Eventually the war ended and most of us were left with nothing, even worse our names were now infamous as the people that let the Superintendant fall when the city needed it most. Even after the war, we couldn't get our old jobs back let alone ones of equal status. Most of us were working dead-end jobs just trying to get by. Which made what happened next all the easier for them."
"That's when AESIR contacted you."
She nods, "One day out of the blue, we were contacted by members of AESIR claiming they were looking to start an Earth Division based in New Mombasa. I heard Rumors about AESIR, That they help colonies that were hit the hardest by the war. So when I heard they were coming to the New Mombasa I thought my prayers had been answered."
"I imagine it didn't stay like that for long."
"Everything was great for a time. I was getting paid well and I was able to work on real meaningful projects again. We were even encouraged to reach out to the others that help maintain the Superintendant, to help them put their lives back on track" She pauses, "That all changed when Lady Sergei arrived. It was like day and night; we went from researchers to prisoners before anyone knew what was going on. We couldn't leave, we were forced to keep working."
"She used your desperation to gather you all together."
"Suddenly we were prisoners in our own land. Forced to work tirelessly for but a single goal." She pauses, "The reclamation of the Superintendant. She even began to hire mercenaries to track down what she called a fragment of the Superintendant."
"I'm no scientist" Monero started, "But would it really be so hard just to build another one?"
The scientist shook her head, "What she's after isn't really the Superintendant, instead what she wants is the subroutine built into the Superintendant by the now deceased Dr. Endesha, codename Vergil. But that's impossible Vergil was downloaded by the UNSC during the war. Nobody has access to his whereabouts or knows anything about his current status. And with Dr. Endesha gone, the recreation process has been slow and grueling. We've been at it for months and only now is success within sight. Hence why..." she looks over at one of the bodies of her fellow scientist before moving her eyes to the ground.
Lt. Miles tracks her eyes to the body and asked, "Do you know what happened here?"
Confusion overtook her as she said, "I do, but I don't if that makes any sense."
"It doesn't."
"My apologies."
"Try to make it make sense."
She elaborated, "I do because I was here and saw it all happen, however, I don't because I couldn't tell you why. One minute we're putting the finishing touches on the recreation of Vergil the next screams and the smell of burnt flesh. I would say it was probably to keep us quiet, however, none of us would ever have the guts to stand up to Sergei. Unless she simply couldn't take the risk..."
"What's so special about some dumb sub-whatever."Monero snapped, "All this death and for what?"
She looks up with a stern look in her eyes, "Vergil was for all intents and purposes a miracle. Unlike dumb AI, who only follows orders he had a mind of his own and even a desire to save as many people as he could during the attack on New Mombasa. Despite never being ordered to do so. And unlike Smart AI, Vergil never experienced decay. On average an AI will experience rampancy if left active for longer than seven years. Vergil looked after Dr. Endesha's daughter for thirteen long years."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning Vergil could be the key to creating a smart AI that doesn't experience rampancy. Or a dumb AI with enough will and desire to exist as a shield around humanity, watching over and protecting us. All the while existing in the shadows of every program known to man, being everywhere and nowhere. Vergil was limited to the confines of New Mombasa's systems, but what if that was expanded to an entire world or even the entire galaxy."
Lt. Miles couldn't help but move his gaze to the now busy Armin certain that she still had the fragment in her possession before the scientist called out to him. "What will you do now, Commander?"
"Found her," Armin shouts unable to hide the excitement in her voice as the screen lights up her helmet. "Cocky bitch, she's still in the main control room. Hasn't moved an inch since I last saw her." the eyes of his three troopers all gathered upon him anticipating the next order. Lt. Miles knew that he couldn't let the fragment fall into the warlord's hands while also knowing that if they didn't stop her the reclamation project would be completed all the same. He shots them a quick nod and his trooper spring into action.
"Wait" the scientist grabs their attention, "What about me?" Armin tosses her a key.
"That's a master key." Armin explained, "Made a dupe of it when the head mechanic wasn't looking. Should be able to give you access to any vehicle in that motor pool, if the locks on their ignition switches need an override. Swipe a vehicle and wait for us, or don't try to navigate the fog of war on your own. It's your funeral... I mean choice."
"But that's..."
"Oh yeh and if you see a mechanic called Robby still kicking around out there take em with you. Just tell him he doesn't want to be around to see what I'm about to do to this place; that ought to get him going."
[Play Halo Reach Both Ways on YouTube]
Lt. Miles hoped he made the right call in knowing that the fragment would be so close within Lady Sergei's reach, However, nor would his chances of bringing the warlord down be better if Armin wasn't right where she was. At times like this, he always wondered what Lt. Hawkins would do, but quickly shook the thought from his mind. No turning back now.