Chapter 23: Too Much Information
Valhalla
"We didn't have a lot of time to retrofit your existing armor, so we just went ahead and made a completely new suit." Didact said as he assisted Lynn in donning her new power armor. "Essentially, it should work just like your old suit, but with a bit more oomph to it."
"It certainly does feel… different." Lynn remarked as she flexed her arm and felt the armor automatically synchronize with every muscle movement.
"It also allows you automatic access to the Ark's teleport network." Didact explained. "Come on. Advance units are already en route to Snowbound, but the main force is just about to leave."
As he said those words, over a hundred troops marched past as they marshaled at the center of Valhalla where the rest of the relief force was organizing. Waiting for them were six hundred more men with ten vehicles. They were absolutely ancient Terran vehicles the initial Human settlers had brought with them, but they had little resemblance to their original forms now. They were completely rebuilt and modified with Foreunner technology and equipment to turn them into destructive war machines.
"The troops are ready, sir." A young officer said to Didact.
"Good." Didact nodded. "Prepare for deployment. We will be teleporting in two minutes."
Snowbound
By the time John, Audrey, and Reese reached the settlement, the fighting was already well under way. Explosions and energy beams crisscrossed the air and the ground.
"What's going on?" Sanah asked. "Is it a Flood attack?"
"No way!" Reese shook his head. "The Snowbound towers create a field that can repel the Flood. That's the main reason why we can settle here. It's most likely another Sentinel raid."
"Yeah, but this one's gotta be huge." Audrey pointed out. "Most attacks never even reach the settlement itself."
As they reached the side of the settlement that wasn't caught up in the fighting, aged woman ran up to meet them.
"Audrey! Reese! You're both safe!" She hugged both kids before looking around. "Where's Jace?"
"Didn't make it." Audrey shook her head. "Grandma, what's going on?"
"It's the damn Flood again." Grandma shook her head. "They infested the hills south of here and attracted the attention of the Sentinels. Your father went to go root out the Flood when the Sentinels arrived and attacked. It's a vicious three way up there, and some of the Sentinels broke off and started attacking the settlement itself. The few defenders left here are stretched too thin to hold them off for long."
"Damnit." Audrey seethed.
"Don't worry." Audrey's grandmother said reassuringly. "Everybody's managed to evacuate to the northern end and Valhalla has promised to send reinforcements. Hurry to the hills and help your father root out those damn Flood or those Sentinels will never leave!"
"Right right." Audrey was completely flustered now. "Let's go, guys."
"Oh, and Audrey, who is this man here?" Her grandmother pointed to John.
"Uh, a friend we met." Audrey said, purposely being vague. "Right, let's go!"
"So, I assume your father's the leader of your settlement?" Sanah asked.
"You could say that." Audrey nodded as they made their way to the hills. "Dad's a… pretty interesting character."
"How so?" Sanah asked.
Suddenly, a gruff, overly aggressive voice barked through the radio on an open channel.
"What in the seven hells of Hell are you waiting for? Personal orders from the Didact himself? When I say take that damned hill, I mean take that damned hill, not damn well stand around and stare at it! I don't care if there's fifty Flood up there. I don't care if there are fifty thousand Flood up there! Our orders are to take that hill and I'm going to damn well take that hill even if it means I have to kill every last one of the yellow-skinned bastards myself. Damn it, follow me, I'll show you how it's done. That's it, get stuck in there. Medic! Stop whining, Brook, you've got another damned leg. Do you think I cried like a damned baby when I lost my arm? Course I damn well didn't. I upped and ripped that damned Flood form's damned throat out with my damned teeth! That's it, Sergeant Reed, give 'em some Forerunner steel. Jesus almighty, their blood stinks. Get that flamethrower into that trench; flush the damned bastards out. That trench, you idiot, not this one! Oh yes, smell those aliens burn. Smells better than breakfast, don't it? Give me that damn grenade. Do I have to do everything myself? See? That ain't proper armor like you'd see on a powered suit – no it's flimsy, fall-down-in-a-strong-breeze, I-hope-they-don't-spit-at-me armor. I didn't really mean spit at it! You there! Yes you! Pick up Sergeant Creek's hand. The medics might be able to stick it on him again later. Don't stop now, you damned work-shy sons of bitches, we're only damn well halfway up!"
"Audrey, your father's name wouldn't happen to be Johnson, would it?" John asked.
"How the hell did you know?"
