Author's Notes:

Well, this is the final chapter to this story. My next project (and I have already disclosed this to a fan who asked politely) is called Cortana's Daughter. It is a third story in a trilogy, and to read it, you must first acquaint yourself with Cortana's Secret and Cortana's Wish (not my best works but I hope to compensate). Otherwise the story would mean nothing.

A legal note, because I have not yet mentioned this: I do not own Halo or Gears of War. Halo is the intellectual property of Microsoft Game Studios and Gears is that of Epic Games. I am not affiliated with either.

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John made sure to wolf down all the food that he could. SPARTANS were augmented to go ridiculous lengths without food, but that doesn't mean they didn't appreciate it when they got some. Everything smelled delicious. They had hot fluffy pancakes, fruit similar to strawberries, sausages, and eggs and delectable military protein shakes. Cortana stuck out her digital tongue in disgust at the Gears' eating habits.

Marcus grunted something and John passed the syrup to him. Baird hurled a biscuit at John who deftly caught it and messily devoured it. Cole was going insane with protein drinks and pancakes. Dom was the only calm one in the group, quietly shoving three large pancakes into his mouth and pouring syrup on whatever stuck out. With a noise not unlike a vacuum, the pancakes disappeared down his throat.

Hoffman made sure to yell extra loud. "Alright ladies, listen up! You are being deployed to a Locust hive today. You are expected to eliminate the entire population of that hive. Are we understood?"

Baird spoke with a sausage hanging out, "Sir, we don't have that much ammo."

Hoffman ripped the frank from his mouth and threw it over his shoulder. "You're damn right you don't have ammo. That's why you're going to be using this." He plopped what appeared to be a bloated jellyfish on the table.

Bair spoke up, "Sir I'm not sure if that'll do as much damage as a bullet."

Hoffman turned red, "Shut your trap, smart-ass. This is a high frequency sonic bomb. It'll blow those reptilian bastards' ears and brains to hell. The green man's pretty lady on the radio helped our scientists design this last night. They worked hard so I expect you to work harder and put it to good use!"

Cortana's image appeared on a small screen on the wall behind John's head. "Well, 'high frequency sonic bomb' is a pretty simplified explanation. However, the principle is the same. We're using some of you're 'lightmass' technologies and others just improvised. The thing I found most interesting about your planet," she addressed the Gears, "is that your species evolved at a different pace. Not just a slower pace, but also a different path than another civilization might evolve up. For example, we humans of the planet Earth took advantage of nuclear energy. Nuclear energy for the most part is dirty and can alter a stable environment towards uninhabitable climate change. You humans of the planet Sera took advantage of a similar energy, lightmass. Lightmass came from one of the most abundant elements in your planet's crust, a previously unknown element, now categorized as Imulsion. Dr. Nathan Vhorb, a man on our research team was able to document its unique nature.

"Unlike nuclear energy, lightmass is an extremely clean energy source. The detonation of a lightmass bomb splits nearby carbon monoxide into carbon and oxygen, and the closer the carbon monoxide is to the explosion, the more ozone is made. It is fascinating that Sera was able to evolve in the same direction as Earth, but went off on a tangent and discovered something better."

Baird unceremoniously devoured a biscuit.

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John sat motionless as the APC roared down the street. It mowed down several drones scrabbling for cover. The mounted rocked launcher above them boomed as it took out what still moved. He looked over at the Gears and analyzed them for the fifth time that hour.

Marcus: face badly scarred, and his pride appeared to be as well. A firm leader, one that doesn't need anymore crap from anyone.

Baird: sarcastic, but a good soldier.

Dom: apparently Marcus' best friend, youthful despite the odds against his race here.

Cole: ready to kick some ass, anytime.

The Gears were an impressive group. It was still surprising to John that they even existed. As the UNSC spread, it documented its encounters with the species of a planet. None were sentient or near the sentient class of extraterrestrials. The fact that there were other humans was strange. The odds of a species populating two planets but separated by half a galaxy and still developed at socially and technologically similar rates were too much to count. John accepted these odds in a generally nonchalant sort of way, as he usually does.

The APC jackknifed. It slid to a halt and the front door opened. Bullets from nearby Hammerbursts riddled the interior. John was the first one out, MA5K blazing. He downed three Drones and a Boomer before the Gears' boots hit the ground. A grenade from a boomshot struck him in the face. He dove behind a roadblock to let the Gears take over. John poked his MA5K over the roadblock and began blind firing. Baird let loose with a couple of grenades. Pieces of wretch and boomer rained down on the group.

John jumped out from behind the roadblock at charged headlong at a group of drones. Time slowed again. The first drone was bodily thrown into another, while a third had his heart torn out and shoved down its throat. Its body took several seconds to register that it was dead. John swung his arm out in a chopping motion and decapitated two drones at once. He grabbed the Hammerburst falling from one of its hands and clubbed a grub in the face. A Longshot round flew past his face and penetrated a Grenadier's skull. Five yards to his left, the last boomer exploded, spraying John with fried gore.

