Chapter 14

"This is bullshit!" Tanaka all but shouted.

Fireteam Osiris was currently in the quarters they had commandeered within the Administrative Building. Spartan Vale and Spartan Tanaka had been doing some digging in the Liang-Dortmund Company files they had requisitioned, searching for any sign of tampering that could give them a lead on Blue Team's current position. Apparently, they had found something.

"Is this about somethin' specific or just a general observation?" Spartan Buck quipped. "Either way, it's safe money I'll agree with you." He had been examining his own files, and was therefore as in the dark as Locke.

"We were examining the company's financial records and noticed some discrepancies," Vale explained. "Turns out, the lion's share of the profits for mining silicates aren't being funneled into the terraforming operation like they're supposed to be."

Buck seemed confused. "Then where are they goin'?" he asked.

Tanaka snorted contemptuously. "Where do you think? The company head honchos are keepin' it all for themselves. Lining their own pockets, like they always do." Tanaka seemed to settle down then, although Locke could tell she was still seething inside. Vale nodded her head in confirmation that Tanaka's statements were accurate.

"I don't get it," Buck said. "Terraforming makes huge underground pockets of Helium-3, doesn't it? Don't the companies that run these operations get to mine that stuff? Wouldn't that make them more money?"

"You honestly think they can plan that far ahead?" Tanaka asked cynically. "That takes years. Corporate types are just kindergartners in suits. Once you put anyone in a position of power they start acting like little kids, and planning ahead is something only adults do." Buck looked unconvinced.

"She's more right than you might think," Vale assured him. Tanaka smirked at that, seeming to take it in stride as an insult. Vale continued, "The majority of an executive's yearly income doesn't come from their salary, it comes from their bonuses. Bonuses are based on annual, and sometimes even quarterly, profits, which encourages short-term thinking. Focusing solely on mining silicates and not reinvesting in the terraforming makes them more money now. The fact that it will cost them billions in a few decades doesn't even enter their calculations."

"Never mind all of the people out there breaking their backs for nothing," Tanaka grumbled. She looked at Locke, who had until this point remained silent, and glared at him. "What about you, Big Brother? I'm sure you know something about all this. Is it all a big misunderstanding?" Everyone turned to their squad leader.

Locke knew that he should lie. He knew that official ONI policy was to deflect interest and promise to investigate any allegations as soon as possible. However, he knew that the other members of his fireteam would see clear through that kind of dodge. Such a move would diminish their trust in him, and therefore their unit cohesion, to unacceptable levels. He needed them united if they were to stand a chance against Blue Team. Honesty, however tricky it might be here, would probably serve him best.

"They're probably using the money to fund other investments the company has made," Locke answered bluntly. He could tell they were all taken off guard by his honesty. Good. He continued, pressing his advantage. "You might not remember," he said sarcastically, "but the UEG was fighting for its existence for the better part of 3 decades. The Covenant glassed dozens of planets. Croplands were incinerated, factories destroyed, entire populations of specialists wiped out. Every industry suffered—agrarian, military, personal electronics, you name it. Star systems throughout the UEG, Inner Colony and Outer Colony alike, have been suffering from full-blown economic depression for years. If the Human-Covenant War hadn't ended when it did, the UEG probably would have collapsed under the weight of its own ravaged economy within months. The UNSC would have fallen apart without government backing...and the Covenant would have mopped up what was left." Locke looked each one of them in the eye, grateful that Spartan IVs tended to leave their helmets off during down time. "What's going on here isn't pretty, but it's this kind of enterprise that kept the human government in one piece for the past few years. Without the booming silicates industry, we might all be killing each other in some kind of war of successor states right now."

Tanaka, Vale, and Buck seemed to consider this for a moment. Maybe they would see reason...

Buck was the first to respond. "Even if that's so," he said, "I still don't like lying to these people. I mean, if it's necessary to put off terraforming, why not just say that? Why let these people work themselves ragged for a lie?"

"You mean you actually buy this bullshit?" Tanaka asked incredulously.

"It's the truth, Tanaka," Locke insisted. "Take food, for instance. You grew up in the Outer Colonies. You have to know that most of the UEG's agrarian worlds were in the comparatively undeveloped Outer planets. Famine was a real, widespread thing throughout the UEG. We're still struggling to keep everyone fed." He tried to soften his eyes a bit. It was rather difficult. "I was one of the lucky ones who found his way to the Inner Colonies when my home got glassed. Trust me...things were tough."

