Guilty Sparks

by General Rage

Fleeing from the glassing of Reach in the belly of the Pillar of the Autumn, the crew of the SR-2 Normandy find themselves stranded with their UNSC allies on a strange Forerunner constructed ring world called Halo with the Covenant hunting them. But Halo holds a secret, one deadlier than both the Covenant and Reapers combined... and it's hungry.

17. In Search of Direction

Chapter 16: In Search of Direction

September 20th, 2552

It had been an hour since the humans had escaped from the Truth & Reconciliation, leaving a number of dead sangheili in their wake. Among them was the vessel's former Shipmaster, shot through the head at point blank range. In terms of how many soldiers the humans had lost in comparison, it was far less than they had expected. They had rescued their comrades, stolen one of their dropships and left the already disabled ship with a third of its crew dead. It didn't make any sense.

Orna 'Fulsamee walked forward, surveying the blood stained bridge before him. He stopped only momentarily, watching as they carried Shipmaster Lat 'Ravamee's body out of the room. The whole scene was so wasteful to him, so many proud warriors dead at the hands of filthy humans.

Now, standing atop the command platform, surveying the carnage, he looked to the one person he blamed tonight's failure on. Lieutenant Commander Varvok had brought this destruction into their midst, him and his stupid plan. As Supreme Commander Thel 'Vadamee watched from one of the ship's monitors, Orna made his grievances known.

"You said you'd be able to kill them," He snarled at Varvok. "You promised that when they came for their crew, they'd be weakened by the loss of their biotic and easy to dispatch."

"And they would have, but you forced me to alter my battle plan," Varvok countered. "You sent an exuberant amount of my manpower away. Instead of seeding my men throughout the ship, I only had enough to cover this level. As I recall, you said you'd win without them. Don't blame me for being unable to back up your boasts."

"You were the reason they came here in the first place," Orna shouted back. "We should've killed the Shepherd's flock when we had the chance. Instead, he is back to full strength now! I find no one more to blame for that than you!"

As the two scowled at each other, their seething sense of loathing growing with each passing moment, they began to blot all other sensation. The only thing that could bring them out of it was the third party among them. With a loud slam of both his hands upon his console's board, Thel 'Vadamee stood upright from his chair and shouted aloud over the view screen.

"Enough," Thel spoke up loudly. "There is no sense in assigning blame, not when we know the true cause of the plan's failure. It wasn't Varvok's overconfidence or his reduced strength. No, we had all failed to recognise that the humans had more than just the False Shepherd among them."

Thel pressed a command on his console. When he did, security footage of the attack began to play, showing several scenes of a large human in green armour outflanking, outshooting, outmanoeuvring and, as painful as it was to say, outfighting their forces. He cut down sangheili in his wake with ease and had killed a mgalekgolo practically by himself. The False Shepherd's assistance had only added to his success.

"It appears we should've heeded Zuka 'Zamamee's warnings," Thel admitted. "This... Demon, for lack of a better title to call it, allowed the False Shepherd to slip through our trap and escape with his captured flock. Separately they are no doubt formidable, but together they are even more dangerous. That much has been made clear to us now."

"So how should we proceed with this knowledge, Supreme Commander?" Orna asked. "Should we concern ourselves with the death of this Demon first?"

"No, I believe where the Demon will travel, so will the Shepherd," Thel explained. "We simply must adjust our tactics in response to this combined threat. We cannot allow this unholy union to stand or Halo itself may be threatened."

Varvok was apparently off the hook, but Orna still blamed the batarian. True, the human in armour had been an unexpected variable that they had underestimated, but that didn't change the fact the four-eyed fool had led them all here in the first place.

"I will need my men returned to my command if I am to assist," Varvok insisted. "Whether you think it was a factor or not, our current troop strength will not be enough to face Shepard or that Super-Soldier he's allied himself with."

"I will return some of your forces to you," Thel replied. "However, many of them are still required in another capacity."

"What kind of capacity?" Varvok asked pryingly.

Thel only huffed at him. Orna felt the same sense of irritation. No sense of discipline, why couldn't he just follow orders like a good soldier? He continued to show that his military title was just that, a title.

"You presume too much, batarian," Thel told him. "I do not need to tell you that information. What I use them for is none of your concern. Simply trust my judgement, as you do Balak's."

"Can you at least let me choose who I will bring back?" Varvok asked, sounding even more frustrated.

"Fair enough, I suppose you deserve that much," Thel relented. "I will give you permission to go to the excavation sites and retrieve your men. But you will comply with the commands of those on site. You will not presume to demand anything of the sangheili, understood?"

Varvok reluctantly nodded. For once, the four-eyed imbecile was actually showing some discipline. Orna doubted it would last though, it was in his nature.

"I will be sure to inform them of your arrival," Thel assured him. "You are dismissed, Lieutenant Commander."

Varvok saluted, almost half-heartedly though, and then left. Orna stared at him as he did. When the batarian had exited the room, he turned back to Thel's view screen.

"I don't trust that mongrel slaver," he told him firmly. "I especially don't trust him to go to the excavation sites, not now anyway."

"We will make sure he doesn't get too close," Thel assured him. "So far the situation is contained. So long as he does not suspect anything we will be fine. Let him gather his men, we will unfortunately need them if we are to succeed in defeating the humans before this gets out of control."

"Let us hope for now that it has not reached that point yet, sir," Orna shuddered. "It would make what happened on this vessel seem like a mere drop in an ocean of blood."

---

They really did think he was stupid, they all did. To the Covenant, he was just some moronic slaver playing warrior. Unfortunately for them, he wasn't an idiot and to prove that, at least to himself, he had left something behind before he had left the bridge. Before Orna arrived to survey the damage, Varvok had made sure to set up a bug under the Bridge's command terminal. He wasn't sure if they'd reveal anything on it, but it was better to be prepared.

His wariness had been rewarded. They knew something, that much was obvious, and they were hiding it from him and his men. Probably even from their own soldiers as well, for all he knew. It had something to do with the excavation sites, why his men were sent there. Sergeant Kreka's early warnings returned to his mind, the concerns he had brought up now ringing true.

The sangheili were afraid of something and their reluctance to let him in on what was happening meant he couldn't trust them anymore. He wasn't sure if he could trust anyone in the Covenant, save maybe for one. How ironic it was then, that the only person he could place any sense of reliance on was a pirate.

"Hopefully he sobered up over the past few hours," he thought to himself. "And I really hope Retz doesn't say something like 'I told you so' when I get there."

---

"It teleported?" Shepard repeated as EDI finished explaining her story. "Like, actually teleported in and out of the ship? That is just... wow... that is amazing!"

"Could we refrain from being fascinated by Sci-Fi technology becoming a reality and focus on the fact an unknown synthetic life form was able to get in and out of the ship with relative ease?" Miranda asked him, sounding rather frustrated. "I know you love Star Trek, Shepard, but this thing tried to get into our data banks. That's something we should be concerned about."

Upon returning to the Normandy, EDI quickly informed everyone about what had happened while they were saving Jack, Joker and Keyes. Apparently, some kind of floating eyeball calling itself "The Monitor" had teleported itself into EDI's room and tried to get information out of her. Then, as suddenly as it appeared, it said something about it making a mistake and teleported away.

"I'm just marvelling at the fact that teleportation exists for a moment, Miranda, relax," Shepard said, trying to calm his XO's nerves.

Despite Shepard's fascination though, he was concerned about the intruder. He was just happy that he hadn't compromised Normandy or EDI in some way during the mission. Shepard hoped that if they checked out the AI Room themselves they may find some clues as what this synthetic was hoping to accomplish. That was why Tali and Miranda were here to assist him in figuring out some answers. Tali worked on EDI's terminal while Miranda went over the security footage for the intruder's visit. But so far, they hadn't learned much.

"What exactly did this 'Monitor' want, EDI?" Shepard asked.

"It did not inform me," EDI answered. "It refused on the grounds I did not follow its stringent 'protocol' guidelines from what I understood. It demanded more questions from me than I could ask of it."

"Like an interrogation?" Miranda asked inquisitively.

"No, the line of questioning was more in form of a superior rather than a captor," EDI clarified. "It was as if he expected me to know what his rules were. However, as soon as he tapped into the ship's data banks it retreated, saying he had made an error. He even apologised for the intrusion."

So what had this Monitor seen that made it believe it made a mistake? That was the biggest question in Shepard's mind as it would help answer why it had come here in the first place.

"You got something for us that can explain this, Tali?" Shepard asked. "What information did the 'Monitor' access?"

The quarian shook her head as information sped across her holographic screen.

"It's difficult to say," Tali regretfully shrugged as she continued working at the terminal. "He went through a lot before EDI kicked him out."

"That was more difficult than it should have been," EDI added. "I believe I was only able to lock him out of our systems in the end because he had become distracted with whatever information he had learned prior."

"Well, maybe I can find what he accessed last," Tali suggested. "Give me a moment."

After a few commands, Tali managed to find the file that the intruder had accessed just before EDI kicked him off. It was a page from the Codex, detailing a number of recent galactic events that had occurred in their universe, specifically human related.

"Why would that distract him?" Miranda asked

It was then Shepard hit upon a theory.

"Maybe he realised we weren't from this dimension," Shepard reasoned. "He thought he was something akin to EDI's superior officer just by being here. That he held jurisdiction over her. What if, by learning we weren't even from this universe, he realised that he had no real power over her? That could've been the mistake he had been talking about."

"I do recall him mentioning that we should not be here," EDI admitted. "At the time, I simply thought it was him stating that we were not allowed on 'his' installation."

"But wouldn't that mean we're trespassing to him?" Miranda asked. "If this ring is under his protection or authority, why hasn't he moved against us by now?"

"If this protocol programming is so engrained in him, perhaps he's forced to adhere to it," Tali began to suggest. "If the protocol doesn't tell him how to act in a situation, he would need to consider possible options of how to proceed. It's basic Artificial Intelligence programming, if a situation is too new for them to have an answer for it, they're forced to try and come to a conclusion on their own."

That was one theory, but EDI had mentioned something else the Monitor said that suggested another possibility.

"He said the ring was in some kind of crisis, didn't he?" Shepard asked EDI.

"He suggested as much," EDI confirmed. "It is likely he is referring to the current ongoing fight between us and the Covenant."

"So, why isn't he helping the Covenant in wiping us off the map?" Miranda asked, her confusion shared by all. "If he runs Halo, and if Halo is Forerunner, as Halsey and no doubt the Covenant have suggested, why isn't the Monitor helping the Covenant?"

Shepard turned to Tali, hoping for an answer from her. She knew Halsey better than them and, by association, knew more about her research on the Forerunners. Tali could only offer the simplest of theories.

"Halsey always claimed there was more to the Forerunners than the Covenant believe," she explained. "I suggest we stop assuming just because they worship them, that they have the same goals as the Covenant. The Monitor could probably just be concerned about Halo being damaged in the conflict."

But Miranda still wasn't fully convinced.

"I'm telling you, Shepard, this whole thing doesn't feel right," she told him. "There's something we're missing here. We've just found out that this artificial planet is a damned weapon. What if this Monitor is concerned about us activating it or maybe something worse?"

"I think the only way we'd get an answer to that question is from the Monitor itself," Shepard replied. "And from what EDI described, we won't be getting a clear response from him anytime soon, not if his protocol says he can't reveal himself to us directly for the moment. I doubt we even have time to track him down, not with the Covenant looking for that Control Room."

"Agreed, but I think we should go over this with Keyes and Holland in greater detail," Miranda suggested. "The fact we have an unknown synthetic teleporting around here who is acting like he's in charge of everything is disconcerting. Not to mention we don't know exactly what kind of data he accessed when he was here. He poses a grave security risk, if nothing else."

Shepard concurred as well, nodding in response.

"Get the security footage compiled," he told her. "The second we get back to Alpha Base proper I'm going to request a meeting with the senior staff. We need to figure out our next move and find out how we'll deal with another potential intrusion."

"I'm already working on that myself," said Tali. "I'm going to try and redouble EDI's security parameters. I'm not sure how effective they'll be in repelling a Forerunner AI, but they may slow him down a bit should he try again."

"Good idea," Miranda concurred. "Perhaps if Legion or Cortana had time, they could even assist you with their own bit of synthetic insight, so to speak. It would make the work go faster."