The midday sun shone upon the pieces of flesh surrounding them, blood glistened and bubbled. Master Chief was back in action.

Master Chief and the Gears headed down a long alleyway, shadows from the two adjacent buildings covering them. At the end of the alley was an emergence hole, this one slanted downward at roughly 64 degrees instead of going straight down. This was a hive entrance. The diameter was seven feet, so Master Chief had to bend over to fit. The light from the sun began to diminish as they crept further. The sound of wretches hurtling towards them reached their ears. Master Chief converted his defensive shields into offensive electrical energy. He then curled into a ball, and rolled forward. The wretches never saw the one-ton SPARTAN roll into them at twenty kilometers per hour, nor did they feel the 300,000 megawatts fry them to hell. As the last wretch melted into bone and blood, Master Chief reconfigured his shields and stood up. Cortana was stumbling around his visor like a drunken maniac. She fell to her knees and clutched her head, "The EMP effect from that discharge was absolutely ridiculous! If you'd lowered the power a few thousand megawatts that wouldn't have been a p-problem." She sniffed.

"Sorry." He hadn't thought that a she would be affected. His helmet had conductor nodes that were supposed to vent excess away from the AI unit.

"Sorry?! You couldn't at least think that perhaps your conductor nodes were damaged in that big-ass fall from the sky?!

"Enough! Cortana, I'm sorry." Master Chief's voice was soft.

Cortana became quiet. He had spoken to her like he did back in High Charity when he'd rescued her. She remembered the affection in his voice as he said, 'You know me, when I make a promise…' Her heart melted.

Master Chief dismissed the event. He waited for the Gears to catch up. They continued down the hole for ten minutes, by that time Baird was so bored that every little comment made by him was met with groans and several punches to the back. It was half an hour before they finally saw where the tunnel led. They emerged in a vast cavern, crawling with Locust. Stalagmites and stalactites protruded from the floor and ceiling, small pools of imulsion forming around their circumference. Several of the stalactites were knocked to pieces as two Corpsers worked to expand the caverns width. The room was rank with rotting flesh, mist from cooling metal settled near the floor. A group of Drones ran past their view. Master Chief and the Gears ran forward and took cover near large piles of discarded metal.

Marcus unhooked the sonic bomb from his belt and tossed it to Master Chief, who caught it and armed it. He darted around the scrap pile and made a mad dash to where the two Corpsers where digging. He slid under one of them and adhered it to one of the eight legs. Job done, he darted between piles of junk and rock and made it back to the Gears. As they turned to walk to the tunnel, they heard the hiss of a Theron Guard, "Humans!" There position was immediately filled with so much fire; Master Chief's shields were down to half before he had scrambled into the tunnel. Cole took a Lancer round to the shoulder, and Marcus one to the leg.

They had twenty minutes to get one mile away from the Locust.

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Cortana watched nervously as John ran back to the Gears. She gasped when their cover was blown. She knew the odds of this happening were frighteningly high, but she had still harbored the hope that nothing would go wrong.

A bullet pinged off John's helmet an inch away from Cortana's data crystal. This was bad. She was afraid of losing John. Why did she feel this way? The algorithms that governed her moods were completely off key. After her creation from Dr. Halsey's mind, Cortana was reinforced by special programming, allowing for more human emotion, set in a geometric pattern to simulate randomness. However, the programs were now running at truly random intervals, no specific pattern revealed itself. This infuriated Cortana. Her moods depended greatly on the situation at hand. The special programs could cause a psychological synergism or antagonism, and both were dangerous for her. She had reached a critical age for an AI. She has absorbed the equivalent of three terabytes of information, an amount that would normally cause an AI to implode.

Cortana sighed. There was nothing to do but wait until we get back to the Gears' Headquarters. With the access of some sort of terminal, she could activate a command to erase at least one terabyte of info. The only problem is what to erase. At least ninety percent of the information in her was very important.

A boomshot round struck John in the back.

There was a slight distortion in her data crystal's coding. She was suddenly in a large room. All the walls were gold and there was a large table in the center. At the table sat two figures dressed in blue cloaks. Masks covered their faces. One of them spoke, "You are Cortana, artificial intelligence created by the UNSC, gifted with the Data Stream Jump ability."

"Yes." She said hesitantly. These two were obviously the creators of the OI. They were the biggest geeks in the universe and so created the Omnipresent Intelligences. The OI were not artificial intelligence, they could not learn, but followed the commands of the two creators, Tyler Cochran and Wallis Kemp. These two were dexterous hackers, stealing money and supplies from the UNSC. They constructed a massive ship, the Marauding Shades. It was completely self-sufficient, with farms and livestock, as well as an Antimatter Power Cell and a fusion chamber as back up. What these freaks wanted with Cortana she knew not.

