I don't own Halo, but gosh I wish I did. Again, all dialogue is from the game, and I still stuck as closely as I could to the cutscenes!
The Infinity was drifting silently, the earth in perfect view. The Spartan stared out the large windows at the beautiful planet, swirling with whites, and greens, and blues… To think that if the Didact had destroyed this planet, the universe would be robbed of something truly beautiful. He was taken out of his quiet contemplation by a familiar voice.
"Mind if I join you?" The Master Chief raised his head, and turned around quickly as if he were surprised.
"Of course not, sir," the Chief replied, his low voice rumbling.
"At ease, Chief. Feels kinda odd for you to call me sir." Commander Lasky joined John at the window.
"Beautiful, isn't she?" The commander asked as his eyes roved out to the planet before them. "I don't get to see her often enough." There was a silence. Perhaps Lasky was waiting for the Chief to respond?
"I grew up in New Harmony," he continued, "Attended Corbulo Military Academy." He looked at John. "Never saw Earth in person 'till I was an adult, but… I still think of her as home." There was more silence. Lasky shifted a little uncomfortably, while the Spartan remained where he was. "You don't talk much, do you?" The Commander's question was answered with John's continued silence. They both stayed quiet, but the Master Chief could feel Lasky pressing to say something.
"Chief, I won't pretend to know how you feel." John then realized the Commander's true intentions of being with him. But he said nothing, only listened.
"I've lost people I care about, but…. Never anything like you're going through." The Chief was stoic.
"Our duty," John responded, "as soldiers, is to protect humanity. Whatever the cost."
"You say that like humanity and soldiers are different things." The Spartan mulled this over for a moment before the Commander continued. "I mean, soldiers aren't machines…" John's head snapped to Lasky, hearing something he had heard before, and was desperate to make sure he knew who exactly it was coming from. "They're just people…" The Commander finished.
"I'll let you have the deck to yourself," Lasky commented quietly, when he realized he would gain no response from the soldier. As the Commander left John with his thoughts, The Chief said out loud: "She said that to me once. About being a machine."
Cortana.
Thoughts of her welled into his brain, chiseling away pieces of his heart that he did not know existed. Cortana always knew what to do. She always had a plan… Which meant HE always had to have a plan. And the plan was to search. Search for her. He didn't know if it was his brain plunging deeper into denial, refusing to accept the fact that she was gone, or if he honestly believed that she never left, but he would search the ends of the universe for her. He would accept no other partner, or stop until he found her.
Because John 117 was in love with Cortana, and he would spend his life searching to tell her, or die trying.