"Just a hunch." John shrugged.
By the time they reached the hill in question, they saw a trail of destruction. Countless bodies of slaughtered Flood forms littered the ground along with the wreckage of hundreds of Sentinels. There were quite a number of Human bodies as well, but from what they could see, the Snowbound forces were cutting a swath through both enemies as they neared the summit of the hill.
"Audrey! Sweetie!" Johnson said in an uncharacteristically sweet voice when they finally arrived to the front. He then pulled off his helmet and gave Audrey a big paternal hug.
"Wait, they don't look anything alike-" Sanah started to say.
"Not her biological father." Reese explained. "Like a lot of kids around here, Audrey's orphaned."
Meanwhile, John paused, startled when he saw Johnson's face, but didn't say anything.
"And if it isn't that goddamn slacker Reese!" Johnson yelled, grabbing Reese's attention. "So what the hell have you been up to lately, other than twiddling your worthless thumbs?"
"Come on sir, that's harsh!" Reese complained.
"As always, you lack the spine to stand up and defend yourself!" Johnson yelled as a massive explosion illuminated the summit of the hill."Now pick up that weapon and shoot something with it, you damn monkey!"
"Yes sir!" Reese yelled and ran off to assist in the front.
Johnson then turned his attention to John. "And just who the hell is this pansy ass-"
Johnson then suddenly choked when he saw the Master Chief standing right there before him. Sure, his armor looked slightly different, but there was no mistaking it. It was the honest to god Master Chief.
"Chief?" Johnson gaped, taking a step forward.
"Johnson?" John's previous statements were merely joking in nature, but he had never imagined that there would be some actual truth in them.
"Well Jesus A. Christ! It really is you!" Johnson laughed. "I thought you were dead!"
"The feeling's mutual." John replied.
"Wait wait wait." Sanah cried. "You two know each other?"
"Know each other? We saved each other's lives several times." Johnson laughed. "How the hell did you find your way here?"
"Long story. How did you get all the way here?"
"That's a long story, too."
"Don't we have bigger things to worry about?" Sanah pointed out.
"The girl's got a point." Johnson nodded. "We've got the Flood on the run, but the Sentinels are still being a total pain in the ass. Chief, you think you can take them out?"
"Of course."
"Good." Johnson turned to Audrey. "Audrey, you take him where he needs to go. I'll stay here and finish kicking these sons of bitches off the top of that goddamned hill!"
"But Dad-"
"Just do it! Trust me!" Johnson then turned and ran up the hill towards the front yelling, "Come on, ladies!"
Meanwhile, back in the main settlement, the Valhallan reinforcements finally arrived in the midst of the massive Sentinel onslaught. The Valhallans wasted no time in setting up defensive positions and putting up a withering hail of fire upon the Sentinels whizzing about.
"Sentinels." Didact sighed. "At least they're far more predictable than the Flood."
"Where are the Snowbound defenders?" Lynn asked, looking around.
"Committed to another action south of here." Didact explained. "They're bogged down in a three way battle between the Flood and Sentinels down there. They won't be coming to help any time soon."
"Well I guess it's up to us then." Lynn armed her rail rifle. "Let's blow up some Sentinels."
With that, the Valhallans reinforced the struggling Snowbound forces and let the Sentinels feel the full fury of the Reclaimers. Though adept at fighting off lesser enemies and the Flood, the Sentinels proved helpless at fighting foes that were just as well equipped and more motivated to fight. As Lynn advanced with the Valhallans, she had a good chance to observe how they fought. They were drilled to fight just as well as any Marine, and they were well disciplined. They had to be, now that Lynn thought about it, since they were beset on all sides by enemies dedicated to their destruction.
Within minutes, the Valhallans had pushed the Sentinels to the edges of the Snowbound settlement, but the fighting was far from over. The Sentinels were seemingly without number, crashing against the line of defenders like ocean waves.
"Will it ever end?" Lynn asked as she used her powers to crush two Sentinels like paper.
"They only subside when the Flood presence is eradicated." Didact said. "The Sentinels consider the Flood a greater threat than us, and so they prioritize Flood targets. However, that doesn't mean they won't attack us if they get the chance."
In addition to the regular Valhallans, Lynn managed to get a glimpse of their small meta-human force as well. She caught sight of a number of interesting and exotic powers. She saw one individual who could control electricity, zapping Sentinels and frying their systems. Another person could produce a passive shield around herself, blocking almost any projectile attack and serving as an effective form of protection. A third individual even had the power to create roving vortexes that literally sucked in whatever got too close, wiping out entire flights of Sentinels.