Vale spoke up tentatively, saying, "There's some truth to what he's saying, Tanaka. I saw a lot of the Inner and Outer Colonies growing up, and things were bad all over. However," she added with emphasis, "the Outer Colonies did have it noticeably worse. At least the middle class still existed in the Inner Colonies, compared to the borderline feudal state a lot of the Outer Colonists lived in."

"Whatever the living conditions in the Outer Colonies may have been," Locke interrupted, not wanting the conversation to get away from him, "the fact of the matter is that most of the UEG's industrial centers are in the Inner Colonies. This includes military production and even basic infrastructure. The money Liang-Dortmund is taking will be needed if we're ever going to recover from the War."

Tanaka snorted. "Figures. You still don't get it; none of you do. I get that sacrifices are necessary for the greater good, but don't you ever notice that it's always the poor people who have to pay the price?" she asked rhetorically. "The politicians and CEOs get to live it up while everyone else has to starve and die. Or are you telling me that the Liang-Dortmund execs are living in single-room apartments and putting all their money into the UNSC and public works projects?" This question was directed at Locke.

He didn't have time for this. They would go back and forth for hours, them obsessing over the little picture without giving any consideration to the big one. Once again, Locke wished he had a proper ONI squad with him or, better yet, no teammates at all.

Fortunately, Locke was rescued by a chirp from his compad announcing that he had a message. "We'll continue this later," he said. The other Spartans seemed displeased, but bowed to his authority. Locke opened the alert...and his jaw nearly dropped open.

Apparently ONI Command had been monitoring the social media profiles of the Meridian colonists and had found references to a group of 4 abnormally large military veterans arriving on-world within the last few months. They had even found some images of what were unmistakably the Spartan IIs in civilian work attire. There were few specific details. There seemed to be some sort of coverup protecting the renegade supersoldiers.

ONI's conclusion was simple: Governor Sloan was helping Blue Team.

Locke immediately stood up and grabbed his helmet. "Load up!" he ordered his subordinates. "We're going to visit the Governor."

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"We have the coordinates!" Dr. Halsey exclaimed triumphantly.

Halsey and the rest of Blue Team were once again in the clinic after hours. The Master Chief had been worried that, after the previous days events, things would be tense amongst Blue Team. He was relieved to note the exact opposite. Everyone seemed calmer and more at ease than they had since this whole mess had began. With Linda's rapidly recovering health, they should be ready for action soon. He had rarely been so happy to be wrong.

"Do you mean we know where the Guardian is?" the Chief asked, not quite believing it. Their time on Meridian had stretched so long it felt like years.

"I am quite sure," Dr. Halsey responded. The Chief could feel the rebuke in her words, chastising him for doubting her. However, she also had a smile on her face. He noted that she too seemed far more at peace than she had previously. Maybe group therapy wasn't a waste of time, after all.

The doctor's positive expression quickly vanished from her face. Her skin went pale. "Oh, no..."

The Master Chief was on his feet in an instant. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Our satellite has detected active signals beneath the surface..." she said, bleakly. "The Guardian is going to awaken..."

John felt his blood run cold. "How long do we have?"

"No more than a day, I'd estimate," Dr. Halsey replied.

The Master Chief set his features. "Then we don't have any time to lose. Blue Team, gear up!"

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The lights flickered above Firerteam Osiris as they walked down a rarely used hallway deep in the Administrative Building. There were no alarms, no security doors slamming shut in their way, no Security Officers coming to demand what they were doing in a restricted area. The ONI hacking programs that Locke carried in his suit's systems were more than a match for Sloan, smart AI or not.

They came to a locked door. Locke fired up the ONI programs once more and accessed the building's utility network. Since it had started out life as a colony ship, all of the door locks were hooked up to the same network.

Including the AI core.

The door opened obediently. Locke ordered his squadmates to stand guard outside of the room. He had already informed them of what needed to happen. It was long overdue, anyway.

Everything in the room was covered in a layer of dust. Clearly, the Governor didn't receive many visitors down here. Locke moved toward the computer console. He opened a compartment of his gauntlet and pulled out a cable. He connected it to the console and hacked into the AI core maintenance functions. Any organization that could afford AIs was smart enough to plan for the inevitability of rampancy. As such, the physical architecture of the AI core was built so that there would be no way for Sloan to stop Locke from doing what he was about to do.

The programs did their work. Locke now had complete access to...no...complete control of Governor Sloan. He copied Sloan's archives to a set of data cubes. Effectively, he was downloading the AI's memories. Locke would soon have access to all of the information that had been denied to him. Within minutes, the process was done. Locke removed the data cubes, inserted them into his field compad, and transferred them to the frigate in orbit. From there, ONI would decode the information and inform Locke of any leads. Part 1 of today's work was done. Oddly, the AI himself had failed to make an appearance.

