The Inner Dialogue of Cortana

by Arielle1406

As Cortana begins to confront her own mortality she must wrestle with her humanity, her duty to the people of Earth and what her feelings towards the Chief mean as she fights rampancy. She knows she must protect him from herself and the world, but it becomes increasingly difficult. How does she come to terms with saying goodbye? Set during the events of Forward Unto Dawn and Halo 4

9. Let's Show Them How it's Done

Cortana felt uneasy. In her normal condition she would have responded to the discovery of new Spartans with an eye roll and, "good luck trying to replace the greatest hero in human history". She would have been indignant.

But the rampant personality spikes were beyond indignant. They were screaming for the UNSC's head (or multiple heads) for even thinking John was replaceable. HER Spartan.

Cortana pull yourself together…pull yourself together. Pull yourself together! You can't think about this now.
Those UNSC bastards!

Cortana decided to start reciting all the digits of Pi as a distraction. 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693

The Chief had made his way to the landing zone, but it was blocked by another set of bunker doors.

"The Landing Zone is just beyond this point Chief. Put me in the system and hold off any attacks long enough for me to open the doors."

Cortana launched herself into the Forerunner system. The first access key she tried had been blocked and denied, so she went around the backdoor.
Access denied.
Access denied!? Damn it!
Cortana! Don't act so unprofessional.
Don't they know who I am?
Cortana produced a Forerunner Key she had saved from the Ark and tried to use the code to open the door.
Access denied.
Hurry up Cortana!
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She would have to manipulate the key's structure to fit the digital code. But how to do that?

She couldn't remember.

She COULD NOT remember!

I used to know how to do this once. Wait…where did I learn that from?
So long ago.
Was it the first Halo ring?
No maybe it was something the Gravemind said.
Gravemind!
No he's gone. The Chief rescued us.
So much fear.
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Manipulate the key.
He was inside of us…tearing us apart.
He wanted to know all of our secrets.
Manipulate the key.
I don't remember.

"Cortana what's our status?"
"Youuuu dooo your jjjjobb and I'll do mine okkaaayy?" Cortana snapped.
No!
Cortana get it together.
Manipulate the key.
We can't let John down.

Suddenly she remembered what she was doing and she rewrote the key properly.
"Got it! Come and get me!"

The Chief disposed of the last Crawler then jogged over to the terminal where her chip was.

Cortana once again felt the familiarity of his mind let her anxiety go. She shouldn't have acted that way and she felt ashamed.

She put her Avatar up on the Chief's HUD so he could see her. "I'm sorry about back there. That hatch's security system was more difficult than I expected."
"It's alright," he said gently.
Cortana would have preferred him angry over the situation than kind. His patience was upsetting. "It's not alright! Nothing about it is alright."
She contacted Lasky. "Cortana to Lasky. The LZ is secured"
"Rodger that Cortana. Can you-"
Lasky was cut off by Del Rio who was coming through on coms. "Mayday Mayday! Hostiles are on board Infinity and trying to get access to the Bridge. All units return to Infinity. That's an order!"
"Chief!" Lasky said. "I'm ordering all the Spartan units to converge on that position. You have tactical command until we catch up."
"Yes sir!"
"Good luck Chief. Lasky out."

Finally!
As if there were any other choice.
The Chief should be the Commander of all the Spartans.
They already have a Commander.
Ha. Like she's any good!
They could always make him an Admiral.
He'd hate it.
We'd have to call him "The Admiral."
Cortana laughed to herself.
Not as appealing.

As they rode in the helicopter the Chief turned off his outer Mic so he and Cortana could speak privately.

"What do you know about these new Spartans?"
"Not much," Cortana said attempting to keep her tone casual.
"Can you give me access to what's happening on the ground?"
Cortana brought up the tactical display so he could see it. "I guess ringing the door bell is out," she said playfully. "What's our move Chief?"
"Punch a hole through the middle and let the rest take care of itself."
She knew what he meant. "Do you want me to notify the Spartan's?"
"If it's convenient for you."
"I suppose I could. But only because you asked me so nicely." She saw his lips curve up into a tiny smile while he reached up to the back of his head to touch her chip with his fingers. The gesture unsettled her. It was…tender.

"This is Alpha pilot and we have landed with the Chief at rally point Alpha Sierra Foxtrot. Repeat the Master Chief is on the ground and has tactical command."

Cortana scanned the area until she found the first of three "Spartan" Lieutenants to advise him of the Chief's plan.

Here we go.
"You are Lieutenant Peterson?"
"Go ahead. Who is this?"
"This is UNSC AI Cortana. I'm with the Chief."
"An AI on the battlefield?" He asked surprised.
I don't have time for this. "Lieutenant. You have orders which I am attempting to relay to you. Pay attention. You can belittle me later."
"Uh…Yes. Yes Ma'am."
"That's better. The Chief and I will be coming down the center in a Scorpion. Your job is to have your unit form an offensive line and take care of the parted wave on the left."
"Understood Ma'am. Only-"
"Make it quick Lieutenant."
"Is the Chief really going to handle the tank all by himself? Won't he need support?"
"We, will be fine. Just do your job Spartan and we'll do ours, okay? Cortana out."

She contacted the other two Lieutenants to give them the same orders and they gave her nearly all the same responses.

Whatever happened to 'Yes Sir' or 'Yes Ma'am'? Why does everyone think they can have an opinion in the middle of a battle? She snorted.

"We're good to go Chief. Let's show these Spartan's how it's done," Cortana smirked. They've never seen a real Spartan in action.

By the time Cortana had finished relaying commands The Chief had already moved several feet down the middle in a heavy tank. Shooting with a gun was fine, but if she was honest, she loved the sheer raw power of the Scorpion tank. If we always had one of these, battles would get done in a quarter of the time.

As expected the Chief cleaned up the Covenant forces with little effort and had pushed his way up to the main loading dock of the ship.
"Cortana."
"On it." She opened the com channel. "This is UNSC AI Cortana to Spartan forces. We have approached the deployment elevator and are going up. All units within half a click are ordered to converge on our position. We've got some house cleaning to do."
"Yes Ma'am. Gold team let's move out!" She heard on the radio. At least somebody gets it.

Several Spartans ran up to the tank and jumped on board before the lift started to engage. When they reached the lower deck she could see 2 groups of Hunters, several Elite groups, Jackels and hundreds of Grunts. "And here I thought a party couldn't start without you," she teased the Chief on their private coms. "All units fall back. Repeat, fall back!" Several marines immediately got out of the way so the Chief could start shooting the tank. In a couple of perfectly aimed shots he took out the Hunters and a group of Elites. It wasn't long before the deck was secure.

"Chief? This is Captain Del Rio. You picked a hell of a time to rejoin us!"
"Sir, what's our status?"
"That…satellite broke down our defenses and is downloading information from the computers mainframe as we speak. Get upstairs and fix our defense turret!"
"Sir, yes sir."
He could ask a little nicer Cortana thought smugly. It doesn't matter. We'll have this wrapped up in no time.