Reach
Noble Six watched as the Pillar of Autumn flew off into orbit, where it would soon escape the mess that was on and around Reach; The Spartan III clenched his fists as he watched his only possible way off the planet, he needed to stay on the planet and use the anti-air guns to shoot down the incoming ships that were about to intercept the ship.
Just as he was about to move and get himself onto the nearby anti-air gun, for some reason it began moving on its own and began firing at the hostile ships under the covenant banner; Six began looking around as he heard the incoming sound of helicopter blades, before finally a Falcon aircraft came flying in from around the building, manned by what looked to be a few marines. Noble six glanced through his helmet to see other anti-guns were being controlled to fire down any and all enemy airships, which allowed the Falcon to hover its way over to him.
From the side of the falcon, in the passenger hold, a marine slid the door open and gestured for him to get on. "Come on." He shouted over the sound of the anti-air cannons firing off their rounds, "Our little A.I. on board says she has the air cleared to get you and her on board that leaving ship pronto!" he finished hollering over to Six.
Noble Six glanced once more of his area, before sprinting to the aircraft at full speed; once he was able to get inside the Falcon, the aircraft lurched from his weight a bit, before the marine on board next to him leaned towards the cockpit, " . Go!" he shouted over the side of the rotary blades of the falcon, before the aircraft began flying off with one more passenger on board.
The Spartan let out an exhausted sigh that was muffled by his helmet, and sat down as he tried to calm his nerves; It looks like he'd be able to fight for humanity for a bit longer, and put the torch to the covenant that had glassed his homeworld.
"Good." A voice spoke from beside him, prompting Six to turn his head and see who it was that spoke to him, and angled his head down to see a small projected hologram of what looked like a young woman in odd looking military attire. She looked up at him with an expectant gaze, as if her eyes could pierce through his armor and see who he was underneath.
The A.I. construct had her hands clasped behind her back as she inspected him, "When I heard we had a Spartan in the vicinity, I wasn't sure which one of you twos or threes were available for use." she remarked.
For use? What kind of talk was this A.I. construct talking about?
The construct clacked her heels together and gave him a salute, "Tanya Von Degurechaff, and you, Spartan, will be my ticket off this world, before this covenant glass it!" she said as she returned her posture to its previous form.
Wait, wasn't this A.I. construct with the other one, with Halsey being the one to insist that the one that stood…er, floated out as a hologram beside him, she said that it had some problems or something along those lines.
"Did Halsey authorize this?" Noble Six asked the A.I. construct, to which she turned her head sideways with an annoyed look, "..."
"Tanya, do not make me repeat myself, did Halsey authorize you to enact this pick up?" Noble Six pressed further.
Tanya let out an annoyed sound from her hologram lips, before glaring up at Six, "She instructed me to defend valuable assets, and right now, for the sake of my short life, I'm putting you up as a valuable asset to get me off this world that is soon to be glassed."
Hm…so Halsey was planning on leaving one of her A.I.s on Reach to defend the humans to the bitter end, but it seems the A.I. had more freedom of thought than Halsey realized, an in fact, used some loopholes in the commands she was given to coincide her safety with getting him off the planet as well…how many hoops did she have to go through to get this all set up?
"Approaching the Pillar of Autumn hangar bay in T-minus ten." The pilot in the cockpit of the falcon announced the aircraft, making Noble Six shake his head; He could deal with the fallout later, right now, humanity needed all the upper hands they needed.
"Where's your chip at?" Noble Six asked the A.I. construct.
Tanya gestured to the back of the Falcon, "you'll find it in there, I'll be in your care, Spartan." she remarked, before giving a crisp salute and blinking out of sight as Noble Six turned in his seat to reach over and indeed find a slot.
Well, here goes hoping he isn't dealing with a rogue A.I.
UNSC Pillar of Autumn
Spartan-B312, Noble Six, or if you were able to look at his records that weren't doctored, Jack; His last name lost to him after so many years as an orphaned child from the human covenant war, he only remembers the tiniest bit of his childhood before everything changed once his homeworld was invaded by the Covenant, and having to later find out his homeworld was glassed after being the lucky batch of humans that were able to get off burning world. What pained Six the most was the vivid memory of seeing his parents hand him off to a UNSC Marine after the man hollered out there was only enough room on the aircraft for one more child.
Six looked out through the window next to him of the Halcyon-class light cruiser, already he could see the burning world of Reach, and it pained him to remember how his world looked like when he had to go through seeing his parents' relieved faces as he was accepted by the marine and placed onto the aircraft, only for minutes later as the aircraft took off for Jack to see the platform that his parents were on to erupt into plasma from a Covenant Wraith tank. The memory of his loss is burned so hard into the back of Six's mind, that it reminds the Spartan of what he was fighting for whenever he sees a soon to be glassed world.