Tali froze up at the suggestion, looking a bit wary about something. Shepard already knew what it was before she even spoke.

"I'm not sure it's wise to put Legion on this project in their condition," she explained. "I don't want to risk EDI catching the glitch. We can't afford her being contaminated."

"You make this thing sound like a virus," Shepard noted, raising an eyebrow. "How would EDI even catch it?"

"If the glitch is affecting DOT, then it stands to reason it could spread to EDI," Tali warned. "When she was in my omni-tool she showed initiative and upgraded my energy drain. Appreciated, yes, but she shouldn't be able to do that. She's not designed to evolve and think like the Geth or a Smart AI does."

Miranda crossed her arms rather sceptically at Tali's remarks.

"You sure you're not just overreacting about this?" Miranda asked. "Besides the verbal tic, what harm has this glitch caused?"

"It's not properly integrated into Legion's systems," Tali informed her. "It's not a beneficial systems upgrade, it's a systems error. The longer we leave it unchecked, the greater chance there is of Legion being damaged by it."

"That doesn't really answer my question," Miranda reiterated. "I know you're the resident AI expert aboard, but you there are ways your judgement could be understandably, well clouded on this issue, and you need to consider-"

Tali turned to Miranda, a very deadly serious look in her now piercing silver eyes.

"I'm a quarian, just come out and say it, Lawson," Tali sneered. "You think I'm overreacting given what I am and my people's history. I'll tell you right now, none of that matters. I'm trying to protect Legion, pure and simple. That's my responsibility, not yours. So kindly refrain from telling me how to do my job."

Shepard knew this was getting personal the moment Tali used Miranda's last name. Miranda was already starting to glare back at Tali for the outburst. Before this went further he got in between them both.

"Look, we can debate this subject later when we have more information on the exact nature of this glitch," Shepard told them both. "Right now, we're trapped on a giant planet sized weapon and we're the middle of a race for the trigger to it. I suggest we prioritise matters for the time being instead of snapping at each other."

Both Tali and Miranda backed off, their posture lessening from their original stance.

"I'll get that security footage compiled for the meeting then," Miranda relented.

As Lawson bid them both farewells and walked out of the AI Core, Shepard turned back to Tali. He still had a bit of a stern look his face as he looked at her.

"I'm sorry," she apologised. "I shouldn't have done that. The last thing we need is me going off the rails on Miranda. She just gets under my suit sometimes."

Shepard just let out a chortling snort at that comment.

"You've just given me a pretty interesting image, Tali," Shepard chuckled.

"You men are all so typical," Tali laughed back in kind. "But still, I should've handled that better."

Shepard's features softened a bit as grew more serious.

"Just be honest with me," he began to ask "Are you sure that Legion is in danger from this glitch? There's no other reason behind your concern about it?"

Tali didn't answer immediately, her fingers fumbling slightly in her hands, her eyes deep in thought. After a few seconds of pondering, she finally answered

"Yes," Tali said confidently. "Legion is in danger."

"Alright, I trust your judgement," Shepard simply nodded back. "Do what you can for them then."

Tali nodded and returned to her work on EDI. Shepard decided to leave her too it, but said one more thing before he exited the core.

"Try not to be so hard on Legion about it though," he told her. "This is hard for them too, I imagine."

"I know, Wade," Tali assured him. "Thank you... for trusting me."

Shepard nodded knowingly and left her to her work. Along with whatever lingering thoughts the conversation had brought up in her mind.

---

Garrus supposed they couldn't have asked for the mission to go better, but there was still a lot more supplies they hadn't been able to carry out. If only the Covenant hadn't regrouped so fast, maybe they could've gotten away with an extra warthog or some more rocket launchers.

At least Jacob's team had managed to secure most of the rations. That would keep Alpha Base well stocked for the duration of their stay, however long that was. He knew eventually they'd have to work out a plan to get off this ring, but the only way they'd be able to do that would involve commandeering a Covenant ship big enough to carry everyone out of here. The Normandy wouldn't be able to support all the surviving Marines, and even if it was, the Ship's SlipSpace upgrade was far from being finished. They wouldn't make it very far on their own.

It was a problem they'd have to resolve later though. For now, Garrus just wanted to get back to Alpha Base and rest for a few hours. No doubt Shepard would have a new mission by the time they got back. He just hoped the rescue mission had gone well.

The Pelican touched down at Alpha Base, releasing the Warthog it was carrying from its magnetic locks. Once it was rolled away, everyone was able to pile off. Garrus and Kat then began overseeing the storage of their newly acquired supplies, alongside Silva and McKay of course.

"So what do you think of our chances now?" Garrus asked Kat.

"We can hold out so long as the Covenant continues to refrain from simply glassing our faces off," Kat surmised. "But we could always use more supplies. We'll probably have to consider 'borrowing' them from our enemy in the future."

"At least we'll have enough ammunition to keep us afloat for now," Garrus told her. "And when Shepard comes back with Keyes and our people, we'll really be in business."

Silva wasn't far away from the two, directing both Romeo and Dutch as they carried a crate of grenades to storage.

"Hold it up higher on your side, Lance Corporal," Silva ordered. "You're making Dutch do all the work!"

"Sir, yes, sir!" Romeo replied, although the look he gave suggested he wanted to say something else to the Major.

Dutch raised his end of the crate a bit higher.

"Quit your belly-aching, Rome," he told him. "It's just one crate."

"Of six," Rome grumbled. "I'm not looking forward to that."

As the two continued on their way, Kat approached Silva and McKay.

"How did your people manage on the food and medical supplies end, Noble 2?" Silva asked. "Did we fill our quotas?"

"Jacob Taylor radioed in before we landed," Kat informed him. "He secured enough rations to last us the next three months worth of fighting. Although I doubt it would be advisable to wait around here for that long. As for medical supplies, our teams recovered most of it, including large quantities of bio-foam and polypseudomorphine. As long as our people our breathing, we should be able to keep them well treated for a long time."

"Good to know we actually pulled this off then," Silva said as he observed the continuing work around them. "You certainly were a bigger help than I first imagined, Noble 2. Let's hope Shepard and Spartan 117 were just as successful as we were. I should go report into Holland to check on that personally. I'll leave you and McKay here in charge of storage."

Silva began to walk away, the others looking on. Garrus made sure to keep his mouth shut until the Major was well out of ear shot.

"Does he ever give a compliment that doesn't sound like an insult?" Garrus asked McKay.

"You should take what you can get," McKay advised politely. "Silva acknowledged your role, that's better than nothing or his usual response."

"Let it go, Garrus," Kat quickly added. "I don't need his approval and neither do you. Let's just get this ordinance squared away."

Garrus tried to follow Kat to do so, but noticed that McKay was suddenly looking up towards the sky. Garrus followed her gaze to see what looked like a Pelican off in the distance, moving rather quickly towards them.

"I thought all our Pelicans were in formation," Garrus noted.

"It must be from another patrol," McKay suggested. "We weren't the only ones out tonight. Holland probably sent a few of the Marines and his own Troopers out to recon the enemy."

Kat suddenly put her hand up to her ear, moments later she turned to both Garrus and McKay.

"That was Holland," she told them. "We need hands on deck. That Pelican has some special cargo. Follow me."

Kat rushed off, forcing Garrus to follow with McKay behind him. They stopped near a landing pad as the Pelican touched down. There were several other soldiers there, including Sergeant Avery Johnson and his team of Marines.

"Everyone, keep your sights levelled," he ordered. "Remember, these bastards are tricky and pretty damn strong. He even flinches wrong you plug a bullet in him. You hear?"

"Sergeant," Garrus spoke up as he approached. "What's going on here?"

Before Johnson could answer, the Pelican's sealed hatch opened wide. Tumbling out from the darkness, was a single elite, stripped of his armour and bound in cuffs. Two Marines along with two Army Troopers and two ODSTs exited on either side of the alien. The rest of the squad stood behind the elite within the Pelican. Those who had gathered around the Pelican kept their guns trained on the alien. One of the Marines carefully walked over and forced the Covie up to his feet.

"Welcome to your new home, dipshit!" The Marine shouted into the alien's ear as he knocked him forward with the butt of his gun. "Not so tough now without your armour and gun, are ya?"

The elite was led forward by the assembled soldiers from the Pelican. An ODST walked up to Sergeant Johnson who responded with an approving nod as he looked over the prisoner. He then breathed deep, took his cigar out of his mouth, and blew some smoke in the face of the elite, causing the Covie to cough.

"Always funny seeing them without their armour," Johnson as he chomped back down on the cigar. "They look a hell of a lot less threatening, that's for damn sure."

"Where'd you find him?" Garrus asked the ODST.

The Drop Trooper looked at Garrus for a moment, not saying anything. Garrus couldn't see behind the darkened visor, but he imagined he was getting a nasty look from the human. Johnson was quick to set him straight.

"The Bird asked you question, son," he told him in a rather passive aggressive tone. "Best answer, don't be rude now."

The ODST finally acknowledged Johnson and nodded.

"We picked him up out in the sticks while were tracking some Covie patrols," he explained. "Had to hike him all the way back out along with some of his cargo. We think he's some kind of Covenant Gopher Boy, delivers weapons and crap to everyone."

"Well now, that's something interesting," Johnson acknowledged with a smirk. "A Covie Delivery Boy."

"It's also why Holland wants me to take him in to custody from this point," Kat explained as she walked up to the group. She turned to the ODST. "Good job, Trooper, you and your team are relieved. I will escort the prisoner to the holding cells."

The ODST reluctantly relinquished control over the elite and allowed Kat to take hold of him.

"Let's go," she told the prisoner. "You have a lot to tell us."

Kat turned to Garrus and McKay before she started to walk.

"Care to help me escort him?" She asked them.

"Well, it gets me out of having to carry boxes," Garrus admitted.

Garrus and McKay helped Kat bring the elite into Alpha Base. The whole thing was kind of serendipitous to Garrus. Moments ago, Kat had been suggesting that they may need to raid the Covenant for further supplies. Not more than a few minutes after that conversation, they now had the possible link to find out where exactly to strike.

Things really were starting to look up.

---

Varvok eventually found Zek on the observation deck of the Fallen Serpent. He was sitting on a long raised block that functioned as a bench of sorts, staring out on Halo's landscape below. He still had a bottle of ichor in his hand. He looked pretty tired, as his slouching posture suggested.

"Sobered up yet?" He asked the kig-yar.

"Still got a headache," Zek admitted. "It will pass. I just want to take in this view a bit longer. I like the way the clouds on this world swirl around those little green mountains."

Varvok sat next to Zek and looked out the window himself.

"You know, I'd love this place a hell of a lot more if I didn't have to keep hearing about how sacred it is and shit," Zek conceded. "But, you can't control some things."

"Like spurting out how much you hate your dead dad when you're drunk?" Varvok asked.

Zek just laughed.

"Eh, I do that every night to anyone who will hear," he said shrugging. "Only time I really feel like talking about the fucker. So long as you bothered to listen to my complaining, I'm cool with it."

Varvok nodded, and decided to move towards the reason he was here. Zek had given him the perfect lead in.

"You and Retz raised a good point," he told the pirate. "About that crap involving getting stuck working for the Covenant, that they take away a lot of things you feel are important."

"There's still time for you to bolt you know," Zek reminded him. "It's not like your people can't choose yet. They don't have a fleet pointed at you."

"It's not that simple," Varvok explained. "I have a duty here and something like that isn't my call anyway."

Zek nodded his head knowingly.

"I get it," he said. "That boss of yours, Balak, he wants to make nice with these guano-heads. What's the deal behind all that? Is he that desperate to kill humans or something? I don't get it."

"You've killed plenty of humans too, as I recall," Varvok noted.

"Yeah, but my kind doesn't take it personally, it's just a job," Zek tried to clarify. "You guys just seem to plain outright hate them. What is up with all that?"

Varvok supposed Zek had shared his people's history enough. Reciprocating in kind would probably be necessary if he wanted his help.

"When they showed up on the galactic scene years ago, they started expanding like vermin," Balak began. "We were trying to expand ourselves and, inevitably, we started getting locked into colony rights disputes. When push came to shove though, the Council backed the humans and let them grow while we diminished. They took what was ours and everyone was too weak to bother to stand against them."

Zek nodded his head throughout the explanation.

