My eyes snapped open, I bolted upright, a bead of sweat dripping across my forehead. My breathing was heavy and ragged. Not and abnormal occurrence anymore. I calmed my breathing and rested my head in my hands, sighing. I was getting tired of these nightmares, always getting in the way of my sleep patterns. I had been outfitted to my armor yesterday, and I was already in love. The FOTUS helmet that had been perfectly fitted to my head was beautiful, standing out against my helioskrill armor of the same blood red base trimmed with violet, I had picked the colors to match my new eyes, almost symbolizing my two different selves…
They told me I would need to meet them in the armor bays today, 4:00 sharp. I looked over at my clock. 2:13, 2 hours before I was scheduled to be there. I shrugged before throwing my legs off the bed and walking to the closet. I took my jumpsuit from the closet, studying the nanofibers the suit was made of, pretty interesting should I get into it. I removed my shirt and shorts, shivering a bit as the ship's freezing air brushed against my exposed skin. I quickly hopped into my jumpsuit, trapping my body heat. I struggled to reach the zipper on my back, using both hands to work it to a position accessible from the top. I zipped up and went straight to the washroom, I'd skip breakfast but hey, breakfast wasn't really my style anyways. I walked into the bays at 3:45 precisely, armor engineers already milling about.
I approached my bay and was greeted by a short, chubby engineer, "Ah, Lilith, you're early."
I smiled at the man as he pushed his glasses up, "Nothing better to do I suppose."
He nodded, obviously not really fully there. I attempted to converse no further.
"Stand here please." he said, pointing to the already familiar armor bay.
I placed my feet into the boots, the machine coming alive. It placed my armor with such precision, efficiency, speed. A fitting machine to outfit a SPARTAN. As the machine released me from its grasp I stepped down and rolled my neck, getting some blood back into my arms as well. The doctor seemed satisfied. What he did next was a little weird. He reached into the pocket of his lab jacket and pulled out a dogtag, glowing a crimson and violet light. I looked at it in fascination as he handed it over to me, I now realizing it was a chip, not a dog tag.
"Well, go ahea- wait, you've never seen one of these have you?" asked the man, looking at me questioningly.
"No I haven't actually." I said, becoming a slight bit impatient with the man.
"It's an A.I. We looked at your psych evaluation and found you would probably need her." he said.
I was taken aback, he couldn't be referencing what I think he was referencing. I took the chip from his hands, turning the chip over slowly, I studied it, the circle in the middle colored half crimson and half violet, just like me.
"It goes into the back of your helmet, go ahead then, try her out." he said, looking at me anxiously, waiting to see if his science experiment would be a success.
I removed my helmet and looked at the back, seeing a slot for a chip this size. I inserted the chip and watched the glow fade away. I slipped my helmet back onto my head and shivered as i was flooded with old memories, all tinted in crimson and violet. A crimson memory of an old bully, a violet one of the lake by my house back when I was a small girl. The inside of my head was cold, chilling my brain. Suddenly, it stopped. I was looking back through my visor, at the chubby scientist. But their was something more there, something… better. Suddenly, a violet face appeared in the upper left of my HUD, smiling with a kindness unbeknownst to me.
She spoke with a voice more caring than any I'd ever heard, "Hello Lilith, I'm Freya, looks like we'll be working together."
She smiled warmly again, I myself being taken aback by the suddenness of her. She was beautiful, the straps of a summer dress visible on her shoulders. I blushed a bit as she continued to smile, causing her to giggle.
"I see you're a little shy there." she said with another giggle, this causing me to blush further.
I finally gained my composure, "So um, Freya, what do you know about me?"
"A good bit of things, I read your psych eval, I know all about your statistics, combat records, training score, I even know about Kikyo." she said, smiling briefly.
For what seemed like the 5th time that day I was taken aback. I had told no one about her, how could she-
"Don't worry, I'm no creep, I just met her while drifting through your subconscious, like you saw your own memories, it's because I'm modeled off of you, I was given your memories."
So this A.I. knew everything that I did and more, she had my memories and an endless databank of information accessible in no time flat. I shouldn't have been, but I was slightly intimidated.
"So Freya, what-" I was cut off by the wailing alarm filling the armor bays.
A man's voice rebounded off of the walls, coming from the ship's intercom system, "Everyone, to your battle stations. This is not a drill, Infinity is under attack, I repeat we are under attack."
I looked at the mechanic, who was wide eyed with fear. He dropped his clipboard and screamed at me, "Go! Get to a pelican! I've got to get other people armored up!"
I turned and began jogging out of the armor bays, while I ran out, dozens of other SPARTANs flooded in. Frey a was busy with something, biting her lip, face twisted in concentration.
"There's a bay up here on your left, pelican dropship already open just to your right once you're inside." freya said, still looking at something I couldn't see with that confused expression on her face.
I slid on the smooth metallic floors of the ship, turning my body to the left and taking off again. The hallway opened up into an enormous hangar. Turning to the right I saw a pelican, almost filled with SPARTANs already. I jumped in whilst it was taking off, the landing gear barely off the ground. I quickly grabbed onto a handle as the door shut behind me. The other SPARTANs looked at me all at once.
One SPARTAN clad in black and purple scout's armor spoke, "Um, where are your weapons?"