"I wonder what that son of a bitch Johnson is doing." Didact sighed as another wave of Sentinels crashed against the Valhallan lines.
Sentinel Forge 24
"Wow, Dad must have a lot of faith in you," Audrey said as she led John down into the depths of the Ark underneath Snowbound, "if he believes that you can take down the Sentinel Forge. A lot of people tried."
"And they all failed?"
"And they all died."
"So it's business as usual." John remarked dryly.
"So wait, how exactly do you know my dad?" Audrey wondered.
"We fought alongside each other during the Human/Covenant War two centuries ago." John said as he checked around a corner for hostiles. "He was –is- the finest soldier I ever served with. A bit foul mouthed, but he would've made an excellent Spartan."
"So… how's he still alive?" Audrey asked.
"You don't know?" John paused.
"Well, I never asked." Audrey shrugged.
"The last time I saw him, he was ambushed by a horde of Flood on a Halo and we assumed he had been killed along with the rest of his squad. We never knew exactly what happened to him after that."
"Ah." Audrey nodded and then stopped in front of a large security door.
"Is this it?" Sanah asked.
"Yeah." Audrey pointed to the door. "On the other side is the Sentinel Forge. This is where every Sentinel around Snowbound is constructed. If we can destroy it, we can pretty much end the Sentinel threats to the settlement."
"What kind of resistance can we expect?" John asked.
"Don't know." Audrey sighed. "Nobody survived long enough to tell us, so we're going in blind."
"Wait." Sanah interrupted. "I've accessed the Forge network and I'm pulling up schematics now."
Within seconds, a holographic projection of what John assumed was the entire Forge network materialized before his face. Red dots lit up as countless hostile units registered on his suit's sensors while other markers indicated doors, access points, security modules, and other useful information.
"There's a lot of stuff here." John said. "What's the plan?"
"The central control unit of the Forge is located at the center of the complex." Sanah said, putting a nav beacon over the target. "If you can get me there, I can hack the system and shut down the Forge permanently."
"How are we going to get through?" Audrey asked.
"That's going to be the big problem, isn't it?" Sanah sighed.
"We could try teleporting in, but it'll be logged in the Ark's system and pretty much just announce to everybody that we've arrived…" Audrey frowned.
"I believe I can provide some assistance."
John immediately tensed as he heard the new voice in his head and Sanah immediately fired up her anti-intrusion protocols and firewalls.
"Do not fear." The voice continued. "I am no foe of yours."
"Mendicant Bias!" Audrey cried. "Where've you been this whole time?"
"Summoning additional reinforcements." Mendicant Bias calmly replied. "However, I can provide assistance, if my fellow artificial construct would be so kind as to open her networking ports."
"But-"
"Just do it." John mentally prodded Sanah.
"Fine." Sanah reluctantly shut down her firewalls and gaped at the data the Forerunner AI was sending her. "What… what is this?"
"Codes and sensor data that will allow you to mimic the presence of a Monitor unit." Mendicant Bias replied. "It should shield your presence from their sensors until you reach the central control unit. Unfortunately, that is the limit of my ability to directly assist you."
"That's… that's more than enough." Audrey stammered. "Thank you."
"I do hope that you succeed." Mendicant Bias remarked before disappearing again. "A shame that your predecessors could not tip the odds in your favor, but I have faith in you three. Your chances of success are forty seven percent, a twenty six percent improvement."
Snowbound
"This is certainly troublesome." Didact panted as he melted another Sentinel with his beam rifle. "It seems as if they're coming without number."
"Didact! What'd we miss?" Johnson said as he and a platoon of Snowbound toopers arrived on the field.
"Johnson, I see you've been successful." Didact said dryly.
"Got those damn smelly freaks on the run." Johnson confirmed. "I've got a whole company holding the hills. The rest are on their way back to shore up the defenses. "
"I don't think we'll need them." Lynn smiled.
"Oh, and why's that?" Johnson asked.
"Try looking up." Lynn pointed to the sky.
Both Didact and Johnson looked up to see a massive, Forerunner ship floating above their heads.
"Well god almighty…" Johnson said, speechless.
Keyship
"Oh my." Silent Caretaker's eye blinked. "It appears we've stumbled upon a camp of Reclaimers."