"Yeah, that doesn't sound rehearsed at all," he mockingly replied. "Mind telling me YOUR reasons and not your Government's?"

He supposed Zek was smart enough to recognize the usual party line he had been taught since birth. If he wanted Zek with him on this, he would need something more personal than the regular history lesson.

"In 2178, two of my brothers were away from home on a business trip," he started. "My father had recently inducted all of us into the family legacy. We've been buying and selling servants for over a century at this point."

"You mean you're slavers," Zek piped up.

Varvok gave the pirate a disapproving look. He may have wanted Zek's help, but he didn't want to be insulted either.

"I'm not here to justify what my family does to you," he told Zek sternly.

"I just never liked the idea of flesh peddling," Zek explained. "Too difficult to maintain, so many mouths to feed, it just all felt like a hassle. Drugs, bootlegging and smuggling in general don't require you to feed your cargo constantly. Less risk too, you don't have to go out and hunt a product that can fight back. Seems like a lot of wasted energy, not nearly as fun either."

Varvok sighed and just decided to keep going and let Zek have his opinion.

"Anyway, they were overseeing a transfer of slaves to my father's company for resell," he continued. "We had buyers for very specific kinds of slaves and the best place to go to pick up specific marks was Torfan. The day they went was also the day the humans decided to attack it. They murdered every batarian there, freed every slave and killed my brothers."

Varvok grimaced as he retold the story. He thought about his long dead siblings, Drekak and Ganrek, the days they spent as kids, running through the woods and going to Heritage Fields when school was out. He thought about how their last moments were, the humans encircling them and killing anyone that wasn't like them. How frightened they must've been, the Alliance Marines, gunning anything that moved as they brought the moon down around them. How his father and mother wept for days when notified of their deaths.

"I promised my father I'd do everything I could to pay the humans back for what they took from us," He finally spoke up again. "I joined the military, rose through the ranks, tried to get myself noticed. Balak saw potential in me and asked that I join his Black Ops division. He said I'd get to pay back the humans for the humiliation and pain they had caused my family. He didn't lie. I've been proudly serving him ever since."

"I assume your men feel the same?" Zek asked.

"I've always tried to bring them all back home alive, no matter the cost," Varvok replied. "Those I can't save I memorialise, like my brothers. I treat them like family, because at this point they are. They look up to me and I try to lead by example. That's why I'm still in the field, although Balak has always offered promoting me to his inner circle. But I prefer the personal touch of leading a battalion in the field, rather than running a whole division like he does. It involves too many meetings, hearings and organizational functions anyway."

"You like the action," Zek said approvingly. "You like taking on the enemy head-on and everything, not leading from behind a desk half the time."

"I suppose that is my fear sometimes," Varvok admitted. "Balak does do a lot of work, but he rarely is able to get out into the field during missions. It would be too dangerous. If anything happened to him, much of the Swords' effectiveness would be lost."

Zek took a swig of his bottle as he considered Varvok's words.

"I imagine some people would be happy about that," Zek suggested.

"Humans maybe, but I couldn't care less what they think," Varvok declared. "We're defending our cultural heritage and beliefs from them, trying to return our people to their former glory. Humans, and the galaxy at large, continue to look down on us like we're barbarians for our practice of slavery. They just don't understand the importance of it all."

Varvok could only think now of how often he heard the humans praise the deaths of slavers and the release of their servants. They were prejudiced against his kind, believing themselves moral guardians for opposing them. They had no idea what they were defying, why it was important to maintain the slave caste.

"Every caste has its place and the slave's place is to serve his master and do as he is told," Varvok decreed proudly. "We keep them in shackles so that our civilization may thrive. They are a part of our culture and they are best suited for their lowly position. It is the natural order and to defy that order, to allow them to rise above their standing, would be insulting to those who were born to be who they are. Some are meant to rule, others to obey. It is that simple."

"And you're the ruler, right?" Zek asked, his tone sounding rather cynical.

Varvok didn't like his tone, but accepted his crassness. Zek was just being honest, which was more than he could say for the Covenant at large.

"Look, let's get down to the point here," Varvok said, shifting the discussion once more. "You and Retz were right about not trusting the Covenant. I think my men are in danger and I'm positive the Supreme Commander and the Prophet of Empathy do not have their best interests at heart."

"So you want a pirate to help you?" Zek reasoned, laughing somewhat under his throat. "Wow, you must be desperate then. Question is though, what do you need my help with?"

"I need to find out what they're keeping from my men and me," he explained. "From what I can tell, you and Retz aren't much for rules. I need people who are willing to break a few to find some answers, but who won't turn me in for it."

Zek took another swig from his bottle and grinned.

"Sounds cool," Zek agreed. "Retz is always looking for a way to use his silver tongue. But how exactly can we help you find out what you want to know?"

"I need to go down to one of the excavation sites to retrieve some of my men," Varvok clarified. "I want you to tag-along and see if you can plant something for me."

"What?" Zek enquired.

Varvok held up a surveillance bug for him. The kig-yar could only grin broadly.

"Oh you four-eyed bastards are devious," he chuckled. "I could get to like you."

"How long do you think it will take to get it installed?" Varvok asked.

"Please, Retz can buy us all the time we need, don't worry about that," Zek assured him. "Just get us down there, we'll handle the rest."

---

Holland shook the hand of his Naval Counterpart as Captain Keyes entered the briefing room with Commander Shepard and Master Chief in tow. Major Silva stood dutifully at attention near the table waiting for the two to join them proper.

After exchanging a few pleasantries and quickly going over what Keyes had learned while he was a guest of the Covenant, Shepard began to explain the other problem they had. The assembled UNSC officers were intrigued by this Monitor's actions and watched the security footage of his intrusion attempt with great interest.

"Do you suppose this machine knows how to activate Halo?" Keyes asked.

"More than likely if he's in charge of the place," Shepard replied. "The problem is finding him and I'm not sure he wants that."

"We don't exactly have the numbers or time to initiate a proper search," Holland relented. "Too bad, he could've led us to the Control Room."

"That depends on what this 'protocol' of his demands of him, Colonel," Shepard informed him. "It has already told him to restrict first contact to a designated time and place. He didn't share any real information with EDI either, so it's unlikely he'd be willing to explain things to us anyway."

The group nodded to each other and collectively came to a silent agreement.

"This Monitor's status as either friend or foe remains in flux then," Keyes concluded. "We'll have to inform all squad leaders to be on the lookout for it. But in the end, the Covenant and the Control Room need to take priority. However, Commander, if this thing should try to contact your AI again, I hope you've taken steps to insure that he won't evaporate away like he did this time."

"I'm not entirely we could stop his teleportation ability," Shepard admitted. "But we've increased security around the AI Core, inside and out. If he tries to get in again we'll see about forcing first contact. The more we know about this ring the better and this Monitor may be the key to that."

"In the meantime, we need to figure out our next move," Holland surmised. "We're still in need of weapons, we're still stranded here and, most importantly, we have this Control Room to worry about now."

It was certainly a big list of problems to deal with. Shepard supposed they were lucky to have so many officers around to properly coordinate such a wide assortment of issues. First things first though, the Control Room, finding that wouldn't be easy.

"I suppose Cortana is already trying to figure out how we can start tracking it down?" Keyes asked the Master Chief.

"She's going over the battlenet as thoroughly as she can," Chief assured everyone. "She believes we can pick up on the Covenant trail. They've been here longer than us after all."

"Where is Cortana, exactly?" Holland asked inquisitively.

"Tali suggested the idea of helping her sort through the battlenet," Shepard explained. "She also wanted to do a post-mission diagnostic, see how some of her systems upgrades have been holding up."

Keyes only nodded in approval.

"Good," he said. "Cortana is the only AI we have that can infiltrate the Covenant network. She may be our best asset in this guerrilla war. We need to know what they're planning and where they intend to hit."

"We can't expect too much from her though," Holland reminded him. "She's a very capable AI, but she can't do everything for us. Luckily, there's always the old fashioned way of acquiring information."

Holland turned to Silva, allowing him to begin explaining.

"One of our squads captured a Covenant Courier of some sort, an elite," he began. "He had plenty of supplies with him, but we think he may have been delivering more. He may be our ticket to getting our hands on the enemy's weapon stash."

"Hmm, interesting," Keyes nodded, sounding intrigued. "I'd like to see this elite for myself, maybe assist in the interrogation process in some way. If what you say is true, then we'd probably be able to swipe enough plasma guns away from the enemy and do some real damage with them."

Silva nodded in compliance and Holland took over the conversation again himself.

"Well, since we're all getting our hands dirty," he began shrugging. "I'm going to see some of my returning patrols for a personal debriefing. Who knows? Maybe they found some potential juicy targets for us to hit. The more chaos we cause, the more forces they'll pull away from this Control Room search. That will give us more time to find it."

"I'll stay on stand-by with my team," Commander Shepard added. "We'll try and help Cortana locate the Control Room and be ready to move out when she does."

"Well gentlemen, I suggest we all get to it," Keyes concluded before turning to the Spartan beside the Commander. "Chief, you best return with the Commander to his ship and see how Cortana's doing. Other than that, get some rest you two, we'll need everyone in top fighting shape for when we're ready to move out again."

With salutes offered all around, the gathering dispersed, Chief and Shepard staying beside each other as they walked out.

"Probably won't have much time to relax," Shepard admitted. "Between Tali and Cortana, I wouldn't be surprised if they had a location for us when we show up."

"They do seem pretty in sync with each other," the Spartan agreed. "I guess we owe that to your Chief Engineer's proficiency with Artificial Intelligence."

"Yeah she's got a lot experience in that field," Shepard replied, trying not to sound to abrasive about the subject.

Despite how open they had been, about the Reapers and the Wormhole, the crew were still wary about telling them one thing, the truth about the geth and the quarians. They had all agreed it would be pretty complicated to explain about the torrid and ugly history between the two groups, or answer questions as to why they had one geth working for them.

Shepard didn't like withholding that information, but it wasn't his story to tell anyway. He left up to Tali to tell the truth when the time came to tell. But for the moment, when they were stuck in a dimension where AI were common and trusted, it just seemed trivial. What would telling the Master Chief, or anyone from the UNSC, the truth about the geth help in their situation? The heretics were dead and no geth in this universe anyway, save for Legion.

"So when she says there is something wrong with Legion, should we take her seriously?" Chief asked him suddenly.

That stopped Shepard in his tracks. Apparently, just because there was only one geth, didn't mean that a conversation about said geth wouldn't manifest.

"Why do you ask?" Shepard enquired in kind.

Chief looked back at him and began to explain.

"I didn't want to make a scene among your team and I felt you should know in private," he began. "During the mission, I saw Legion freeze up when we were inside the ship. It happened twice, once in the storage room we arrived in and once in the shuttle bay. He had a clean shot, both times, and it took him five whole seconds more than it should have to fire one shot each time."

"Maybe he was adjusting his aim?" Shepard said.

"He said it was a minor error himself, but he just told me not to worry about it," Chief elaborated. "Do you think it could be that glitch Tali mentioned?"

Shepard supposed it was possible, but Tali would probably know better than him. The question was though, why did Chief seem to care so much about it? He said himself he had waited till they had some privacy to explain.

"Why are you telling me this?" Shepard asked. "You want to be sure we all got your back? No weak links?"

Chief shook his head adamantly.

"I just don't want to see you lose a good soldier to a potential mistake," Chief explained solemnly. "What if the freezing is just the start? What if he locks up next time in the middle of a firefight? He'll be a sitting duck."

Chief had a point, but he couldn't exactly bench Legion either. Again, Tali would probably have a solution.

"We better go talk to Tali about this," he told him. "Care to come? You saw what happened better than I did."

Chief just nodded and they both marched off to the Normandy.

---

"You know, it's kinda weird to know there's another girl AI connecting to the Normandy," Joker told Tali. "Are you sure this is safe? I don't want Legion's whole glitch thing happening to EDI, you know. Something happens to her in a fight, we all blow up. I'd prefer to avoid that happening... again."

"Relax, Joker," Tali assured him pleasantly. "Cortana isn't a threat to EDI, she's not built like Legion so she wouldn't encounter a glitch like theirs. In any case, I've taken precautions by adjusting the Normandy's operating systems. It recognizes Cortana as a separate program and keeps her code isolated from EDI's central personality matrix. Besides, Cortana is built to infiltrate foreign operating systems of any kind. She's not going to corrupt EDI just by scanning the security systems through my omni-tool."