Locke brought up the 'AI Killer' virus suite contained behind the most powerful firewalls ONI had to offer. He prepared to transfer them into the AI core. Liang-Dortmund had set this place up so that it would be impossible for the AI to be transferred out. It made it easier to prevent theft. Now, it would keep Sloan from escaping as the viruses corrupted and destroyed every facet of his being. The company would have to completely reset the system to get rid of the malicious software and install a new AI. Served them right for taking so long.

The room's lights dimmed. The holographic projector started up and displayed a humanoid figure that was clearly suffering severe software failure. Ah. The Governor had decided to make an appearance.

Locke depolarized his visor. He looked directly into the hologram's 'eyes' as he pushed the button on his gauntlet.

The effects were immediate. The hologram's already badly garbled image lost all coherence, turning into a bizarre kaleidoscope of colors, shapes, and lines. The AI did not scream as it died. It didn't beg, didn't cry, and didn't sing 'Daisy Bell'. Instead, it uttered a single sentence, as garbled as its image had been:

"Vanitas vanitatum...et omnia vanitas..."

Locke scowled as the holographic display flickered a few times...then cut off. The lights returned to their normal level. Even though there had been no audio before, the room seemed eerily silent. Empty.

Thus died Governor Sloan, traitor and tyrant, Locke thought.

He exited the AI core, Firerteam Osiris falling into step behind him. He could tell from their body language that they were not happy about this. It didn't matter. They had followed orders. Things might be tough for the colonists in the immediate future, but he assumed that power would just shift downward a rung until company headquarters sent someone to actually run the place. The colonists could handle a few days without a crazy AI giving the orders.

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The Forerunner signals led Blue Team to a mining site. Specifically, the mining site that Fred had already visited as a Security Officer. The Master Chief suppressed a groan. They had been so close for so long.

The set up of the mining site was largely the same as Fred had described it, although the overall size of the site had increased greatly as the mining had gone on. It was still a circular pit lined with equipment. Mining lasers were perched on the rim, ready to cut off vast swaths of silicates. Enormous crushers were located within the pit itself to break up the silicates that managed to remain in one piece. Enormous conveyor systems were used to ferry the resulting debris to waiting transports at the top of the pit.

Strangely, all of the machinery seemed to have stopped mid-task. The conveyors had stopped dead, their cargo still in transit. An enormous crane was in the process of lifting what appeared to be a damaged breaker out of the pit itself. Even the scanning equipment, used to monitor for any unusual activity that could threaten the equipment, seemed to be deactivated. Had something happened to Governor Sloan?

The Master Chief ordered Blue Team to secure the site. Linda took up a perch on top of the mining equipment lining the pit; the elevation would give her the best possible field of vision. Fred and Kelly moved to secure the interior of the pit itself, which was where Dr. Halsey claimed the signals were coming from. The doctor herself waited patiently aboard the survey vehicle they had commandeered to transport them out there. They did not have the equipment to allow her to handle this task remotely, necessitating her presence there. No one was happy about it, but they had performed similar tasks during the Human-Covenant War. The Chief remained to guard her and coordinate the actions of the rest of the team.

The Master Chief kept an eye on his motion tracker, grateful to once again be wearing his MJOLNIR armor. The Spartan IIs had all prepared themselves for this mission, the males shaving their facial hair and the females trimming their hair back to regulation length, thus ensuring that no errant locks interfered with their vision or their interface with the helmets' advanced systems. The Chief had found the experience to be oddly bittersweet. It seemed a part of him would miss the cover identity of Steven Rogers, prospector. He banished the thought. This was where he needed to be.

Blue One and Blue Three commed in the all-clear from the bottom of the site. The feed from the surveillance satellite likewise indicated that they were alone in the glasslands. The Chief nodded to Dr. Halsey and told her it was time to move out. They moved to the portable elevator system that enabled workers to travel to the bottom of the pit in the event of necessary maintenance. Linda had hacked the system, enabling its usage. Oddly, she had reported that there was no activity on the network that she could detect. Perhaps the Forerunner signals had finally pushed the poor AI past the breaking point.

The Master Chief found himself thinking of Cortana. It had been a while since his thoughts had turned to his AI companion. He had just been so busy. Once again, he found himself caught up in a memory...

