The ride back to infinity was a long one. Meteor worked furiously over the marine girl, his head bobbing every now and then, Athena helped best she could, she wasn't extremely capable but capable enough. I heard tidbits of their conversation. I learned the girl was going to live, though she had a collapsed lung and a broken leg. The marine had passed out a few minutes ago while Meteor cleaned the gashes on her leg. He had moved up to the chestplate, taking the armor off and laying it aside as he moved to sterilize the wound above her right breast. They said she had been lucky.
I lowered my head in thought. I had gone on my first mission as a leader and completed it. But if that was a simple torch and run mission, what would happen in a major firefight? How would I be able to keep up with everything that happened. Fallen had her head leaned against the wall of the pelican, her Stalker helmet lying on the seat next to her. She had closed her eyes and breathed in and out calmly. If I hadn't known her any better than I did, I would have assumed she was asleep. I moved into the seat to her right, taking off my helmet and turning it to face me. I looked at my reflection in the sterling silver visor. My smooth, brown, shoulder length hair swept to the right of my face, just above my forest green eyes. I inspected the scar on the left of my chin, a bit of shrapnel from a grenade during live fire practice left me with this 2 inch scar looping under my chin. It had been forever since I'd actually looked at myself in a mirror. It had been a solid week since I'd taken my helmet off in front of anyone at all. Ever since I'd stepped off that pelican onto this forsaken ship.
I set my helmet in the seat to the right of me. When I turned to look at Fallen, she was already staring back. She was quiet, studying me. She looked at the scar on my chin and lingered there for a moment before looking into my eyes. She was taking in every detail. Just like she did about almost everything. She was a thinker, she needed to know all the details before making a decision. She seemed satisfied, knocking her head back against the wall once more.
I looked around, seeing Meteor and Athena still fretting over the marine. Phoenix was looking at a datapad and tapping away, and Dragon was taking apart his flamethrower in amazing speeds and putting it back together again.
The others all entranced in their activities, I turned to Fallen once more.
"Hey, you ok?" I whispered.
"I'm fine." she whispered back through gritted teeth.
I didn't push the issue any further.
The pelican lurched as we entered a docking bay, the Pelican setting down and the door falling open. Commander Palmer was already waiting for us.
"Good job Crimson, you got the job done. It wasn't pretty, but you did it." she said, watching us file out. Meteor holding the unconscious Marine in his arms. Palmer pointed at a large sign that stated infirmary.
He was off like a bullet, coming back a minute later without the girl. Palmer nodded and proceeded with talking to us.
"Well, seeing as you could use a little help in combat efficiency, we've assigned each of you an A.I. companion." she said with a smile, taking a box out from behind her back.
The box glowed with many different colors, all of them emitting form individual chips, similar to dogtags.
"Say hello to your new A.I.s Crimson team." said Palmer, proudly opening the box and grabbing the chips.
My chip glowed yellow, it felt warm, pleasant somehow. Athena's glowed in a fashion similar to a rainbow, the colors more sporadic though. Crow's glowed red, Phoenix's purple. Meteor's was red as well, Dragon's being a darker, maroon color. Fallen's chip glowed silver, a slight purple emitting from it, almost unrecognizable. We looked at the chips carefully. We had all seen them of course, being used by other SPARTANs and high ranking personnel, but we had no idea how to use them ourselves.
I looked at Palmer questionably, "Permission to speak freely sir?"
"Granted" she said in return.
"Uh… How do we use them?" I asked.
"There is a port on the back of each of your helmets, the chip will fit in. The neural implants you received during augmentation will help pair you to your A.I. Ardent, you have actually received a new model A.I. She has been in service for a week now. Fallen and Phoenix, your A.I. are both 2. Dragon, yours is 2 and a half. Meteor yours is 3. Athena 5, and Crow, your A.I. is 7." she said.
I was surprised by this. I looked down at my chip. I now held the responsibility of another teammate. I also was trusted with the newest A.I. I came to Infinity expecting a fireteam, and I guess that's what I got. I slipped off my helmet and pushed the chip into the port on the back. It slid in perfectly. The glow went away. I slipped my helmet back on slowly. As it locked onto my shoulder armor I felt the cold rush of mercury flood my brain. I was flashed with brief memories of a marine, an old Earth marine, fighting in a desert, another memory of a hospital, and other memories that flashed by. Suddenly in the top left of my HUD appeared a soft faced girl.
The girl brushed a few strands of hair from her face, and with a voice deep and smooth she spoke, "Hello Sam, I'm Sarah. It looks like we're gonna be working together from now on."