"Well, okay," Joker reluctantly agreed as he shifted in his seat. "One other question though, is it okay that I'm watching? With Cortana in your omni-tool, and Cortana looking through the Normandy's systems alongside EDI, it feels all kinds of dirty. And it makes me worry about Shepard knocking me on my ass silly to boot."

Tali just rolled her eyes and laughed.

"It's good to see the Covenant failed to dull your sense of humour while they had you locked up," she remarked.

"Please, sharing a cell with Jack was scarier than them," Joker replied. "Those elites kept saying 'wort, wort' constantly, it was weird and I couldn't take them seriously after that. Probably should've bothered to upgrade my translator before I got captured, how inconsiderate of me."

Before the conversation could continue, Cortana popped up on the omni-tool in holographic avatar form.

"The extra encryption shielding has been installed successfully into the cockpit's console," she reported to the quarian. "Your ship was more compatible with UNSC data streaming than suspected. I can only imagine your prior upgrades may have helped."

"They probably did," Tali concurred. "I'm guessing there were no problems then?"

"I'm not sure how effective the new layer of encryption will be," she admitted to Tali. "If this Monitor is a Forerunner AI, we've never anticipated encountering one trying to hack into our systems. Now is the best time to find out if we can do so I guess. I'm sure the randomized code will at least buy us a few extra seconds to stave off any further hacking attempts. Either way, we need to continue installation, we best get to the next terminal."

Tali nodded and looked towards Joker.

"Sorry to run off so soon, Joker," she apologised. "I just want you to know it's good to see you back in the pilot's chair."

"I'll feel even better when I get some payback on the Covenant," Joker was quick to add. "They didn't see me as much of a threat in that cell, but I'm going make them wish I never left."

"You mean WE will make them wish you never left, Jeff," EDI quickly chimed in as her holographic form appeared on the console.

"That goes without saying, EDI," Joker quickly countered. "You are the ship after all, how else am I going to blow up ships?"

"I could come up with a list of possible options," EDI suggested. "A well placed grenade in the engine core, flying a shuttle into the Bridge, shooting one of the plasma conduits with a pistol."

Everyone looked at EDI's console, a bit confused at her list.

"I believe I was joking," she explained to them all.

Tali decided to just let Joker and EDI be, they probably had more catching up to do and everything. Besides, she still had a lot of things on her plate with Cortana. The AI herself, still in her avatar form on the omni-tool, looked back at Joker briefly as they departed. When she was too far away to see them anymore, she returned her gaze to her quarian carrier.

"Your pilot is rather chatty," Cortana noted. "He does realise that just because I'm in the system doesn't mean I can't hear him, right? Because that stuff about being inside each other bordered on creepy."

"Joker's humour takes a bit getting used to," Tali admitted. "But he's a nice guy and the snark is never meant to be mean-spirited. He just likes making odd observations. Anyway, let's go over what we were talking about for, you said you had found out some interesting things on the Covenant Battlenet?"

"Yes, but I'm having a little trouble with my monitoring runtimes," Cortana replied. "The maintenance work is slowing me down a bit."

"I'm just trying to test out your multi-tasking capabilities," Tali explained. "If you think you can't manage the output, we can hold off on the security maintenance for a bit."

Cortana quickly shook her head.

"No, no, I can handle it," she assured Tali. "When I'm in Chief's head I don't always have the luxury of being able to fully focus on one task completely. Between monitoring enemy movement, sending and receiving intel, hacking, and monitoring Covenant transmissions, it can get overwhelming. In comparison, this is nothing. It's just going a bit slower than I'd like at the moment. It could be the fact your omni-tool isn't as well adjusted to me as Chief's armour systems are."

"Just tell me what you found," said Tali. "I'll see about reconfiguring my omni-tool's systems to better assist you. Maybe I can speed up the process a bit. This thing may not be MJOLNIR Armour, but its hacking capabilities are still advanced enough to help you out."

It was one of the reasons Tali had suggest Cortana use it to amplify her own infiltration runtimes in the first place. Furthermore, by using the omni-tool to reroute through the Normandy's own systems, they'd be able to utilize some of EDI's own hacking runtimes without a direct connection. It had proven useful so far and it kept EDI and the UNSC AI from any potential side-effects a direct connection could cause. Tali still didn't think there was any potential danger, but it was still one of her precautions.

Cortana agreed to the idea and began to explain her findings as Tali worked on her omni-tool.

"Covenant traffic concerning the Control Room is constant," Cortana began to explain. "They have teams all over Halo searching for any structures they believe could house it. They seem to be having difficulty accessing the ring's systems, however. It's making it difficult for them to make headway in getting anywhere."

"That sounds odd," Tali reasoned aloud. "You'd think they'd know what to expect by now with Forerunner artefacts."

"The Covenant have never been very good at technical work," Cortana explained. "It's an ever present stumbling block for them. Brute force and troop numbers are their strengths. Speaking of, I'm noticing more shipments of supplies and heavy ordinance to Covenant forces below. We may have stirred them up a bit after saving Keyes."

Tali finished rerorganizing system configurations to Cortana's program parameters. The AI's lit up suddenly.

"Oh now it's coming in a lot quicker," she noted aloud. "Give me a moment, I'm running some comparisons."

Tali waited for a few seconds for Cortana to finish her analysis. She walked up to the Galaxy Map's terminal station as she did. She started to open a connection for Cortana, when the AI returned.

"I've been getting references to something called a Silent Cartographer," she explained. "It keeps coming up in the searches of the unencrypted channels. Unfortunately, the Battlenet isn't giving out more details than that."

"Do you think they've detected you in the system?" Tali asked, sounding concerned.

"No, I would've been locked by now if they had," Cortana assured her, shaking her head. "They know we're spying on them by now anyway, but this is the only action they've taken to securing their lines of communication so far. My guess is, they want to secure whatever intel flows into and out concerning this Cartographer. Lucky for us, they've pretty much alerted me about what to look out for. I can isolate the references to this Silent Cartographer within the network, crack the encrypted channels dedicated to it and pool all information on it in no time."

It was as good a lead as any, especially since the Covenant were so eager to keep greater details about this Cartographer on restricted channels. Cortana's ability to pinpoint and deduce it all was a testament to her prowess. It was little surprise to Tali though, as the AI was designed for infiltration in the first place. That didn't stop the quarian from offering more help.

"I developed an encrypted network hacking program so we could intercept enemy transmissions in the field," she told Cortana. "Maybe you could modify it to help you out with cracking the Covenant's restricted channels."

Tali uploaded the program's files to the AI. Cortana put her hand up in front of her and a smaller holo-window appeared before her eyes. She looked over the specs for the program quickly before closing the window.

"I think I can use this," she told Tali, looking up at her with a bit of a grin. "The supplementary algorithms for the detection shielding are particularly impressive. How'd you make all this so compact?"

"Trial and error," Tali admitted. "Constructing code for hacks can be time consuming, lucky me I have plenty of free time."

Tali and Cortana started work on encrypting the Galaxy Map's terminal and every console connected to it. It was a pretty low risk system, but one could potentially access the others from here with the right know how. With the Monitor on the loose, it was better to be safe than sorry.

"There is one other thing," Cortana piped up as the work neared completion. "I've noticed a few lines of communication on the battlenet have been cut. I recall pinpointing them before, but now they're just gone. The best reference I've gotten to any of this is that it seems they've enforced radio silence with several entrenched positions."

"They could be afraid we're trying to hone in on those garrisons to conduct more raids," Tali suggested. "Either way, without any connection we can't do anything about it."

"I know, it's just weird," Cortana explained. "Those positions had solid connections to the rest of the battlenet and now they're offline all of a sudden. Meanwhile, other Covenant positions aren't switched off, it's peculiar."

Tali knew Cortana was probably right, it did seem strange. However, they still couldn't do anything about it. Even so, it would probably be wise to keep an eye on the situation. For all they knew, those entrenched positions were planning some kind of attack on Alpha Base.

The installation didn't take too long, although the prospect of having to do this with every console and critical system aboard still felt arduous. It was necessary, Tali understood that, it was just it required walking all over the ship. But they were trying to protect EDI, so that made the work a little less tiring.

Cortana seemed to be enjoying it though.

"The Normandy's systems are exceedingly fascinating," she commented. "So much information packed into such a small space. None of our ships are like that."

"Our ships aren't built around massive railguns," Tali noted as she called up the elevator. "It's still an amazing ship though compared to our universes' standards. It's improved from the original ship's design, and that one was still incredible. The fact they were able to fit a drive core as big as the one we have inside this ship is an achievement in and of itself."

"You should consider upgrading its invisibility functions," Cortana cautioned. "Masking your heat signature will only get you so far. If we had time, we could install reflective panels to properly hide your ship."

"I'd rather we focus on getting off this ring first," Tali informed her. "But that's probably something we should keep in mind."

The elevator arrived and Tali entered. As it descended, Cortana continued the conversation along a different line of questioning.

"What are the ships among your people like, Tali?" She asked.

"Too many to name," Tali admitted. "The biggest ones are live-ships, effectively nomadic space stations that travel within the centre of the fleet. Although we do have large ships focused on offensive and defensive capabilities, the bulk of our fleet is made up of smaller vessels. Most of them are pretty old though, not as technologically advanced. They're also all pretty crowded."

"I guess it must've been a weird transition coming aboard this ship then," Cortana surmised.

"Not entirely," Tali admitted. "The sense of community is similar enough. I used to get pretty homesick, but after living with everyone here for so long now they've become almost like a second family."

The elevator doors opened and Tali stepped out onto the crew deck. There weren't many people here yet, dawn was still an hour or so away and everyone who was able was getting some sleep. She wished she could join them, but sleep wasn't on her agenda for the moment. She had stayed awake way longer than this anyway.

"How exactly did you join up with the Normandy anyway?" Cortana asked. "I'm aware you were on pilgrimage and you helped the Commander with getting evidence against some rogue agent, but there weren't too many specifics in the dossier."

"There's not much to it," Tali admitted as she walked. "I extracted a memory core from a geth, one of the heretic ones I mean, that had a connection to a rogue Spectre. They're kinda like Spartans a bit, but they don't always have super advanced genetic modification and everything. Long story short, I got targeted by some assassins the Spectre hired, tried to find some protection and in the end I winded up getting saved by Shepard before the bad guys could kill me. Although I did manage for a bit before he came to the rescue."

"How so?" Cortana asked.

"I burned up one of the bosh'tets who had shot at me in a space station's incinerator," Tali answered rather bluntly.

Cortana just looked at her wide-eyed before whistling aloud.

"Yeesh, you are quite dangerous for an alien who's forced to stay locked up in a suit," she finally spoke up.

"We may not have the best immune systems, but we're tougher than we look," Tali told the AI. "We've survived for three hundred years without a planet after all."

"I'll say," Cortana agreed. "Given what I've heard, I'd imagine the UNSC would appreciate having allies with a giant fleet at their disposal who are resourceful as your people. It would certainly even the odds in this war a bit."

Tali realised how weird it was that an AI was praising her people so much. She wondered if Cortana would still feel the way she did about the quarians if she knew the full-scale of their history. She had still not told her, or anyone, the reason for the nomadic lifestyle of her people. She wasn't sure if that was because she felt it would be awkward or if she was just fearful of how others would judge her.

She knew she'd eventually have to say something, but for the moment it still didn't feel like it really mattered one way or another. They were trapped on an ancient ring world that was quite possibly made by a mysterious extinct alien race. Why complicate things more with a bit of history that had nothing to do with their current situation? Cortana wasn't asking anyway, so it wasn't like she was lying to her about it. At least, that's what she told herself.

Regardless, it wasn't the only thing she was hiding from Cortana. While the truth of her people's history remained in doubt as to its necessity, this particular thing was highly relevant to the matters at hand. But Halsey had told her to let things run their course. She needed to be sure the process had worked and that meant observing Cortana carefully.

Before they could reach the Forward Gun Battery, Tali noticed Jack making her way over to Gardner's mess hall. It was odd seeing her out of her usual hidey hole in the engine room. She never ate with them, preferring to have her meals delivered. Tali sometimes wondered if it had to do something with how long she spent in prison, if she had become institutionalized. Jack's history suggested there was more to it than that though.

