Chapter 11: Revelations
Disclaimer: I Don't Own Halo, Red Vs Blue or Any of their Respective Characters
A/N: So, congratulations. You have made it to the chapter where (most of) everything is revealed. In this chapter, the truth behind Cassie and her past will be revealed. And you'll also learn what the "abomination" is. That's it. Enjoy the chapter!
John-117
"These bodies are starting to freak me out Chief." Tucker said, as they walked to a door that had been blown off it's hinges. "Calm down, Tucker," the Chief said, turning on his flashlight. "We'll be fine." Cassie cleared her throat. "Are you sure?" she asked. "Don't be afraid, Baby," Tucker said. "I'll protect you." Cassie turned to him. "Oh, shut up, you perv." she grumbled. The Chief grumbled at the two bickering each other. He turned around to face the two. "Will you two please," he started. "Shut up? We're here- I mean, I'm here for a reason, and you're all just slowing me down." They all looked at him, probably thinking he had lost his marbles, but he didn't care.
He pointed at Tucker. "You, Tucker," he said. "Stop hitting on women all the time, and stop trying to get into their pants! I mean, come on man! A forty-something year old women?! She looks like she's my age!" Tucker just hung his head, and let out a sigh. He looked over at Cassie. "Cassie," he started. "Give Tucker a break. At least be a little less meaner to him." She scowled for a few seconds, but finally nodded. "Thank you, and Caboose?" he said. The dark blue Spartan looked up at him. "Thanks for being so quiet, son." Caboose nodded, not saying anything. He turned back around, and started walking again. "Come on," he said. "Try to keep up."
He walked over to the west side of the base, which had a side entrance. There was just one odd thing about the entrance. For one, the door had been blown right off of it's "hinges." And two, the two guards that had been guarding the door, they had been smashed together, making the opposite sides of their skulls cave in. "Um, Mister Chief?" Caboose said. "Yes, Caboose?" Chief asked. "Why do the sleeping people have craters on their heads?" The question confused him for a minute, but then he understood. "Son," he said. "These officers are not sleeping. They've been murdered. The question is, by what?"
He proceeded over the bodies, and walked into the building. He found himself in room full of corpses that belonged to Covenant Elites, Covenant Brutes, and UNSC Marines. "What. The. Fuck?" Tucker asked, walking into the room. "What happened in here?" Caboose walked in behind him. "I think we are late for nap time." he said. The Master Chief turned to Caboose. "Private Caboose," he said. "No one's napping. Everyone here is likely to be dead." Cassie stared at the dead bodies. "What's going on here?" she asked, timidly. "Cassie," he said. "I can honestly say that I have no idea what's going on at this outpost."
All of a sudden, the Chief heard a door rapidly opening and closing. He turned around, pointing his Rifle in the direction of the noise. He saw a door opening and closing on a dead Marine. He lowered his gun, but only a little bit. He walked over to the door, and forced it open all the way. What he saw next, was absolutely horrifying. The corpse had been horribly mutilated, and it had been ripped in half. The corpse's entrails had been dragged across the floor inside the room, to maybe suggest the victim had been attempting to escape from, well, whatever had killed him. "Oh god!" Tucker said. He suddenly threw off his helmet, and puked all over the floor.
"Wimp." Cassie said. "You have to hand it to him," the Chief said, looking at the bloody mess. "It is pretty horrific and disgusting." Cassie sighed. "Yeah, you're right." Caboose walked over to the three. "Mister Chief," he said. "What could have happened here?" The Master Chief turned to Caboose. "I honestly have no idea," he said. "But I have a very, very bad feeling about this." The Chief looked around for anything that could lead them to whatever did this. He looked over to a terminal that was flashing green. He walked over to it, and cautiously tapped the button, hoping it wouldn't explode. The console activated, and played the most recent left recording.
The recording started with a few seconds of static, and then adjusted to reveal a face. "Nothing like good old 20th century static, right?" the man said. He took a sip of some kind of beverage and put the cup down. "This is Doctor Jenkins," the man said, then he frowned. "No relation to the Jenkins lost on Installation 04." He took another sip of his beverage, and proceeded. "This will be the tenth update of the status of Specimen 789." he said, scratching his scalp. "This one is surprisingly healthy, as the last 788 specimens died long before they matured." He reached over and grabbed something. He returned to the screen, holding a data pad. "As you can see," he said, holding up the data pad. "Specimen 789's vitals are very good, and we should see him in combat very soon."
