Gas-Giant Gliese 876 d - "Entropa"
July 7th 2553
Aboard ONI Prowler: 07SJ-329H0: "Bristol"
The two AIs were still arguing, mostly because Dickens expected a better relationship, and because Pandora was annoyed.
"I was supposed to be opened only by the head of section III!" She accused.
"If you had been in my position, I am quite sure you would have done the same." Dickens countered. "I only wanted to save a damsel in distress."
"And you are nothing like your namesake except for your ancient moth-infested clothing." She insulted, her hologram pushing him back with an accusatory finger.
"I only wanted to help." He repeated.
"I didn't need helping!" She fumed.
Merick entered the bridge and groaned as soon as he noticed the bickering. "Can you two please stop fighting and introduce the newcomer?"
"This is..." Dickens began before being cut off.
"Hello Captain, I am Pandora Class A shipboard AI serial number PN0259RA" She bowed.
"Great to meet you, is there any chance that ONI would let you stay here and then Dickens can leave?" The Captain rudely joked.
"I take offense sir!" Dickens objected. "Can I please have some more sir, you jolly well can not! The next time you come asking for favors you will be greatly disappointed!"
"Wait a minute," Merick sighed, seeing he had gone too far. "I didn't mean it."
"Then you should learn to mean what you say and say what you mean!"
"Cool it Chaz." Pandora rubbed her temples. "You're going to ruin my perfectly good day."
"Can I call you Pandy for short?" Dickens mocked. "Save the pandies, there's not enough bamboo!"
"Would you just shut it?" She yelled.
"And for the record, I'm not even sure your namesake exists." "Chaz" pouted. "Or ever existed."
"ENOUGH!" Merick cracked his neck, only then noticing that he seemed to have quite the habit. "Dickens go to your room."
He grumbled something about "The poor should go and die and reduce the surplus population," and then disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"I'm sorry Captain, I must assume that your AI has not informed you of the recent chain of events. Truth is, I am not aware of all the causes for there are more than a few anomalies. The fact remains that this ship must go back to Earth immediately; all the personnel of the station died during the incident." She sat down on a chair that appeared as she wished and folded her hands on her lap.
"Wilson, jump to Earth, now." Merick sat in his chair and watched as the already charged engines tore a hole into slipspace and began its FTL flight. The stars vanished from their view and they observed darkness of black and purple hues.
"How long till destination?" He asked NAV officer Jenny Wilson.
"Twelve hours." Her answer was cold and blank.
"Alright," He activated SHIPCOM and spoke glumly. "All crew report for cryo protocol."
"Sir?" Jenny raised an eyebrow.
"Dickens, coordinate with Pandora and bring us to Earth; I want us out of cryo an hour before we reach Earth."
"Yes captain." The dejected voice replied.
"I'll try my best captain." Pandora sighed, but she was still there sitting on a chair on the hologram.
Merick looked around, dull colored titanium-A plating composed most of the interior, and he sighed as he undressed and entered his "freezer." Darkness closed around his vision, his lungs felt heavy, his brain felt numb; and finally he was asleep.
Up in the empty bridge Dickens and Pandora stared at each other, their contest lasting a complete hour.
"Fine." Pandora gave in. "My curiosity would have gotten the better of me too." She breathed with relief as their fight ended.
"I'm glad." Dickens smiled. "But now, since we both know that we are on track, I will enter my "freezer."
The entire ship was silent, floating at faster than light and dead as a ghost ship.
Earth: The Hive
ONI section III office:
July 9th 2553
1:00 AM
"Sir!" Someone hailed the old man. "Got a whisper near Charon!"
"Meaning?" He raised an eyebrow.
"The Gladiator is in the dugout sir." The calm coded reply came back.
"Good, get her in here and get her debriefed ASAP, we have enough other problems to deal with so deal with this one immediately."
At his gruff tone the secretary ran off.
Earth: In orbit
Aboard the "Bristol"
July 9th 2553
1:17 AM
Steam poured around the cryogenics room, Merick coughed the thick fluid from his lungs and puked it onto the floor. His only comfort was that the fog shielded his nakedness from the other crew, and that he was shielded from theirs. Silently he showered and dressed and went back up to the bridge. He expected the usual entrance with the two AIs arguing but this time it seemed all was quiet, kinda.