"Hey Jack," Tali greeted her as she approached.

She hadn't always gotten along with Jack, but she tried her best not to judge her too harshly. She knew it couldn't have been easy for her, living on her own for so long. She tried to take whatever opportunities she could to at least show her that she considered Jack a part of the crew. Most of Tali's attempts hadn't elicited more than an annoyed grunt, glare or other dismissive response. Conversations were scarce with Jack in general.

This time was different though.

"Hey, Tech Head," Jack sighed as she leaned against the counter with her elbows. "Why are you still up? I figured you'd be catching what sleep you could before the Commander sends us out again."

Tali didn't take too much offence to Jack not calling her by her name. She seemed to prefer the impersonal touch of her nicknames that she gave people. Kelly had suggested it was a defence mechanism, that Jack kept people at a distance using derisive or neutral terms. Tali didn't know about that, she just knew it was better than being called 'Suit Rat' by people.

"I'm busy with Cortana tightening up security systems across the ship," Tali explained, pointing to her omni-tool. "Why are you up? Given what you've been through you deserve more sleep than most of us."

"I've got too much running around in my head right now," Jack admitted. "I was locked up in that shithole for hours, but it felt like forever. Fuckers think they can just put me in a cage and count me out. Well, screw that. Next chance I get, I'm going to paint the ground whatever colour their blood is and use their skulls as clawballs."

"You'll get your chance, Jack," Tali said as she tried to both assure and calm her. "There's plenty of Covenant to go around."

Jack just snorted once, although her response wasn't what Tali expected.

"I guess," she relented, her usual derisive tone gone. "Well, you better get back to whatever it is you're doing then. Don't expect me to be here when I get back, I'm just having Gardner make me a quick sandwich or something."

For Jack, that was probably one of her nicer goodbyes. Tali accepted it. It was better than her usual 'piss off' or 'fuck you' ways of ending a conversation. As Tali left the biotic to her food however, Cortana was quick to add her own opinion about her.

"Not much for the social scene, I wager," she surmised.

"Let's just say Jack has never been fond of cages and it has seriously affected her," Tali quickly explained.

Cortana seemed to nod knowingly.

"You glad to have her back though?" She asked a second later.

"She may not be much of a team player, but she's there when it counts," Tali promised. "So yes, I am glad to see she's okay. I just wish she tried a bit harder to interact with us. Closing yourself off like she does is never good, but that could just be the quarian in me talking."

"No, you're right," Cortana informed her. "It's never good to keep yourself in a box like that, especially when other people are depending on you. I guess we all just have to try in one way or another to help them out of it now and then."

Tali nodded in agreement, wondering exactly what she meant by all that. She had a hunch, given what Halsey had explained to her about Cortana's purpose with the Master Chief. She kept it to herself though, no sense prying into Cortana's thoughts too deeply, not now anyway.

Tali soon entered the forward battery to find Garrus at his usual workstation. Apparently, he wasn't in the mood for sleeping either. She needed his console for a moment though, so she caught his attention by clearing her throat. Garrus turned and looked surprised to see her.

"Oh, hey Tali," he said. "I wasn't expecting you to be down here."

"We're doing a security upgrade," she explained. "Mind if me and Cortana take over your station for a bit."

"So long as you don't touch my calibrations on the gun," Garrus told her. "I want this thing back to working order before the next fight."

"I'll try to refrain from ruining your hard work," Tali replied, rolling her eyes.

Garrus stepped aside and Tali got to work with Cortana. As Tali fed information to the AI, she noticed Garrus hovering over her a little. Her eyes peered over to the left to deliver a curious look in the turian's direction. He had a strangely blank stare on his face, which could only mean one thing.

"If you want to talk to me, you can talk to me," she told him. "You don't have to keep looking at me awkwardly."

"Sorry," Garrus apologised, shaking his head. "I just had a bit on my mind tonight about things. Kat and I talked about Carter and I brought up something it reminded me of and-"

Garrus' mouth suddenly locked up and he couldn't continue the sentence.

"Never mind," he quickly blurted out. "It wasn't important."

'Well, that conversation wasn't dropped as quickly as it was brought up at all,' Tali thought to herself. She decided to let it slide though, Garrus deserved to keep some thoughts to himself if he wanted to. After all, she was doing the same.

"So, the rescue mission went well then?" Garrus asked.

"We took a few casualties," Tali admitted. "Fewer than expected though, thanks to Shepard and the Master Chief."

"I hear Miranda got one of those grunts in her hair," he joked.

Tali laughed a little, remembering that incident in the back of her mind.

"I've never seen her that mad," Tali chuckled. "Save for when her sister was in danger. I guess that confirms it, never touch Miranda's hair. She'll kill you."

"Well she does spend a lot of time keeping it maintained," Garrus added. "Its part of her regimental routine, I think. I just find the image funny. Of course, learning we're on an ancient alien weapon planet isn't exactly as funny."

The revelations that Keyes had learned had spread throughout Alpha Base. It wasn't that surprising to see that Garrus had heard about it himself.

"It is kinda scary," Tali confessed. "We don't even know what it does yet. We've walking on it for almost twenty four straight hours and we've only just now figured out what we're dealing with."

"Does Shepard think we can use it against the Reapers?" Garrus asked. "If the Covenant wants it bad enough, the Inquisitor probably wants it too."

"It has come up," Tali replied with a shrug. "But he's trying not to get his hopes up, at least not until we figure out what it does. Right now, he just wants to make sure this ring's self-proclaimed Monitor doesn't mess with our ship again."

"Oh, so that's what this is about?" Garrus rationalised. "Never thought I'd live to see teleportation made a reality, but that security footage doesn't lie."

Forerunner tech was definitely leagues beyond theirs. Halsey had made that clear enough before. The fact they had probably built this place was further proof of it. She couldn't help but wonder what other secrets Halo held. The thought made her laugh inwardly as it reminded her of Halsey's notes in her journal concerning similar Forerunner finds. She was starting sound a bit like the good Doctor now.

"I wish it was more willing to talk to us rather than trying to order EDI around," she told Garrus. "We could actually get to the bottom of things instead of looking around for answers. It feels like back in the old days on the SR-1, except now we're stuck on one planet instead of zipping all over the galaxy. Same amount of trouble though, if not more."

Garrus nodded and then went silent for a minute. Tali thought he had reached the end of his conversation, but she turned out to be wrong.

"It's funny, isn't it Tali?" He asked her, causing her to turn her head towards him. "How we look back on that whole Saren business and remember how sure we all were, how we thought we knew everything. Now we're here and it just seems unreal, doesn't it? All the stuff we've learned about ourselves and the galaxy?"

"I suppose so," Tali conceded. "I mean, if you told me back then I'd be working with at least three AIs closely like this, one of them a geth, I'd have laughed in your face... and probably would've been easily insulted for some reason."

Garrus shook his head at that.

"No, not that," he tried to correct her. "What I mean is I thought I knew how things worked and how they were. I wasn't always the easiest person to get along with or be friends with. I had a lot of issues with my family and my job and I, more often than not, took it out on good people. I haven't always been a good friend, is what I'm saying and, I just want you to know, I'm glad I met you. You taught me that maybe I wasn't always as smart as I thought I was, I mean."

Tali smiled a little. She didn't know what brought this on, but it was nice that Garrus was opening up like this. It felt like he was putting himself down a little, however, his tone lower than usual. She tried to see about lifting his spirits a bit.

"You're a good guy, Garrus," Tali told him. "I was a bit difficult myself. We were both younger then, a little less wiser now. My people have a saying; you learn more of yourself each galactic cycle. It's up to you to decide whether you accept those lessons or not."

"Well, I just wanted you to know that I-"

There was a ping on the intercom that interrupted Garrus.

"Tali, uh, the Commander is here with our friendly green armoured super-soldier," Joker's voice spoke up. "They say they got something they need to talk to you about."

"I'll be right up, Joker," Tali answered back.

At that moment, Cortana returned to the omni-tool proper, standing erect on the quarian's wrist.

"Wow, perfect timing," she said. "I just finished."

"Sorry, Garrus," Tali apologised to her friend. "We'll have to finish this another time."

Garrus meekly nodded and Tali went for the door. She turned back once to him as they began to close. She stopped it by placing her hand between them, forcing the automatic mechanism's securities to kick in and stop it.

"If it counts for anything, you kept me honest with myself," Tali told him. "I didn't want to admit a lot of things that were kinda ugly, but you showed me I couldn't ignore them. I appreciate that."

With that Tali left Garrus to his calibrations and Cortana popped back up on her omni-tool.

"Wonder where all that came from?" She asked Tali, a confused look on her face.

"Probably from whatever he and Kat talked about," Tali surmised. "I just hope he's not too depressed or anything. He's always vulnerable to that and I hate seeing him that way."

"Well, I'm sure you cheered him up a bit with those last words," Cortana reasoned. "I thought saw a bit of a smile for a second there. Now, let's see what the Commander and Master Chief want."

Tali walked back to the elevator, looking back once or twice on the forward battery's door. She hoped Cortana was right about the turian's spirits being picked up. They'd need Garrus in top form if they were going to survive this.

---

The excavation site wasn't what Varvok expected. He thought they were going to big holes in the ground. In reality, it was s large installation embedded in the rock face of a cliff. The equipment was strewn about the site in a disorderly manner. He wasn't sure if that was because of recent problems or if it had always been like this. He was betting on the former though.

He exited the shuttle with both Zek and Retz following him. They Phantom waited patiently for them on the makeshift landing pad the garrison had set up. The trio were greeted by a sangheili Major and his entourage. Other than him, and a few scattered unggoy and kig-yar, there weren't many Covenant out in the open.

"Lieutenant Commander Varvok," The Major began. "I was told to expect your arrival... but not with kig-yar."

"We're not really with him," Retz quickly replied. "We're just on the same transport. We were sent to deliver some Directed Energy Pistols here. Our crate is in the Phantom, you can inspect it yourself."

The sangheili looked suspicious.

"I was not aware of any incoming shipment," he said.

"We tried to radio in," Retz explained. "But for some reason your radio isn't working. Perhaps your superiors simply were unable to contact you about our arrival."

"That is unlikely," the sangheili stated quickly.

"You sure?" Zek asked. "What other reason would there be for your radio not working?"

The sangheili didn't answer at first, his eyes darting about. Varvok could practically see the gears in his head, desperate to come up with a cover story no doubt. In the end, the Major looked towards the Phantom and motioned his two warriors to go to the aircraft. He then stared back at Zek and Retz.

"Do not wander too far," he warned. "You're lucky I need the weapons in any case."

"Never look a gift horse in the mouth," Retz chirped slyly. "That's my motto, sir."

Varvok suspected Retz only wanted other people to follow that 'motto' of his, if only so it would make his job a lot easier.

"Can you go fetch my men now please?" Varvok was quick to interrupt. "I am allowed take a specific number away from each excavation site, but I'm apparently not allowed to close for some reason."

"This site is holy, you not allowed upon it," the sangheili argued. "Unless you intend to convert to the faith upon this very spot-"

"I'll pass," Varvok said sneering.

The sangheili growled under his throat, but backed off.

"Very well, batarian," the sangheili declared. "I will fetch your men."

The sangheili walked off, leaving the trio to talk by themselves.

"Sorry you had to lose a whole crate of guns for this," Varvok apologised.

"Meh, we stole them from an arms storage cache a while back anyway," Retz explained.

"Right under their noses too," Zek chuckled. "They don't even know it's missing."

Varvok was just happy they were helping him regardless of what weapons they were giving up. The point was they were on the ground and they were close to the excavation site. Now, they just had to plant their little electronic spy. Varvok quickly pawned the bug off to Retz.

"You sure you can handle this?" Varvok asked him.

"I'll be fine, you two just keep them distracted long enough," Retz explained. "I only need a few minutes with their communications uplink and we're golden. I'll be back in two shakes of a tail feather."

Retz scurried off, slinking into the operations area of the site. Zek and Varvok just watched.

"He's the smoothest operator I know," Zek assured Varvok, noticing the concern on his face. "I made him first mate for a reason. He's gotten me out of tons of jams with that silver tongue of his. He once stole a small shuttlecraft by talking this guy into giving up his activation codes to him. He'll get it planted, don't worry."