The Master Chief narrowed his eyes. Had this been or could be the thing that caused all this carnage? The data pad on the screen shifted, and showed a holographic image of Specimen 789. It looked like a Covenant Elite, but at the same time a Covenant Brute. He tried to get a closer look, but the man took the data pad away. "So, I don't really know what else to say, but-" he was interrupted by a really high, gutteral growl. He turned around. "It's Specimen 789!" he screamed, turning back to the terminal. "It's escaped holding! It's-" He was washed with plasma fire, and his blood cascaded the screen as it went black. The Master Chief looked back at the terminal, and realized that there was dried, caked blood on the terminal. It then occured to him that this whole thing must have occured only a few hours ago.
"What the hell was that?" Cassie said, who had been standing next to him. He turned to Cassie. "I have no idea, but I think I know what caused this." he said, walking away from the terminal. Tucker had put his helmet back on and was talking to Caboose, probably trrying to keep him from going crazy. The Chief turned around to a new sound, and saw Cassie typing at the terminal. "What are you doing?" he asked, walking over to her. "Trying to get into the database," she grunted, while typing. "I want to see when this transmission was recorded." She continued typing, and eventually said, "Look's like this thing broke out of his cell three and a half hours ago."
The Chief nodded. He was close to guessing. He turned around, and walked back over to Tucker and Caboose. "I wish my best friend Church were here." Caboose said. Tucker sighed. "Caboose, Church isn't your best friend, he hates you!" he said. "Yeah," Caboose said. "He's my best friend!" Tucker sighed. "Whatever." he groaned. "Okay ladies," the Chief said. "It's time to move in deeper." Tucker and Caboose turned to look at him. "Bow-chicka-bow-wow!" Tucker said. The Chief took out his Pistol, and smacked Tucker in the faceplate. "Ow!" Tucker said. "Motherfucker!" Cassie laughed, walking over to the four. "I guess that's what you get for saying shit like that!"
Tucker looked over at her. "Oh, you're just-" he started, but the Chief held his hand up, stopping him. He looked at the Chief. No, the Chief shook his head. "Yeah, okay." he said. "Let's go." The Chief walked through the door that had been jammed by the body. "Do we really have to go through here?" Tucker asked. "Shut up." Cassie said. He continued walking through the room, and found a door that had been ripped open. "Men," the Chief said. "And ma'am, this is our point of entry." Tucker cleared his throat. "Bow-chick- bow-" he started, but Cassie interrupted him. "I swear to God, Tucker," she started. "If you pop one more dirty joke, sex joke, or even reference sexual intercourse, I will cut your organ off, and don't think I won't!" Tucker cleared his throat again. "Okay, never mind." he said. "Exactly." she said.
"This stairwell will take us down to the main hub." Cassie said. "How do you know?" Tucker said. "Because," she said. "I read the sign, you dumbass!" Tucker looked at her. "Oh, right." he said. "Anyway," the Chief said. "Let's get down there. I want to know what caused all this." He walked into the stairwell, and walked down the stairs. "Donut," the Chief said. "Why haven't you been talking?" The pink one cleared his throat. "Oh, uh, I have nothing to say." he said. "Whatever." Tucker said. "Says the guy who is always gossiping." The Chief reached the end of the stairs, and saw a malfunctioning door, covered in bluish-purple blood.
"What the hell is this?" Donut asked, reaching out to touch the door. "Don't touch anything!" he said, smacking his hand away. "Whatever left this blood could still be around here!" He gently traced his finger over the blood, finding it to be slightly wet. "It's still barely wet," he announced. "So, whatever Specimen 789 is, it's still near here." Cassie cleared her throat. "Well," she said. "What will you do when you find it?" He turned to face her. "I can tell you this," he stated. "If it caused the deaths of most of this facility's staff, it's no friend of mine." Cassie's eyes widened. "You're pissed," she said. "Aren't you?" He put his Pistol on his thigh, and reached his hands up to his helmet. He touched the helmet, and took it off, revealing an angered, brutal face. "You have no idea." he said.