"I think you should make the cube bigger." Dickens suggested.
"That cube could hold me inside of it, there is no need to make it any bigger." She defended.
"You should include more forms of cipher-text in it, quotes, events, mineral densities, and of course slipspace calculus equations." Dickens tipped.
"And while I like your ideas I don't have time to work on them right now; I have to prepare for a full debriefing."
"I sympathize, I really do." Merick added to the conversation.
"Good morning captain." The two AIs greeted him simultaneously and then glared at each other.
"Sir, I've got an incoming message from the Hive." Davidson at the OP-SCANNER station reported.
"Patch it through." Merick seated himself and grimaced.
"This line is secure, and here are your orders, deliver the satellite to our representative aboard the Pillar of Autumn." The line was cut unceremoniously.
"I thought that the Pillar of Autumn was sunk." Wilson mused.
"Actually this is a new vessel; a carrier." Pandora answered the question.
"We haven't had much time to build very many new ships so, this one must have been half-way complete during the war." Davidson suggested as he rubbed his chin in thought.
"Alright, well, we have our orders. Deliver Pandora into the Satellite and link up with the Pillar of Autumn." Merick ordered and waved good-bye to the new AI. "It was a pleasure."
She winked and then vanished.
"She's amazing." Dickens sighed.
"I heard that." A disembodied voice added. "Bye."
"We are abreast of the Pillar of Autumn captain." The AI returned to business.
"Davidson, hail the captain of the carrier and request permission to deliver the satellite."
"On it." The sound of rapid keystrokes filled the bridge. "Pillar of Autumn, this is ONI Prowler Bristol requesting permission for transference of cargo."
"This is the Pillar of Autumn, permission is granted, dock in hangar bay 2."
"Aye, aye." The Bristol zipped over to the carrier and into the open bay doors of the hangar. "Finally firm ground at last sir?"
"Not yet." The captain turned to Jared. "Help me deliver this to our contact." Jared followed him out of the bridge and into the engine room. Between the two of them, they were able to bring it onto the deck before a black-clad navy spook.
"Greetings." He grinned evilly, knowing just how much power he had and knowing also that he scared the crap out of people, and enjoyed that fact thoroughly.
"Are you the one with our next orders?" Merick asked without being intimidated, which is more than can be said for Lieutenant Commander Jared Hansen.
He nodded and handed over an envelope. "Your orders are inside, and I recommend that you get to work as soon as you get out of this hangar."
"No breaks?"
"No breaks."
They both nodded, their understanding mutual, and somehow also was the respect. The Spook turned tail and stalked powerfully out of the hangar, his expensive shoes clicking gleefully.
"That guy creeps me out sir." Jared shivered as he reentered the Prowler.
"As he should," Merick opened the envelope. "oh... my..."
"Captain?" Jared examined him, he just stopped all of a sudden.
"Follow me, if the pit in my stomach means anything I'll need you at your post before I know it."
"We going into a battle?"
"Sort of, we're going into an old battle ground." Merick walked into the bridge and looked over all the crew.
"Our new orders?" Lieutenant Wilson asked.
"Take us out of this hangar."
The bay doors parted, luckily the air had already been sucked out, so the ship slipped out and edged toward Pluto. At this point Dickens got fed up.
"I need a vector captain!" He demanded.
"Here." He plugged a small device into the hologram.
"Hold on, this might get bumpy." Dickens triggered the Shaw-Fujikawa-Covenant slipspace drives, and smiled as they entered the eleventh dimension. "Hold on." He scanned his files, sure enough there was a small puzzle box with his name engraved on it. But oddly it seemed that a short message scrolled around it with a timer. "Do not open until the timer reaches zero."
"Where are we going?" Davidson asked.
"We are going to the Ark." Dickens replied.
"What for?"
"The answer to the greatest question that ONI researchers have struggle with since its conception." Dickens quipped.
"And that is?"
"Who are the Forunners?"