"I'm not worried about him," Varvok insisted. "I'm trying to think about who I'm going to bring back with me. The idea of leaving any of my people behind in this place is appalling."

Zek looked around the excavation site. He noticed the grunts in the far corners of the area, far away from the structure. He saw his fellow kig-yar bunched up tightly together around equipment and vehicles, they seemed just as shaken. There were only a handful of sangheili he could visibly see, and they all kept looking over their shoulders constantly, hyper aware.

"Something certainly seems to have them all spooked," Zek admitted. "But I'm sure your men will understand that you can't take all of them. I'd imagine they'd just be happy that some of them are away from here. I know I would be."

"I know," Varvok agreed, staring up at the structure the Covenant were trying to break into. "Something about this building, it disturbs me. It's very gloomy."

"And just looking at it makes my skin crawl, ugh," Zek concurred. "I don't know what they're digging up, but I wouldn't want to be part of it."

Moments later, the Major returned with several batarians. Varvok did a quick head count as they approached and noticed something was wrong. There were supposed to be forty some odd batarians posted here. Now, there were only twenty or so. He had expected to see Sergeant Kreka in the line-up, but he was among the missing.

"Where are the rest of my people?" Varvok demanded to know. "There were supposed to be more stationed here."

"We required additional hands," the Major said rather offhandedly. "So we sent them with a group inside the facility."

"And have they reported back?" Varvok asked him persistently.

"That is not for you to know," the Major replied.

Varvok looked over his soldiers, all standing at attention and proper. But even they couldn't hide the sense of wariness they felt.

"I was told I would be allowed to pick who came with me," Varvok informed the Major. "I was going to ask my men who they felt should come with me and who should stay."

"We picked for you so they did not have to bother," the Major declared. "Be grateful for our efforts. Now, are you finished here?"

Varvok was about to respond, when he heard something from the left. Stumbling forward, as a sangheili pushed him, was Retz. As the kig-yar brushed himself off, the sangheili turned to his Commanding Officer.

"I caught him fiddling around with some of vehicles near the communications array," stated the Covenant warrior. "I think he was trying to remove the manual ignition lockdown."

"Not so, I was simply seeing about tuning up the thing," explained Retz. "You never know when you're going to need to make a clean getaway and you know how unreliable some equipment can be if it isn't properly maintained."

The Major did not seem convinced by the story.

"I did not give you permission to stroll through the area," He growled at Retz.

"I just felt he should get to stretch his legs a little," Zek tried to explain. "I mean, we've been cooped up on that that Phantom for awhile now. You know us kig-yar. We're very antsy, we gotta move, and we can't stay stuck in a cramped little dropship for hours. Besides, no harm done, we're on the same team and we all hate those smelly stupid humans, right?"

"Besides, if I really wanted to steal something it wouldn't be whole the vehicle," Retz argued. "Just the plasma injectors, those sell for a lot."

The incensed Major looked like he intended to continue the argument, his eyes flaring at the kig-yar, but he wouldn't get the chance to. There was the sound of a crackling comm-link and the sangheili suddenly put his hand up to his ear.

"What?" He asked to the person on the other end. "Keep him contained, do not let him get close. We cannot be sure. I'm sending all guards to meet you there. Remember, do not let him up."

Sangheili across the excavation site suddenly picked up and ran frantically into the structure. Varvok tried to follow them all with his eyes, tied to see where they were headed, but could not. For all he knew, that man he was demanding to keep contained was Kreka. He needed to know what was going on. He called out to the Major as he started to rush over to the structure.

"What's going on?" He asked desperately, hoping that maybe he'd get an answer of some kind. "Did the group you send down come back? Are my people with them?"

"This is none of your concern, leave, you have what you wanted," The Major was quick to order him as he pulled out his plasma rifle. "Take your men and go, now!"

He had said it like a warning while his eyes kept getting drawn back to the structure. Eventually, he just left. The two guards who had made up his entourage then descended upon the trio. They forcibly returned them back to their phantom with the other batarian soldiers following. Varvok clearly saw he wasn't going to get anywhere here and decided to depart. With his twenty men in tow, he, Zek and Retz boarded their Phantom and took off.

"Did you get it planted?" Varvok asked when they were away.

"Misdirection is the first rule of a good lie," Retz informed him. "I planted the bug in the main communication hub's console like you wanted, but I knew I would likely be spotted on my way back. So, I allowed myself to get 'caught' in the act of ripping off a Rapid Assault Vehicle. They'll think I was trying to snag components instead of fiddling with their radio."

That was good news, but that did nothing to help Varvok forget what had just happened.

"Did you see how they just took off?" He asked the others as he looked out the side of the Phantom. "I've only been working with them for a short while, but I've never seen them move that fast outside of combat. And what did he mean 'keep him contained?' That sounds like he's worried about catching some kind of disease."

"Sangheili aren't afraid of getting sick," Zek told him. "But, I will concede that they sounded pretty determined to keep something down there from getting out. Maybe they did release some sort of biological contaminant, but at every blacked out excavation site?"

Zek was right, something didn't add up. All he knew for sure was that something was definitely scaring the sangheili. Kreka hadn't been exaggerating at all. He just hoped that the Sergeant was still okay down there and that if this was an infection he hadn't contracted it.

"Can we drop my men off on your ship, Zek?" Varvok requested. "I have more sites to visit and I'm not sure we'll be able to fit everyone in here."

"I'll call down some more Phantoms to help," Zek assured him. "Let's hope they haven't sent any more of your people down into those structures before we get there."

"I'm positive about one thing, this isn't an isolated incident," Retz warned. "I think we're going to need more bugs."

Varvok nodded, they would need more if they wanted a fuller picture of all this. Luckily, he always kept a few of them handy, just in case. The Covenant wouldn't be keeping any more secrets from him, not if he had anything to say about it.

---

She had feared this would happen. Now she finally had validation for that fear. The glitch was not benign, and its adverse effects were now starting to show. With the information in hand, Tali decided it was time to run another diagnostic on Legion. With Shepard and the Master Chief looking on, and both Cortana and Kasumi assisting, she began to scan Legion's mainframe. They needed to see how far the glitch had spread.

Legion didn't seem to appreciate the second intrusion into his programming, but after insisting it was for the geth's safety, they complied. Legion currently sat on Mordin's table, his central processor hooked up to a terminal. The Professor was busy with one of his own experiments and was glad to offer a place for them to conduct their scan. It didn't take long for Tali to trace the source of the problem.

"The glitch is beginning to disrupt your neural link within the platform," Tali told Legion bluntly. "Your ability to respond to a high pressure situation is becoming clouded. You froze up during the mission because your runtimes were waiting on input from what it believes is your individual personality. The glitch isn't sentient though, so it takes time for it to recognize that it is a foreign element."

"We can compensate for this," Legion tried to assure her. "We will simply endeavour to isolate the glitch from our consensus."

"It's in your neural link, Legion," Tali reiterated sternly. "You can try isolating it, but the damage is done. The longer this goes on, the greater it will affect you."

Legion's head plates scrunched up slightly. Tali tried to read whether it was a show of anger towards her or something else, but she couldn't. Shepard interrupted, however, asking the obvious question.

"What do you think will happen?" Shepard asked her.

"The glitch will start to interfere with Legion's individual programs, clogging the connection each of them has to the other," Tali explained. "The platform's response time will decrease further, then information recovery will be affected, there is a risk of power loss as the platform tries to compensate for the strain the glitch is causing, the neural link will start fragmenting, the connection Legion's programs have will start falling apart as the glitch continues to spread through the systems."

"Can't we just move them all to a new body?" Kasumi asked. "I mean, if the glitch is affecting the platform, first and foremost, maybe transferring Legion to a new one will help."

It was a sound idea, but Tali had her suspicions it wouldn't work. She turned Cortana.

"Can you give me an estimate on that succeeding?" She asked her.

Cortana quickly ran over some numbers, but soon started to shake her head.

"No, the data suggests the glitch is affecting Legion's software now," Cortana answered. "We could put them in a new body, but it won't resolve the problem. The neural link will still be weakened and damaged by the glitch's influence. I'm not even sure if the geth can properly transfer themselves to a platform that doesn't fit the minimum parameters they require."

"Our platform is unique among the geth," Legion added. "An improper transfer into a non-compatible body, such as a drone, would put us at risk of data loss. Without a direct carrier to a systems hub to act as a conduit for maintaining all information, we would potentially lose several months worth of memory."

"Not an option then," Shepard declared, looking to Legion with concern. "I'm not gonna risk lobotomizing you for something that probably won't resolve the issue anyway. Tali, Cortana, is there another way?"

Tali checked the data again, searching for a possible answer, but there was no easy one.

"This thing is the synthetic equivalent of a tumour to us at this point," she explained. "Any procedure we undertake would require painstakingly careful splicing to separate it from Legion's systems and then purge it."

"Are you suggesting we destroy the only semblance of individuality we possess?" Legion asked.

Tali let out an exasperated sigh. She knew they were going to be difficult. Damn synthetic curiosity, the only emotion they, at times, possessed. Didn't they understand she was trying to help them?

"It is not properly integrated into your system," Tali reminded the geth. "It is infecting and disrupting the very thing that holds your cohesive consensus together. It is not helping you, Legion. It doesn't represent the next evolution for the geth."

"But it does represent the first instance of individual recognition among the geth," Legion suggested. "Even if we cannot recall the times it creates an individual persona within us, it does exist. Perhaps, with the proper care, we can better study and understand this concept for the betterment of all geth."

"And you're going to manage that before it completely wrecks your systems, how exactly?" Cortana asked. "At the current rate we're at, fifteen percent of your critical systems are going to be compromised within the next few weeks. Within a month, your neural link will start to degrade. After that, it's anyone's guess what will happen to you, all of you."

Tali hoped Legion would see the logic in eliminating the glitch before it became more of a problem. However, the geth remained unyielding.

"We will accept the risk," Legion declared. "If we can stave off its damaging effects until we reach a geth hub system, we shall be able to transfer the glitch into an isolated containment program and allow all geth to properly study it."

"There are no hubs in this universe, Legion. The chances of you getting back to the other geth in time for that is unlikely," Tali informed it. "You must recognize that."

"We do," Legion accepted. "However, the chances of this glitch potentially improving our understanding of individuality could greatly benefit us. Properly harnessed, it could lead to a better understanding of ourselves and how we might eventually evolve should individuality truly manifest within us on its own."

Tali just shook her head at it all. Was this what doctors had to go through when they had a stubborn patient asking for homeopathic treatment instead of actual medicine?

"I don't think you are capable of understanding the potential effects of this glitch," Tali warned. "If it has already compromised your neural link, it could compromise other systems. Without the cohesive collective link between programs you usually have, you could already be more vulnerable to hacking attempts or systems malfunctions. Your pre-programmed defences could be in danger of failing."

Legion cocked its head from side to side, their plates clicking as they moved about rapidly. The central single eye of the platform kept closing and opening as the geth stared at Tali.

"You base your assumptions on a predetermined analysis," Legion stated "You have always feared what this glitch may achieve for us, just as you disapprove of our link with program-DOT."

"I fear what it could do to you," Tali insisted. "We have the data, it says this will happen. What more do you need to convince you?"

Suddenly, Legion's face plates scrunched up together before quickly spreading outward in a seemingly defiant display.

"I do not need you to interfere with my mind or decisions," Legion declared, its single eye glowing red and glaring directly at Tali. "I also find the concept of concern for my well-being originating from a Creator disingenuous at best."

The outburst made the room go silent, everyone staring at Legion awkwardly. Tali didn't say anything in response, but just stared back at Legion with an evident look of unease. The geth's eye returned to normal colour and recognized Tali's expression. It peered around the room in a state that resembled confusion. It didn't seem to understand why they were looking at him, why they were all giving him such stares.

"Did we refer to ourselves in the singular again?" It asked.

"You did a little more than that, Mister," Kasumi cracked.

"What just happened?" Chief asked Cortana.

The AI was quick to bring up a diagram.

"The neural link was disrupted again," Cortana answered. "Apparently, it registered the response of a single program into the final consensus without input from the others, causing it to override the initial response. In other words, he lost his built-in filter."

"That shouldn't happen," Shepard noted. "As far as I know, the Consensus can't just be overridden by a single program's conclusion. Right?"

Everyone turned to Legion for the answer, its features softening as it accepted the logic of the situation.