"What?" Kyle ran forward to the observation deck.
"Interesting." Ackerson raised an eyebrow.
"How can there be Humans here?" Kay wondered.
"I'm afraid I lack sufficient data to provide and answer." Silent Caretaker said. "But I can confirm that these particular Reclaimers are not native to the Ark."
"Obviously." Kay rolled her eyes.
"And it appears that they are under attack by Sentinels."
"Shouldn't we help?" Kyle asked.
"You know," Ackerson stepped forward, "I'm actually very interested in seeing what kind of armaments this Keyship has."
"Oh, well then you won't be disappointed." Silent Caretaker said happily. "The Keyship was originally a dreadnought-class warship, and still possesses its original weaponry. It does have one system that would be particularly well suited to the issue at hand."
"Let's see it then." Ackerson grinned.
With an electronic command from Silent Caretaker, hundreds of firing ports opened up along the sides of the Keyship There was the gentle hum of weapons powering up until seconds later, hundreds of tiny pinpricks of light lanced out, each beam spearing a Sentinel. A split second later, hundreds of Sentinels exploded and the process was repeated and more and more hostile blips began winking out of existence on the sensor screen.
"If you desire, I can teleport you to the ground." Silent Caretaker offered.
"Do it." Ackerson responded.
Snowbound
"Kyle!" Lynn embraced Kyle the moment he materialized from his teleport. Kyle was taken by surprise at first, but ultimately felt relief when he realized that Lynn was okay.
"Lynn, how did you know-?" Kyle then looked at Lynn face and blinked. "Right, stupid question."
"So, how exactly did you end up here? Who the hell are these people?" Kyle asked, glancing at Didact and Johnson.
"Well," Lynn motioned to Didact. "That's Didact, the de facto leader of the Human survivors on the Ark, and…. I'm not too sure who the other guy is."
"You should try showing some manners, lady!" Johnson said, clearly offended.
"Didact, this is Kyle. He's one of my companions."
"I see." Didact nodded.
"Ah, these developments just get more and more interesting." Ackerson smiled as he walked in. "Stryker Ackerson, at your service."
"A pleasure." Didact said, clearly not enjoying Ackerson's presence. Lynn could have sworn that Didact was frowning heavily under the helmet he was wearing., but didn't think much of it. A lot of people didn't really have a good first impression of Ackerson anyway.
"Lynn! Great to see you're okay!" Kay laughed as she slapped Lynn on the back. "What've you been up to? Where's John?"
"I honestly have no idea where he went." Lynn shook her head. "And I'm worried about Sanah too. She may be an AI, but she doesn't work well alone…"
"Wait…" Johnson stepped forward. "You're talking John the Master Chief, right? He was with you guys?"
"Um yeah." Kyle blinked. "You know him?"
Lynn was finally curious enough to give Johnson's mind a quick cursory probe and realized that he was the same as John, person displaced from his own time. She also saw what he was up to in the last hour.
"Know him? We were like brothers!" Johnson laughed.
"Huh?" Kyle tilted his head, confused.
"Where's this Sentinel Forge?" Lynn asked.
"Wait, how did you-?" Johnson shook his head. "Aw hell no. You picked up another telepath, Didact? You remember what happened to the last one?"
"It's different this time." Didact said defensively.
"Sure, it's all fun and games until somebody gets brain fried by the Gravemind." Johnson shook his head.
"Can we please get back to the point?!" Lynn sent a sharp psychic jolt to everybody around her. "Where's the Forge?"
Sentinel Forge
"Oh you've got to be kidding me." Audrey shook her head when the alarms blared.
"Sanah, what happened?" John asked, glancing at the Forerunner control console Sanah had wirelessly accessed.
"Uhhh, I might have accidentally tripped a security subroutine or two." Sanah said sheepishly.
"Can you shut it down?"
"I'm working on it!" Sanah said in her "don't disturb me" voice.
"Great, we could've just teleported in and saved us the boring walk all the way here." Audrey shook her head and armed her beam rifle.
Immediately, panels along the walls of the room popped open, revealing large chutes that began spitting out swarms of Sentinels, as if they were being cranked out of a factory. Then again, John thought, they were in a Sentinel Forge so he supposed the metaphor was very literal.
"So, any ideas?" Audrey asked.
"Yeah, don't die."
"Wonderful."