"Oh, so they think there may be evidence on the Ark, and since only Humans have been able to work their mechanisms or be recognized they think we'll get answers." Davidson summed up.
"Yeah, pretty much." Dickens sighed, eying the box he had been left with waiting for the 237 hours and 20 minutes and 18 seconds to pass.
"How long till we reach the Ark?" Captain Merick asked of the AI.
"I'll wake you up and hour and a half before we drop; go to cryo." Dickens sullenly suggested.
"Crew dismissed." Merick didn't want to wait for who knew how long instead of cryo, so he entered his chamber and once again felt himself freeze.
Outside the Milky Way Galaxy
The Ark
July 18th 2553
9:23 AM
Dickens looked at the huge spectacle, a wonder that it had not been more damaged, and an even greater wonder that the sentinels had set to repairing it. Even though, there were still huge pieces of the replacement "fortress world" or "ring world" were scattered around the Ark as if they had been moved there on purpose.
"Take us down to one of the buildings near the center of the ring and land. I get the feeling we'll have to do some exploration." Merick ordered, he had gotten out of cryo and hour ago and he whistled at the sight.
"I wish this was shore leave." Wilson muttered as they neared their LZ, crystal blue oceans flowed around the center of the Ark, and grass and trees and clouds made the place seem like a paradise.
Clouds and atmosphere rushed past them, ground flew up toward them, and finally tall metal buildings loomed around the ship. Dickens was very well accustomed to the ship and handled the final landing procedure so that they landed the ship perfectly on a large metal pad.
The air around them swirled with sentinels and they watched the ship warily. Suddenly a signal hacked into their SHIPCOM and a query was delivered.
"Why are you here Reclaimers?" The computerized voice was full of intelligence.
"Are you the monitor of this installation?" Merick asked in return.
"Indeed I am, I am Mendicant Bias." The tone of the answer was shocked. "I have contemplated your actions from your last visit and have approved; the Parasite has been eliminated, and the damage was minimal. The ends justified the means; we had to learn from the last time, and Guilty Spark could not understand the big picture."
"I am relieved." Merick stated, unsure of what to say. "Would it be permissible for us to access your data archives?"
"You will have to keep your construct inside this vessel, and be otherwise escorted by a few of my sentinels so you don't access any restricted files."
Merick stood. "Let's take a look around." He opened the doors and stepped out of his Prowler, light from the star the Ark orbited outside the galaxy filled his eyes, and the lushness of the flora was shocking.
"Sir?" Jenny Wilson stood behind his left shoulder, she looked confused. "What are your orders?"
"Sidearms only; I don't think that the "Mendicant Bias" would appreciate our unpacking a lot of weapons. I only want you and Jared to come with me on this trip; everyone else keep the engine running." Merick adjusted his cap so that the glare of light wouldn't blind his eyes and started down a slight slope to where a large Forunner balcony jutted out over a cliff.
One of the sentinels swooped around to face him. "Down there is a manual access to the teleportation grid."
"Are you going to program our destination?" Jared asked.
"I'm sorry, I do not feel I should enable you so; you were not chosen as the reclaimers merely so you could have everything for free." The voice of Mendicant Bias chuckled. "That would be too easy, you need to prove that you have earned it."
"But didn't we wipe out the Flood?" Commander Wilson rolled her eyes.
"You wiped out the Flood infection; but that does not mean that all the Flood have been wiped out. You see, my creators were fascinated by the Flood; a somewhat morbid fascination at that. In any case however, they saw fit to preserve specimens on most of their installations, like the rings for example." The AI dragged on even more. "Installation 05 was most likely not emptied of its infestation, I have known the Gravemind through many years, and he most likely understood the risks enough to keep a presence on the ring that bound him for so long."
"Wait, you mean that there might be more Flood?" Merick stopped abruptly.
"While they may be consumed by a desire to feed; it is highly unlikely they would abandon a world after subduing it." Mendicant Bias was very amused at this. "Would you?"
"No, I suppose not; I guess I just underestimated their intelligence." He sighed. "Now, if you're not going to take us to your library directly, how are we supposed to find it?"