"No, it should not happen," it admitted, sounding defeated.

Tali stepped forward and put her hand on Legion's shoulder.

"I'm going to install some barriers into your systems," she began to explain. "They'll potentially slow the glitch's infestation long enough until I can come up with a procedure. Until then, no interfacing with DOT directly and I want you to limit your interactions with electronic equipment in general. With your systems compromised, you could be vulnerable to anyone or thing with technological prowess."

"Will he still be able to fight?" Chief asked her. "Or should we just bench him? Those batarians probably have a few engineers among their ranks. Thye could be the biggest threat to him now."

"As long as someone is with him to back him up, fine," Tali answered. "But I wouldn't recommend it."

Shepard walked around to Legion's front. He stood alongside Tali and looked at the geth earnestly.

"Don't worry, Legion," he promised. "We're going to fix this."

Legion just nodded, accepting their diagnosis at last. Tali had a feeling, however, that even if they accepted that this was what had to happen, they didn't like it. And then there was that outburst from before. For the first time in a long while, Tali had to admit she had been scared of Legion at that moment.

But in that moment, she didn't hate Legion for it. She hated herself for slipping back into that fear so easily. She never wanted to feel that way about Legion again.

---

The news of a Covenant prisoner at the base spread pretty quickly. The fact it was an Elite was even bigger news. They never got caught. A grunt or a kig-yar, that happened every couple of times, but Elites never surrendered. You captured one if it was wounded or knocked out it in a fight, and only if your Commanding Officer thought it was worth the risk to not just finish it off. The reputation of being near super warriors meant a lot of Sergeants and Captains choose the bullet rather than the cuffs. To Kowalski, that was why it made sense an ODST had made the call, they weren't scared of Covies.

They weren't allowing many people to see the thing up close. They kept him deep in the structure proper, behind a metal door that was under constant surveillance by two Spartans, 058 and Noble 3. As they stood guard, Kowalski could hear the interrogators working behind it. Supposedly, Captain Keyes had taken an interest to him. All of that rolled together made it the biggest show at Alpha Base, even despite the fact that no one could see it. There was no proper interrogation room, so they didn't have a close circuit camera or two-way mirror to look through. All they had was the noises they heard, leaving a lot open to the imagination.

"Think they're beating his skull in?" Ellingham asked Kowalski.

"I imagine that would be against regulations," Kowalski suggested.

"Oh fuck regulations," Ellingham argued. "These bastards murder millions in an afternoon. Who cares what we do to them? Besides, they're not human. They didn't sign any of the War Laws Pacts back in the day. I think they're exempt."

Kowalski couldn't argue with that logic, or the emotions behind it. He probably wouldn't mind to lay in a few punches himself, but it didn't sound like that was what was happening. The best he could hear was angered shouting and maybe the strange tone of voice the Elites talked in. But he couldn't make out many words, just a few here and there.

"What do you suppose Keyes is asking in there?" Kowalski enquired towards Ellingham.

"Well, they say he was some kind of courier," Ellingham shrugged. "My guess is they want to know where they can find a few weapons. I wouldn't mind getting my hands on some of those plasma guns."

"I don't know, I think the Normandy crew has a bit more variety," Kowalski suggested. "That Avenger I fired is a pretty good standard weapon, especially with those ammo mods. I wish they had more to spare."

"Yeah, but with that recharger Professor Mordin handed out back on Reach we can use those things longer," Ellingham argued. "I'm just saying that I'd like a weapon I can use as often as possible. Even the Normandy Crew's guns run out of juice, and they don't even technically use ammo."

Again, Kowalski couldn't argue with his logic. He still thought those ammunition mods were cool though. Perhaps, if they encountered some of those batarians again, they could take some of their guns after killing them. Who knew what kinds of crazy weapons those guys were packing.

As he thought to himself, he looked amongst the crowd of assorted Marines and Troopers. None of them dared step closer to the door. The Spartans were pretty intimidating after all, so there was a rather large space between them and the interrogation room proper. Not everyone stayed for long, some just passed through, tried to listen in and then left when they realised they wouldn't get to see much. Those who stayed were only there to get a short glimpse of the Covie when the Captain inevitably opened the door after he was done. They'd probably try to ask Keyes a few questions before he left too, after giving him the proper salute and everything. Chances were, however, he was probably just going to tell them to disperse and not answer any questions.

He couldn't really blame them for gawking though. This was the closest to any kind of entertainment they all had at the base. It was kind of sad when you thought about it, Kowalski had to admit that. Were they really that starved for something unexpected already? It had barely been a day since they crashed.

As Kowalski scanned the crowd he noticed that one face didn't belong to a Marine or Trooper. It was Samara, staring down the door from a little ways down the hall. Curious as to why she was here, Kowalski moved through the crowd and walked over to her. She didn't notice he was there until he made his presence known.

"Didn't think you'd be too interested in trying to get a peek at the Covie," he told her. "You sure you don't want to get some rest?"

"I've stayed awake during longer nights," Samara assured him, her eyes never leaving the door. "I'm simply... thinking."

"Um, okay," Kowalski shrugged, a bit confused. "What are you thinking about?"

"My Code, primarily," the asari answered. "It implores me to act against the Covenant for their crimes. The destruction of countless innocents cannot go unpunished and thus I'm charged to destroy them for their misdeeds."

Kowalski had gotten to know a bit about Samara's code during their talks. He had to admit he didn't understand much of it, save for the part if he did something egregiously evil or vile it would mean she'd be forced to kill him. That probably should've scared him off, but he couldn't imagine anything he had done prior to meeting her or since that warranted her snapping his neck in reprisal. He supposed he probably stole that last slice of pizza during that one academy party, but he doubted that was worthy of a Justicar's attention.

"I don't think you need to worry too much about him," he tried to assure Samara. "He's locked up tight and, from the sound of things, Keyes is doing a good job working him over too."

"Understandable," Samara admitted. "I merely wished to determine how he was being treated. It does not sound as if torture is being enacted, which is good. Were Keyes acting untoward the prisoner, my Code would enforce upon me to kill him, were I not bound by my oath to Shepard."

Kowalski was suddenly glad he hadn't acted on those thoughts he had about punching the Covie Prisoner.

"Well, that's... good, then," Kowalski replied, still taken aback by the asari's words. "I'm glad you won't have to disobey your oath then. Funny, considering your Code says you need to destroy the Covenant, but you'd stop one from being tortured."

Samara didn't respond immediately. Instead, she looked over her shoulder at Kowalski for a brief moment, mulling her next words over in her mind.

"True," she admitted. "And yet the stranger thing is this. Were it me in that room, after obtaining the information, I would then be compelled to end the life of the Elite if I determined he had been a part of the Covenant's ongoing campaign of genocide."

"I, uh, don't think anyone here would argue with that," Kowalski responded with a perplexed look on his face. "But still, he's locked up and everything. Doesn't your Code say something about that?"

Samara looked down to her feet for a moment, breaking her gaze with the door. She then turned around to face Kowalski face to face properly, those stunning giant eyes of hers still deep in thought.

"The Code informs us that should the proper authorities successfully detain a guilty part in my proximity, I am bound not to interfere," Samara explained. "We are bound by the laws of asari space and those we swear oaths to. Shepard is in service to the UNSC currently and thus I am in service to them. They are permitted to act however they see fit with the prisoner."

"You still haven't explained why exactly you're here," Kowalski pointed out her, still rather confused. "You're not going to like... ask Keyes if you can kill the prisoner, are you?

Samara eventually shook her head.

"Being among Shepard has forced me at times to consider the gray areas of the universe," she explained. "Within the Code, there is no place for such things. All is either black or white and at times can feel rather perplexing to others. I've always known this, but learning of the things members of ONI have done, both to our crew and its people, the nature of the Covenant's hierarchal structure, even the pasts of some members of my own crew, has constantly forced me to acknowledge the many complexities I am usually demanded to ignore."

"Don't like the idea of maybe growing a bit of empathy for the enemy, huh?" Kowalski asked.

"It is unwise for a Justicar to learn more about her target's personal life and past," Samara answered. "It will not make it easy when I am eventually released of my oath. Shepard has acted in accordance and is indeed a good man, but not everyone is so exempt. Getting closer to these situations in general has made things... personal for me."

"Well, that's kind of inevitable when you're a part of a team," Kowalski told her.

Samara looked away, back towards the door, letting a small sigh as she did.

"Perhaps that was my mistake," she relented. "The Code leaves little wiggle room. The fact I will eventually have to kill many I have worked with does not sit well with me now. But it must be done. I can only hope I am too far away to enact upon the Code against them."

"Well, can't you just quit?" Kowalski asked her suddenly.

He didn't realise how stupid that question sounded when he blurted out. It was an honest question, but he realised that, in the context of the Justicar Order, it made no sense. He knew Samara better than that, knew the rules, but he had spoken before he thought. It was the first thing that came to his mind. If you were troubled by something, you didn't do it anymore, that's what humans did, or at least tried to do. He couldn't expect the same to be said of an alien, even if they looked a little similar to human girls.

To the asari's credit, however, she didn't seem mad at him for the question.

"No more than you could quit being a Marine," she told him. "I am aware that they say the title is not so easily removed, even when you have completed your service."

"I'm sorry," Kowalski tried to apologise. "I didn't mean to-"

"No, it is alright," Samara assured him. "Many have asked me that before, you are hardly the first. But life as a Justicar, life in the pursuit of justice, can never be discarded. I must carry it to the end. When we join the order, we leave behind all that we once were to insure that. It is simply what must be."

Kowalski nodded in response knowingly, grateful he hadn't completely shoved his foot into his mouth.

"So, you pretty much came down here just to figure things out about your Code?" Kowalski asked.

"It is a hard life to follow, Private Kowalski," she replied. "And it has been even harder to do so since we came here. I have had to try and think in terms of the larger picture of things. I am sworn to punish the guilty, and yet I abstain from it to protect the innocent. The latter trumps the former, but I still feel as if the Code is unsatisfied by my inaction."

"What do you mean?" Kowalski asked. "You've killed tons of Covies and saved plenty of humans."

"It is not a question of killing the Covenant or saving lives, it is a question of punishing the unjust and preserving the just," Samara responded. "At times, I'm finding I must compromise one to further the goals of the other. Discerning how best to follow that has become troubling. The invasion of the Autumn was one instance where I was forced to make such a choice."

Kowalski was still confused about Samara's cryptic phrasing. He thought back to their time aboard the Autumn during the attack. However, he couldn't put his finger on how Samara would be compromised in following her Code to the fullest during it. Then it hit him, the one time she froze up on him.

"Wait," Kowalski suddenly stopped her. "Is this about how it took you awhile to follow us into that lifeboat?"

"There were more innocents aboard and more of the unjust to punish, but I chose to go with you and assist you further." Samara explained solemnly. "Not doing so would have meant I was abandoning innocents to fend for themselves against the Covenant, which was against my Code. But by not fighting the Covenant aboard the ship and attempting to save others, I failed in that task as well."

"You couldn't save everyone back there. You would've died trying, Samara," Kowalski tried to convince her. "What good would you be to anyone then?"

Again, there was a long silence before Samara responded once more.

"Perhaps, more than I am now," she finally spoke.

Kowalski was about to try and correct her, she had to know how important she was, how much her life mattered. Not to just to the innocent, or her crew, but everyone around her, especially him. If it wasn't for her, he'd be in no shape to fight the Covenant right now. She listened to all his stupid problems, it made sense for him to do the same.

But he didn't get the chance. They were both interrupted by Captain Keyes leaving the interrogation room. He quickly told everyone to disperse, reminded them that this wasn't a peep show. As the crowd left, Kowalski overheard Keyes talking on his radio.

"Holland, call a meeting," he ordered. "I have something we can use."

---

"I was informed that I would be able to choose who returned with me," Varvok growled. "Instead, I found the choice made for me before I even arrived."

The images of Thel and the Prophet of Empathy filled the view screen making them even more imposing than in real life. This was because Zek's communication screen was pretty big, making their faces larger than normal. Varvok wondered if that was intentional in some way.

"Your men were returned as promised," Thel argued. "Be grateful I saw fit to give you that much. I cannot be held accountable for how my men interpreted my orders."

"And yet you're not even going to reprimand them I bet," Varvok shouted once more. "I am getting sick and tired of you people jerking us around. You wouldn't have half the new tech and resources you possess currently if it weren't for the Hegemony."