He placed his helmet back on, and looked around. He grabbed the jammed door, and forced it open. He found himself in a room full of cases that had "UNSC Property" marked on them. "Sir," Donut asked, gesturing to the crates and cases. "I have no idea," he said. "Shall we find out?" Tucker cleared his throat. "Um, Chief?" he asked. "Yeah?" the Chief asked. "Isn't that a bad idea?" he asked. The Chief gave a rare chuckle, and said, "Oh, Tucker. I like the way you think. But aren't you as curious as I am?" Tucker stayed silent for a while, and finally said, "Yeah, okay."
The five walked over to one of the bigger crates, and Tucker and the Chief gripped opposite ends of the lid of the crate. "On three, Tucker," he said. "One, two, three." They lifted off the lid, and threw it over to the left. The Chief jumped onto the crate and looked inside. "What the fuck are those?" Tucker asked. The Chief took one look, and didn't like the facility's inventory. "They're Promethean weapons. Boltshots, Incenerator Cannons, you name it. It's all here!" he said. "Why would the UNSC want this stuff?" Cassie asked.
Before he could answer, he heard a loud roar. He turned in the direction of the noise, and saw a huge, hulking creature jump onto one of the crates. "What the fuck is that thing?!" Donut screamed. "That's Specimen 789!" Cassie said, pointing. "It has to be!" She was right. The Master Chief remembered the holographic image of the thing. It was huge, bigger than a Covenant Brute or an Elite, but not as big as a Hunter. It wore dark blue armor plates on it's body, and was armed with a Fuel Rod Gun. And it had mandibles, and had the bulk and muscle of a Brute. It jumped to the nearest crate, and fired the Fuel Rod Gun. The Chief needed no help knowing that he and his crew were fucked, and not in the good way. But, that's when the cavalry arrived.
"Now!" Washington shouted, jumping in front of the Chief, bringing up a hardlight shield, and deflecting the shot. "Washington?" Tucker asked, activating his energy sword. "What the fuck?!" The Chief suddenly heard music, and heard a woo-hoo coming from Grif as he fired the minigun from the Warthog that Simmons was driving. Specimen 789 flipped to the left, avoiding the shot from his Fuel Rod Gun. The monstrousity roared, and charged towards the Master Chief. The Master Chief waited for the abomination to get close enough, and jumped towards it, and kicked off of it. He took his Assault Rifle off his back, and fired into the thing's flesh.
The thing didn't even flinch, but got angrier. He landed behind the thing, and got ready to fire the thing. "Boss," Simmons called. "The AI storage is on the left side of this hanger! Go! We'll cover you!" The Chief nodded, and turned to Cassie. "Come on!" he said. "Tucker, Donut and Caboose, stay here and lay cover fire!" He and Cassie ran to the left side of the hanger, while Specimen 789 was distracted by the Reds and Blues giving cover fire. They ran into the storage room, to see Dr. Halsey, Mendez, and Sarge were already in the room. "It's about time you guys got here!" Sarge said. "Where are the others?" The Chief walked over to one of the walls, lined with holographic lines.
"Can it!" he said. "They're covering us!" Dr. Halsey looked concerned. "Why?" she asked. "What's happening?" The Chief looked at her. "The huge experiment this facility held, it broke out, and killed everyone." He looked through all of the drawers of AI chips and finally grabbed a data chip, tagged with Cortana's name from the drawer and held it in his hand. "What is that?" Cassie asked, walking over to him. "This is my AI," he said. "This is Cortana." Cassie looked closer at the chip, reached out and gently touched it. All of a sudden, she let out a scream of pain and fell to the ground. "What?" he asked. "What's wrong?" She groaned repeatedly for a few minutes, and finally got up. "I just had a flashback."
"What was it this time?" Dr. Halsey asked. "I, er, or my former self, was standing in some kind of control room, with him." She pointed to the Chief. "Cassie," Dr. Halsey said. "Haven't you figured out who you are yet?" Cassie looked irritated. "You never told me anything!" she hissed. "Cassie," Dr. Halsey said. "You're not that lucky just to have mad computer skills. And these flashbacks are yours. That's why you have these flashbacks. There's no such thing as ghosts. You're one of them. You're an AI. YOU are Cortana."
A/N: Dun-dun-dun. That's right. Cassie was actually Cortana, she just didn't know, and she didn't remember anything. This is very complicated concept, but I promise that I will explain it it the future chapters. In the next chapter, you'll learn what Specimen 789 is, and who the mysterious Spartan is. Also, you'll uncover a few bits to this friggin' puzzle! Stay tuned!
