I recoiled slightly at the sudden appearance of the girl's face. She chuckled at this, a beautiful sound. She'd said her name was Sarah, so now not only did I have another team member to look after. I had another personality to look after, something to get attached to. Something worth fighting for, and something that I'd lose my life for. She stared at me, her head slightly lopsided. I looked around at the others, all of them obviously experiencing the same thing I was.

I finally spoke, "I see you've already gotten some information on me?" I asked.

"I've gotten the basics, yes. Name, Callsign, age, weight, etc." she responded.

I was expecting this, though I wasn't expecting her to be so lively. She always had this crooked grin on her face. Her head was covered by a camouflaged hat, similar to that worn by the marines whilst off duty. Her face was defined, yet somehow still soft. She seemed like someone a child would want as their mother. She had a smooth, calming voice, not unlike that of Jasmine's. Her skin, hair, eyes and hat alike were all glowing yellow. She appeared to be the same color of the A.I. that first greeted me to Infinity, Roland.

Palmer spoke again, "Why don't you all introduce your A.I. There's a holopedestal right over there. Now I have to be on my way. You guys have fun." she said with a smile before walking away.

We all looked at the holopedestal and then back to each other. We all walked towards it, crowding around it. We stood over the pedestal and looked around at each other once more.

"Ardent, why don't you go first." said Silas, his midnight visor disappearing and revealing his face and pink, dishevelled hair.

The others all agreed, reasoning that I was the leader.

"Go ahead Sam, I'm dying to say hello to everyone." said Sarah with a smile.

I removed my helmet hesitantly and removed Sarah's chip. I once again glowed with a deep yellow light. I inserted the chip into the pedestal in front of me and watched as the middle of the pedestal grew yellow, and suddenly, there was Sarah. Her full forw stood at parade rest, a warm smile across her face. Her Marine's hat was matched with BDUs, though they were strangely different than the battle dress uniforms of the marines on board. Her straight hair fell down just past her shoulders, not exactly standard for a soldier, but I doubt that any commander would tell her to tie it back. She acknowledged everyone around the pedestal, all of them in awe. We had all seen A.I.s of course, just never had any for ourselves.

"Hello everyone. My name is Sarah. I've been assigned here to help in enemy detection and surveillance. You'll notice that each of your A.I's have different roles, almost like each of you. Do not be fooled into thinking that your A.I. is too different to be assigned to you, for they were specially picked for each and every one of you." she gestured at us all, "Now enough of me, time to meet the rest of your crew. Ardent?" she turned to look at me.

I removed her chip and placed it back into my helmet, placing it back on my head.

Jasmine was the next to step up, her silver glowing chip with a purplish hue emitted from it. She slipped the chip into the pedestal, waiting for another figure to appear. Suddenly, another SPARTAN, bathed in silver light, appeared on the pedestal. The strange purple remained, though almost indistinguishable from the silver, it was just enough. His helmet revealed no facial features, his visor reflecting our own image back at us.

He cleared his throat before speaking, "My name is Thadeus, I'll be your CQTA A.I. Or Close Quarters Tactical Advantage. I'll be giving you each advice on the tactics of the enemy and their most logical next move. I'll also be assisting in your hand-to-hand and CQC training courses."

His voice had a slightly southern accent to it, though you could also call him English were you to look deeply into his accent. He gave a swift bow before disappearing from the pedestal, Jasmine then pulling his chip.

Nikolas then stepped up to the platform, he as well removing his maroon chip and inserting it into the pedestal. An extremely attractive, petite women appeared on the pedestal, her hourglass figure covered by cargo pants, a tank top and half cloak. She looked around at us all, similarly to both Thadeus and Sarah.

She spoke softly and smoothly, a Russian accent obvious, "My name is Felicia, I will be your hacking A.I. responsible for most unlocking of doors and such."

She seemed nervous, a bit jittery maybe, but she seemed to try and keep that hidden.

Nik pulled her chip and inserted it back into his helmet.

Next up was Meteor. He slipped the chip out of his helmet and repeated the motions of those before him, a red projection appearing on the holopad. A man wearing a karate Gi, the sleeves missing, appeared on the pad. His arms looked as if they could have hit as hard as Meteor without the armor. His belt and headband waved in an unseen wind, his short hair rustling a bit. He placed a fist to his palm and bowed, returning to a standing position. I could hardly tell it, but he was Japanese, the hologram making his facial features a little hard to pick out.

He spoke with a deep and gruff voice, "My name is Lee, I will be your HVT and blindspot monitor, I'll be alerting you to targets that greater threats at the moment." he left it at that, bowing again before disappearing. Though it seemed as if his english may have been a bit broken.

Meteor pulled his chip, Phoenix sliding his in next. The pad glowed purple, a skinny man in a trenchcoat appearing. He looked sly, like someone you didn't want to be friends with in real life.

He smiled an evil looking smile before speaking, "G'day mates, I'll be yer stealth and infiltration artist, kind of like old Wolf 'ere, ain't that right mate?"

Phoenix sighed a bit before nodding his head.

"Ye-heh, we're all going to have a grand time blowin' up some covie bastards."

Phoenix yanked his chip, placing it back in his helmet. I could already tell Phoenix didn't like his pairing. Crow stepped to the plate next with his chip, colored similarly to Meteor's, and delicately placed it in the holopedestal. A red hologram of an old Earth british soldier appeared, a red beret sitting upon his head. He was by far the oldest of our A.I. in both ways. He was no younger than 80, his actual service time of 7 years, he was touching on rampancy. His camouflaged top was decorated with medals of all sorts.

He smiled before speaking, "I would shake each of you fine mens' hands and kiss each one of you ladies' knuckles were I able, but I'm afraid I'm just a projection."

He had a nice voice, a heavy London accent, he sounded like someone you'd like as a grandfather. He sounded wise, but also happy. For such an old man he was in great physical shape, he stood at parade rest, just like Sarah, his hands clasped behind his back. He wore a small smile across his face.

"Now I'll be another hacking asset of your team, though I do have a different priority. I hack the enemy's weapons and defenses to be turned against them" he gave a small chuckle, "that's always a riot. Until next time crimson." said the old man, Crow pulling him.

Athena was the last to walk up to the platform, her strange, rainbow colored chip sliding into the port. A lime green projection of a man appeared on the pedestal, a broad smile on his face. He was covered in normal civilian clothing, a jacket, t-shirt and jeans.

He spoke with a voice similar to that of Phoenix's, "Hello everyone, I'll be your communications relay and tactics coordination A.I., assisting you with things of the like on the battlefield. With a leader like this god knows you'll need it."

I was taken aback by this, as was everyone else. This seemed to be another rude A.I.

"Guys calm down, I'm just joking." he said, holding his hands up defensively.

Or maybe he was a joking A.I. Either way I didn't like him so far.

"Well this is awkward. I'm just gonna go." he said, and in a flash he was gone, athena yanking him out of the pedestal.

It was humorous how similar some of our A.I.s were to each other, some being exact opposites. Either way, now they were ours. And it was our job to take care of them. Or, to quote the most famous A.I. the world had ever known, it was our job to take care of each other.

Hi again! I'm having a lot of fun writing this story so far, and I'm hoping all of you are having just as much fun reading it. Also, leave in the reviews what you think is going to happen to Lilith. I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys think! Oh, and if you guys have any suggestions on what you'd like next chapter to be, please, by all means tell me!

Till next time,
TheLooneyBin