Noble Six crossed his arms as he turned and leaned his back against the wall beside the reinforced glass window, the A.I. construct was a blessing in disguise so to speak, the thinking on Tanya's part to designate both him and her as valuable assets to get off the burning world was good thinking; Now all that begs the question is, what now? He had resolved to stay and make sure the Pillar of Autumn got off the planet safely, but Tanya's methods of hijacking every available anti-air cannon to defend the ship as well as the Falcon that flew them to said ship to hitch a ride had led to both of them to now exist on the escaping ship.
"Well I'll be." A boisterous voice broke Six out of his thoughts, prompting him to turn his head and see who it was that spoke. A man of African descent, the man seemed to ooze confidence in every step he took as he puffed a cigar from his lips, and pulled it out to speak with the Spartan. "I didn't think we'd be expecting more bricks on this ship." he jested with a smirk as he puffed from his cigar once more.
Six tilted his head a bit in curiosity, "Hm, would have stayed to finish the fight. Sargent Johnson, I presume?" the spartan asked.
Avery smirked as he put his cigar out on the side of his boot, gave the spartan a mock salute, "Well now, didn't think I'd have that much of a reputation amongst the threes." he remarked with an amused expression.
Noble Six gave Avery Johnson a nod, "Your records state otherwise, Sergeant." he replied to his fellow human soldier.
Sergeant Johnson chuffed a bit with a smirk, "What, does ONI have some inane records of me in that noggin of yours."
"I've read a file or two." Six commented back as the two fell into a more comfortable atmosphere of talking, "Records that were not doctored up, have you labeled as hyper lethal potential, but not quite."
"Hmph." Avery Johnson smirked, "Damn straight I should be labeled hyper lethal, hyper lethal to those covenant bastards!" he chuckled a bit afterwards.
Under his helmet, Six couldn't help but smile a bit at the sergeant's attitude, the man definitely had an exuberant machismo character going for himself.
Bridge, Cyberspace
Cortana wasn't sure what to make of the present situation at hand, but if she wanted to take anything from it, she'd say it helped to have an extra pair of hands to helm the various autoguns on the ship to ward off the incoming seraphs and other covenant ships that were hounding the Autumn; Having her sister construct from one of Halsey's flash clones helped immensely in her allocating her focus on getting the slipspace drive up an ready for the Autumn to escape.
Glancing over her metaphorical shoulder, just as Cortana finished swiping through the air to start the ship's warp drive, she could see her sister construct already palming the air as if she was orchestrating a concert, no doubt working nonstop in controlling the ships guns.
Tanya
'This is insane! How many of those ships are there!' Tanya thought to herself as she worked furiously through controlling the ships guns, she was winging as far she was concerned the first time she controlled the anti-air cannons successfully, but now she had to face controlling a wide array of auto-turret guns in fending off the ship she was one. 'Crap, crap, crap!' Tanya panicked as she swiped through the air, a method that helped her utilize the functions of the ship's technology.
Her view of the outside of the ship she was on, had a myriad of alien ships hounding her escape ship, which left her no choice but to helm the turrets of the ship, and do her best with gunning down the ships. As the Pillar of Autumn finally finished charging its slipspace drive up, the ship lurched forward and escaped through the slipspace portal.
Tanya allowed herself to let out a metaphorical breath of relief, "I gotta say." Cortana spoke up beside her within cyberspace with her arms crossed, she smiled gratefully at Tanya, "I didn't expect Halsey would allow you out of your capsule so soon." she remarked.
'Crap!' Tanya turned and gave her fellow A.I. construct of smile of her own, "I had to run a few diagnostics before going with the plan I had in mind, I figured the asset known as Sparten-B312 as well as myself, were too valuable to simply leave on the soon to be glassed world."
Cortana simply smiled either way, "Well, in any case, I'm glad to have you with me along for the ride, it'd be a bit lonely with just one of us on board." she remarked.
Bridge, Jacob Keyes
Captain Keyes had his hand behind his back as he stood behind the helmsman while the Pillar of Autumn traveled through Slipspace, which was supposed to be a random jump as per Cole protocol; heavy thoughts ran through his mind of how many humanity has lost, with Reach being a heavy blow to humanity at large. One stray through went through Jacob Keyes mind, and it was of the additional Spartan as well as the A.I. construct he brought with him.
If Keyes remembered right, the Tanya construct was made by Halsey, alongside Cortana, the details behind their creation was kept under tight lids, but presently, Keyes, didn't want to bother with the mess, he just wanted to figure out how to get him and his men and women on board out this mess they were in once the ship exited out of its slipspace warp Having one third generation A.I. onboard was already a boon, having a second one just might tip their survivability in their favor.