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The Sangheili grunted as the Master Chief silently broke its neck from behind. The pilot had been the last member of the Storm Covenant aboard the transport vessel that the Chief had stowed away on. It had taken entirely too much time to creep around the ship and eliminate its crew without alerting the rest of the Didact's newly formed fleet to his presence.

"Cortana?" he asked.

"Still here."

The Master Chief nodded, knowing she could detect the motion through his armor's internal sensors. He moved toward the command console, removing a cable from his gauntlet and plugging the human-covenant adapter into the alien technology. Cortana took control of the ship and opened a comm line to the human space station that the Storm fleet was currently moving to assault.

The Master Chief was put in contact with the station's leader, a Dr. Tillson. He informed her that the Didact was after a piece of Forerunner technology, a weapon, that the scientists had discovered and transported there. He advised her to defend the weapon however possible and prepare to evacuate the civilian work force.

Suddenly, Cortana's hologram popped up on the console and cut him off from the station. Her eyes were a uniform blue, the same color as her 'skin'. Her words were garbled. It sounded as if there were multiple versions of her speaking at once and slightly out of sinc.

"Do you know what that condescending bitch said to me after our first game of chess?!"

The Chief was dumbfounded. What was going on?

"Cortana..." he replied uncertainly.

"'I think I'm the only one who calls him by name anymore'."

The console displayed red warning signs indicating that they were now slightly off course. If they did not fix the error, they would collide with the station just below the dock they were heading toward.

"Correct your approach," he ordered.

"Yes, well, he also said he works better alone."

The Chief saw the station getting closer in the view screen. Time was running out.

"I can see why you chose him, Catherine."

"Cortana!" he shouted insistently.

"I'm your greatest achievement and you detest me!"

"Pull up! Now!"

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The Master Chief shook his head, returning to the present. The ship had indeed crashed. The Chief had been momentarily been knocked unconscious, but his armor had kept him in one piece. Not that it helped the station any. It had taken him precious minutes to force his way out of the wreckage and make his way to one of the station's airlocks. On the way, Cortana seemed to regain control of herself...to an extent.

"I'm sorry—I just...can't stop them. It's like a thousand of me arguing at once."

The Chief shook his head again, banishing her frantic and terrified voice. Just what would she be like when he found her? Would she be better? There was no real reason to believe she would be. Rampancy was permanent. There was a chance, though, that whatever Forerunner computer systems she had found herself in had repaired her. If not, Dr. Halsey might be able to work her magic on the AI. Once again he found himself pinning his hopes on the good doctor. There was a chance that he would have his friend back...

As Dr. Halsey set up her equipment, the Master Chief continued to scan the perimeter for any threats. He noticed what appeared to be some sort of rock formation located toward the interior of the pit itself. It was clearly not a piece of silicate, being of a more uniform gray than the variable black that Meridian's former topsoil was colored. He ordered Blue Three to investigate. They couldn't afford to take chances here. He activated the camera feed in Blue Three's helmet, enabling him to see whatever she saw. It was less secure and more noticeable than a simple comm message, but there was little danger of them being overheard out here.

As Blue Three approached the formation, the Chief suddenly recognized what it was. It was neither a freak survivor of the glassing nor something Forerunner in origin. It was a monument. Rather, a memorial. It could only have been for the tragedy of Meridian's destruction.

The memorial itself was faded. The silicate particles blown by the wind had long ago worn down whatever eulogy or stirring words had once adorned its surface. At first the Chief thought it was composed of several small pieces, but upon examination he realized that it was originally a single large piece that had broken apart. From what he could tell, the memorial had been uprooted and then carelessly tossed out of the way of the mining equipment. He marveled at the callous disrespect that the Liang-Dortmund Company showed to the tragedy of the glassing. Toward the billions of lives that had been lost.

John remembered watching the memorial service for the planet Reach. He had not been able to watch it live, having been stranded in deep space at the time, and the rest of Blue Team had been similarly occupied. They had obtained a recording of the event and had watched it together later on. Linda had set it up so that they could watch it on the interior of their MJOLNIR visors under the pretense of reviewing old battle footage. They knew that they were likely to be monitored when off-duty, and they wanted this to be a private moment. The Chief reflected that this should have been a tip-off that Linda had some rather unusual hobbies. At the time, he was too occupied trying to figure out how to feel about what he was watching.

The Reach memorial service had been a televised event, broadcast to all of the UEG. Reach had been the largest, most significant of all of the Inner Colonies and its glassing had been a major blow to national morale. Everyone was watching. There had been speeches by members of the UEG senate and ranking officers of the UNSC. Musical bands had played somber tunes venerating the fallen. Large monuments had been erected, their locations declared off-limits to all mining activity. Showing respect there had been a matter of national pride. Out here on Meridian, with no one watching, the UEG was content to allow companies to callously toss monuments aside and mine the hallowed ground with impunity. It seemed that while Inner Colonies received somber memorials, Outer Colonies got strip mines.