Like a swarm of angry insects, the Sentinels swarmed in, their energy beams crisscrossing the air with ribbons of light. John and Audrey took cover behind a set of pillars and returned fire. The mechanical defenders shattered and exploded from the more precise fire John and Audrey put up, but the sheer volume of fire more than made up for the Sentinels' lack of skill and initiative. Audrey shrieked as she was bracketed by a half dozen beams at once, instantly depleting her shields, and burning deep scores and holes in her armor. With lightning speed, John shoved Audrey's writhing body out of the line of fire and expended his last rail rifle clip gunning down the Sentinels. John knelt down to check Audrey's condition and didn't have high hopes. Her armor was almost completely scorched black and there were parts where it looked as if the Sentinel beams had almost completely burned through. However, John breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Audrey cursing over how her suit was wrecked.
"Crap! If the Sentinels don't kill me, my dad will!"
"John!" Sanah's voice cried. "Take her to the console!"
John quickly picked up Audrey and carried her to the console. Suddenly, an energy bubble formed around the console, providing a small radius of protection from the Sentinels.
"This shield is supposed to protect the console as a security measure." Sanah explained. "But I don't know how long it's going to hold up against the assault."
Already, over two dozen Sentinels flitted about outside the shield, unloading their beams straight into the protective barrier in an attempt to destroy it. It was obvious to John that it wouldn't hold for long.
"Sanah, get ready to lower the shield just long enough for me to get out." John said.
"Wait, but here's no way we can-"
"Yes there is. You should know what it is." John said. "A full reflex synch."
"But that's insanely dangerous!" Sanah protested. "Using that could result in permanent brain damage… or worse."
"As if the alternative is any better?" John pointed to the Sentinels outside trying to breach the shield.
"You can't do this alone." Audrey said trying to get up. "Let me-"
"Oh no." John shoved Audrey back. "You're in no condition to fight, and I can't imagine what Johnson will do to me if I let you get yourself killed."
"Okay, are you ready?" Sanah asked.
"Go." John nodded.
The moment the shield dropped the world slowed down to a crawl. For a brief moment, John saw something no living thing in the galaxy had ever seen. He saw the world through the eyes of an AI. Inside his head, his brain lit up like a bonfire as he, Sanah, and his armor moved in complete, perfect unison. The Sentinels were nothing but ornaments hanging in the sky, and John was their inevitable doom.
From her perspective, Audrey saw John as a bolt of lightning. In the blink of an eye, he was sprinting toward the Sentinel formation. The Sentinels responded by firing their beams at him, and Audrey half expected John to be cut down by the wall of energy, but he ducked, dodged, and weaved through past every beam as if they were not even moving at all. Audrey wasn't sure how much time had passed, but she was absolutely certain that she couldn't blinked more than five or six times before every single Sentinel in the room was a burning heap of wreckage. It was unlike anything Audrey had ever seen, as if she had just witnessed a God of War.
For a brief second, Audrey thought she was in love.
"Done!" Sanah yelled.
With that, the entire Forge went dark, and the few Sentinels that were still intact fell to the ground like deadweight.
"Are we done?" John asked, suddenly feeling massively fatigued after he and Sanah desynched. Everything was suddenly a blur and he felt dizzy and nauseous as his regular reflexes attempted to readjust to "normal" levels.
"The Forge is officially cold." Sanah said happily.
"I… I can't believe it." Audrey stood up and hugged John. "That was the coolest thing I've ever seen!"
At that moment, Lynn, Didact, Johnson, Kyle, and a platoon of Valhallan troops teleported in, ready to fight a battle that was already over.
"Oh yeah, great timing." Audrey said sarcastically.
"Chief!" Johnson laughed and slapped John on the back. "I knew you could do it, you hardcore son of a bitch!"
"John, you're okay!" Lynn said happily and then looked around. "Where's Sanah?"
"Uhhh, I'm right here." A small holographic representation of Sanah materialized in front of John's helmet.
"Huh? How'd you get in there?" Lynn asked.
"Long story." Sanah shrugged.
"I do have to commend you." Didact took off his helmet, smiled, and shook John's hand. "You've done the people of Snowbound an invaluable service."
"It's you!" Sanah gasped, pointing at Didact, her blue holographic form briefly flashing red in alarm.
"What're you railing on about, Sanah?" Lynn asked.
"Lynn! What the hell?!" Sanah's eyes widened in shock. "How can you not recognize your own father?"