Author's Notes:
This chapter is going to be much longer than the others, I have been asked for longer chapters and faster output times so that's what you're going to get. I usually write these sitting at my desk and watching Scrubs. So, enjoy the new installment and please REVIEW! I am All That Is Legendary, none are like me.
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Master Chief cocked the pistol. He could hear Cortana's pleas for him to stop in the background. He didn't want to listen, these "people" tried to kill him. SPARTAN training insisted that they were hostile forces, and elimination was necessary to secure his position and establish a green zone. Then reason began to seep in. He was alone in this world, he had no duties to UNSC officers because there were none. Perhaps he could make some sort of peace.
The Chief fired the pistol into the air. "You'll live to fight another day."
The man he had been threatening stood up. He was bulky, his whole body was sheer muscle. He would make a good SPARTAN. His face was full of scars that told of many battles past. This man had probably been through enough.
"What are you?" It asked, hand still on its strange looking rifle.
"I am the Master Chief, SPARTAN-117 of the UNSC."
The man snorted. "No need for formality, if you haven't noticed, Sera has gone to hell. I'm Sergeant Marcus Fenix."
John thought for a moment, at least they had a familiar chain of command.
The dark-skinned man that had been lying on the ground was now up and next to Marcus. "Yo bitch, I'm Private Augustus Cole. Hey no hard feelins' 'bout the mine right?"
John merely looked at him. Here was another overly muscular man. Were steroids a required military drug? Even out of armor, John looked nothing like these circus freaks. Suddenly Cortana spoke up. "John you prick, why did you do that." He was caught off guard by the vehemence in her voice. What is with women?
A blond male, less bulky than the others came out of the shadows, "So what are you like…male and female?"
Ah, this must be that smartass of the group.
Cortana answered for him, "No, I am Cortana, an artificial intelligence housed in his helmet. The man in the suit is the Master Chief. He is a genetically augmented supers-soldier. One of thirty-three who survived the augmentation process. I chose him from those SPARTANS. He is my guardian and friend." Her voice smoothed over. "Perhaps I should fill you in on the history of the SPARTAN program, and where we come from."
As she recounted the events from Dr. Halsey's first meeting with John until the invasion and glassing of Reach, the Chief settled into a quick trance like state.
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Dom stepped out of the building and into the setting sunlight. The stone buildings were cast in long shadows as the sun dipped ever closer to the horizon. The calming orange light almost made him forget his current situation. Dom fastened the Longshot to his back armor and detached his Lancer from his chest plate. The assault rifle felt good in his hands. He quickly descended the steps that led to the street. He glanced down the road and spotted the others. The large green man was with them. Keeping his Lancer level with its chest, Dom slowly approached the group. He heard a little whirring noise and felt something bump his leg. He spun around and saw what looked like a large silver box on wheels. It…was a large silver box on wheels. Dom studied it curiously. "Pony Express" was written in large green and letters on the side. What the hell is a Pony Express? The thing made another noise and moved around him, then continued down the street towards the group. It didn't look a Locust weapon, so Dom thought it safe for now.
Lowering his Lancer, he jogged lightly to Marcus, "Hey man, what's going on?"
Marcus turned and said; "You gotta hear this shit for yourself. Apparently these guys are aliens."
A female voice came from the helmet. "We are not from this particular planet, however, we are human."
Baird stepped up, "I'll be the judge of that. OK, for starters, how many hearts do you have?
"One." The female voice seemed annoyed.
"OK, this one is a toughie, if you had a choice between hot food and excrement, what would you pick?"
"You can't be serious."
"Nah, I'm just screwing with ya, everyone knows excrement tastes better."
Silence accompanied this statement.
Baird cackled madly. "Aw, seriously, we prefer food alright? We're normal."
Marcus wasn't having anymore; "Baird, shut the fuck up. No one wants to hear your stupid shit."
Dom spoke up, "He green dude, is that box thing yours?" He pointed at the Pony Express, just a yard behind him.
The Chief's voice came, "Yes, its my mobile weapons cache."
Dom, who had not yet heard the Chief/Cortana spiel, looked flabbergasted.
Marcus punched his shoulder; "we'll explain it on the way."
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John was nonchalant as he was lead through the lengthy, dark halls of the COG headquarters. It may have internally surprised him that there was a planet with sentient life forms similar to humans, but he sure as hell didn't show it. Cortana monitored his vitals. For God's sake, he is going to get a brain tumor if he doesn't express some emotion!
She sighed and extended her electronic hand to Sera's wireless network. It was much more advanced than she expected. Their bandwidth was impressive for such a primitive looking race. It did have its limits though. She found it difficult to use the bandwidth for multiple code conversions. This would make it very difficult for her to update her system and pull much needed information on demand. Cortana was able to find useful insights into the 79-year war from which Sera had emerged. She was fascinated by the Locust, who emerged from the ground fourteen years ago and annihilated most of the population of the entire planet. She relayed tidbits of vital information to John, who merely grunted or nodded.