I looked at him, not able to answer I turned my head to the cockpit. He shrugged and pulled the sniper off of his back. A particularly large SPARTAN wielding a gravity hammer chuckled at me, his fiery orange chestplate bouncing on his chest. I did my best to ignore him.
As we exited the hangar we turned immediately, banking around to the right and flying straight towards the enemy forces. I stared at the cockpit's window, not believing the scene before me. We were flying into that!? I always knew SPARTANs were crazy, but not this crazy. I shifted my grip on the handle uncomfortably, gulping down the fear in my throat.
As we flew through a storm of seraphs, they took a few shots, soon being distracted by longswords firing into their ranks. We got through with a few new scorch marks on the pelican, everyone inside making it out fine. the real problem arose when we reached the banshees that were flying about. They had nothing to draw their fire from us. we started to bank left and right, attempting to avoid the burning balls of plasma that were fired at us from all directions. We took one hit after another, one of the antigravity engines in the back failing.
"We've lost power to engine three!" shouted the co-pilot.
"I know, I know." said the grizzled piot, the pelican flying slightly lopsided. We took a hit in the back, several pings resounding off the back door to follow.
"Shit, one of you SPARTANs grab a launcher and wait for that door to open!" said the pilot.
A blue SPARTAN grabbed a rocket launcher off the wall, a pink SPARTAN near the door grabbing onto his back armor with one hand, and the Pelican with the other.
"Ready!" yelled the blue SPARTAN, the door lowering in return.
On our tail was a lone banshee, firing plasma bullets at us. the plasma bullets cut into the pelican as the door opened, the SPARTAN letting off two rockets in return. In an attempt to dodge the first missile the second collided with its right wing, the banshee erupting in a spectacular show of purple and blue flames. Seconds later the banshee exploded, the pink armor clad soldier throwing the blue soldier through the antigravity environment of the pelican. the pilot closed the door quickly, the blue SPARTAN falling back to the floor. He tossed the launcher, grabbing the handle again.
"Medic!" screamed the pilot, the co-pilot's head lulling over into our view, a hole burned in the back of his seat.
The pink SPARTAN ran to the cockpit, dragging the co-pilot out. She laid him on the back floor, looking at the charred hole in his weakly armored chest. He let some blood spill out of the corner of his lips before reaching up and grabbing the arm of the pink medic. he tried to say something but it came out as a garbled noise, the blood rising in his throat making it impossible to speak. The medic crossed herself, placing the forehead of her CIO helmet against his, the co-pilot's grip slowly loosening on her arm as he choked on his blood. I hung my head, but was soon reminded that we were in a war zone by the urgent voice of the pilot.
"Brace for impact!" he screamed, one of his hands flying up to the safety handle above his head.
I grabbed onto the bar holding the handles with both hands, everyone else just holding onto their handles tighter. The pelican was shaken to the left, turning us almost sideways. The pilot struggled to regain control of the already weakened pelican, but soon we were falling more than flying, directly towards the covenant's corvette. The last thing I saw before I blacked out the purple shell of the Corvette cover the cockpit's view.
I awoke in a strange place, it was dark, flames everywhere. As I rolled over onto my stomach and pushed myself up, I realized I was inside the Corvette, the pelican having bust through the hull. The Corvette had shielded the hull breach, returning normal pressure. As I attempted to remain standing, my knees weak, I looked around me. I had been thrown from the pelican as it was torn by the hull of the enormous ship. I saw the bodies of the Scout and Gravity hammer wielding SPARTAN, both weren't moving. I looked away before looking back. I saw the sniper rifle and gravity hammer laying next to their respective owners. I pushed off of the piece of metal I was leaning against, taking a few stumbled steps toward their bodies. I grabbed the sniper rifle first, the poor soldier's fingers still wrapped around the grip. I took the rifle, giving a silent prayer out to the SPARTAN. I then grabbed the hammer, which had been thrown out of the orange armor plated hands of the brutish SPARTAN laid before me. I locked the rifle onto my back, using the gravity hammer as a makeshift crutch to help me get around. I shuffled to the other side of the pelican, and what I saw was enough to give me hope. The pink SPARTAN struggled with a particularly heavy piece of metal which trapped her left leg. I hobbled over, the girl not taking notice of me yet. I grabbed the piece of metal from behind her and helped her lift it, she yanked her leg out from under it as it fell back to the ground.
"I can't find anymore survivors near you Lilith, he seems to be the only one." offered Freya.
I gave a slight nod before addressing the SPARTAN in front of me.
"Hey, are you alright?" I asked her.
As she turned, giving me a good look at her faceplate for the first time, I noticed her visor had been split diagonally, her face visible underneath. She tossed the helmet and smiled at me, she held out her palm, placing her other hand vertically on it, she raised her vertical hand before dropping her arms.
Freya came over my comms, "Lilith, she's mute, she's just signed that she's alright."
I took this information in, looking back at the tanned girl. I wondered how they could have possibly let her into the SPARTAN program mute.
"That's good, we need to get out of here, you got a weapon?" she nodded, drawing a DMR off of her back.
I chuckled, still leaning on my newly, and tragically, acquired hammer. She smiled again before looking at me questioningly.
I assumed she wanted to know what to do next, but the problem was, I really didn't know either.