"Your government's actions are simply the will of the Forerunners," Empathy stated. "You deserve no special treatment simply because you are allies. Considering you have yet to join us formally, I see no reason we should treat you as anything but extra bodies."

"I should be the one in command of Batarian Forces on this side of the wormhole, not you!" Varvok implored. "When Commander Balak hears about what you've been doing, and he will, he is going to have many questions."

Empathy just scoffed at Varvok before chuckling under his breath. Varvok felt sickened by the ugly creature's bobbing head and twisting neck as he laughed to himself. The next time some alien told him how ugly his people looked, he'd describe these damned prophets.

"Your threats are empty, Lieutenant Commander," Empathy stated. "We have treated you adequately. We have given you weapons, vehicles, advanced technology and are even in the process of delivering you ships. I doubt that Commander Balak would be so inclined to strain our mutual partnership over a few measly things such as, 'who gets to order around whom?' It just seems nonsensical in the wake of far more pressing matters, such as this Demon and the False Shepherd."

"How about the fact you're endangering their lives and the lives of others?" Zek suddenly added.

"Stay out of this, Pirate," Thel warned. "In any case you're overreacting. There have been no deaths as far as I'm aware of. In fact, I wager your men are safer at those excavation sites than fighting the Shepherd, given your track record."

"That's not the impression I was given when I went to those excavation sites," Varvok stated.

Thel's gaze turned cold, staring the batarian down with a scowling visage.

"I do not need your 'impressions' to inform me how best to handle this situation, Varvok," the sangheili informed him. "All I need is your compliance and your conviction to assist us. If I do not have that, than your people are no good to me and neither are you. I can always have Balak send someone else if you're unwilling to do what is asked of you."

"You asked me to help you fight humans and stop Shepard," Varvok reminded him. "There was nothing in this assignment about you using my men to contain a hazardous situation that you stumbled into."

"The situation is well in hand," Thel asserted. "Partly in thanks to your men's cooperation, if it pleases you."

"I severely doubt that," Zek interjected again. "Given the alarm that got raised when we were down there and the fact we weren't even allowed within a foot of the structures. It sounds more like you're doing damage control."

"You keep forgetting your place, pirate," Empathy boomed again. "Perhaps if you want a better look inside that complex, I can send you and your blasted crew of reprobates inside."

"Now who's making empty threats," Zek argued back. "You'd never do that, because the second you start sending in us to handle a sangheili's job is the moment you admit you've royally fucked up. Hell, you technically already did that when you sent Varvok's people in as 'extra bodies' to throw on the pile for all we know."

Suddenly, Thel's fist slammed down on his console loudly.

"Enough!" Thel shouted loudly. "I will not be told what I can or cannot do. Your men, Varvok, are assisting the Covenant in excavating the secrets of this important find. The most significant in our history, it is worth any sacrifice to your ego."

"What about lives, Supreme Commander?" Varvok asked. "Is it worth the lives of men who don't even believe what you believe?"

"They knew the risks, same as all who serve," Empathy was quick to dismissively add. "And in any case you are overreacting. The death toll is only significant in terms of what that Demon and the False Shepherd have been inflicting on us. We will handle the excavation issue. You will focus on the problem you were initially assigned to."

"We have assigned an additional agent with the task of defeating the Demon Human in armour," Thel informed them both. "You will assist him in any way possible, or your men are going back to what has so far been a more successful application of their skills. Good day to both of you."

The call was terminated, but Varvok's rage was not.

"Ungrateful bastards, this is why the Hegemony has always taught us to mistrust aliens," he growled. "They're all treacherous little backstabbers. Hell, those Prophets are even worse than the blasted underhanded quarians."

"Well you can at least count on us," Zek assured him. "No one threatens to send my men into a death trap. How do you want to play this?"

"I'll send some of my people to assist this new agent, wherever he is," Varvok explained. "Hopefully that will keep up appearances. I have a few squad leaders who are itching for another shot against Shepard and that Super-Soldier. In the meantime, we need to keep looking into this excavation site issue. I'm not about to let it go just because they say so, damn the alliance if I have to."

Zek grinned at the prospect and offered his own bit of assistance.

"Me and Retz will see what we can do to help them out," Zek promised. "Meanwhile, we'll keep our ears to the grindstone about what they're trying to hide. We're already monitoring the transmissions from those bugged communications arrays. They can't hide their secrets forever."

"And I'll try and get in touch with Balak," Varvok added. "If anyone can get Thel to release control of the men he still has working at those sites, it's him."

"I hope your right," Zek cautioned. "I didn't have much faith in authority to begin with, but after today it's reaching an all time low."

Varvok understood Zek's concerns, but Balak wasn't like Thel or Empathy, he cared about batarian lives. He would listen, he had to.

---

Shepard wasn't sure what Keyes had summoned all of them for, but it was just as well. They had their own news to share. With Chief following, Cortana back in his head, they made their way to the briefing room where Keyes was quick to explain everything. The Covenant prisoner they had heard so much about had apparently let a lot of little secrets slip.

"Our guest has given us a location," Keyes told them all. "He had been charged with delivering a hefty amount of weapons to a camp somewhere in a marshland he's designated for us."

Cortana, now plugged back into the briefing table, displayed a rough map of Halo based on Covenant scans she had pulled from the battlenet. Keyes pointed out the marshland with his pipe and Cortana placed a designator mark on it.

"I believe we can find a large stash of weapons there," he explained. "Weapons I imagine we can put to better use."

"How do we know this Covie isn't lying to us?" Silva asked.

"He seems sincere," Keyes replied. "It sounds like he's disillusioned with the way the Covenant are running this operation and doesn't particularly care if we take a few weapons. We still have him under lock and key though, so if something goes bad we'll deal with it appropriately."

"We best put together a strike team then," Holland suggested.

"Already done, Colonel," Keyes informed him. "I've requested Fire Team Charlie and Second Squad, to accompany me."

Everyone looked aghast at the suggestion. Keyes was going to lead an assault on the Covenant already?

"Is that wise, Captain?" Cortana asked, voicing what everyone was now thinking. "Going out into the field now seems a bit reckless. Shouldn't you stay here and help manage Alpha Base?"

"I won't leave until the team is ready," Keyes assured her. "I still have a few other duties to perform. But, we are shorthanded, and we can't get cozy here. We'll all have to accept the responsibility of field work now and again. If we had the numbers and experienced officers to go around, I'd gladly let someone go in my stead. But unfortunately, we don't have that luxury."

"Maybe I can send one of my people to take command." Shepard suggested. "Jacob and Miranda are both more than qualified."

"I'd prefer to do this myself, Commander," Keyes insisted, putting up a single hand. "I mean no disrespect to your team, but I'm familiar with Fire Team Charlie and I need your team to assist the Master Chief in finding the Control Room. That's more important than this. Speaking of which, have we made headway on that front?"

Cortana walked up to the holographic display of the ring and closed in on one of its oceans. The hologram soon showed the rough estimate of a small island and Cortana laid it out on the table itself. The Three dimensional picture circled around as Cortana stepped away.

"Is that where the Control Room is?" Silva asked.

"No, but the Covenant believe it to be the first step to finding it," she explained. "According to what I've deciphered from hacking into their encrypted channels, they believe something called the 'Silent Cartographer' is located on this island. The Cartographer is a Map Room that points out several significant structures and I believe it can lead us to Halo's Control Centre."

"So why haven't the Covenant located this Cartographer yet?" Holland asked.

"They seem to be having difficulty cracking Halo's sub-systems," Cortana replied. "There are also multiple structures on the island where the Map Room could be located. However, I suggest we move quickly before they start to narrow it down."

Keyes agreed with a quick little nod.

"I'll send a recon team to scout the island out first and find out what we're dealing with," He stated. "We'll come up with a plan of attack, a surgical strike should be sufficient."

"I'll prepare my men then," Silva declared.

Keyes turned to him shaking his head.

"No, I need you to stay here with Holland on stand by and watch the base," he told the Major. "We need every available man at the ready when Chief finds the Control Room. That's the real objective. Besides, Commander Shepard's team and the other Spartans are more than enough firepower to accompany Master Chief to the island."

Silva looked like he was going to say something, but when he looked around the room, he backed off. Maybe he sensed he was outnumbered in his opinion. Shepard was more than happy to take up the responsibility though.

"My people will do whatever it takes to secure the Cartographer, sir," He said to Keyes, offering a salute.

"Good to hear, son," Keyes replied jovially, but his tone switched to one of caution in the next second. "Remember though, the Covenant are after this Map too. They'll probably figure out what we're trying to do once we attack and they'll stop at nothing themselves to keep us from getting to it. Expect a counter-attack to come soon after you land. You won't have much time to reach your objective after that."

"Approximate response time of the Covenant sending reinforcements is close to an hour," Cortana warned. "So, bit of a time limit on that."

"We'll be in and out before you know it," Shepard assured them. "I'll prepare my people."

"Good to hear," Keyes agreed. "I'll be in my quarters preparing if you need me. Master Chief, Commander, good luck to both of you."

Master Chief and Shepard filed out of the room with the others. Silva followed the Captain, probably to discuss whatever he had refrained from speaking about back during the briefing. Shepard couldn't think about that now though, he needed to focus on the mission.

"How many Covenant do you think could be on that island?" He asked Chief.

"Two or three platoons worth at least," the Spartan surmised. "Probably more depending on how deep some of those island structures go down."

"If we're going take that island, we're going to need a really good plan," Cortana piped up. "I've designated some possible landing zones, but we won't know for sure where their garrison is weakest until we hear back from the recon team."

"We can go over with the others back at the Normandy," Shepard suggested. "Come on."

Shepard began to walk off, but quickly noticed Chief wasn't following. The Commander couldn't figure out why he was suddenly standing still.

"Is something wrong?" He asked the Spartan.

"I don't know," he admitted. "I was thinking of maybe going over a few tactics with Linda and letting you plan out the overall strategy."

"Well, she can join us. She's going to be involved in this attack too," Shepard told him. "We're a team now. If we're going to plan, we should plan together, right?"

Chief looked hesitant at first, but Cortana quickly piped up again.

"The Commander has a point," she said. "We should plan this out together. Keyes put us both on this assignment."

The Master Chief paused for another moment, considering the logic. Shepard wondered what exactly he was thinking about. He was so difficult to read as a person, always so stoic and resolute. He finally looked over to Shepard again.

"You sure you don't have enough people at your table?" He asked. "I wouldn't want to impose myself on all of you. You're a pretty tight group and I don't want to just insert myself into all that much."

"You've already helped us plenty of times," Shepard reminded him. "We wouldn't have a problem with you sitting in on us a little."

"I'm just not sure," Chief confessed. "Not to say we haven't worked well together, I'm just wary."

Shepard stepped back over to the Spartan, a friendly smile on his face.

"There's always room for more, Chief," Shepard insisted. "Besides, you've been fighting the Covenant way longer than any of us. I wouldn't mind hearing some of your ideas, and I know the crew would too."

The Spartan stood there, still pondering the invitation. Shepard wasn't sure why he was holding back all of a sudden. Maybe all that stuff with Legion had unnerved him a bit, put him as something of an outsider to the Normandy itself. Shepard imagined it was deeper than that though. You couldn't determine someone reasoning like the Master Chief so easily. However, despite what reservations he had, the Spartan eventually nodded in compliance.

"Alright, we'll figure this out together," Chief relented. "I just hope that recon team gives us something to work with."

"You and me both, Chief," Shepard added.

The two made their way back to the Normandy once again. With a plan of action now taking shape, they were that much closer to finding the Control Room. So long as there were no more surprises, like that Monitor, Shepard had a good feeling that things were starting to turn around.

---

AN: You all know he's wrong of course. Additional note, that was not the Containment facility in the Swamp that Chief goes down into in the game. Just to clarify, it's simply another of the containment facilities.

Alright then, Silent Cartographer proper begins in earnest next chapter. Hopefully it won't take nearly as long I initially thought. If we're lucky, we could be moving on the Control Room after it fairly quickly. And once we reach the Control Room, we will reveal the winner of the Hunter Husk contest. Yay! For now though, please read, review and remember update the Tropes page if you see fit. Thanks again, loyal readers. For more of my thoughts on this chapter, check my profile.