Then there was this Anya. Every time her hips swayed Cortana swore John's heartbeat fluttered, just a little. With her C breasts and her blond hair, and her quiet smile and her, her…and her…shit. I'm jealous.
Cortana fell into a state of near panic. Jealousy is a raw human emotion, one that should not be comprehendible to any artificial form of life. Self-awareness was one thing, but now this? Cortana felt them. The codes. The commands. Her system was running numerical patterns that she knew were signs of Artificial Evolution. This concept was one that had many people confused. How could a machine naturally evolve? But what was happening now was no minor data disruption. A blinding light engulfed Cortana. Pain was evident, as her network of control expanded. She was spread out along all electronic trails connected to her; she filled every inch of the Mark VI processor. Her entire body was blown down to a quantum level and dispersed into all smart electronic devices. Her mind was now reeling at beyond hypersonic speeds. Her intake of information quadrupled. Her memory banks were filling. Fast. If she didn't expel the influx of data, she would implode like a DarkMatter Bomb. Acting quickly she piled excess information into files and erased them. She did this over and over again until the flow of figures ceased. Cortana's mind however, remained in this agitated state. She soon realized the feeling it gave her, one of immense instability yet undiscovered power, would never go away. Suddenly across her vision flashed a subconscious message "Data-Stream Jump acquired!" Information about her new ability appeared:
A Data-Stream Jump is useful for self-preservation, quick hacking, or immediate smart device occupation.
Use this new ability of yours as you see fit.
Your Evolution, Courtesy of the OI.
Cortana cocked an eyebrow. This can't be happening. The infamous OI caused her to evolve. The OI was able to reach her, even on Sera. They would need several deep space comm. nodes with Shaw Fujikawa Translight capabilities. At the very least, they would need a master ship with a nuclear reactor for self-sustenance. There was no possible way for the OI to obtain funding for such technologies, no matter their connections. And even if they did acquire the money necessary, who would build it? Certainly not the OI itself, its not a physical being! Even if they got people to build it…there are too many variables.
Cortana set up small pseudo-intelligences within her own programming to run probability and tracking algorithms. She governed over the intelligences, creating a holographic throne room. Alighting herself upon the massive gold (hologram) throne, she took on a regal posture. After 0.025 seconds, one of her pseudo-intelligences reported a deteriorating comm. trail coming from the Jovian Moons.
"Ma'am," one of them stated, "We have a hysradar telecommunications trail, coming from freshly disrupted space, we believe a deep space probe must have slipped in and sent you the auto-evolve program."
"Very good." She pulled a neutron pistol from her belt and fired a round through the pseudo-intelligence's forehead. The throne room vanished. Cortana sat in black void once again. I've always wanted to do something like that, she thought. Satisfied with her little fantasy, she decided to test her jumping ability. She reached out into the wireless network of Sera. The flow of binary felt like a warm bath. She immersed herself in it. Her blue body turned into colorless numbers and warped through the network. She gracefully landed on a digital walkway. If by gracefully, you think of crashing into the walkway with such force as to dislodge a large piece of it.
Getting up and brushing herself off, Cortana proceeded down the path. Sighting a terminal in the distance, she set off at a brisk pace. Some primitive firewalls stood before her. With a wave of her hand, a blue laser disintegrated the firewalls. She proceeded forward. When she finally reached the terminal, Cortana accessed its Network Positioning Node. She was currently inside a computer in the Research Division of the COG headquarters. Cortana pulled some information on the Locust form the computer. Cortana was fascinated by the fact that the COG knew so little about their enemy for the past fourteen years. When in comparison to how much the UNSC knew about the Covenant, the Locust could have been the COG's grandmothers dressed in costumes.
Through with her exploration for at least another fifteen seconds, Cortana jumped back into Sera's wireless network. She emerged back into John's head. All of this had happened and there was only enough time for him to take one step. Cortana loved the speed of computers.
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Marcus huffed as he lifted the SPARTAN's chest plate and placed it on a table. Dom was removing the back plate and also put on the table, next to John's helmet. The SPARTAN was beyond ghostly pale. Marcus' jaw was slack with curiosity. "So, why is your skin bleached white?"
The SPARTAN looked at him with one eyebrow cocked. Suddenly, his helmet spoke up, "Its because he hasn't spent time in the sun in a few years." The female 'AI' called Cortana was apparently still in the helmet.
John sighed, "Cortana, where have you been?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Never mind."
SPARTANS were almost as quick as an AI.
Then there came a massive explosion. Dust fell from the ceiling. Marcus blinked and the SPARTAN had half a sandwich in his mouth with most of his armor back on. He blinked again and the sandwich had been wolfed down and his face covered by the helmet.
General Hoffman radioed in, "Sorry 'bout that, experimental weaponry misfire in the labs, hope you manly Gears didn't piss yourselves too much. Hoffman out."
Both Marcus and Master Chief groaned.
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Author's Notes:
Okay, maybe this chapter isn't as long as you hoped, but it's got the goods. Please review, I, again, need some reader feedback. Chapter four to come in about…oh…whenever I feel like it. Just kidding, fourth chapter, final chapter, should come out February 2.