Some time has passed but I'm back...*cough* school is a b****
So here another chapter for you and a special thanks to my beta-reader :D
03. Farewell
In this moment of the silence, he knew that his fight had ended. He turned his back to the mass of Covenant soldiers and looked Cortana straight in the eyes. To her terror he smiled. This smile, it was so ridiculous, so absurd.
Why was he so happy? Was it because he would see again his brothers and sisters? Because he had died fighting? She didn't know, and did not want to know. She was glad he was at least smiling. For whatever reason, he was happy. That was all that mattered to her.
"Would you please set a self-destruction countdown of three minutes?"
First she was shocked at this request. She wanted to convince him to not do this. She was nearly in tears. Could an AI cry?
"Of course, John."
"Thanks." After this, he became stoic. He turned back to the mass of hostiles. They all looked around, startled by the shrill self-destruct alarm. Not knowing what to make of it, they just milled in confusion, momentarily forgetting about the Chief. "Countdown is set. It will start as soon as I am transferred to Silent Night." She paused for a moment. "I'll miss you." A single tear slipped down her cheek, and as if a dam had been broken down, they all flooded out.
He looked over his shoulder at her for one last time. The smile was still on his face.
"Cortana, stop crying. We will see each other again. I promise."
She wanted him to remind him to not make a promise he could not keep, but she desperately wanted to believe him and hope he was right. She just nodded instead.
"Confirm security code D97: "My One and Only"
"Password confirmed. Good bye, John."
He had already turned to the Covenant soldiers and ran down the ramp, right into the arms of death. In the last glimpse of him she saw, a zealot with an energy sword was approaching him from behind. She wanted to shout, warn him. But it was too late. She had already been transferred to Silent Night.
Her helpless screams were heard on the bridge. The crew held their breath. This was his end. She hoped that he would die fighting, and not in the explosion. Time seemed to race and stand still at the same time. She stared at the horrifying picture that had appeared before her. Her hologram fell on its knees and pressed a hand to her mouth, so that not a single noise escaped from her throat. 'What have I done?' She thought. If she had scanned more carefully, he could have survived. It was her fault. Tears flowed freely down her face, and nobody tried to stop them.
After an eternity, explosions were seen at the outer wall of the Covenant ship. After a few moments, the entire ship had changed into a small, blue, luminous sun. It was over. John was dead. This time, his luck had not been able to save him. He could no longer keep his promise. She covered up the accumulated data in the storage compartments of Silent Night before crawling into the deepest corner of the ship network. She thought about what had just happened. A Spartan had died. No, HER Spartan was dead. She thought of the fact that Spartans do not die, they're only missing in action. She wished so much it was true, but is wasn't.