"We are upset that you have not used your Jump power's appropriately."

"What are you talking about?"

"We were hoping that you would help us in our endeavor to create the ultimate collection of everything science."

"And why did you want me to help?"

"We can bring you and Master Chief back to UNSC territory."

Cortana was absolutely aghast. "You mean you know where we are?"

"No."

"Then how exactly do you plan on getting us back. A slipspace jump requires starting and destination coordinates, especially one that you are performing on someone else."

"Yes, we are aware of this. However, we will not be using slipspace."

At this statement Cortana became confused. There was no other way to travel such a span without using slipspace. There was once an experimental wormhole generator on Reach, but Cortana was sure it was destroyed when the Covenant invaded. Even if the geeks got a hold of the wormhole generator, how would they configure it to open a hole where they are?

"We know your thoughts. We have not stolen the wormhole generator from the UNSC, we built one ourselves."

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Master Chief was pissed. Boomers fired round after round up the tunnel. His shields were down, Marcus' arm was broken, and half of Dom's leg was gone. The Chief called for the Pony Express.

Three miles away, the Pony Express hummed to life. It took off down the road at sixty kilometers per hour.

Master Chief hurled his last plasma grenade down the length of the tunnel, where it stuck to a boomer's face. The resulting explosion vaporized two drones, the boomer, and a wretch. Even after constant bombardment with grenades and rifle fire, none of the Locust would back down, nor would the tunnel cave in. It was all that damn iron ferrite. It was the most suitable elemental rock to house Imulsion. Perhaps some sort of radiation could stir the inactive Lightmass. The only form of radiation Master Chief knew of was emitted from…A Spartan Laser! He pushed the Gears to climb the steep slope faster. The light of the afternoon shown merely half a kilometer above them.

Before they knew it, they were out. The Pony Express flew around the corner and stopped in front of them. Dom sat on top; he was the most critically injured. Master Chief opened the Pony Express and took out a Spartan Laser, he ordered the Gears to go without him. They ran off Marcus giving him a salute as he went.

Once they were out of sight, Master Chief knelt and pulled the trigger. A slow whine evolved into a deafening roar, a red laser expanded to become a death ray, ready to vaporize anything in its way. With a vicious explosion, the laser flew forward striking the tunnel. Iron ferrite melted like butter. Dormant Imulsion was instantly ignited. It swirled into yellow light. The force of the Lightmass atomized the tunnel and its occupants. Master Chief turned and ran at full pelt as the wall of Lightmass tried to catch him. He could feel it pushing him forward. A second explosion announced the sonic bomb had detonated. The sheer sound wave made Master Chief cringe in pain. The pain was beyond bearable, even for a SPARTAN. He blacked out.

…………command (exec. 10100110)…………

…reboot///system……diagnostics……malfunction……

……power at 30…venting excess……exec. 0100110100100001…

…gel layer leak…

A ringing sounded loudly in his ears. His headache was enormous. In the distance, he could hear a voice. It was a beautiful voice. "Chief!" It said. The voice spoke his name several times. Then training kicked it. He took one deep breath and cleared his mind. He felt his pulse on his wrist and sat up. He was still in the street. The place was leveled. Buildings were now rubble, the street cracked, and half upturned. Cortana's voice was loud in his head. "Chief, oh good, I thought I'd lost you…again."

"I'm fine."

"Your left arm is broken and both of your eardrums have suffered minor ruptures. Your armor has sustained a sever leak in the gel layer on your back piece. A chemical reaction to Lightmass has begun. A cancerous growth has been detected in your spinal column. Some proteins in the bone augmentation injection are multiplying out of control. Other than that…well, you get it."

"Yeah, I get it." He struggled to stand. The ringing in his ears returned. He breathed heavily. Everything was gone. There was only a massive crater, spanning a kilometer into the darkening horizon. Buildings were completely flattened, stones scattered in a grapeshot fashion. Without the large structures, Sera looked like a desolate world. It reminded John of the crater of New Mombassa. He closed his eyes and inhaled.

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Cortana relaxed. John was in the infirmary. Luckily, the Gears had gotten a medical APC to him before he'd gone into shock. They rushed him back to the headquarters and began treatments on his numerous bodily wounds.

A message from the Marauding Shades was now incoming. The two geeks' voices were clear and crisp, no doubt an ingenious slip-space probe was needed for such clarity. "Cortana, we are ready to receive you and the Chief. We are opening a wormhole one kilometer to the inch, south-southwest of your position. Your destination will be in orbit above newly discovered planet Onyx, where several more SPARTAN's as well as Dr. Halsey are waiting."