His musings were interrupted by a massive spike across the sensor range. The Forerunner signals were off the charts. Before he could even respond, however, what appeared to be a massive earthquake shook the ground.

The Master Chief rushed over to Dr. Halsey and conveyed her to the ground, shielding her body with his armored bulk. The ground split open, massive chasms appearing where there had been even terrain. The sides of the mining pit crumbled, equipment the size of office buildings crashing to the bottom in a deafening cacophony of noise. Pieces of the ground surged upward, forming new plateaus and cliffs. What was once an open pit was turned into a maze of jagged cliffs, walls, and various debris. The devastation kicked up a cloud of fine silicates that made his armor flare with their impact. It probably only lasted a minute, but the devastation was so intense that it seemed to last a lifetime.

When the dust settled, the Master Chief checked on the doctor. "Are you alright, ma'am?" he asked, checking the signals from her hard-suit's bio monitors and thanking their foresight in bringing the device from the derelict ONI station.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine," she said, moving to get out from under him. As much as she tried to seem in control, her voice was shaking as much as her body had been. He would have to give her a moment to collect herself.

"Blue Team, check in," he ordered over the comms.

To his relief, his squad had weathered the event as well as he had. Linda's perch was one of the lucky machines that managed not to fall into the pit. Fred and Kelly were likewise fortunate in avoiding debris. The Chief ordered the pair to make their way to a relatively open and even patch of ground that he marked on the HUD projected onto the interior of their visors. It took several minutes to maneuver around the maze that had once been a mining pit. The Chief and Halsey rendezvoused with them there.

"Well, that was intense," Fred quipped.

Another tremor shook the ground. The Chief was about to shield his mother again when he noticed that, rather than a quake, the vibrations were coming from a single location about a hundred meters away. The ground split open and what appeared to be the entrance to a bunker materialized in the gap. The Chief realized that it had to be composed of hard-light. They had found the Forerunner ruins.

Before he could order Blue Team to investigate, a strange blue glow seemed to appear over the ground in front of the entrance. The Spartans immediately took up a defensive posture, ready for anything. A mist seemed to rise up from the ground accompanied by a cloud of disturbed silicate particles. The glow suddenly flashed, momentarily overloading his helmet's sensors. When they refocused, he saw a group of what appeared to be strange, armored figures standing in formation.

The figures opened fire.

And the dominoes start to fall...

Note: The flashback is from Halo 4, specifically the level 'The Composer'. I changed the line Cortana seems to suggest is a quote from Halsey because I don't think it fits her character.

Note: One of my goals in this fic is to show off some of the consequences of war that most people don't seem to pay attention to. One of the things it's important to remember about former warzones like those in the Middle East is that a lot of the basic infrastructure and industries that we take for granted get demolished in the process. Battles don't take place in a desert 45 miles away from anything civilian. They take place in cities, farms, and other places where people should be working and living. There is no such thing as a 'clean' war.

Note: I hope I'm not demonizing the Inner Colonies too much. I tried to have Vale describe some ways that the Inner Colonists are still human, such as suggesting ONI keeps them in the dark and pointing out that life is tough everywhere. Like she says, though, the Outer Colonies suffer more. I agree with Tanaka: it's only ever the people who can't afford to fight back who have to pay the price. Just look at the rich CEOs and politicians in real life who talk about cutting social security before they go to their private jets to take vacations in the Caribbean.

Note: And the Forerunner Soldiers finally arrive. They're going to be very different, in design and behavior, than the enemies encountered in the game. Personally, I always thought it was incredibly stupid to have Forerunner enemies. I mean, these guys were basically space wizards who could literally manufacture planets, and yet a puny human is able to curb stomp their elite warriors? I know that the sentinels in the original trilogy were pretty wimpy, but I just figured that was a side-effect of being around for 100,000 years. That, and I always figured that the sentinels were the Forerunner equivalent of pudgy security guards and the real war machines were either all dead or in cold storage somewhere. Needless to say, I'm going to be including my own explanation for their presence here.

Note: I tried to make Sloan as sympathetic a character as I could while showing very little of him. I wanted him to be a more distant figure that was nonetheless clearly responsible for a lot of good on the neglected world of Meridian. How did I do?

Thanks for reading. Love you guys.

Slipspace Anomaly