Chapter Four: The Beginning of the End
UNSC Infinity, Fireteam Rose Quarters, January 5, 2559, 2:34am
Sarge had stayed up most of the night, writing down several ways to kill Grif in the Simulator, and which would be the most humiliating. Grif was currently alseep, no suprise there. Simmons was out talking to Fireteam Violet, whose leader was out for the moment.
"Um...Sarge?" Simmons entered the room. "We might have a problem."
"What did Grif do wrong this time?" Sarge asked, resting his head in his hands.
Simmons shook his head. "It's not Grif. We think that O'Malley is back."
"You talking about that AI that could control other people? Even me?" Sarge was pretty sure that they had eliminated that AI years ago.
"Yeah." Simmons sighed. "We're not sure how, but one of the other Spartans in Fireteam Foxtrot was acting strange. He was talking in the same tone O'Malley used. But that was around a week ago. He most likely moved on by now. It might just be another AI like O'Malley."
"Come on. We have to tell the Captain," Sarge grabbed his shotgun, and smacked Grif with the butt of it. "Wake up lazy-ass! You can't sleep in the middle of a crisis!"
"I don't know if alerting the Captain is the best idea," Simmons said. "You see, he also has an AI slot, so it is possible that he is the one the AI went to."
Seattle, January 5, 2559, 4:42am
Ginger looked at the large bag in between him and Lachlan. After Clone-Palmer had pulled the gun on him, the Jackals raised their weapons, forcing her to lower hers. Ginger then held her down while Lachlan used a sedative in the medicene pouch they had with them to knock her out. Then, they put her in a bag until they got back to Earth.
"This is weird," Ginger admitted. They were on their way to the nearest ONI headquarters, where they planned to ask a certain someone for help.
"It's you fault. You're the one who wanted to clone the dead," Lachlan pointed out. Their taxi went over a bump, causing the clone-Palmer to wake up.
"What happened?" She asked, and then realized that she was in a bag. "What the hell?!" Lachlan put his finger to his mouth, ordering Ginger into silence.
The red head looked out the front window, and saw that the taxi was pulling over. It was run by a robotic system, so it couldn't have anything to do with the driver. Someone would have to have entered the stop command into the system to override the security.
The vehicle came to a complete stop next to a dark alley, where several large figures walked out, rifles in hand. "Spartans?" Ginger asked out loud, breaking the silence rule. There were four Spartans total, all carrying Battle Rifles. Two smaller figures were in between the Spartans.
"Get out of the car now, leave the bag," One of the Spartans ordered. She was aiming her rifle into the open window. Headlights of passing cars relfecting off of her pink Recruit armor. The BR55 was inches from Ginger's head, so he raised his hands and walked out, with the female Spartan holding the door open.
Two other Spartans took Lachlan by the shoulders, and dragged him out of the taxi, removing his helmet and tossing it to the ground. The fourth took the squirming bag out. He set it on the ground, and unzipped it, revealing Palmer, still dressed in Ginger's leather jacket.
Ginger heard a gasp behind him, and saw Lasky with his hands cuffed behind his back. A smaller figure walked out into the open. "Captain Deland? What the hell are you doing?"
Deland smiled. "I should ask you the same thing." Something about his voice was different. Deland walked over to the clone-Palmer and crouched down to make eye contact. "Commander Palmer, are you all right?"
"Who are you?"
"I am Captain Deland, the captain of the ship you were assigned to, the UNSC Infinity. You were about to recieve augmentations to become a Spartan," Deland jerked his thumb at his Spartans, "And then these rebels kidnapped you. They must have hit you on the head pretty hard to make you lose memory."
"That's a lie!" Ginger blurted out, getting smacked on the back of the head by the pink Spartan.
Deland turned to Ginger and Lachlan. "For your crimes against the UNSC, you are to be executed right were you stand!" He picked up Palmer and helped her into the taxi. She seemed out of it, staring off into space, trying to remember false memories.
Lasky was pushed over to them. "So, this is the end of the line." Apparently, Deland wanted him dead too.
"I hate to admit it, but yeah. Looks like it," Ginger sighed. Things did look pretty bleak. The other Spartans raised their rifles, taking aim. Ginger squeezed his eyes shut. He heard the slides of BR55 sliding back, making an ominous click.
His final thoughts were drowned out by Battle Rifle fire.
Requiem, Covenant Remnants HQ, January 5, 2559, 4:56am
Eray looked at the human scientist with confusion. "What are you saying, human?"
"Look, that "Cloning Tower" has been operating for weeks before you found it. Something had been using it." The man was tired of explaining.
"What proof do you have?"
"We found several blood samples of dead Spartans on the ground. Katy French, Jared Miller, and Geral Herny were the owners of some of the blood. All were confirmed KIA during the Covenant invasion."
"But you're saying the tower was also an artifical intelligence containment room?" Eray asked. It was what the man had said.
"Yes. From what we can tell, there were two AIs, one was gone for a while, and the other some how left."
"But this AI can be dangerous, you claim." Eray was about to order all his troops into finding this AI. Mabye he could convince the Moniter to help him.
Location: Unknown, Time: Unknown, Year 2559
The fire glinted off the visor of his helmet. He held the small tree branch that contain a small mammal over the fire. For once, he had happened to catch his favorite food.
But, he was bored. Alone. Forgotten. Desolate. Just like she had been. The only difference was that she wouldn't be waiting for him in the end...