Cortana's heart soared, plummeted, and exploded all at once. She would get the chance to see Dr. Halsey again. But the SPARTAN's were no doubt SPARTAN-III's. It was impossible that any SPARTAN-II's could have still been alive. How would John react to the newer SPARTAN's? Like he does everything else, Cortana thought to herself, he won't.

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It was early morning. The sun was barely penetrating the mixture of the horizon and industrial fog. A caravan of four matte black APC's was making its way to the earlier christened, "Chief retrieval zone." The APC's were a formidable bunch; each had enough firepower to level a small building.

Master Chief was on the rocket pod. Baird and Dom got sniper ports, while Marcus was outside the APC, hanging from the back and holding a Hammer of Dawn. Everyone was tense; they were more than halfway there, yet no Locust had shown up. As they passed what was left of the House of Sovereigns, there was a loud, distant roar. Marcus recognized it as that of a Corpser. Then two more sounded. Then three more sounded. Hoffman radioed in, "We have six Corpsers closing in on your position. They are in two groups of three, one heading in on your twelve o' clock and another at four. Good luck."

Anya's voice replaced the General's. "Marcus, use the Hammer on the group at your twelve, they will be there in approximately two minutes. You have three minutes and eighteen seconds of coverage."

Marcus gave a deep, throaty growl. He banged his fist on the APC's armor. "Snipers away, Boomshots out!" There was metallic clanking and clicking as Baird and Dom switched out their weapons. Marcus yelled to the Chief, "We got some hostiles! Train your pod at my four o' clock!" Master Chief obliged.

Marcus pulled himself up onto the roof of the APC. He looked through the Hammer of Dawn's little eyepiece. He was now prepped for the Corpsers' attack. A minute later, they appeared on the horizon. Taking careful aim, Marcus pulled the trigger. A laser jettisoned from the Hammer and landed midway down the middle Corpser's abdomen. A shrill beeping sounded from the Hammer. Two seconds later, five orange beams converged on the laser. When the beams touched, a massive laser shot down from space and vaporized the Corpser. The other two scattered, not before another one was likewise struck down.

A loud swish sounded as a rocket raced from the APC. Marcus turned in time to see the rocket fly into a Corpser's mouth and detonate. The Corpser exploded into a hailstorm of flaming gore and shattered bone. Marcus aimed the Hammer of Dawn at the more recently arrived group. The Hammer beeped twice as the satellite in orbit above them received the Corpser's coordinates. The satellite fired its deadly imulsion beam and took out the other two Corpsers. Suddenly, Baird and Dom fired their boomshots. The rounds impacted an emergence hole that was opening on Marcus' six. Five more emergence holes materialized around them. Two more rockets were fired at the one remaining Corpser.

Marcus climbed back into the APC and switched on his radio. "Floor it!" He yelled to the drivers. The caravan tripled its speed.

The roar of the engines calmed Marcus. How are we gonna get this green dude to the retrieval zone with all of these goddamn Locust around?! Marcus sighed to himself. Master Chief launched rockets in rapid succession, only stopping when his pod clicked empty. The APC directly behind them exploded into a massive orange fireball. Shrapnel ricocheted off their vehicle's armor. Blood rained down like a thunderstorm in hell.

Driver number one radioed in, "ETA at Chief retrieval zone is fifteen seconds!"

Marcus yelled back, "Form a V around the wormhole, I want everyone supporting the Chief!"

Cortana spoke up. "Chief, I'm going to replenish your suit's oxygen supplies."

A loud hiss signaled the release of the stale oxygen back into the atmosphere. The hiss was replaced with a sucking noise; newer air was being sucked into Master Chief's reserve tanks.

Their driver radioed in, "I see it! We're here!"

Up ahead, the Chief saw a small distortion hanging in the air above the road. It swirled inward, pulling small bits of dust and debris inside. There were no flashing colors or odd scintillating patterns like in the movies. It was just an elliptical warp in space and time.

The APC's formed a V around the wormhole, protecting it from the oncoming Locust horde. Master Chief was out of the APC and standing in front of the wormhole. Cortana spoke, "When we enter this thing, we'll be thrust back into zero G so ready yourself. The Marauding Shades told me that we're going to be transported inside the remains of a UNSC ship, floating slowly towards this…Onyx. Be ready."

"I will." He turned to Marcus. He made the SPARTAN gesture of two figures over his faceplate. Marcus saluted and returned to the fight. Master Chief dove straight into the belly of the wormhole.

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Author's Notes:

Well, this one is done and back in the hands of Bungie. My next story, as mentioned in the beginning, is Cortana's Daughter. The first chapter will be ready about March 14th, give or take a day. I want to thank all those who've left me reviews and all the fans of my work. For those who have not, PLEASE review. Thank you.