"I would recommend that you make your way to the Silent Cartographer, but be warned, your ship will have to land some distance from the structure and you will have to move on foot." The Sentinel who had been speaking whipped up and guided them back to their ship. "I'm sure that you can find the Cartographer; after all, if you can't I don't think you would be worthy."
Jenny sat down in her chair, as did the Captain and Hansen. "Captain, what happened?" Dickens asked. "Are we being evicted?"
"Evicted nothing, we have to find our own way." Merick growled, knowing somehow the AI had been right.
"Captain, based on previous Forunner information, I have found a structure that may be the cartographer." Dickens beamed, if that is possible for a program.
"Take us in." The ship lifted and flew off toward one of the arms of the installation, stretching concave and out.
"Sir, what are we going to do when we get there?" Jared shrugged.
"Mendicant Bias only said that Dickens was not allowed inside the library; I am sure that we could bring him into the Cartographer." The Captain smiled.
"A little risky don't you..." Jared was about to continue but at a shrewd glare from the Captain he shut up.
As they neared their destination, the flora on the ground became more scarce and turned into a long desert of towering sand dunes and rocks and Forunner buildings. They peered out at the desert, noticing that purple scrap metal and twisted pieces of titanium and carbon fiber were half-buried in the sane.
"Looks like we found the battle grounds." Davidson stated glumly.
"Sir, we can't get much closer like this; we're gonna have to land." Wilson swung around in her chair and started bringing the ship down. "I've found a good spot, it's a wide plateau with stone tunnels and debris but it should work."
Dickens reviewed the information from the "Forward Unto Dawn" after its front half had arrived at Earth. "This is where Keyes' ship landed during the assault on Truth." He noted aloud. "Should suit our needs perfectly."
They all stepped out into the sand and noticed irregularly shaped piles and mounds.
"Did anyone pack a Warthog?" Merick asked. "Because if you did not, I think that I've found us a ride." He bent over and uncovered the mangled ruins of a battered Warthog.
"Forget that idea." Wilson cursed.
"Hey, want some of my water?" Jared practically shoved his canteen in her face.
"No thanks, I've got my own." She sighed and began to follow the Captain who had already started walking toward the yawning tunnel at the end of the plateau.
"That's good, you know, I was just wanted to make sure you hadn't forgotten." He rushed to meet her and match her pace. "You know, maybe this isn't a bad thing; I could work on my tan!"
"You need it." She replied frostily, which somehow went unnoticed by her companion.
"It's kinda cool, just you and me and the Captain; trudging through a desert and searing hot sand with only a little water and a long way to go."
"Yeah, just imagine how cool it will be when we keel over and die from talking all our water into the air and then see how cool it will be to find our bones bleached under the sun!" She took a gulp from her canteen. "Now just follow me and walk quietly, you'll die faster if you talk too much."
"Die faster, you honestly think we're going to die out here? There's no one here but us!" He leaned back and laughed into the air, as he looked into the sky by accident, he noticed something screaming through the atmosphere and inbound on their direction. "Hey!" He shook Jenny by her shoulders. "Did you just see that?"
"See what you perv?" She slapped him on the face and looked up to see a Covenant scout cruiser crash into a hard landing several kilometers north and another kilometer thirty degrees west of north. "Oh..." She ran up to catch the Captain. "Sir, we've got a problem."
Merick just turned and smiled at her. "We got here first." He pulled his M6D magnum out of his holster and cocked it with a smooth trained motion. "Let's go see if there are any survivors."
"With just our pistols?" Jared paled.
"The ship is a klick away now, do you honestly think we have the time to go back and grab an assault rifle?"
"Well yeah, but..."
"All we have to do and catch scout them out, maybe we could even steal a few souvenirs." Merick started out again.
"We're just humans." Jenny complained.
"Are we? You bet we are!" The Captain whirled at her fuming. "You are only as powerful as you think you are, once you lose hope you lose the war! The only way to win is to believe that you can. Are you a good shot, do you think you can shoot a can off the hood of a truck? Well this is no different, those Brutes are probably all dazed, and we have the element of surprise."
"I'm sorry captain, I will do my best." She stared at the shifting sand that blew between her feet.
"That's better, now follow me." He started out again, his index finger twitching with hunger for death.