Six and the Master Chief had both seen plenty of death in their careers, usually being the only survivors in a firefight. What was happening now was no exception.
Six could hear the firing of assault rifles and magnums behind him. He could hear the roars of Covenant from his sides through the walls. They were almost to the bridge.
A marine ran up to the Chief and Six. He saluted the both of them.
"Sirs! The Captain needs you both on the bridge, ASAP!" The marine said.
"How close are we?" Six said. He had never been on this ship before.
"We're pretty close, just follow me!" the marine said to them.
"Lead the way." The Chief said.
As they went through the next set of doors, they came across a room that was full of dead and wounded marines. Under his helmet, Six cringed. It reminded him of his team. Six was now glad that he was a Spartan, even if it was only because he was harder to kill.
The three of them could hear the sounds of fighting behind them. A soldier was firing on a group of Covenant when Six turned around. The Soldier ran out of ammo. Instead of panicking, he did the smart thing and ran for his life. He ran through the blast doors and shut them.
"Where's the rest of your team?" the Chief said to the soldier.
"Johnson is alright. A lot of them though… They're dead. Oh, man, we are SO fucked!" the soldier said.
"Relax." Six said. "What's your name?"
"Cl… Clancy, sir. Clancy Maegan. I'm a Corporeal." The marine said.
"Alright, Clancy, well, we're Spartans, we have this under control. Stick behind us and try not to get shot." Six said.
"Whoa. I never thought I would have a Spartan covering me in a gunfight." Clancy said.
"The hope is that we don't GET into a gunfight." The other marine said.
"If we do, we can handle them." Six said.
It took the four of them less than a minute to get to the bridge after that. Clancy stayed behind to protect the bridge, but Six knew that that was just code for "I can't keep up with you guys", considering that the blast doors were keeping the Covenant out. Oh well.
The two Spartans approached Keyes.
"Captain." Six said.
"It's good to see you two are still alive. Unsurprisingly." Keyes said. "Chief." He said with an outstretched hand.
Master Chief shook it.
"Things aren't going well. Cortana did her best, but we never really had a chance." Keyes said.
Suddenly, Cortana's avatar appeared on the holotank in front of them.
"A dozen Covenant superior battleships against a single Halcyon-class light cruiser. Given those odds I'm content with three...make that four kills." She said. Cortana looked at Six with a curious look. She then looked at Master Chief. "Sleep well?" She asked.
"No thanks to your driving, yes." He replied.
Cortana smiled. "So you did miss me." She said.
A loud explosion shook the bridge. The Chief and Keyes both lost their balance, but Six fell into a guard rail.
"Report!" Keyes shouted.
"It must have been one of their boarding parties! I'd guess an Antimatter Charge!" Cortana yelled back.
"Ma'am! Fire control to the main cannon is offline!" a fire control officer shouted.
"Captain, the cannon was my last offensive option." Cortana said to Keyes.
"Alright then. I'm initiating Cole Protocol, Article 2. We're abandoning the Autumn. That means you too, Cortana." Keyes said.
"While you do what, go down with the ship?" She said to him.
"In a manner of speaking. The object we found, I'm going to try and land the Autumn on it." Keyes said.
"With all due respect, sir, this war has enough dead heroes."
"I appreciate your concern, Cortana, but it's not up to me. Protocol is clear. Destruction or capture of a shipboard AI is absolutely unacceptable, that means you're leaving the ship. Lock in a selection of emergency landing zones, upload them to my neural lace, and then sort yourself for a hard transfer."
"Aye aye, sir."
Cortana's avatar then disappeared.
"Which is where you two come in." Keyes said. "Get Cortana off this ship. Keep her safe from the enemy. If they capture her, they'll learn everything. Force deployment, weapons research... Earth."
"We understand." Master Chief said.
Cortana's avatar came back up again.
"The Autumn will continue evasive maneuvers until you initiate a landing sequence. Not that you'll listen, but I'd suggest letting my subroutines handle the final approach." She said.
"Excellent work, Cortana. Thank you. Are you ready?" Keyes said to her.
Cortana looked around the Pillar of Autumn's bridge. She sighed.
"Yank me." She said.
Captain Keyes pulled a data chip out of the holotank and handed it to the Master Chief, then closed his hand around it.
"Good luck, Master Chief. And take my pistol." Keyes said.
Master Chief slid Cortana's chip into the back of his helmet and grabbed Keyes' magnum.
"Don't get any funny ideas." He said to himself.
"What?" Six said.
"I'm talking to Cortana. She's integrated into my armor, so I can hear her." The Chief said.
"Oh. Alrighty then." Six said.
And with that, they began running to the escape pods.